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1881. The post at Fort Griffin is abandoned. Residents of the civilian community begin moving to Albany, the county seat of Shackelford County. Lt. Bullis and 30 Seminole-Negro scouts pursue a band of Lipan Apache raiders into Mexico. It is the last action against Indians conducted by U.S. Army units in Texas.
1882. The Texas and Pacific Railroad reaches El Paso from Fort Worth. The San Antonio-El Paso stagecoach line goes out of business.
James began to buy land in 1882. He was 33 years old and his empire was growing. He didn’t buy just any land. He bought ranches that surrounded the open range. The open range was government land that everybody could use, and comprised well over 5,000 acres of grassland. It was open to anyone who paid a small fee to the government to graze their animals on it. James couldn’t buy it, but he could block access to a large porion of it.
