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January 4, 2002

Pieces of the Past...

Bairfield Schoolhouse (c. 1890) is a typical one-room school found on isolated ranches in West Texas.

By Lana Robinson
Field Editor

Pieces of the past come together to form a memorable mosaic at the 16-acre National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock. More than 35 authentic furnished ranch buildings and structures have been relocated to the NRHC and show the evolution of ranch life from the late 1780s through the 1930s. Even the terrain in this wonderful outdoor museum has been designed geographically to reflect landscaping similar to the structures' original sites.

In the fall of 1966, Dr. Groger Murray, then president of Texas Tech University, became aware that many historic ranch buildings were deteriorating rapidly and, if not preserved, soon would be lost to posterity. He submitted a proposal to create a complex for preserving the structures, which was subsequently approved by the Texas Tech Board of Regents. The Board saw the National Ranching Heritage Center as a way of providing "significant evidence of the history of ranching and development of the West." The new facility opened less than a decade after conception, during formal ceremonies July 2, 1976, attended by dignitaries from throughout the world and highlighted by the arrival of the Bicentennial Longhorn Trail Drive.

According to Marsha Gustafson, the Center's associate director of Marketing and Development, some 70,000 individuals visit the National Ranching Heritage Center each year to view permanent and temporary exhibits, tour the site and to participate in special events and programs. The neat thing about the Center is that historical interpretations here are not tainted by a theme park atmosphere.

"Approximately 4,500 people attend our annual Candlelight at the Ranch event in December," notes Gustafson. "On two consecutive nights, visitors experience pioneer and ranching holiday celebrations from the late 1700s to 1900s here at the Center. Light is provided only by lanterns, fire places, camp fires, luminaries and candles. Visitors follow paths to scenes depicting cowboys playing period music, traditional ranch dances in the 6666 Barn, chuck wagons cooking and the quiet camps of a buffalo hunter and cavalry unit. Volunteers in period dress re-enact traditional holiday activities in many of the historic structures."

During the school year, young students from throughout Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma visit the NRHC as a unique history education experience. Additionally, numerous adult tour groups and organizations visit the site. Groups wanting to schedule a visit to the NRHC and/or request a guided tour should call in advance to inquire about special arrangements.

The oldest structure at the NRHC, Los Corralitos, was built in the late 1780s and is also the most recent to be added. Los Corralitos was constructed of stone or caliche blocks as a fortress home and represents the earliest of ranching endeavors in Texas and the Southwest.

Constructed in 1840 in what is now Guadalupe County, El Capote is typical of the log structures built on the Coastal Plains during the Texas Republic. The cab-in had housed ranch hands and also served as headquarters for a 2,600-acre ranch. Among its owners were U.S. President and Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt. El Capote is constructed of rough logs with a roof of hand-split pecan shakes, leather patches hinging the door, and window openings that were cut into the logs after the cabin was built.

Also among the NRHC's historic structures is the Hedwig Hill Double Log Cabin, built around 1850 by German immigrants to Texas. The "dog-trot" style of architecture, where two halves of the cabin were connected with an open breeze way, facilitated cooling of the home in a warm and humid climate. The original site was between Fort Mason and San Antonio on a hill overlooking the Llano River in Bexar County.

Built about 1890, the Center's Matador Half Dugout is an example of a common architectural form adopted by early ranchers on the Plains where there was no timber or building stones. Dugouts were scooped back into an embankment with their only door, when possible, facing southeast to catch breezes in summer and keep out the winds of winter. Roofs were generally made of hides, sod, poles or thatch. Later, when lumber was available for this and other dugouts, usually from windmill repairs or small cottonwood groves that grew by rivers, the structures were built up and continued as line camps on the perimeter of large ranches. This dugout was on the Matador Land and Cattle Co. ranch in northern Dickens County.

One of the prettier historic structures here is the Barton House, a two-and-a-half-story home which once served as headquarters for the 50-section TL Ranch in Hale County. The Victorian-style house was built in 1909 by Joseph J. Barton.

The Reynolds-Gentry Barn (circa 1877), once located near the great bend of the Clear Fork of the Brazos River in Throckmorton County, is one of several barns at the NRHC. It contains six stalls, a tack room, carriage room and two granaries on the ground floor and a hayloft above. Original owners were George T. and Bettie Matthews Reynolds.

Many other functional remnants of frontier life are also preserved here. The Slaughter Corral, originally owned by Mr. And Mrs. Don W. Slaughter and used for taming or "breaking" horses, is among them. The Ropes Santa Fe Depot and stock pens, originally near Ropesville is another. The depot provided a means for shipping cattle to northern markets. Cowmen from as far away as New Mexico used the facility.

The 16-foot x 16-foot Bairfield Schoolhouse was built circa 1890 on the JA Ranch and operated as a one-room school until 1937 when it had one student and one teacher.

Several examples of windmills of the era also dot the Center's grounds.

The NRHC Museum Store is designed in the spirit of an old general store, in keeping with the spirit of the National Ranching Heritage Center. Named for a donor family, Cogdell's Store specializes in adult's and children's cowboy, ranch and western history books; western art prints and music CDs; ranch-style kitchen items and cookbooks; western, cowboy and rustic holiday ornaments; NRHC logo merchandise; jewelry; toys and stuffed animals; flower and plant seeds indigenous to ranch life in the West; candles (with scents like "leather" and "biscuits"); painted and carved gourds; hand-made quilts; tooled leather and much more.

The National Ranching Heritage Center is open to the public Sundays 1 to 5 p.m. and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays except Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Day. No admission charge.

For more information, write: National Ranching Heritage Center, Box 43200, Lubbock, TX 79409-3200; email Ranchhc@TTU.EDU; call 806/742-0498; or visit www.ttu.edu/RanchingHeritageCenter.