Historical markers tell the story of Scurry County

Scurry County has a large number of Texas historical markers within its square, 61 of them according to the Texas Historical Commission, with 49 of them in Snyder alone. 
At least a dozen of them are located on or near the courthouse square of downtown Snyder. One particular marker was dedicated on April 19, 1971 and is located on the northeast corner of 24th Street and Avenue R with the title of Site of O. K. Wagon Yard. 
The text on the marker describes the local color of Snyder in its early days and is packed with a variety of details that clearly were modeled after an article written by John Portis and published in the Snyder Daily News on April 19, 1970. The content and wording of the marker are nearly identical to what is shown in the article. The article was also a near exact copy of a writing made by  Portis in a self-published booklet. 
In it, he stated that the O.K. Wagon Yard was owned by brothers Bill and Drew Taylor.
A wagon yard served as an overnight stop for people traversing by horse or horse drawn wagon before the widespread use of automobiles as transportation. Being a much slower method of transportation, wagon travel could take a day just to go from one county to another. A wagon yard could be described as somewhat similar to an RV park of today. Portis added in his writing that “cow boys would come into town and stay here in the not so modern cabins” that “were furnished with a cot and a coal stove” costing two bits (twenty-five cents) a night and that the horse boarded for an additional two bits. A short article in the Snyder Daily News on April 21 of 1971, stated that Dean Cochran had a memory of spending the night at the wagon yard in 1924. He said that there was someone on duty all night to take care of the horses, but also vividly remembered smelling the smoke from the mesquite stump fire glowing in the midst of the yard every night while people took advantage of its conveniences, often whittling and talking. With this memory being nearly 50 years after the fact (and now almost 100 years after 1924), extracting the meaning of “conveniences” is difficult to determine.
One reliable way to establish how the wagon yard was generally laid out is by viewing maps made by The Sanborn Map Company of New York. They created maps to document towns countrywide for fire insurance. 
A Sanborn map in 1911 showed Snyder having at least five wagon yards within a couple blocks’ radius of the courthouse square with one at Church Street in between North Street and Borden Street, which is the site of the O.K. Wagon Yard. 
The 1911 map and another one in 1920 show the previous street names: Church Street became Avenue R, Borden Street became 23rd Street, and North Street became 24th Street. Jackass Avenue (in reference to a male donkey) for Church Street is likely an early informal name for the road before the first formal names were assigned. The 1911 map also showed the wagon yard spanning nearly the entire western half of its block with several vaguely identified structures. 
On the north end of the lot, a long, thin building possibly served as the “cabins,” perhaps in a motel-like arrangement. In the very middle of the lot was another large structure that the 1920 map identified as a wagon shed with a feed shed directly to the west. South of these structures was a barn that served as a livery and probably also the location of the breeding barn for the stud animals. A livery was usually a separate business where a person could rent a horse, not unlike today’s idea of a rental car business. 
Another Sanborn map in 1936 showed the location as basically cleared out with two completely different structures, a camp shed about where the wagon shed was, and a grain shed about where the feed shed was. This suggests that the wagon yard was demolished sometime between 1920 and 1936. Portis wrote that “in the early thirties, progress overtook the wagon yard and it was torn down” which he thought was because “the automobile replaced the wagon and the blacksmith shop is being replaced by the machine shop”.
In a general letter written in 1970, Hugh Boren Jr. described what First Monday was. 
“During the years 1932 through 1938, the O. K. Wagon Yard became a place where First Monday was held. This was THE DAY… throughout the county and elsewhere… when all people brought in their wares to trade. Farmers, ranchers, hoss traders, mule skinners, women, children, or anybody brought anything they had that they wanted to swap for something else. This was mostly done on a barter basis.” Another name for this is a “swap meet” or a “flea market” or today is simply called a yard sale. Mr. Portis commented, “If you knew the right person you could also buy a fruit jar of white lightning,” which the historical marker stated was home-brewed whiskey. It is possible that the First Mondays continued for several years on the same lot after the wagon yard itself was gone.
Another very popular activity on the wagon yard grounds was a precursor of today’s rodeos. The rodeos of today did not become formally organized with competitions until 1929 with the creation of the Rodeo Association of America, and what eventually morphed into the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) of today, albeit through several twists and turns. 
Before 1929, cowboys would simply edge each other in friendly dares of feats of skill as recreation or fun. In the letter by Hugh Boren Jr., he wrote, “possibly as early as 1916, I remember my first rodeo. The place… [was] at the O.K. Wagon Yard…” He went on to write, “The show started with a banter of one cowboy saying to the other that he could not ride a certain ‘bronk’ meaning an unbroken horse.” 
The bantering, betting, and arguments went on for several minutes, until the one cowboy said, “If you will raise $1.50, I will saddle and ride him.” This in itself was quite a show, which led to the passing of the hat around to the spectators, some 15 or 20 people.” Boren wrote that he put in 7¢ and while only 75¢ was collected, the show continued. Portis stated, “a cowboy would ear down [get ahold of] a bronc, saddle him up, and top him off [ride him] or vice versa [get bucked off].” 
However, Boren provided paragraphs of great detail of what happened next from the catching of a horse, saddling and the bucking, bellering and bawling of the bronc. 
He even identified this specific rider as Booger Red. Another interesting point he made was that there were no women around watching the action, which allowed Booger, “a rather expressive sort of cowboy” to cuss his way through the ride.
Today, the southwest corner of the lot where the marker is has a building that used to be the Snyder post office and is now an air conditioning business, while at the northwest corner exists the Snyder Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center.
Indeed, the O.K. Wagon Yard saw much action in the span of its existence.