By Maggie Lineback

There’s a story about the Texas Rangers that goes something like this. A Texas town calls for help because of a riot over a boxing match. The train arrives, the town is anxious and a lone Ranger steps off the train. The townspeople are perplexed- where is the rest of the help? The Ranger replies, “You got one riot? You need one Ranger.”

Texans are prone to hyperbole by nature but there’s no exaggerating the Texas Rangers’ impact on law enforcement and popular culture. They started out as a voluntary militia to protect frontier settlers and have become an elite law enforcement unit. Rangers have to spend years as police officers before they can even apply to become Rangers. There are only about 100 or so of them across Texas.

But that’s not how you know them. You know them from TV and movies- the Lone Ranger, Walker Texas Ranger- a guide here says 300 movies have a character in it who is a Ranger.

We come here because it’s a convenient stop between Dallas and Austin- and it’s cool. I also get my first chance to off road in the ELV. Actually, it’s just onto the grass but we leave tracks that make me cringe when we finally head to our next stop- Austin.

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