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Historian Mike Cox has been writing about Texas history for four decades, sharing tales that have been overlooked or forgotten through the years.

"Texas Ranger J.W. Fulgham and Reeves County deputy sheriff George Leakey left Pecos, Texas , for a ride down the Pecos River, looking for cattle thieves or fugitives in late August 1893. Back then, the Pecos was a good place to find either variety of criminal... " Read more Look inside

In the spring of that year, May 22, 1987 a tornado leveled the Hispanic community of Saragosa in Reeves County, Texas. Thirty people died and 121 were injured (out of a total population of 428). Twenty-two of the deaths occurred when the town's ... Read more Look inside

"On April 12, 1894 just over a week after the McKidrict--Outlaw Tragedy, Reeves County Sheriff Frazer chose to take the law into his own hands and end the feud with James Brown Miller. He found Miller on a Pecos street and shot him; Frazer's aim was good but Miller was only wounded. Unknown to Frazer his intended victim wore a breast plate, which saved his life. This act did not sit well with the county citizens and Frazer was..." Read more Look inside

"On October 21, 1894, the jail was stormed by a party of masked men armed with rifles and leading a saddled horse. Swinging into the empty saddle, Victor Ochoa galloped off in the cool desert night. Rangers Fulgham and William Scmidt picked up Ochoa's trail the next morning and tracked him to Toyah, in Reeves County ... " Read more Look inside

"He was born n Brogado, now part of Balmorhea, in 1945, in the adobe house that his great grandfather built when he came to Brogado from Julimes, Chihuahua, in the late nineteenth century. Alvarez's grandfather and father were also born in that ... ..." Read more Look inside

by Patrick Dearen

"Herd management, first and foremost, demanded a keen understanding of Texas longhorns. “They were a breed to themselves,” observed Barney Hubbs, who emigrated to a Pecos River ranch in present Reeves County, Texas, in 1908 ..." Read more Look inside

"In November 1894 Texas Rangers and Deputy U.S. Marshal George Scarborough arrested both the sheriff and his... close to his horse ranch and avoided trouble, but events in the Frazer Miller feud in Reeves County again put him on the warpath..." Read more Look inside

by Docia Schultz Williams

Once again Mrs. Williams brings to light tangible evidence and eyewitness testimony in Best Tales of Texas Ghosts to validate an illusive world without dimension, one filled with bizarre and disturbing accounts of unexplained presences. Found inside: "The Ghost at the Reeves County Courthouse. I had a long talk with Steve Balog, former Deputy U.S. Marshal. Now he has taken on a second career, that of the court security officer at the courthouse" . . .  Read more Look inside   . . . for more like this see Mysterious Texas

Found inside: "Raul Flores, sheriff of Reeves County for sixteen years, was the stuff of legends---born in a dugout, shining boots in a cathouse at age seven, playing football for Bear Bryant at Texas A&M, and gunning down bandits as a young deputy. At least he said so. "Robin Hood or robbin' hood?" the Pecos Enterprise wondered . . . . . . Read more Look Inside

"In July, two companies of the Tenth joined Shafter in a skirmish with Lipan Indians near Saragosa, Texas. Captain Thomas C. Lebo and several companies of the Tenth continued to pressure the Indians. They crossed into Mexico in August ..." Read more Look inside . . . form more like this please see Black Texans in History

"By the term of Reeves County Sheriff E. B. Kiser, the southwest bank of Emigrant Crossing had been swallowed up by the ranch of Earl Ligon. In about 1924, on a lonely, thirty-five-foot bluff sentineling the Pecos three-quarters of a mile downstream of the ford, Ligon stumbled up a human skull and took it to the Sheriff's office. Suspecting foul play, Sheriff Kiser and Deputy Louis Roberson undertook an investigation and permitted a man named Hill and Barney Hubbs to participate; Hubbs, by that time, was a newspaper man in the town of Pecos, eighteen miles west of Emigrant Crossing ..." Read more Look inside

Patrick Floyd Garrett, widely known as "Pat," had tracked down and killed the outlaw Billy the Kid but also became a victim of the tangled politics of the time. "Miller later married Sallie Clements and shortly afterwards moved to Pecos, county seat of Reeves County, to join Mannie. The Millers opened a hotel. It was 1890 and Pecos was a wild frontier, cattle town where people tended to their own business and expected others to do the same ..." Read more Look inside

Eddy Lovell is a rich man's son turned heavy hitter for the mob. Vicki Sigel is a wanna-be Hollywood actress who knows all about players and how to play them for fools. But when two thugs take her captive, it will join her fate with Eddy's. Soon Eddy and Vicki are thrust into a violent world of killers, crooks, and dealers making the most dangerous plays of all, against each other. "As they approached the Texas border, Sandobal made Barbara recite the message on the restroom wall a dozen times. He pulled over, bought a map, ... The places around it had strange, alien names: Brogado, Toyahvale, Sargosa, Verhalen . . . Read more Look inside

In this posthumous release, Marshall Harrison documents the life of one of the most decorated enlisted men who served in the Vietnam War. "AC's folks managed to hold on through the drought as they'd always done and finally retired to town in Brogado and left the place to him to run. He ended up marrying Earline Edkett, and she had two redheaded boys in three years. Me and AC still drink beer together when I'm around. Speaking of that, I married a girl I'd met in college, Mary Beckworth, after I started wildcatting, and together we brought in a pair of twin boys and a little girl. The folks of our district must have all got drunk together one day because I was elected as a state representative..." Read more Look inside

"Anyone who has knowledge of the whereabouts of Felipe Batista should come to Saragosa in Texas and make himself known to his long-lost brother Juan. He is the elder son of Hernando and Rosita, late of Hermaseta in Chihuahua Province ..." Read more Look inside

by Ace Atkins

“I grew up in Saragosa , Texas . ” “ No shit , ” he said . “ That makes you a citizen . ” “ What do you want, Donnie ? ” " I got the deal ,” Donnie said. He smiled. “It's all set up . And we got those extra fifty M4s just like ..." Read more

"On July 23, 1911, 15 yr old León Martínez was arrested in Saragosa Texas for the murder of Emma Brown, a white school teacher, and forced at gunpoint to confess or be lynched by local ranchers ..." Read more

Pastor and cowboy Don Underwood’s weekly columns for the last thirty years have touched hearts and changed lives. "I first drove through Saragosa, Texas, in the 1960s. It was the first of many, many trips through the wide place in the road between Pecos and Balmorrhea, at the foothills of the Davis Mountains. I have always looked for the dry goods ..." Read more Look inside

"One case was Saragosa, Texas (Reeves County), founded when several Mexican families settled in its vicinity in 1880; Antonio Matta established a ranch at Saragosa that came to anchor the community. As well, Brogado (also in Reeves ..." Read more Look inside

CHAPTER EIGHT: The Towns that (Almost) Disappeared: Saragosa and Jarrell.

"The children were singing their 'Goodbye' song. We hadn't given out the diplomas yeat, and we never would ..." read more

"Driving around Toyahvale, one notices that the ditches along the road are actually trenches filled with cool fresh water. The farmers and ranchers of this area have been irrigating their lands for generations with the natural spring ... Read more Look inside

"Branching off from the Texas and Pacific Railroad line that ran west through Pecos was a little spur line that ran from Pecos to Toyahvale. Its main purpose was to accommodate a large gravel pit about 18 miles south of Pecos..." Read more Look inside

1st Cavalry Division Maneuvers - Toyahvale, TX. (1938) In July 1937, initiating the second stage of expansion. Japan launched a major invasion of northern and central China. After a costly resistance, the ill-prepared Chinese armies ... Read more

"Only about five miles of FM Road 1 7 between Yahweh City and the nearby town of Toyahvale had a hard-topped surface. Toyahvale lies within the southern boundary of Reeves County on West Texas's high desert plateau at approximately 3,000 feet above sea level. The whole region is lucky to see eighteen inches of rain during any given year. The county seat is Pecos, located forty miles north of Toyahvale ..." Read more Look inside

While visiting his sister in Texas, private investigator Gypsy Moran is hired by a 12-year-old who believes his father was murdered after he began inquiring about the disappearance of several teenage girls and undocumented immigrants. "I don't know if they do a vehicle search at Reeves and if they do, they might wonder why a priest has surveillance equipment... I programmed the address for Reeves County Detention Center in my phone's GPs, then headed for Pecos ..." Read more Look inside

This is the story of the Madera Valley in Reeves County Texas from 1870 to 1970. It traces the history of the valley from the Indians, Mexican, and settlers who came into the valley. The valley had plenty of water for irrigation, but drinkable water was not obtained for the whole valley until 1970... Read more Look inside

"Baz Outlaw's life had changed forevermore. Three of his fellow Rangers returned from a scout some eighteen miles south of Toyah in the ranch country west of Saragosa, Reeves County. They had in tow three downtrodden prisoners..." Read more Look inside

Cowboys are an American legend, but despite ubiquity in history and popular culture, misperceptions abound. Technically, a cowboy worked with cattle, as a ranch hand, while his boss, the cattleman, owned the ranch. "Although there are no records for Reeves County in West Texas before 1885, it is clear that starting in the 1890s, there was a massive attack on gambling in the county, which was home to the ..." Read more Look inside

"Kit Gendlin is lonesome. Hoping someone will stop instead of just driving fast through far West Texas, this unrefined free-speaking talker takes it upon himself to spread the news in Reeves County that spring of 1975. There's been a shooting (Kit's own), and Connie (his widow) has taken up with Hutch Borden (a black visitor who may or may not be the shooter) ... Read more

"Pecos is the seat of Reeves County in far West Texas and home to what the prison giant GEO Group calls 'the largest detention/correctional facility under private management in the world..." Read more Look inside

"Alva, a beautiful Latina in her mid-thirties, had also grown up in Reeves County and graduated from Harvard and the University of Texas Law School. She'd returned home in 2006, hoping to use her law degree to help hardworking people ..." Read more Look inside

"This road then crossed the river, entering Reeves County in H&GN RR Block 4, Survey 15, near the floodgate for the Pioneer Canal Company. This crossing was at the “Little Falls” of the Pecos, near which there were several sets of ..." Read more Look inside

"The first construction of irrigation works, comprising a considerable acreage, was begun in the vicinity of Toyah Creek, in Reeves County, Texas where supplies were grown for the military stations at Fort Stockton, Fort Davis..." read more

by Docia Schultz Williams

Once again Mrs. Williams brings to light tangible evidence and eyewitness testimony in Best Tales of Texas Ghosts to validate an illusive world without dimension, one filled with bizarre and disturbing accounts of unexplained presences. Found inside: "The Ghost at the Reeves County Courthouse. I had a long talk with Steve Balog, former Deputy U.S. Marshal. Now he has taken on a second career, that of the court security officer at the courthouse" . . .  Read more Look inside   . . . for more like this see Mysterious Texas

by Dr. Bo Brock

Dr. Ronald Box is a brilliant veterinarian from Pecos, Texas. Ranchers and other veterinarians consider him the go-to doctor for difficult cases in West Texas and New Mexico.

A collection of humorous and poignant stories from a veterinarian in a small, dusty farming and ranching community in rural West Texas. Dr. Brock gives you an intimate look into his small-town and big-hearted perspective on life, animals, and their owners. His unique perspective and tales of doctoring beloved pets, cantankerous livestock, and occasionally their owners will make you smile, laugh, cry, and . . .   Read more Look inside

More than just a civil war, the Mexican Revolution in 1910 triggered hostilities along the border between Mexico and the United States. "They moved to Toyah, a West Texas town in Reeves County eighty miles north of the border. Toyah was a typical railroad town composed almost entirely of saloons and restaurants... a rendezvous place for gamblers ... a town in which..." Read more Look inside

Resources:

Early Life in Texas County by County

Books about Texas People and Places

Amazing People from Texas County by County