The Texas Ranger Badge

 


By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon


The Texas Rangers have been around in one way, shape, or form since 1823, when the father of Texas, Stephen F. Austin first hired ten men to protect the first American families who settled in Austin's colony in Northern Mexico. In 1835, the Texas Rangers were officially established by the Texas government.

Early Texas Rangers did not use an official badge issued by the state. Those who did have badges would purchase them from their local jeweler or silversmith. Most used a Mexican five or eight peso silver coin to make a Texas Lone Star surrounded by a circle. Other Rangers would order a shield shaped custom badge from a law enforcement supply company.



It wasn't until 1935 when the Texas Rangers began issuing their troops an official badge designed by the Department of Public Safety. The badge had a star with the letters TEXAS surrounding the negative space between the star's rays. The badge was surrounded by leaves similar to the ones on the Great Seal of Texas. The design is used to this day by the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission.



In 1957, the director of the DPS made a change to the badges troopers and Rangers wore, The badge had a Texas Lone Star with a blue enamel background. The style was nicknamed the "bottlecap badge." It was not a very popular design. Ironically, the current state trooper badge is a design heavily influenced by the old bottlecap design.





The Director of the DPS, Colonel (yes, I know there are higher ranks than colonel, but the director holds the rank of colonel despite DPS having higher 'ranking' chiefs) Homer Garrison, redesigned the Ranger badge to one of the first styles used. He obtained a cache of 1946-47 Mexican cinco peso "Cuauhtémoc" silver coins (and some gold 50 peso coins for the higher ranks). He then had a local silversmith fashion the coins into an encircled Texas Lone Star. The top has space for either the Ranger's name, or TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY. The bottom ring says TEXAS RANGERS. The earlier versions of this style had the Ranger's rank of "SERGEANT" in the middle of the star.




The reverse of the badge still has the Mexican golden eagle and the words ESTADOS UNIDOS MEXICANOS stamped on it. The edge of the badge also has the ridges like you'd see on an American quarter.

Several Texas law enforcement agencies have adopted the Ranger badge as their own. They are quite popular among Texas sheriffs.

I am aware of the agency's checkered past. I had a college professor tell me the Rangers used to carry a rusted out six-shooter in their saddlebag and would plant it on the body of a Mexican they had just shot dead. Whether that's a legend or a true tale, I do not know. I do know the Rangers are Texas' elite law enforcement agency. 



I am not here to debate the organization's past. As an avid collector of law enforcement memorabilia, I know adding a Texas Rangers badge to the collection would be like finding the holy grail.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Starcks, The Rabbs, and a Plantation House

Image
By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon If Brownsville were split into boroughs like New York City, Southmost would definitely be one of them. Southmost is one of the oldest parts of Brownsville, and has recently gained notoriety for having some of Brownsville's best authentic home-style Mexican restaurants. Vera's Backyard Bar-B Que was recently featured on The Texas Bucket List. Brownsville residents regularly make their way to taquerias and eateries on Southmost.  When I was an elementary school student, I was bused to Morningside Elementary for school. Our school bus always drove down Southmost, and I clearly remember passing by a drive-in theater on the way to school. Eventually, the drive-in would be torn down and an H-E-B would eventually be built around the area where the drive-in was. If you continue driving down Southmost past Morningside Road, Southmost begins twisting, turning, and curving. Eventually, you'll reach Sabal Palm Grove Road. Whe
Read more

Brownsville's Ghost Fleet: Looking Back at Warships that Were

Image
By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon Since 2014, the Port of Brownsville has become the final resting place for many of the U.S. Navy's decommissioned aircraft carriers. For a Throwback Thursday feature, we figured we'd go back a few years and revisit how Brownsville became the navy's carrier graveyard and how Brownsville's Ghost Fleet continues to grow. There are several shipbreaking and metal recycling companies at, and around, the port.  All Star Metals, LLC, a subsidiary of Scrap Metal Services, LLC, was the first metal recycling company to hook one of these aircraft carriers. They paid the U.S. government one cent to acquire the first supercarrier, the former USS Forrestal (CV-59). USS Forrestal was the first aircraft carrier in her class and was conventionally (not nuclear) powered.  She was named after James Forrestal, the first Secretary of Defense. She served from 1956 until her decommissioning in 1993.  Forrestal is most known for a
Read more

The Brownsville Blogosphere's Landscape is Changing

Image
By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon The times, they are a changin'. The Brownsville Blogosphere has been going through an evolution of sorts. It seems 2020 has seen changes everywhere. Jerry McHale, publisher of the McHale Report , often times refers to Brownsville as the blogging capital of Texas. That's probably because the city's newspaper is a shell of the shell it used to be. The old Herald  offices close to downtown sit abandoned and dormant. Their skeleton crew works out of an office in the VentureX Building off the expressway. Because of the Herald's lack of local reporting, bloggers have usually reported on local stories and provided Brownsvillians with the goings-on around town. But the bloggers aren't what they used to be. Brownsville has starred to see a shift from blogs to video blogs, or vlogs, that are posted to Facebook and YouTube. For years, the gold standard has been blogs by Brownsville blogging royalty - Juan Monto
Read more