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Texas became the 28th state on December 29, 1845
 
Capital - Austin
Motto - Friendship
Nickname - Lone Star
State Song - Texas, Our Texas
Flower - Bluebonnet
Tree- Pecan
Bird - Mockingbird
 


In memory of
Malcom Luther "Mike" Basham 
First TXGenWeb State Coordinator
25 May 1942
to
15 September 1997


Adjacent Counties
  Cochran County, TX - N
  Hockley County, TX - NE
  Terry County, TX - E
  Gaines County, TX - S
  Lea County, NM - W

TXGenWeb County Listings







COM
Feb 2007




 

Bronco , TX

USGenWeb >> TXGenWeb  >> Yoakum County  >> Towns & Communities >> Bronco, Texas

Map of Texas highlighting Yoakum County
Latitude 331525N
33.2570508
Longitude 1030333W
-103.0591102
Elevation
feet/meters
3789/1155
Zip Code  
Founded  
GNIS FID 1352927
TXGenWeb Site
 
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Local Genealogy Society
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Highway 380
On the New Mexico state line
14 miles W of Plains
70 miles SW of Lubbock
 
Bronco appears on the Bronco U.S. Geological Survey Map. Yoakum County is in the Central Time Zone (UTC -6 hours).


Bronco never had a railroad, but has somehow managed to reach its centennial year - due to occur in 2003. A cowboy with the colorful name of "Gravy" Fields opened a store and applied for a post office in 1903. The name is said to have been suggested by a traveling salesman.

Field's store supplied ranches in the vicinity and by 1912 the town had 25 persons. The population high-water mark wasn't reached until the 1960s when it was estimated to be 180. It has since declined to the present estimate of 30.


Bronco is on U.S. Highway 380 and the New Mexico border, seventy miles southwest of Lubbock in western Yoakum County. Just two miles west of the town lies old Pueblo Springs, a watering place for Indians before Europeans came to the plains. Sulphur Draw, the headwaters of the Colorado River, originates near Bronco. In 1903 a cowpuncher, H. (Gravy) Fields, started a store at the site of the town. He succeeded in procuring a post office, but because the postal authorities rejected his first choice of a name the town remained nameless until some months later, when a traveling salesman suggested Bronco after seeing a local cowboy ride a bucking horse. K. T. Manning served as the first postmaster. By 1912 Bronco had a population of twenty-five and a store that served surrounding ranches. In 1915 L. W. Walker had established a flour mill there. A cotton gin was built at the town in 1947. Bronco's growth, like that of other Yoakum County towns, was hindered by the lack of a railroad. The reported population peaked in 1961 at an estimated 180, then by the mid-1960s fell to thirty, where it remained in 2000.

Leoti A. Bennett

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Frank P. Hill, "Plains Names," Panhandle-Plains Historical Review 10 (1937). Texas Industrial Commission, General Community Profile on Plains (Austin, 1976). Texas State Highway Department, A Guide to the South Plains of Texas (Lubbock, 1935).

Handbook of Texas Online, Leoti A. Bennett, "BRONCO, TX"