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Ten Texas Rangers who never stood down
Now riding into their third century, one of the nation’s oldest law enforcement agencies carries a double-barreled brand known worldwide—Texas Rangers.
In August 1823, in a settler’s cabin on the Colorado River in present Fayette County, Texas, colonizer Stephen F. Austin proposed formation of a 10-man force to serve as “rangers for the common defense.” A dozen years passed before the Rangers first...

The 1832 battle set the stage for the Texas Revolution.
The names are spoken with reverence in Texas: The Alamo. Goliad. San Jacinto. The great battles of the Texas Revolution, a conflict that lasted just under seven months. But the seeds of the war were planted years before that; the first real bloodshed...

Billy Wilson and Tom Pickett escaped the noose for the senseless murders of four Hispanos in Lincoln County.
Billy the Kid respected his hard-working Mexican neighbors in the Pecos River Valley, and in turn, they gave him their respect and friendship. Photo Courtesy Bob Boze Bell...

L.R. Millican’s life in Lampasas, Texas, was both lucky and legendary.
Lampasas, for a time, was on the edge of a lively frontier in Texas, and much blood spilled as that border exhaled dust and stampeded westward. Rowdy cowboys, outlaws and others shooting up saloons was commonplace on the frontier. Lawlessness, always...