Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Buffalo Gap, TX

Buffalo Gap is a town in Taylor County, within the Abilene metropolitan area, named for the natural pass through the Callahan Divide where migrating bison herds once funneled through on their way to water on Elm Creek.

Buffalo hunters made winter camp at the gap in the 1860s and 1870s; the town was founded in 1877 and has had a post office since 1878.

As the only town in the county at the time, Buffalo Gap was approved as the temporary seat of Taylor County in 1874, and the choice was made official when the county was organized on July 3, 1878.

Buffalo Gap lost its county seat status to Abilene in a fiercely contested election on October 23, 1883, losing 905 votes to 269 after the Texas and Pacific Railway made Abilene its headquarters.

Buffalo Gap College opened in 1885, making the young town a center of education, but the college declined after the county seat left and its charter expired in 1902.

The town's native limestone courthouse and jail, built in 1879 when Buffalo Gap was still the county seat, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1956 local resident Ernie Wilson bought that original courthouse and founded the Museum of the Old West, which grew into today's Buffalo Gap Historic Village, an open-air collection of historic frontier buildings.

Buffalo Gap's Old Settlers Picnic, a community reunion tradition begun in the 1920s, is still celebrated at the Old Settlers Grounds, which also hosts the town's monthly flea market.

The 2020 census counted 543 people in Buffalo Gap living in 222 households — a 17% jump from 2010, reversing a century of decline after the railroad bypassed the town.

Buffalo Gap students attend the Jim Ned Consolidated Independent School District based in Tuscola, and the town is the hometown of University of Texas quarterback Colt McCoy, who starred at Jim Ned High School under his father, coach Brad McCoy.