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Jim Gramon, a native Texas storyteller, introduces you to some of his friends: John Henry Faulk, Cactus Pryor, Allen Damron, Mason Brewer, Mody Boatright, and Ben King Green. Found inside: "He was born on their ranch in Mitchell County, Texas, on October 16, 1896. The family had a long history of ranching. He was the grandnephew of pioneer cattlemen and merchants Mody and Sam Coggin, both of Brownwood. The Boatright " . . . Read more Look inside

by A. C. Greene

Found inside: "When my uncle Grady Cole went to Colorado (present Colorado City) in 1930 to open the city's first airport he found the ensuing years had taken away that keen spirit of experiment which brought a "long-distance" line to the place in 1883. His airport attracted few students and transient flyers, so he closed his big sheet-iron hangar, on the east side of town, and came in to run a battery shop which featured nothing more awesome than an orange and black Baby Austin delivery car. My father and mother moved to Colorado . . .  " Read more Look inside

Found Inside: "About the first of June in 1875, I moved camp to Las Moras Creek, being north of my little Saline camp about twenty miles, and four miles east of the town, Menardville. A little while after I had moved camp to Las Moras I got a telegram from Adjutant-general Steele, from head quarters at Austin, "to go to Colorado City as quickly as the stage could take me there; traveling day and night." The meaning of this was that Captain Marsh's Ranger had killed a "cattle man" by the name of Patterson and telegrams were flying to Austin, "That a citizen had been shot down in cold blood." Colorado City was then a town of tents . . . " Read more Look inside

Working cowboys live on as genuine legends who rode through a golden moment in American history. In the 1980s historian/ author Patrick Dearen went looking for the last of these fading icons.

Found Inside: William Earnest Broughton was born May 21, 1901 in Mitchell County, where his father ranched. He took up cowboying as a youngster on his father's ten-section spread near Gomez in Terry County. By age sixteen he ... Finally pulling off his leggings, he pinned on a badge in 1948 and served eight years as Ector County sheriff . . .  Read more

by Travis Monday

Found inside: "After Gray's escape, the other three prisoners were sent to Mitchell County's Sheriff Dick Ware, who was already famous for his part in the shoot-out against the infamous outlaw gang of Sam Bass. Nolan County records indicate that Ware and his staff kept the three prisoners in jail in Colorado City from March 29, 1883 to May 14, 1883. During a trial in Colorado City on October 30, 1883, Dick Gilstrap was given ten years in the penitentiary for the murder of Guillot . . . " Learn More

J. Wright Mooar tells the story of the buffalo hunter, from the hunter's perspective, in this first-person account. Found inside: "After the buffalo days came to an end, the Mooar brothers became ranchers and were partners in a freight business. John Wesley Mooar married Maggie McCollum in 1885, and settled on his ranch near Colorado City in Mitchell County. J. Wright Mooar married Julia Swartz and adopted a son, T.J. McDonnell. Wright lived on his ranch in Scurry County, a few miles northwest of the county seat of Snyder. At the time of his death on May 1, 1940, he was considered the first citizen of Scurry County . . . " Read more Look inside

Found inside: "Mitchell County, of which Colorado City is county seat, was created August 21, 1876. In the first election held April 10, 1881, J. R. Dobbins was named county judge, Branch Isbell, county clerk; A., W. Dunn, county treasurer; L. A. Henley, county attorney; W. W. Marslhall, county surveyor; Ira Butler, inspector of brands and hides; and R. C. (Dick) Ware, sheriff. The latter was a former Texas Ranger who a few years before had participated in the famous battle at Round Rock in Williamson County, in which the bandit, Sam Bass, was killed and his gang broken up. Ware is popularly credited with firing the shot that. . . "  Read more Look inside

Working cowboys live on as genuine legends who rode through a golden moment in American history. In the 1980s historian/ author Patrick Dearen went looking for the last of these fading icons.

Found Inside: Will Durham was born April 6, 1892, in Iatan and moved with his family to Sterling County when he was Two. By the close of the nineteenth century, he already had hired out to the U Ranch on the headwaters of the North Concho River in Sterling County . . . Read more

Found inside: "His adjutant general, James O. Newton, who took office in January 1907, assigned the task to Captain Frank Johnson, headquartered at Colorado City. Johnson already had two men in Amarillo. One of them Ranger N. P. "Doc" Thomas, made . . . " Read more Look inside

by Madeleine D. Brown

There is a lot about President Lyndon Baines Johnson that you do not know but will be fascinated to learn. No one can shed more light on the man who became president by default when Kennedy was brutally murdered in the streets of Dallas than LBJ's longtime lover, Madeleine Brown ... Found inside: "She was disinherited by her wealthy banker family ( Royce City, Texas ) for “ marrying below her means . ” Her father , to spite his daughter , gave her what he believed to be a worthless piece of land in Colorado City, Texas . But this was the . . . " Read more

by Suzanne Winckler

Found inside: " I was born in Mitchell County, Texas, on the Rolling Plains, a natural region that lies at the southern end of the Great Plains. I like to think now that when I was a child standing in my front yard in Colorado City I was looking all the way to Canada. I also assume the happenstance of birth accounts for a preference for the subtle, horizontal landscapes where prairies once flourished. However, by the time I was born, in 1946, Texas grasslands had already taken a beating . . . Read more

"The best man, Sergeant Dick Ware, had resigned after winning the first election for sheriff of Mitchell County. A little later Jeff Milton and two other Company B rangers had shot Ware's opponent, W. P. Patterson, during one of Patterson's drunken altercations. Allegations of ranger brutality were ballyhood, and the three rangers suddenly found themselves indicted for murder!..." Read more Look inside

Found inside: "Two latecomers were Dwight P. Atwood and Roswell A. Neal of Hartford County, Connecticut, who bought one-sixth interest of a heard of cattle owned by George McWilliams and Thomas M. Peck of Colorado City, in Texas, in January 1883 . . . " Learn more

Found Inside: "At Eighty-Three Years old, Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver Don Maynard still chuckles at the difference between the tiny Texas towns he lived in compared to his first trip to New York City... Donald Rogers Maynard was born on January 25, 1935, in the small town of Crosbyton, Texas... When it was time to go to high school, the Maynard's lived in a rural area about 50 miles west of Lubbock. Maynard attended the Three Way Independent School District. The Three Way School was a six-man high school team when Maynard began playing varsity football. For his junior season in 1951, Maynard and his family moved to Colorado City which was a little bit bigger than Don was used to . . . " Read more Look inside

Found Inside: "CHAPTER 2, COLORADO CITY RANGER

John Birdwell, an ex-Ranger and former frontier marshal, opened the first saloon in Colorado City, its first weeks situated under a large canopy tent. Right on schedule Reverend Oscar Fitzallan Rogers showed up there to preach against the evils of drink. In Mar, 1881, Rev. Rogers organized the first Sunday School class in town... By the end of 1882 the population had soared to over six-thousand. Colorado City boasted seventy-five business establishments, four banks, a dozen lawyers, seventeen doctors, a dentist, and a barber. ... On the seamier side of the boom town, Colorado City also claimed twenty-eight saloons, a liquor store, and three dance halls that stood side by side. . . " Read more Look inside

Found inside: Branch Isbell wrote, "Together, Waddell being the boss, we moved the whole lot to Mitchell County and in July established the first ranch there at Pecan Grove on Champliers, now called Champion Creek, about nine miles southeast of where the town of Colorado was laid out after the the Texas & Pacific railroad reached there early in 1881. However A.W. Dunn had built a store there in the fall of 1880 and enjoyed a big ranch trade. The four years on that ranch, before the coming of the railway, were as happy as any bunch of puncher ever knew The creek was alive with fine fish, and game of all kinds.  . . " Read more Look inside

Found inside: "I rode into the lively little town of Colorado City one afternoon about four o'clock, and imagine my surprise at meeting Miss Bulah Newell on her way home from school. She and Mrs. Newell had left Toyah shortly after I did. They had left Mr. Newell at home to run the Hotel. And Mrs. Newell had accompanied Bulah to Colorado City, the nearest place where there was a school, so as to keep "the wild rattled-brain girl," as she called her under her wing. They had rented a little . . .'  Read more look inside

"John Good first became known as a big, bullying ruffian who ran a ranch, stocked with stolen beef, in the hill country west of Austin Texas. After a cattle drive to Newton he was present when Cad Pierce was killed by Ed Crawford. Involved in a shooting in 1877, Good moved to Coleman Texas and opened a hotel, but he soon became unpopular, and by 1880 he had moved again, this time to a ranch fifty miles northwest of Colorado City ..." Read more

Heroes and Hooligans is a collection of stories and interviews showcasing the rich and diverse history of Colorado City, Texas and Mitchell County through the eyes of radio broadcaster Jim Baum. The stories run the gamut of local historical figures, everyday heroes and of course, old west villains and troublemakers . . . Read more Look inside

by William Curry Holden

Found inside: "A short time later salt was discovered at Colorado city. A vein of solid salt rock eighty feet thick was struck while drillers were boring for artesian water. Beneath the rock was found an inexhaustible supply of salt water. A company was organized in 1885 to work the salt. Solar evaporation was used until 1890, when a steam evaporating plant was added. A second deposit was found in 1889, a company was . . . " Read more

Found Inside: "He set up a trading post on Sand Creek but in 1878 he bought a trading post at Deep Creek. In 1881, he moved to Colorado City in Mitchell County, Texas, and established the trading post settlement known as Snyder, Texas. He married Maria . . . " Read more Look inside

Found inside: "Opal Worthington was the oldest of three daughters and the closest thing to a boy in the family. She was her father's right hand. The Worthington's lived in a ramshackle house planted so deeply between the cotton and maize in West Texas that folks traveling Highway 208 between Colorado City and Snyder never dreamed it was there . . . "  Read more Look inside

The national bestseller that tells the truth about the Vietnam War from the black soldiers’ perspective.

Found inside: "First Lieutenant Archie "Joe" Biggers, Colorado City, Texas.

The first one I killed really got to me. I guess it was his size. Big, broad chest, Stocky legs. he was so big I thought he was Chinese. I still think he was Chinese. We were on this trail near the Ashau Valley. I saw him and hit the ground and came up swinging like Starsky and and Hutch . . . " Learn more  . . . for more like this please see Black Texans in History

by Travis Monday

Found inside: "In May of 1986, our family moved from Yuba, Oklahoma, to Colorado City, Texas. And on May 25, 1986, I preached my first message as pastor of Calvary Baptist Church. I enjoyed most of my time in Colorado City, but Pam and I both faced times of great difficulty. She began having problems with depression and I experienced more of the symptoms of PTSD. I am grateful to the members of Calvary Baptist Church for supporting us in both the good and the bad times. My PTSD hit me numerous times and in different ways during my 10 1/2 years in Colorado City. For example . . . " Learn more

The panhandle plains were Texas's last frontier, barren lands populated by hostile Comanche and outlaws attempting to outrun civilization. It was Texas Ranger and frontier scout Jim Jackson who first saw potential in the region. They were the point riders who took the challenge of opening Kent, Garza, Crosby, Lynn, Borden, Dawson, Mitchell, Fisher, Scurry, Stonewall, and Nolan Counties to permanent settlement . . . Read more Look inside

Cimarron badman legend Clay Allison takes his readers on a ride through his uneven and turbulent life while trying to grab a part of his own American dream. Found inside: " Although headquartered in Colorado City, Texas, one hundred fifty miles east of Pecos, they also ran perhaps twenty thousand cattle on their Pecos-area ranch. Tray Windham was their manager in Pecos, with whom Clay had become  . . . " Read more Look inside

The short, bloody career of "Bronco Bill" Walters and his gang captures the devil-may-care violence of the Wild West. In this detailed narrative of the gang's crime spree in territorial New Mexico and Arizona . . . Found inside " In addition to the standard condition that he "abstain from crime and lead an upright, frugal, and industrious life," he also accepted the requirement that, upon parole, he would "proceed at once" to Colorado City, Texas, and remain there at least twelve months ... A job offer from cattleman Earl Clay Morrison (1878-1969) a lifetime resident of Mitchell County, Texas met the board's conditions . . .   " Read more Look inside

Found inside: "... they had helped to conquer and settle. John later became sheriff of Big Spring, but first he disassembled his saloon in Fort Griffin and brought it to Colorado City, naming it the Lone Wolf. In 1881, word spread to Colorado City, Texas, that three railroad cars of English lords were coming. Curious, the entire town turned out in an awed welcome. On a warm summer day . . . " Read more Look inside

Found inside: "Fred H. Lancaster remained under the parental roof of his native county until he reached the age of eighteen years, when he left home. In 1881 he located at Colorado City, Mitchell county, Texas, which was then a typical frontier district not yet free from the intermittent raids of the "bad man." Before becoming an officer he had considerable experience in the cattle business, working for some time on the range for the Champion Cattle Company . . . " Learn more

Texas Cattle Barons: Their Families, Land and Legacy

by Elmer Kelton

Found inside: "Isaac Ellwood of Illinois, pioneer manufacturer of barbed wire, bought the Renderbrook Spade Ranch on the rolling plains near Colorado City, Texas, in 1889 . In part he intended the ranch to demonstrate his wire ' s effectiveness , and a . . . " Read more

History of Mitchell County, Texes from 1881 thru 1981