What’s In a Name? (You don’t want to know!)

Let me start off with a disclaimer.

I’m going to repeat an entertaining legend, but I don’t really know how much truth it contains.  I first heard it while living in the city of Pampa, in the Texas Panhandle, back in the late ‘70s. I don’t know the origin of this legend and since I’m not a native of that area, I have, as they say, “no dog in this hunt…”

Let’s start with what we do know.  Back in the 1870s (no, not the same ‘70s I mentioned above) a settlement grew out of a buffalo hunter camp about twenty miles from present-day Pampa. (Technically, they are bison, not buffalo, but let’s not split hairs on this one.)  It was a rough-and-tumble kind of place through which a lot of well-known people passed.  About the same time, the Army established a fort in the area.  According to a website I found (link below) one of the famous people who passed through acquired a lifelong memory of his time there.  Bat Masterson, of Dodge City fame, is described as walking with a limp.  It seems that he acquired that limp in a gun fight with an Army sergeant over a card game and dance hall girl.  The only survivor, Masterson, had been shot in the pelvis.  If you find a reference, you’ll see that the altercation occurred in Sweetwater, Texas.  But it’s not the Sweetwater you think…

This Panhandle town had been established on the banks of the Sweetwater Creek so it naturally assumed the name of Sweetwater.  This is where the story gets more entertaining.

In 1879, Wheeler County was established and Sweetwater was the natural choice as the county seat.  The problem came when they petitioned for a post office.  The petition was rejected because there was already another Sweetwater, Texas – the one you know.  That obviously created a problem because the town had been using that name for a few years.

Now, for the story as I heard it:

After the town was denied the use of “Sweetwater,” and while trying to decide on a new name, an old Indian chief suggested that the town use the Indian term for sweet water – mobeetie.  It was quickly agreed upon, approved, and Mobeetie, Texas was born.  Sometime later, it was discovered that the old chief had the last laugh.  Mobeetie didn’t actually mean “sweet water” – it meant “buffalo dung.”

It’s a good story, but I didn’t give it much credibility.

I don’t remember how it came up in the conversation, but I told the story to a friend over breakfast the other day.  Afterward, I realized it might be fun to write up for Casual Comments.  I started doing a little research since all I knew about the town was the name, location, the legend and that I remembered seeing a sign on the highway that points one direction for Mobeetie and another for Old Mobeetie.  I found a great website that offers the town’s history – in much greater detail.  Much to my surprise, it told the same story of the name with a little more detail and a couple of minor differences!  So, now I’ve confirmed the validity of the story.  After all, it’s on the Internet, so it must be true…!

To read more, visit this really interesting website:

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/tx-mobeetie.html