Early Texas Wagon Yards

Places of shelter for drivers, teams and wagons. Here travelers could cook bacon, eggs, beans, coffee; talk with friends and strangers. For people from the country, a wagon yard was both a hotel and a social center. Unusually it was an open area flanked by a shed, stalls and feed rooms. It might cover a city block, and charges were 25 (cents) to $1.00 a day. Drivers pulled into yards, cared for teams, found cooking and sleeping space. Men or families might stay for weeks, await kin or goods coming by train or stage. Amusements were practical jokes, gossip, games, music by fiddle, guitar, harmonica. Young boys overcame bashfulness, learned to dance, roller skate, whip bullies. The yard was center for trading goods and horses; obtaining advice on travel, work, weather. Some yards were stops for stages and freighters. A block west of this site was wagon yard of F. A. Piper Company (predecessor of Horner's Store). Like many Texas merchants, Piper built and ran the wagon yard to aid customers, who used it free of charge. Modern transportation has made the wagon yard a relic of the past, but it has a secure place in the history of pioneer days in Texas.

Early Texas Wagon Yards is a historical marker in Uvalde, Uvalde County, dedicated in 1966. It is one of 55 historical markers documented in Uvalde County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 82 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 29.2110, -99.7866 near Uvalde. The nearest cataloged historic site is Grand Opera House (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Kincaid Hotel, Schwartz, Louis, and Rice Hotel and Saddlery.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5463001358. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.