Rath City, TX
N 33° 00.586 W 100° 10.872
14S E 389666 N 3652988
Rath City was a frontier town in southern Stonewall County, TX, and it existed from 1876 to about 1880.
Waymark Code: WM15WJK
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 03/09/2022
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Today, the only reminder of the town's existence is a 1979 Texas Historical Marker in a picnic area on the east side of US 83, just north of the Brazos River, and it provides some background, noting that Rath City was about four miles northwest of here:
In 1876 during an international demand for buffalo hides, Charles Rath (1836-1902) founded this town. He opened the Rath, Lee & Reynolds Mercantile Store. He sold supplies and bought the hides from the buffalo hunters. On one occasion in 1877 there were 1,100,000 hides at his trading post. The town, also known as "Reynolds City", boasted a corral, hide yard, saloon and restaurant. Skins stretched across poles sheltered the hunters. A tower beside the corral was used as a lookout to ward off Indian attacks. By 1879, the buffalo disappeared and the town vanished.
There is a certain irony that Rath City lived to starve out the natives, but ultimately, it disappeared from the map after its own raison d'être ceased to be.