Muleshoe, Texas

Everything Muleshoe is known for

2 songs mention this city

RoadyGoat plays music like this when you drive through Muleshoe. It's free on iPhone, and full songs play through Apple Music.

Music in Muleshoe

Songs About Muleshoe

Muleshoe

Freda and the Firedogs

80%

"Tired of mule shoe and nothing to do"

Hard Luck Saint

Joe Ely

"little Mark and Muleshoe Bill"

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History of Muleshoe

The Only Monument to the Mule RoadyGoat

If a town is going to be named after a mule shoe, it may as well go all the way, and Muleshoe did. Right here stands the National Mule Memorial, dedicated on the third of July, nineteen sixty-five, as the first and, for years, the only monument in the country built to honor the mule. The idea began as a newspaper's call to give the humble animal its due, and a local radio station owner ran with it, insisting the memorial belonged in the town that literally carried the name. The life-size statue is modeled on a real Muleshoe mule named Old Pete, who at the time was eighteen years old and weighed some eleven hundred pounds. The dedication drew around ten thousand people, a parade of seventy-five mules and ten covered wagons, and a speech praising everything the mule had hauled, plowed, and endured to help build the West. So as you pass through, remember: you're rolling through the one place in America that looked at this stubborn, sure-footed, hard-working hybrid and decided it deserved a statue. All of it, town and monument alike, tracing back to one old shoe found in the dirt.

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Why a Mule Can't Have a Baby RoadyGoat

Since this town's name comes from a mule shoe, let's talk about the animal that wore it, because the mule hides a strange bit of biology. A mule is the child of a mother horse and a father donkey. And here's the catch: a horse carries sixty-four chromosomes, a donkey carries sixty-two, and the mule ends up with sixty-three. That odd number is the whole problem. When an animal makes egg or sperm cells, its chromosomes have to line up in neat pairs and split evenly, like partners on a dance floor. But sixty-three won't pair up cleanly. One is always left standing without a partner, the whole process jams, and no working egg or sperm gets made. That's why the mule is almost always sterile. It's a living example of what biologists call a hybrid: strong and healthy, yet unable to pass its blend on to a next generation. There are a tiny handful of recorded cases of a mother mule producing a foal, but they're so rare they make the news when they happen. For all practical purposes, every single mule is a one-of-a-kind, built fresh from a horse and a donkey each time.

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The Brand That Named the Town RoadyGoat

Here's the honest story behind the name of this town. Muleshoe wasn't named for anything mysterious. When the Pecos and Northern Texas Railway pushed its line across northern Bailey County in nineteen thirteen, a town sprang up right at the cattle-loading pens of a nearby spread called the Muleshoe Ranch. Folks just borrowed the ranch's name, and it stuck. That part is well documented. So where did the ranch get its name? That's the murkier half. The ranch's brand was said to be the shape of a mule's shoe, and one long-told tale has it that back around nineteen oh-three, when Edward Warren and his son Charles were pondering a name for their new outfit, Charles came across an old rusty mule shoe lying in the dirt. Historians will tell you the truth is fuzzier. For its first several years the place went by another name entirely, and the mule-shoe brand may have come from an earlier ranch. So take the whole rusty-shoe origin as ranch-country tradition, not courthouse record. What is certain is the tail end: a ranch called the Muleshoe gave its name to a railroad town, which is how a stretch of the Texas Panhandle ended up named, in a roundabout way, after a piece of iron shaped like a mule's foot.

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Muleshoe Ranches

1903

Several Texas ranches have registered and used a muleshoe brand in various forms (typically an inverted U shape). The earliest known use of this brand in Texas was about 1844, when Mrs. B. C. Oliver reportedly designed a crude muleshoe brand for her family's cattle in Red River County. By 1861 the Olivers had moved to Nueces County, for it was there that the brand was registered on July 9 of that year. Near Corpus Christi the Olivers set up their Mota Ralla Ranch, which by 1884 covered more than 15,000 acres and ran 200 head of cattle, 100 horses, and 20,000 sheep, all bearing their muleshoe brand. On October 6, 1892, ownership of the ranch was transferred to E. R. Oliver, Sr., who in turn passed it on to his son, E. R., Jr., on June 20, 1900. Oliver descendants continued to use the brand in subsequent years. A similar brand was started in 1856 (though not actually registered until 1860) by Henry Black in Fannin County. He subsequently moved west to Stephens County, where he purchased land and established the Muleshoe Ranch ; he used the brand for the next fifty years. A muleshoe brand of a different design was introduced in 1860 by W. W. Cochran, the first White settler in Palo Pinto County to settle west of the Brazos River. Later his son, W. C. Cochran, transferred it to Ector County. A brand of similar design was begun in December 1891 by John T. Holland, who ran it in Runnels County for a few years and then moved it to Armstrong County, where he settled near the town of Wayside in 1898. In 1908, after moving to Canyon in Randall County, Holland sold the brand to Dan L. Adams, who continued to use it on his stock farms near Happy and Wayside. In addition, Daniel Waggoner was said to have used a crude muleshoe brand for a brief time. When he first established his ranch on Paradise Prairie in Wise County, Waggoner had no branding iron with him. On spotting a cast-off muleshoe, he heated it and applied it to his cattle, using fire tongs to handle it. From that temporary substitute, Waggoner reportedly developed his famous Three D brand. A muleshoe brand that reclines on its side (a letter C shape) was registered in Karnes County on February 29, 1884, by J. M. Nichols. It reportedly was selected because it had no crosses and peeled off smoothly. In later years this brand was continued by his sons, J. W. and A. E. Nichols, on their respective operations in Bee and Live Oak counties. The most famous Muleshoe Ranch, however, was the one that gave its name to the town of Muleshoe in Bailey County. Originally part of the vast XIT Ranch , the Muleshoe Ranch was begun in 1903, when Edward K. Warren and his son Charles, owners of the Warren Featherbone Company (a manufacturer of women's corsets in Three Oaks, Michigan), bought the YL Ranch, consisting of 40,000 acres, from J. L. Clark of Tennessee for $100,000. It became part of the Muleshoe Ranch, to which the Warrens added even more former XIT acreage from the brothers W. D. and F. W. Johnson in 1907, thus doubling their holdings. Within the next two years the Warrens had nearly $500,000 invested in Texas land and cattle. By 1910 subsequent purchases and leases had enlarged their empire to 150,000 acres along Blackwater Draw, covering portions of Bailey, Lamb, Castro, and Parmer counties. The headquarters for this operation was established west of the future townsite. One building, dating from the 1890s, was moved from Bovina to the headquarters and made into a combination bunkhouse and mess hall. The origin of the Muleshoe name for this enterprise is obscure; it was said that Charles Warren, as he was pondering a name, came across an old rusty muleshoe. Even so, the Warrens for the first five years referred to the ranch as the YL; the muleshoe brand was allegedly used first by the Johnson brothers on their Borden County ranch, and after buying land from them, Warren perhaps used the muleshoe brand briefly. However, after acquiring the 200,000-acre Ojitos Ranch in northern Mexico fr

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XIT Ranch South Line

1879

(About 100 feet south of this marker) One of most famous boundaries in Texas. Marked edge of XIT -- ranch empire bartered away by Texas for its Capitol building. The 16th Legislature in 1879 designated a 3,000,000-acre tract to be used in payment for the Capitol. The grant extended 200 miles north from line here. Besides portion in this county, it included lands in counties of Castro, Cochran, Dallam, Deaf Smith, Hartley, Hockley, Lamb, Oldham, and Parmer. Heading the investors who built the Capitol were wealthy Chicago merchants, John V. and C. B. Farwell. Their surveying was begun in 1886. (1970)

Historical Marker → · 3.3 mi away

Hurley, TX

1907

Hurley, three miles north of the site of present Muleshoe, was the first community in Bailey County. To entice prospective settlers to the area, the Coldren Land Company platted the town, in 1907. On August 2 of that year, a post office was granted to the community with H. C. Good as postmaster. By 1908 the community had a population of twenty-five, a store, a school, a stable, an icehouse, a hotel, and a church. That same year James Johnson of the Coldren Company bought the section on which Hurley was located. Several social events were organized to interest visitors in the community, but its fate was decided when the Pecos and Northern Texas Railway bypassed it by three miles. In September 1912 the Fairview Land and Cattle Company platted a new Hurley on the rail line and organized the Hurley Townsite Company. The new town was to have telephone lines, electric wiring, water and sewer service, and streetcars. A store and the post office were moved to the new site in 1913, and the community's population grew to around 100. At that time a Congregational church was built there, as was a broom factory. However, a conflict arose with the railroad when Hurley Townsite agents demanded too much money for the right-of-way. Trains refused to stop in Hurley, and the new town of Muleshoe, established in part because of this conflict, became the railroad's new depot. The townsite company gave Hurley residents expense-free trips to Austin to plead the town's case. Soap was even occasionally rubbed on the track to make the trains stop, but the railroad won its case. When the county seat election was held in 1918, Muleshoe received seventy-four votes to Hurley's thirty-six. Some of the Hurley buildings were moved to Muleshoe, and Hurley declined rapidly; it was virtually abandoned after its post office was moved to Muleshoe in December 1926. No evidence of the old or new Hurley appeared on the 1983 county highway map.

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The Founding of Bailey County

1876

Bailey County was created Aug. 21, 1876, and named for Peter James Bailey, a Kentucky lawyer killed at the Alamo during the Texas War for Independence. This was thinly settled cattle country; Bailey was attached for judicial purposes to Baylor County in 1876-1891, and to Castro County, 1892-1918. In Nov. 1918, Bailey County was finally organized. Its first officials were W. M. Wilterding, judge; H. A. Douglass, sheriff and tax assessor-collector; C. C. Mardis, clerk; G. P. Kuykendall, treasurer; E. G. Hoskins, inspector of hides and animals; J. B. Diggs, T. L. Snyder, C. E. Dotson and John S. McMurtry, commissioners. At the first meeting of the commissioners court, in Blackwater Valley State Bank on Jan. 16, 1919, C. D. Gupton was appointed justice of the peace. Muleshoe was designated county seat in a special election, April 12, 1919. A jail cell was purchased in June 1919 from neighboring Parmer County. In July a building contract was let for first courthouse -- a frame structure soon erected at a cost of $2,450. Since institution of its government, this 832 sq. mi. county, with its good water resources, has developed an outstanding agricultural economy. Its progress is a tribute to the standards of its pioneer settlers. (1968)

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Old Hurley

1907

One-half mile west to townsite of Old Hurly. First town in Bailey County. Promoted in 1907 by land company of Stevens A. Coldren (d. 1924). He had a townsite surveyed and named it for Patrick J. Hurley (1883-1963), New Mexico political leader. Company built a general store, hotel and livery stable. Wide plowed furrows indicated future streets. In August 1907 a post office was established. Settlers came in and a church and school were begun. In 1913, however, the railroad bypassed town. Efforts to start "New Hurley"-- on the rail line -- failed. After Muleshoe became county seat, 1918, Hurley expired. (1970)

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Bailey County

1876

Bailey County, in the western Panhandle , is bordered on the west by New Mexico, on the north by Parmer County, on the east by Lamb County, and on the south by Cochran County. The county center lies at 34°04' north latitude and 102°50' west longitude, about seventy-five miles northwest of Lubbock. Bailey County is a part of the Southern High Plains and has an altitude of 3,800 to 4,400 feet above mean sea level. Its 835 square miles of plain are surfaced by sandy loam covered with grasses and mesquite brush. The Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos River drains the northern parts of the county; other sections drain to numerous small playas. The most conspicuous topographic feature is a range of sand hills that runs from northeast to southwest a mile south of Muleshoe. The average annual rainfall is 17.29 inches. The average minimum temperature in January is 20° F; the average maximum in July is 92° F. The growing season of 181 days is shorter than the average for West Texas counties because of the higher elevation and cooler weather. U.S. Highway 70/84 crosses the northeast part of the county. State highways 214 and 298 carry traffic north to south and east to west, respectively; in the early twenty-first century the area was also served by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad. The county was marked off from Bexar County in 1876 and named for Peter J. Bailey , an Alamo hero. Bailey and twenty-one other counties newly formed at the time were attached to Jack County for judicial purposes. In 1881 jurisdiction of Bailey County was transferred from Jack to Baylor County; then, in 1887, to Hale County; and in 1892 to Castro County. Settlement of Bailey County did not come early, since the XIT Ranch held most of its land from 1882 until the division and sale of the ranch in 1901. The XIT had its origin in 1879 when the legislature set aside three million acres in Dallam, Hartley, Oldham, Deaf Smith, Parmer, Lamb, Bailey, Cochran, and Hockley counties to fund the building of the Capitol . In 1892 the XIT Ranch was organized with British backing; its landholdings included northern and southeastern Bailey County. Fencing in the county was done between 1883 and 1886, and the first cattle reached the ranch in 1885. Among the eight major divisions of the XIT, Bailey County land fell within the Spring Lake, Yellow House, and Bovina divisions. Even after the XIT sold lands in 1901, other large ranches (the VVN, the Snyder, the Bovina Cattle Company, the YL, and the Muleshoe) dominated the region. As late as 1900 the United States census counted only four people living in Bailey County. The county developed rather quickly during the early twentieth century, however, as old ranchland was divided up and sold to farmers by land developers. From 1906 to 1912 the Coldren Land Company and the Vaughn Land Company held promotions in Bailey County. Midwestern farmers took special excursion trains to nearby Farwell, then were taken south and shown Bailey County lands selling at ten to twenty dollars an acre. In 1909 the county's first irrigation well was dug. By 1910, seventy-one farms had been established in the county and the population had increased to 312. A severe drought in 1910 drove away many of these early settlers, but others moved in to take their places, particularly after the Santa Fe Railroad extended its tracks through the county in 1913. Hoping to establish a taxing authority that could provide schools and roads for the area, residents decided to organize the county. They raised $1,500 to send delegates to Austin to lobby for a revision of the minimum county-voter requirement to seventy-five. Despite the opposition of ranchmen who feared that organization would bring taxation, the delegates succeeded. A county seat election followed in 1919, with Muleshoe carrying seventy-four of the 111 votes cast. By 1920 there were seventy-nine farms and 517 residents in Bailey County. During the 1920s and 1930s new conditions helped to transform

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Everything Near Muleshoe

70 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

The Only Monument to the Mule
If a town is going to be named after a mule shoe, it may as well go all the way, and Muleshoe did. Right here stands the National Mule Memorial, dedicated on the third of July, nineteen sixty-five, as the first and, for…
Why a Mule Can't Have a Baby
Since this town's name comes from a mule shoe, let's talk about the animal that wore it, because the mule hides a strange bit of biology. A mule is the child of a mother horse and a father donkey. And here's the catch:…
The Brand That Named the Town
Here's the honest story behind the name of this town. Muleshoe wasn't named for anything mysterious. When the Pecos and Northern Texas Railway pushed its line across northern Bailey County in nineteen thirteen, a town…
Better Than Both Its Parents
This town's name traces back to an old rusty mule shoe, found on the ranch that gave Muleshoe its name and stamped as the ranch's own brand. So it is worth knowing what made the mule worth naming things after. You'd…
How You Nail Iron to a Living Foot
The name of this town is a mule shoe, so here's a question worth chewing on: how do you nail a curved bar of iron onto a living animal's foot without hurting it? The trick is that the outer wall of a hoof is a lot like…
The Animal That Hauled America West
Long before it was a town name, the mule was one of the engines that moved America westward, and the story starts with, of all people, George Washington. Washington was convinced mules would out-work horses on his farm,…
When Texas Led the Nation in Mules
A town named for a mule shoe sits in exactly the right state, because for years Texas led the entire country in mules. The animal was the backbone of the cotton economy. By nineteen ten there were more than four million…
Muleshoe Ranches · Tsha Handbook
Several Texas ranches have registered and used a muleshoe brand in various forms (typically an inverted U shape). The earliest known use of this brand in Texas was about 1844, when Mrs. B. C. Oliver reportedly designed…
Not Every Horse-Donkey Cross Is a Mule
Here's a common mix-up worth clearing up, given this town wears a mule's name. People often assume any cross between a horse and a donkey is a mule. Not quite. A true mule has a mother horse and a father donkey. Flip…
Hurley, TX · Tsha Handbook
Hurley, three miles north of the site of present Muleshoe, was the first community in Bailey County. To entice prospective settlers to the area, the Coldren Land Company platted the town, in 1907. On August 2 of that…
Bailey County · Tsha Handbook
Bailey County, in the western Panhandle , is bordered on the west by New Mexico, on the north by Parmer County, on the east by Lamb County, and on the south by Cochran County. The county center lies at 34°04' north…
Muleshoe, TX · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Muleshoe, a town born from the railroad. Right here, in 1913, the Pecos and Northern Texas Railway laid tracks, and this community sprang up. It was named for the nearby Muleshoe Ranch, and by…

Show all 70 nearby places

The Mule · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Muleshoe, and did you know the mule's tough life helped shape Texas? Without pride or hope for offspring, this animal carried cannon in war and hauled freight to build frontier forts. Its small…
Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Muleshoe (Muleshoe) · 0.4 mi
Muleshoe (Muleshoe, TX) placed on the 3A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Riley Railsback (0.519 avg, 1 HR); Jake Villanueva (0.500 avg); Daniel Mendoza (0.451 avg).
The Founding of Bailey County · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker
Bailey County was created Aug. 21, 1876, and named for Peter James Bailey, a Kentucky lawyer killed at the Alamo during the Texas War for Independence. This was thinly settled cattle country; Bailey was attached for…
Cookhouse - Muleshoe Ranch · 1.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Muleshoe Ranch cookhouse, a building with a history as unique as its name. Originally built in Parmer County around 1897, it was moved here to Bailey County in 1902. Legend has it, a Dodge City…
Bailey County · 1.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Bailey County, Texas, organized in 1918. This county was carved out of the old Bexar Territory and named for Peter James Bailey, a Kentucky lawyer who died defending the Alamo back in 1836. Today,…
The Sandhill Crane Capital · 1.4 mi
About twenty miles south of town lies a place of international importance: the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge. Established by executive order in 1935, it's the oldest national wildlife refuge in Texas. For most of…
The National Mule Memorial · 1.4 mi
Look for a statue out by the Chamber of Commerce, right on Highway 84. It's not of a soldier or a politician, but of a mule. This is "Old Pete," the centerpiece of the National Mule Memorial, dedicated on July 3rd, 1965…
The Playa Lake Oasis · 1.4 mi
The Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge sits about twenty miles south of town on Highway 214, and it exists because of a quirk of this landscape. You're on the Llano Estacado, a plateau so flat that rainwater has nowhere…
Muleshoe, TX · 1.4 mi
The name Muleshoe can be traced back to Henry Black, who registered a brand on November 12, 1860. In 1877, Black purchased three houses on 40,000 acres in Stephens County, naming it Muleshoe Ranch. The ranch was…
Old Hurley · 2.5 mi · Historical Marker
One-half mile west to townsite of Old Hurly. First town in Bailey County. Promoted in 1907 by land company of Stevens A. Coldren (d. 1924). He had a townsite surveyed and named it for Patrick J. Hurley (1883-1963), New…
XIT Ranch South Line · 3.3 mi · Historical Marker
(About 100 feet south of this marker) One of most famous boundaries in Texas. Marked edge of XIT -- ranch empire bartered away by Texas for its Capitol building. The 16th Legislature in 1879 designated a 3,000,000-acre…
Bailey County Cemetery · 4.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Bailey County Cemetery, a final resting place born out of tragedy. When Mariah Long died in 1918, the Wellsandt family donated this land, quickly filling with victims of the influenza epidemic.…
Harden A. Douglass · 4.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Bailey County, Texas, an area Harden A. Douglass helped shape. He arrived here in 1904 and, in 1919, was elected the very first sheriff and tax collector for this brand new county. Douglass served…
Irrigation Well in Bailey County · 7.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Bailey County, where agriculture wasn't always easy. Back in 1909, settlers dug the first irrigation well by hand, a massive pit 15 feet deep. They celebrated with a 'water carnival,' a tradition…
Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge · 12.6 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Bailey County, not far from Muleshoe, and you're passing the oldest national wildlife refuge in Texas. Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge was established way back on October 24th, 1935. It's a…
Circle Back, TX · 12.6 mi · Tsha Handbook
Circle Back, at the junction of Farm roads 298 and 3397, in eastern Bailey County, was named for a ranch to the south whose brand was a circle on the backs of cattle. From 1918 to 1956 the settlement had a six-grade…
Spring Lake · 13.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Earth, Texas, and this spot marks Spring Lake. Long before cattle, it was a vital watering hole and hunting camp for Native Americans tracking buffalo. Then, in 1882, Tom Lynch brought the first…
Lazbuddie · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through what was once the vast XIT Ranch. In 1902, Thomas Kelly bought a huge chunk of it, developing his Star Ranch with windmills, corrals, and even a schoolhouse. Later, the community grew around the…
First Irrigation Well in Lamb County · 13.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Earth, Texas, where Ewing Halsell dug the first irrigation well in Lamb County back in 1902. This six-foot-wide, 30-foot-deep well was dug entirely by hand to water crops and cattle for his…
Coyote Lake · 13.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Bailey County, past Coyote Lake. This natural salt lake was a vital watering hole for Comanche camps, buffalo hunters who decimated the southern herd, and later, for thousands of cattle on the…
Oklahoma Lane · 14.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through what used to be the XIT Ranch, near Farwell. Around 1915, families started settling here when the ranch land went up for sale, many coming from Oklahoma, which gave this place its name. They built…
The Nettes Basketball Dynasty · 16.0 mi
In Texas, high school sports are close to a religion, and in Sudan the saints are the Sudan Nettes. The girls' basketball team here isn't just good, it's one of the great small-school programs in state history. The…
The Water Beneath the Plains · 16.0 mi
As you drive through Sudan, you're surrounded by a landscape that looks flat and dry. But the story of this town’s prosperity isn’t on the surface—it’s deep underground. You’re driving over the Ogallala Aquifer, a vast…
Sudan, TX · 16.0 mi
Sudan, Texas, has a rich history that began in 1892 when the area was granted to the county by the 77 Ranch. The town's development took off between 1917 and 1918 with the construction of a hotel and the arrival of the…
Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Sudan (Sudan) · 16.1 mi
Sudan (Sudan, TX) placed on the 2A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Caleb Groetken (0.508 avg, 2 HR).
Sudan, TX · 16.1 mi
Sudan developed in 1917-1918 with a hotel and service from the Santa Fe railroad, which had built a branch line from Lubbock, Texas, to Texico, New Mexico, in 1913. The town was incorporated in 1925, when the population…
DeLoach, William Green · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through West Texas, and right here, in what is now Crosby County, you're passing through the heart of a fifty-year story. William Green DeLoach, a farmer, started a diary on March 28, 1914. For the next…
Old Watering Trough · 16.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past one of Sudan's oldest structures: the old watering trough. Built back in 1916, it was crucial when the Santa Fe Railway made this town a shipping point for cattle. Ranchers watered their herds and…
The Best Name in the World · 17.6 mi
The most famous story about Earth, Texas, is how it got its name. When rancher William E. Halsell laid out the townsite in nineteen twenty-four, he called it Fairlawn, or Fairleen depending on who was writing it down.…
Earth, TX · 17.6 mi
The name 'Earth' is a fascinating story in itself. Established by William E. Halsell in 1924, the city was initially named Fairlawn. However, a name change was necessitated in 1925 when it was discovered that another…
Circles of Green: The Ogallala and the Pivot · 17.6 mi
As you drive away from Earth, look out at the farmland. If you could see it from the air, you’d notice a landscape of massive green circles. This is the result of a powerful combination of geology and technology. The…
Heath, TX · 17.6 mi · Local history
This city's story is one of slow beginnings and surprising resilience. Named after an early settler, it began as Black Hill, a nod to its dark, fertile soil. An early post office, established in 1849, marked its first…
Tapping a Hidden Sea · 18.0 mi
The reason Bovina and the surrounding farmland exist is a massive underground secret: the Ogallala Aquifer. It’s not a lake, but a vast network of water-saturated sand and gravel, a fossil water source left over from…
End of the Trail, Start of the Line · 18.0 mi
Imagine the scene here around 1900. You're standing not in a town, but at a dusty railroad siding surrounded by an ocean of grass. In the distance you see a cloud of dust that resolves into thousands of cattle, pushed…
The Windmill City · 18.0 mi
Before there was a Bovina there was a line camp — the XIT Ranch's Hay Hook camp, out between the two forks of Running Water Draw, and the ranch headquarters here was one of the first buildings in the whole county. What…
Bovina, TX · 18.0 mi
Bovina sits high on the Texas plains, a place where the summer heat isn't quite as brutal as you might expect, thanks to our altitude. We're a town built on cattle and cotton, and you can feel that in the bones of the…
The Camera Turns Around · 18.2 mi
One more stop on the planetary detour before we pull back into Earth, Texas. Think about the most famous portrait ever made of the planet this town is named for. On the fourteenth of February, nineteen ninety, the…
That's Here, That's Home · 18.2 mi
Here in Earth, Texas, stay with the planetary detour one more beat. Four years after that famous pale blue dot photograph, the one that caught the planet as a single speck from the far edge of the solar system, Carl…
The Second Fairlawn Gets a Name · 18.2 mi
You are standing in the only town named Earth anywhere in the world, and the name is younger than you might guess. When William Halsell laid out this townsite up on the Llano Estacado in nineteen twenty-four, he called…
The Earth Seems To Move · 18.2 mi
Here in Earth, Texas, the best loved version of how the name came to be ties straight back to the wind. Out here the topsoil does not just sit still. When Reeves needed a name the postal authorities would accept, the…
Now Let's Talk About The Planet · 18.2 mi
A town named Earth, Texas, sitting out here on the high plains, begs one obvious question, so let us take the detour and talk about Earth the planet for a few minutes. Start with age. The ground under this Texas town is…
The Only Living World We Know · 18.2 mi
You are parked in Earth, Texas, the only town anywhere to carry that name, so it is worth taking a minute on the planet it borrows the name from. Here is what still makes our world stand out among every one we have…
Tens Of Millions Of Years Of Dirt · 18.2 mi
Reach down here in Earth, Texas, and the dirt is not random. You are standing on the Llano Estacado, the Staked Plains, one of the flattest large surfaces on the continent, sitting near three thousand seven hundred feet…
The Water Under Good Earth · 18.2 mi
The geology under Earth, Texas, hides the town's real engine, and it is not on the surface. Below the Ogallala's sand sits the Ogallala Aquifer, an enormous body of underground water, also left over from that ancient…
The Only Earth On Earth · 18.2 mi
Here in Earth, Texas, the town deserves its due for one genuinely rare distinction. Of every city, village, and wide spot on the entire planet, this is the only one named Earth. Not the only one in Texas, not the only…
Pull On The Name · 18.2 mi
So think about how much one short word can carry out here in Earth, Texas. Pull on the name and it unspools in every direction. It leads back to a duplicate name thrown out in nineteen twenty-five and a hotel keeper who…
Earth - Named in a Dust Storm · 18.2 mi · Historical Marker
Earth is a small town on the South Plains of the Texas Panhandle, in Lamb County, and it got its name from a dust storm. In the early 1920s, the community had been calling itself Fairlawn, but there was already a…
Earth, TX · 18.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Lamb County, and right here is the town of Earth. But it wasn't always called that. When it was founded back in 1924, the founder, William E. Halsell, first named it Fairlawn. Then, the first…
Earth · 18.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Earth, Texas, a town with a name that almost wasn't! This area was once a favorite Indian camp. Later, the Halsell family established a massive ranch here before selling land for farming in the…
The Wet-Dry State Line · 18.5 mi
You're about to cross a line that's invisible but has shaped daily life here for a century. Farwell is in Parmer County, Texas, which for generations was one of only ten counties in the state that were entirely 'dry'—no…
The County Seat War · 18.5 mi
The Parmer County Courthouse in the center of Farwell stands as a monument to a political victory — and to one of the strangest election rules in Texas history. When Parmer County was organized in 1907, four towns…
Water from a Hidden Ocean · 18.5 mi
As you drive around Farwell, you might notice the landscape is dotted with giant green circles. These aren't natural formations; they're the footprint of a transformative technology. You're seeing fields watered by…
The Ghost of the XIT Ranch · 18.5 mi
The town of Farwell, and the ground it stands on, is a direct consequence of one of the most famous deals in Texas history. In the 1880s a Chicago-led syndicate agreed to build the Texas State Capitol in Austin, and…
Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge · 18.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge, a vital stop on the central flyway. Founded in 1935, this refuge is a winter home for migratory waterfowl, hosting the largest concentration of sandhill…
Farwell, TX · 18.5 mi
The Farwell courthouse is a notable landmark in the city. It was erected quickly after Farwell became the county seat in 1908. The courthouse was built following a contentious election, in which Farwell secured the…
Olivet Cemetery · 19.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Olivet Cemetery, Farwell's first resting place, established in 1908 by land from the company that financed the XIT Ranch. It holds the remains of John Armstrong, an XIT manager shot by cattle…
Near Route of the Coronado Expedition · 19.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Parmer County, right where Francisco Vazquez de Coronado's expedition entered Texas back in 1540. Sent by Spain to find legendary wealth, Coronado's party searched for a city where the ruler…
Parmer County · 19.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Parmer County, named for Martin Parmer, the 'Ringtailed Panther' who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. This county was created in 1876, but not organized until 1907. For years, it was…

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Muleshoe, Texas

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