Tascosa (from atascosa, boggy) is truly a ghost town. The only things left are the cemetery and the old courthouse. This was one wild town! Pat Garret, Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, and Doc Holiday all graced it with their presence, however briefly. Cowboys drinking, gambling, and whatever else; outlaws with attitudes; and drifters from all over made a volatile combination.

This site was historically used as a river ford for centuries by Native Americans, Comacheros, buffalo hunters, and Charles Goodnight and other cattlemen. The town only lasted 40 years (but one monument puts its life even less) but had a turbulent history of killings.

Boot Hill was a copy of the Dodge City (KS) cemetery in name. The list of the interred and their cause of death is notable for the ones which died of natural causes!

Tascosa was only a day away from Amarillo (after 1887) by horseback if you could cross the Canadian River. But many times, floods would come sweeping down from storms in the mountains of New Mexico and make it impassable. Normally it looked much as it does in this picture: muddy and shallow.

Julian Bivins donated the land for the Boys Ranch but it must have been an unpleasant place before air conditioning: hot, humid, and buggy. No wonder there were so many shootings! :)

The sign on the left isn't kidding; the floors are noticeably sloped to the east and west, especially upstairs. While indicative of a lack of skilled craftsmen, it did have the advantage of preventing water from standing on the floor if the roof leaked!

The back room downstairs was entirely a barbwire collection. Hundreds of styles of barbwire of different manufacture are displayed. Including the unique type at the cemetery: the XIT Brinkerhoff 1879. This was one of the few made from metal strips instead of wire. The XIT was one of the first ranches to fence its entire acreage.