A Frontier Doctor Page: 52
xv, 260 p. : ill., ports. ; 22 cm.View a full description of this book.
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CHAPTER IX
INTO THE PANHANDLE
IT was now late in November, 1877, and our route, in a
northeasterly direction, ran through a perfectly wild
country, known on the maps as the 'Llano Estacado'
(Staked Plain). There was no sign of a trail. The land-
scape was rough and broken with stretches of sand and
large tracts of mesquite. For probably half the distance
there was gently rolling plain covered with grama and
buffalo grass with an occasional lake of fresh water con-
taining no alkali.
This part of the country was an ideal grazing district
and we were seldom out of sight of either buffalo, ante-
lope, or wild horses. The dry eighty miles we made at
night, guided by the north star, or a compass if the sky
was clouded. In fact, on account of Indians this was our
habitual procedure during the entire journey. At day-
break we camped in as secluded a spot as possible. Buf-
falo chips everywhere made splendid fuel with a mini-
mum of smoke to betray us. Rattlers were not scarce, but
as we always slept in the wagon there was no danger from
that source. The Canadian River drains the Panhandle
from west to east near its middle. On this river, about
fifty miles from the New Mexican line, was the village of
Tascosa, the only American settlement then in the Pan-
handle west of Fort Elliott. In 1877 there was no law or
order, no organization whatever, not even a mail service,
the only government being the gun which every one
carried day and night.
There were only three American women in the Pan-
handle west of Fort Elliott, Mrs. Tom Bugby, Mrs.
Charles Goodnight, and Miss Lizzie Rinehart.
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Hoyt, Henry Franklin. A Frontier Doctor, book, 1929; Boston, Massachusetts. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth143532/m1/78/?rotate=90: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Texas Health Science Center Libraries.