The family of James Alvis Lynch headed west from Denison, Texas, to find a dry climate that would alleviate Lynch�s symptoms of malaria and his wife Amanda�s rheumatism. They traveled as far as the Brazos River, where U.S. 180 crosses today, when one of their oxen drowned, and the other was struck by lightning. To make matters worse, the Lynches learned of hair-raising tales of the struggles between Comanches and settlers. So on Christmas Eve in 1877, the Lynch family decided to settle 4 m...