Texas Historical Marker #05352
The Historic LS. Great early ranch well known to badman Billy the Kid and other famed western characters. The LS was founded in 1870s by former Indian territory trader W. M. D. Lee and New York financier Lucien Scott. Through Lee's efforts, the LS had water and grass for over 100,000 cattle and sometimes drove 6 or 7 herds a year up the trail. When thefts followed Billy the Kid's visits, LS men rode west and brought back their cattle; and when Tascosa gunfights put men into Boot Hill graves, the LS escaped disaster. But drouth brought heavy losses in 1886; and grant of 3,000,000 acres of panhandle lands to the XIT (state of Texas' payment for constructing Capitol in Austin) cut old LS range in half. Lee left in 1890 to promote a ship canal in Houston. Scott died 1893. W. H. Gray and E. F. Swift of Chicago bought LS in 1905. Memorable LS men included foreman J. E. McAlister, later a Channing merchant. One of the $25-a-month cowboys was E. L. Doheny, later a multi-millionaire oil man involved in 1920's Teapot Dome scandal. Ownership of brand and 96,000 acres of LS range passed to Col. C. T. Herring, rancher and civic leader of Amarillo; his estate still operates it. #5352
US 385, at Canadian River bridge, N of Vega, Vega, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #03845
Oldham County. Formed from Young and Bexar territories; created August 21, 1876; organized January 12, 1881. Named in honor of Williamson Simpson Oldham 1813-1868; Arkansas lawyer and jurist; member of the Confederate Senate from Texas. County seat, Tascosa, 1881; Vega, since 1915. #3845
US 38, N or Vega at Canadian River, Vega, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #02989
LS Alamosa Ranch Headquarters. Made of native sandstone hauled from a nearby creek, this house was built in 1886 for the manager of the LS Ranch owned by W. M. D. Lee and Lucien B. Scott. Stonemason Tom Nolan designed it, and the twin bunkhouse facing it, from a picture on the Arbuckle Coffee sack. Former Tascosa Sheriff Jim East was first ranch manager to live here. In 1939 Jack Mansfield bought the property and in 1950 enlarged the house, which is still owned by the family. #2989
US 385, N of Vega, Vega, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #02016
Fort Smith-Santa Fe Trail. What came to be known as the Fort Smith - Santa Fe Trail was first blazed in 1840 by Josiah Gregg, a trader seeking a route to Santa Fe along the south side of the Canadian River. In 1849, Gregg's route was closely followed by a military escort led by Capt. Randolph B. Marcy (1812-1857). Marcy's group traveled from Fort Smith, Arkansas to Santa Fe with about 500 pioneers heading for California. The party entered Oldham County on June 13th, and on June 14th ascended to the Llano Estacado near this site. Reaching the top, Marcy found the plains "as boundless...and trackless as the ocean...a desolate waste of uninhabited solitude." Eighty-five days after leaving Fort Smith, the party reached Santa Fe. After passing the plains, Marcy remarked, "I have never passed a country where wagons could move along with as much ease and facility, without expenditure of any labor in making a road, as upon this route." Marcy advocated the trail as a prospective route for a transcontinental railroad, which was built after the Civil War. Later, as the country entered the automobile age and the interstate highway system was developed, U.S. Highway 66 (Route 66) and Interstate 40 were laid close to the trail. (1991) #2016
IH-40, Vega, TX, United States