The Texas You Expect

The Buffalo Gap Historic Village, in Buffalo Gap, Texas, got its start in 1956 as the "Ernie Wilson Museum of the Old West" and was housed in the original Taylor County Courthouse. Over the next fifty years, however, the museum evolved into a full-fledged historic village, boasting twenty buildings and more than 9,000 artifacts. With this transformation, the historic village also began to tell a story about the history of a time period - the critical decades between 1875 and 1925. "The Texas You Expect" does more than simply relate the history of the Buffalo Gap Historic Village. It tells the story of how a frontier transformed into a heartland of America. Following the three interpretive periods displayed at the historic village (1883, 1904, 1925), the authors paint a picture of what life in America was like in each of those decades. The book weaves together the story of the practical and technological advances that ultimately brought the frontier period to an end. Using the buildings and artifacts of the village as examples, the book acts as a virtual tour, not only of the historic village, but of this critical half century of our nation's past.