The Cottonwood Mott, named for the stand, or motte, of trees surrounding a natural spring, was the site of a line camp by 1878. Cowboys used the camp as a base for herding cattle and mending fences on the ranch. Employees of the Jingle Bob Ranch built a log cabin there, and at least two gunfights took place at the site. In 1882 the ranchland was sold to the Matador Land & Cattle Company, LDT., a Scotland-based syndicate, which sold out in 1951 and left the land to be divided into smaller ranches.