Muleshoe Heritage Center - Figure 4 Ranch House

Figure 4 Ranch House

Less elaborate than the Janes house but more typical of ranch life is the former Figure 4 Ranch House originally located in south Bailey County but now situated at the entrance to the Muleshoe Heritage Center. H.M. McCelvey of Temple in Central Texas purchased the Figure 4 in 1906 as an investment and hired Henry Hanover, also of Temple, as manager. Hanover moved with his wife and three daughters to the Figure 4 soon after World War I. He found the West Texas towns to be much further apart than were the Central Texas communities. The ranch house was, however, modern and made most hospitable by the Hanovers. Once during a blizzard the Hanovers opened the home to three families that they had never before met. The house had plenty of food: canned fruits and vegetables, cured pork, chickens, eggs, and some beef. The Hanovers sent their daughters to school in Canyon south of Amarillo. They took their Model T each weekend on unpaved roads to see the girls and bring provisions. Hanover was given pasturing privileges on the ranch and accumulated three hundred head of whitefaced cattle. He retired to Muleshoe, and the ranch was broken into farms.

Also found in south Bailey County was the Virginia City Hotel, a two-story boardinghouse. The top floor consisted of a large room with space for some eight cots. The lower floor was a kitchen and office, where mail was dispatched. After three years of drought, Virginia City became a ghost town in 1913. Maple Wilson bought the hotel and moved it two miles (3 km) west for his ranch headquarters. Later it served as a residence. Though most of the land barons built boardinghouses, the Virginia City Hotel is the only one in the Muleshoe area still in existence.