We explain our little town is just a few miles south of Abilene, but the longer story is the one that explains how Buffalo Gap came into being.

This area was well-traveled just after the Civil War. Texans had no money after the war; the wealth was in the Northeast, and the people up there wanted beef. There were many thousands of longhorns here, so money was made in 1866, 1867 and 1868 by driving the cattle. The cattle trails that came through here were the Goodnight-Loving Trail, the Parramore Trail, and a spur of the Western Trail. The Goodnight -Loving Trail went from Weatherford, near present day San Angelo, to Horsehead Crossing and followed the Pecos to Fort Sumner, New Mexico. This cattle drive had a contract with the U.S. Army to take beef to the Bosque Redundo Navajo Reservation near Fort Sumner. They were routed this way to avoid the attacks of the Comanche.

Buffalo Gap was founded in Taylor County in 1877. It was known as a “hide town,” a camp of the kind that would spring up during the period of buffalo hunts from the 1860s to 1870s. Hide towns were the towns that would spring up on the frontier, and the buffalo hunters brought the skinned hides into town to sell and then gather provisions for going back out. Camps like this were also in places like Snyder, Rath City, and Fort Griffin, near Albany.

Buffalo hunters would migrate to these camp towns to get supplies. Places like Buffalo Gap grew to supply the trade in the early 1870s. The hides sold for $5 to $15 each. The thick buffalo hides were turned into belts used in early steam engines; these were big belts necessary to turn equipment parts. They were sold to businesses in the East and even exported to Europe. Eventually, these were replaced by chains and metal parts. And the loss of the buffalo also led to the demise of the local native Indians, as they no longer had food.

Later, gathering buffalo bones became a business in present day Abilene. These bones were used to refine sugar, make bone china, and fertilizer.

Buffalo Gap has had a post office since 1878, the same year it became the county seat. In 1880, it was a booming town with 1,200 people and had a drug- store, a carriage and blacksmith shop, a big hotel, a jail, three or four grocery stores, and a saloon. A Presbyterian college, the first place of higher education in Taylor County, opened in June 1885, and Buffalo Gap called itself the “Athens of the West.”

When the Texas & Pacific Railroad moved through here, landowner W. L. Moody (of the famous Houston-Galveston family) worked hard to get the train routed through Buffalo Gap. But the railroad executives wanted it to go through the flats, or the center- line, and that spot became Abilene, Texas. In 1883, a county election (some say it was rigged) moved the county seat to Abilene. Angry Buffalo Gap residents took revenge. The Taylor County judge who allowed the move lived in Buffalo Gap and had a large flock of chickens. Instead of turning to gunplay, the angry residents of Buffalo Gap stole the judge’s chickens and fried them all up for a big feast. That’s why Perini Ranch Steakhouse today offers its Judge’s Fried Chicken Dinner at lunch on Sunday. We want to make sure Abilene knows; Buffalo Gap has never forgotten they “stole” the county seat!

Even though the population dropped to 300 in 1890, Buffalo Gap persevered. In 1895 the Santa Fe Railroad was built through town. In the 1920s, its Old Settlers Picnic was a well-attended annual event. The Ernie Wilson Museum of the Old West was founded in 1956 and includes the restored old Buffalo Gap Jail and Courthouse, which is all part of today’s Taylor County History Center.

-from Perini Ranch Steakhouse, Celebrating 40 Years with Tom and Lisa by Tom and Lisa Perini with June Naylor