Old Tascosa functioned as a rough-and-tumble trade and supply center on the Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle, serving as the shipping and outfitting point for the great open-range outfits of the region, including the LIT, LX, LS, Frying Pan, and XIT ranches. Known as the Cowboy Capital of the Plains, the town grew up around a natural river crossing on the cattle and freight trails and offered cowboys, drovers, and ranch hands saloons, dance halls, general stores, and other frontier amenities, along with a reputation for gunplay that earned its cemetery the nickname Boot Hill. After Oldham County organized in 1880, Tascosa became the county seat and built a stone courthouse to house its civic functions. The town's commercial role collapsed when the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway bypassed it in 1887, drawing merchants and residents to the new rail town of Channing; the county seat itself relocated to Vega in 1915, and the original townsite was essentially abandoned by the late 1930s. In 1939 philanthropist Cal Farley acquired the site for his home for underprivileged and troubled boys, later known as Cal Farley's Boys Ranch, which continues to operate as a residential youth ranch today. The old stone courthouse was repurposed as the Julian Bivins Museum, preserving artifacts and exhibits on Tascosa's frontier cattle-trail and cowboy-town history for visitors.