Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Boys Ranch, TX

Boys Ranch is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in northeastern Oldham County, Texas, along U.S. Route 385 northeast of Vega, the county seat.

Boys Ranch stands on the site of Tascosa, the original county seat of Oldham County and a once-rowdy pioneer cattle town known as the 'Cowboy Capital of the Plains,' where Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett once walked the streets.

Cal Farley's Boys Ranch was founded in 1939 by Cal Farley, a former professional wrestler and Amarillo businessman, to give homeless and troubled boys 'a shirttail to hang to.'

The ranch began on 120 acres donated by Panhandle rancher Julian Bivins, and the first boys were housed in the old Tascosa county courthouse, an 1884 stone building that now houses the Julian Bivins Museum.

The first annual Boys Ranch Rodeo was staged in 1944, and in 1946 the ranch became the subject of the M-G-M movie Boys Ranch, with the young ranchers appearing as extras.

In April 1987, Girlstown, U.S.A., merged with Cal Farley's Boys Ranch, and the ranch — supported solely by contributions — has long been a co-educational residential home for at-risk children.

Boys Ranch is served by its own school district, the Boys Ranch Independent School District, which includes Boys Ranch High School, Blakemore Middle School, and Mimi Farley Elementary, named for Cal Farley's wife.

Boys Ranch first appeared as a census-designated place in the 2010 census with a population of 282, and its population was 173 at the 2020 census — a count that largely reflects the children and staff living at the ranch.

Because most of its residents are children in residence, Boys Ranch has a median age of only about 16 years, among the youngest of any community in Texas.

Oldham County, home to Boys Ranch, had just 1,758 residents in the 2020 census, making it one of the least populous counties in the Texas Panhandle.