On March 14, Ms. Courtney Hurst of Monte Vista, Colorado graciously loaned the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum materials documenting the life and career of her ancestor, Texas Ranger Lem Lamkin. The collection of his personal letters, photographs and possessions is a window into the family and professional life of a Texas Ranger in the "Roaring 20s."

 

This loan allows the museum to gain a personal perspective on the stresses and hardships that being a Ranger placed on a man and his family. There are also touching notes and drawings from Ranger Lamkin's young children. We cannot stress enough what a valuable resource these personal letters, photographs and objects are to the museum and historians.

 

Planning for an exhibit highlighting pieces from the collection is underway. The Board and Staff of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum and Armstrong Texas Ranger Research Center deeply appreciate the Hurst family for sharing these materials.

Going through the correspondence in the papers that author Charles H. Harris III recently donated to the Armstrong Texas Ranger Research Center, we came across a letter to Governor William P. Hobby dated July 25, 1918 from a 17-year-old in Lufkin, Texas. 

"Dear Sir: Please advise me the qualifications of a man to become a ranger. I am very anxious to get into the service. Yours truly, Homer Garrison Jr."

• Patricia Lee (in costume), Historian, Peter Folger Chapter
• Texas Ranger Patrick Pena, Company "F"
• Sherry Johnson, guest from Woodville MS and member of the Natchez, MS Colonial Dames chapter
• O'Levia Neil Wiese, Division IV Chairman of the Colonial Dames 78th State Conference
• Vivian Dodgen, Treasurer, Peter Folger Chapter
• Reginald Hardy, Chief of Volunteers, Central Texas Veterans Health Care System

On March 19, the Texas Ranger Museum Board, City of Waco and Texas Society of Professional Surveyors (TSPS) dedicated the new Jack Hays and Texas Ranger Surveyors exhibits.  During the early years of Texas settlement, Rangers often worked as land surveyors exploring and mapping remote areas of Texas for future settlement. There was a personal incentive as well;  since the earliest rangers were often paid in land rather than cash, surveying offered the opportunity to claim choice land.

Left to Right: Hank Whitman, Retired Chief of the Texas Rangers and Chairman of TRHFM Board; Deidra Emerson, Assistant City Manager for City of Waco; Mayor Malcolm Duncan, City of Waco; Paul T. Carey, RPLS, LSLS, President, TSPS

At the dedication, Paul T. Carey, President of TSPS, read a proclamation from Texas Governor Greg Abbott recognizing March 21-26 as National Surveying Week. Renowned Texas artist Gary Crouch donated Measuring Space & Time, a signed and framed print honoring early Texas surveying, to thank TSPS for their support of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame. 

Funding for the new exhibits was made possible by a grant from the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Foundation. TSPS graciously donated a collection of early surveying equipment to the Museum. 

On March 12 during our annual Spring Break Round Up, visitors were entertained by Texas Top Guns, a reenactment group from Palestine, Texas. They set up an 1800s Ranger camp, cooked biscuits on coals and "arrested" visitors. Lieutenant Jamie Downs, Company "F," presented on the modern duties of the Texas Rangers including his missions on the Texas-Mexico border. He recalled a time when a Mexican drug cartel scout was pretending to fish in the Rio Grande. When he left his fishing rod to go to the truck and call in the "all clear," Lt. Downs went to his fishing rod and released the catfish that he caught while away from his post. Members of the Homestead Heritage group brought various fibers for visitors to feel and spun fibers into yarn, which will be used to weave clothing. 

A special thank you to our Spring Break Round Up volunteers and participants: Lt. Jamie Downs, Donna Arispe, Jana Busby, Christina Stopka and Texas Top Guns.

Join us April 29-May 1 for a weekend jam-packed with presentations on Texas Ranger history by leading historians and active-duty Texas Rangers!  Scheduled speakers include: Texas Rangers Assistant Chief Frank Malinak and Lieutenant Wende Wakeman, the first female lieutenant in the Texas Rangers service; Bill O'Neal, State Historian of Texas; David S. Turk, historian of the U.S. Marshals Service; and Jim Willett, historian of the Texas Prison Museum. 

Two new books are making their debut at the Lone Star History Conference. The books will be available for order in the Museum Gift Shop beginning May 1st.

Texas Ranger: The Epic Life of Frank Hamer, the Man Who Killed Bonnie and Clyde

By: John  Boessenecker

"Frank Hamer, last of the old breed of Texas Rangers, has not fared well in history or popular culture. John Boessenecker now restores this incredible Ranger to his proper place alongside such fabled lawmen as Wyatt Earp and Eliot Ness. Here is a grand adventure story, told with grace and authority by a master historian of American law enforcement. Frank Hamer can rest easy as readers will finally learn the truth behind his amazing career, spanning the end of the Wild West through the bloody days of the gangsters."
---Paul Andrew Hutton, author of The Apache Wars

Whiskey River Ranger: The Old West Life of Baz Outlaw

By: Bob Alexander

"Captain Frank Jones, a famed nineteenth-century Texas Ranger, said of his company's top sergeant, Baz Outlaw (1854-1894), "A man of unusual courage and coolness and in a close place is worth two or three ordinary men." Another old-time Texas Ranger declared that Baz Outlaw "was one of the worst and most dangerous" because "he never knew what fear was." But not all thought so highly of him. In Whiskey River Ranger, Bob Alexander tells for the first time the full story of this troubled Texas Ranger and his losing battle with alcoholism ." 

*Book descriptions are courtesy  University of North Texas Press and Thomas Dunne Books.