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BUFFALO
GAP, TEXAS
Taylor County,
Panhandle / North Central Texas
FM 89 and FM 1235
13 Miles SW of Abilene
Population:
463 (2000)
Area
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Abilene
Hotels
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Ernie
Wilson Museum of the Old West
(The 1879 former Taylor County courthouse and jail.)
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places
Photo courtesy Terry Jeanson, May 2005 |
History
in a Pecan Shell
Buffalo
Gap dates from 1857. FM 89, aka Buffalo Gap Highway follows the route
of the 1874 old Center Line Trail, which ran from Texarkana
to El Paso.
Buffalo Gap also had a road running toward Fort Phantom Hill. Buffalo
traveled through the region going to gaze on the high plains and watered
here for the trip, making it a perfect location for the men who hunted
them in the 1860s and 70s.
Being the only community in the county when it was formed made it
a shoe-in for county seat. The town was sizable for the period; boasting
a population of 1,200 by 1880. The Santa Fe railroad arrived in 1895.
Buffalo Gap Presbyterian College was organized in 1883 and opened
its doors two years later.
The Buffalo Gap Live Oak began publication in the mid 1880s
followed ten years later by a second paper, called The Messenger.
The Texas and Pacific Railroad made Abilene
their company headquarters and this created a rivalry to be the county
seat. Perhaps because of the strength of the T & P, Abilene
won the 1883 election. Within a year Buffalo Gap's population decreased
by half. By 1890 the once-prosperous town was down to just 300 but
it rebounded somewhat - to 400 by 1894. The population remained at
or below this figure through the 1980s. |
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town is well-known as a Texas cultural center mainly because of the
establishment of the Ernie Wilson Museum of the Old West which
opened in the late 1950s and the restoration of the former courthouse
and jail. The design of the 1879 jail is unique in its construction,
in that cannonballs were motored into the walls to prevent escape.
It is now listed on the National Register. The museum is now part
of what is known as the Buffalo Gap Historical Village. |
The
Ernie Wilson Museum historical marker.
Photo courtesy Terry Jeanson, May 2005 |
The
courtroom of the original Taylor County Courthouse
Photo courtesy Lexie Nichols & Jordan Gibson, August 2007 |
A "cat
nap" taken in the original Taylor County Courthouse
Photo courtesy Lexie Nichols & Jordan Gibson, August 2007 |
The
interior of a jail cell in the courthouse
Photo courtesy Lexie Nichols & Jordan Gibson, August 2007 |
Texaco
Station in Buffalo Gap Historic Village
Photo courtesy Mary Johnson, May 2007 |
In front
of Buffalo Gap Store, the sign says it all.
Photo courtesy Mary Johnson, May 2007 |
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