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Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Show Me Your Badge: Texas Ranger ID


In Livia J. Washburn’s short story “Guarding Her Heart,” hero Grant Stafford is a shotgun guard on a stagecoach. Grant is no ordinary guard, though:
The driver said, “Are you nervous about your first trip ridin’ shotgun, son?”

“No, not really,” Grant replied. His gaze roamed constantly over the landscape as he searched for signs of danger.

What he saw was a wide sweep of mostly ranching country, cut through with stretches of badlands and dotted with low mesas. At this time of year, the middle of February, it was drab and gloomy, but in a few months, once the weather started to warm up and the wildflowers popped out, it would be a sea of color, beautiful for a time…before the heat of summer set in and turned much of the vegetation sere and brown.

But the really important thing, Grant thought, was that the rugged terrain offered plenty of hiding places for outlaws to lie in wait for a passing stagecoach. Such holdups had occurred all too often on this run in recent months.

And that was why he’d been sent here by the Texas Rangers—to put a stop to it.

Later on, Grant is required to prove who he is, so he whips out an iconic badge.

If you had been in the crowd, would you have recognized Grant’s badge? Test your knowledge: Which of the alleged Texas Ranger badges below are genuine? Pick one from each set. (All images are ©Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, Waco, Texas, and are used with permission. All Rights Reserved.)

Set 1


©TRHFM, Waco, TX
©TRHFM, Waco, TX

Answer: The right-hand badge, dated 1889, is the earliest authenticated Texas Ranger badge in the collection of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum. Badges weren’t standard issue for Rangers until 1935, although from 1874 onward, individual Rangers sometimes commissioned badges from jewelers or gunsmiths, who made them from Mexican coins. Relatively few Rangers wore a badge out in the open. As for the item on the left? There’s no such thing as a “Texas Ranger Special Agent.”


Set 2

©TRHFM, Waco, TX
©TRHFM, Waco, TX

Answer: On the left is an official shield-type badge issued between 1938 and 1957. Ranger captains received gold badges; the shields issued to lower ranks were silver. The badge on the right is a fake, though similar authentic badges exist.


Set 3

©TRHFM, Waco, TX
©TRHFM, Waco, TX

Answer: The left-hand badge was the official badge of the Rangers from July 1957 to October 1962. Called the “blue bottle cap badge,” the solid, “modernized” design was universally reviled. The right-hand badge is a fake. According to the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, “No genuine Texas Ranger badges are known to exist with ‘Frontier Battalion’ engraved on them.”


Set 4

©TRHFM, Waco, TX

©TRHFM, Waco, TX

Answer: The badge on the right, called the “wagon wheel badge,” has been the official Texas Ranger badge since October 1962. Each is made from a Mexican five-peso silver coin. The badge on the left is a “fantasy badge.” According to the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, the most common designation on such badges is “Co. A.”

How did you do? Don’t feel badly if you couldn’t tell the legitimate badges from the fakes. Texas Ranger badges are a hot commodity in the collectibles market. The problem? The vast majority of items marketed as genuine Texas Ranger badges are reproductions, facsimiles, or toys. Very few legitimate badges exist outside museums and family collections, and those that do hardly ever are sold. There’s a very good reason for that: Manufacturing, possessing, or selling Texas Ranger insignia, even fakes that are “deceptively similar” to the real thing, can violate Texas law except in specific circumstances.

According to Byron A. Johnson, executive director of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum (the official historical center of the Texas Ranger law-enforcement agency), “Spurious badges and fraudulent representation or transactions connected with them date back to the 1950s and are increasing. We receive anywhere from 10 to 30 inquiries a month on badges, the majority connected with sales on eBay.”

For more information about the Texas Rangers—including the history of the organization, biographical sketches of individual Rangers, and all kinds of information about badges and other insignia—visit the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum online at TexasRanger.org. The museum and its staff have our utmost gratitude for their assistance with this post.



To see how fictional Texas Ranger Grant Stafford and his heroine, Julia Courtland, get themselves out of one heckuva mess involving outlaws, lawmen, and a stagecoach wreck, read “Guarding Her Heart” in Hearts and Spurs. The collection of nine Valentine’s Day tales by nine western romance authors is available in print and ebook at your favorite online bookstore.




22 comments:

  1. I didn't have the savvy to get to the answers, but I would have been guessing anyway. Some of those badges are real purty--probably the fake ones. LOL What a good story Guarding Her Heart is going to be. Who doesn't love a Texas Ranger. Even the name is romantic. *sigh*

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    1. Sarah, you're not the only one who had trouble reading the answers. I just now "un-hid" them. Sometimes things just don't work as well as we'd like. :-D

      "Guarding Her Heart" is an excellent story. Grant is such a drool-worthy hero, you may need a bib. I did! :-D

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  2. I'm at 50%. Ouch. I think I'll leave the badge collecting to someone with more savvy and money than I have. LOL. That said, I love the pictures of the badges and now I'll just have to go check the Texas Rangers website. Guarding Her Heart was a terrific story with all the elements I love, and who wouldn't fall in love with Grant Stafford???

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    1. Do check out the museum's website, Jacquie! It's chock-full of information, and the staff is just wonderful about answering questions and helping authors with research. I'm amazed the outfit operates with so few people and such a small budget.

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  3. Kathleen, I loved Livia's story! She certainly kept Grant Stafford's secret to the very end. Great story. These surprises really add depth to a story.

    I've been to the Texas Ranger Museum in Waco many times. Always enjoy going there and each time I go I learn something new. There's just too many displays to absorb everything all at once. I did know that about them not wearing any kind of badge until late in the 1900's. But, yes, some did have badges made from old Mexican coins. Very cool. Wish I owned one of those. Man, do I wish! Excellent blog. Never get tired of sharing our Texas Rangers with the less fortunate. LOL

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    1. "Sharing our Texas Rangers with the less fortunate." LOL! Yep, that about sums it up! :-D

      IMO, the TRHFM is one of the best specialized museums in the country, and it's such a valuable resource. The Rangers are iconic in fact and fiction -- which shouldn't be surprising, since they're the oldest statewide law-enforcement outfit in the U.S. Other states, notably Arizona, created similar forces patterned after the Texas Rangers.

      Though the Rangers did have a ... ahem ... "disreputable" period in the early 1900s thanks to a corruption scandal, we Texans have every right to be proud of "our boys" -- and women in today's force, too! :-)

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  4. My curator brain must be functioning today, I got them all correct. I used the old "the one that looks wrong is probably right" method. I've never been to the Ranger Museum, but I'll have to add that to the list. I'm also looking forward to the opening of the U.S. Marshal Museum.

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    1. That is just so wrong. Even Texans have trouble figuring out which is which, and a Wyoming Rustler gets them all correct? Oh, the humanity! ;-)

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  5. Thanks for the info, Kathleen. I didn't do well. I'd be a terrible collector.

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  6. When you sent out the message that you made the answers visable, I ran on back to check. I only got one right. Shows what I know. LOL

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    1. LOL, Sarah! Well, join the club. Except for Kirsten, I think we're all in about the same boat. ;-)

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  7. Great post! I got two of 'em right. I had great fun visiting the Texas Ranger Museum in San Antonio, I bought hubs a "badge" with his name on LOL.

    That said...what an awesome excerpt, Livia, from a great story. Very intriguing. I love the image of outlaws lying in wait!

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    1. Livia's whole story is awesome. Like Jacquie said, "Who wouldn't fall in love with Grant Stafford????" :-)

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  8. Kathleen, I got all but the last one right. What a great post! This was a lot of fun. Thanks for going to the trouble to get these pictures and the other items you needed from the museum.

    AWESOME! Loved it!
    Cheryl

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    1. What is it with you and getting the Texas stuff right lately? You're an Okie! Stop it! You're not supposed to know more about Texas history than the Texans. :-D

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  9. Well, I got so carried away with those badges I forgot to say how much I enjoyed Livia's "Guarding Her Heart" about Grant Stafford. WHOOO what a guy he was! Livia can sure bring her men to life, and make you WANT them! Great story, and I loved me some Grant.
    Cheryl

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    1. LOL! Ha! See what Texas history will do to an Oklahoma brain? ;-)

      You're right about Grant, though. The man is lucky he's survived as long as he has, with a pack of rabid WHR readers chasing him. :-D

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  11. Love the post, Kathleen. And the TR museum in Waco is wonderful!

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    1. Thank you, Tracy! I couldn't agree with you more about the museum. HUGS!!!!

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  12. Truly enjoyed the story and the quiz what an eye opener. Thanks! Doris

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