On the Trail of Sheriff Pat Garrett
From Amarillo, Texas, to Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Categories: Renegade Roads
By: Johnny D. Boggs 01/01/2008
Texas Swing
You know Pat. He was born in 1850 in Alabama and worked as a buffalo hunter in Texas. I started this trail in Amarillo because Pat and Billy were known to frequent nearby Tascosa, one of the wildest, wickedest Panhandle towns. It’s not so wild or wicked today. Quite the opposite (unless you count the annual rodeo in September) since Cal Farley opened his Boys Ranch in 1939 on the grounds of Old Tascosa. But Boot Hill is still around, and visitors are always welcome.
They’re also welcome down the road at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, which chronicles life on the Texas plains, life before and after Pat Garrett—the exhibits span some 500 million years of history—and events that helped shaped his life, with permanent exhibits dedicated to firearms and a Pioneer Town complete with a saloon. We all know Pat spent
too much time in saloons. That’s why he had to pledge to abstain from hooch before Teddy Roosevelt would give him a job as customs collector.
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