A history of Bovina,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Bovina from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Originally, the community was the Hay Hook Line Camp of the XIT Ranch, and the ranch headquarters was one of the county's earliest buildings. When the Pecos and Northern Texas Railway was built through the ranch in 1898, a switch was placed at the site to be used by cowboys to unload cottonseed shipped in as feed. Some of this feed was invariably spilled along the tracks, causing XIT cattle to gather at the unfenced right-of-way. Often, they lay down, compelling railroad workers to get off their trains and prod them off the tracks. As a result, the site was labeled Bull Town, a name replaced by the more elegant Bovina when the post office was established on January 31, 1899.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Bovina’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewHABS TEX,59-BOVI.V,1- (sheet 1 of…, 1933: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people close to Bovina
See all 22 →
Bovina, decade by decade
CommonsHABS TEX,59-BOVI.V,1- (sheet 1 of 5) - Las Escarbadas Ranch…1933
CommonsHABS TEX,59-BOVI.V,1- (sheet 2 of 5) - Las Escarbadas Ranch…1933
CommonsHABS TEX,59-BOVI.V,1- (sheet 3 of 5) - Las Escarbadas Ranch…1933
CommonsHABS TEX,59-BOVI.V,1- (sheet 4 of 5) - Las Escarbadas Ranch…1933
CommonsHABS TEX,59-BOVI.V,1- (sheet 5 of 5) - Las Escarbadas Ranch…19331990s
Nothing in Bovina is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Bovina has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Parmer County Courthouse in Farwell, 12.6 miles away.
Bovina and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as HABS TEX,59-BOVI.V,1- (sheet 1 of 5) - Las Escarbadas Ranch House, Tierra Blanca Draw (1933) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15From Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.