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'''Cedar Lake''' is a largely forgotten brackish body of occasional shallow water in isolated northeastern Gaines County in West [[Texas]]. Adjacent to [[New Mexico]] and named for area  [[cedar]] scrubs, the lake is the  largest alkali body of water in the region. A ''playa'' or dry lake, it is located on the Llano Estacado (Staked Plains) and has nearly sixty miles of shoreline. The lake is idden away and unknown to the current generation.<ref name=caprock>{{cite web|url=https://www.lubbockonline.com/news/20200207/caprock-chronicles-cedar-lake---largest-playa-on-llano-estacado|title=Caprock Chronicles: Cedar Lake - the largest playa on the Llano Estacado|publisher=''The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal''|date=February 78, 2020|accessdate=February 10, 2020|author=[[Paul H. Carson]]}}</ref>

'''Cedar Lake''' is a largely forgotten brackish body of occasional shallow water in isolated northeastern Gaines County in West [[Texas]]. Adjacent to [[New Mexico]] and named for area  [[cedar]] scrubs, the lake is the  largest alkali body of water in the region. A ''playa'' or dry lake, it is located on the Llano Estacado (Staked Plains) and has nearly sixty miles of shoreline. The lake is idden away and unknown to the current generation.<ref name=caprock>{{cite web|url=https://www.lubbockonline.com/news/20200207/caprock-chronicles-cedar-lake---largest-playa-on-llano-estacado|title=Caprock Chronicles: Cedar Lake - the largest playa on the Llano Estacado|publisher=''The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal''|date=February 78, 2020|accessdate=February 10, 2020|author=[[Paul H. Carson]]}}</ref>

Called ''Lagunas Sabinas'' by early [[Spain|Spanish]] explorers, the lake area contains two mass burial grounds, one  on the northern side and the other on the western side. Both Apache and Comanche used the lake. Colancheros, villagers in New Mexico, transported goods on two-wheeled carts from the Pecos River Valley to barter their wares with Indians for bison hides and meat and likely stolen cattle. <ref name=caprock/>

Called ''Lagunas Sabinas'' by early [[Spain|Spanish]] explorers, the lake area contains two mass burial grounds, one  on the northern side and the other on the western side. Both Apache and Comanche used the lake. Colancheros, villagers in New Mexico, transported goods on two-wheeled carts from the Pecos River Valley to barter their wares with Indians for bison hides and meat and likely stolen cattle. <ref name=caprock/>

After the Red River War of 1874-1875, the [[United States Army]] used the lake in the 1870s while returning Comanches to their reservations. In December 1874, [[Colonel]] Ranald Slidell Mackenzie (1840-1889) made an all-night forced march to Cedar Lake, but his troops were unable to catch a large group of nearby Comanches. [[Lieutenant Colonel]] William Rufus Shafter (1835-1906), popularly known as "Pecos Bill,'' commanded primarily [[African-American]] "Buffalo Soldiers,"  embarked on a six-month expedition Into the Llano Estacado. The soldiers found few Indians except for a contingent of Apaches at Cedar Lake who fled when pursued. Charles Angelo "Charlie" Siringo (1855-1928), called "the [[cowboy]] detective," passed by Cedar Lake in the late 1870s and saw camps of [[bison]]-hide hunters. One of the hide hunters,  George Causey, in 1882 killed two hundred bison near the lake.<ref name=handbook>{{cite web|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/roc10|author=James Irving Fenton (1932-2011)|title=Cedar Lake (Gaines County)|publisher=Texas State Historical Association on-line|accessdate=February 10, 2020}}</ref>

After the Red River War of 1874-1875, the [[United States Army]] used the lake in the 1870s while returning Comanches to their reservations. In December 1874, [[Colonel]] Ranald Slidell Mackenzie (1840-1889) made an all-night forced march to Cedar Lake, but his troops were unable to catch a large group of nearby Comanches. [[Lieutenant Colonel]] William Rufus Shafter (1835-1906), popularly known as "Pecos Bill,'' commanded primarily [[African-American]] "Buffalo Soldiers,"  embarked on a six-month expedition Into the Llano Estacado. The soldiers found few Indians except for a contingent of Apaches at Cedar Lake who fled when pursued. Charles Angelo "Charlie" Siringo (1855-1928), called "the [[cowboy]] detective," passed by Cedar Lake in the late 1870s and encountered camps of [[bison]]-hide hunters. One of those hide hunters,  George Causey, in 1882 killed two hundred bison near the lake.<ref name=handbook>{{cite web|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/roc10|author=James Irving Fenton (1932-2011)|title=Cedar Lake (Gaines County)|publisher=Texas State Historical Association on-line|accessdate=February 10, 2020}}</ref>

Cattleman and banker Christopher Columbus "C. C." Slaughter (1837-1919), ran the northwestern boundary of his Long S Ranch adjacent to Cedar Lake. In its heyday, the Long S extended for fifty miles north to south and fifty miles east of west. It may have been second in size to the more famous XIT Ranch, located in ten counties in the Texas Panhandle. Shortly after 1900, Slaughter cut his Long S Ranch to some 250,000 acres. Another rancher leased acreage about Cedar Lake; this land became Fish Ranch. Not long afterward J. H. Belcher and his sons, through purchase and leasing, obtained 111 sections in “Cedar Lake Country," as the area was called. Because Belcher’s leases ran out, the farmers, ranchers, and other settlers acquired smaller tracts of land, and the area population grew. Carts powered by mules delivered the mail from Lamesa in Dawson County, south of [[Lubbock]]. A post office building appeared in 1907 at a place in Gaines County called Blue Goose, since  Loop, Texas.<ref name=caprock/>

Cattleman and banker Christopher Columbus "C. C." Slaughter (1837-1919), ran the northwestern boundary of his Long S Ranch adjacent to Cedar Lake. In its heyday, the Long S extended for fifty miles north to south and fifty miles east of west. It may have been second in size to the more famous XIT Ranch, located in ten counties in the Texas Panhandle. Shortly after 1900, Slaughter cut his Long S Ranch to some 250,000 acres. Another rancher leased acreage about Cedar Lake; this land became Fish Ranch. Not long afterward J. H. Belcher and his sons, through purchase and leasing, obtained 111 sections in “Cedar Lake Country," as the area was called. Because Belcher’s leases ran out, the farmers, ranchers, and other settlers acquired smaller tracts of land, and the area population grew. Carts powered by mules delivered the mail from Lamesa in Dawson County, south of [[Lubbock]]. A post office building appeared in 1907 at a place in Gaines County called Blue Goose, since  Loop, Texas.<ref name=caprock/>