At the junction of the Middle Pease River and Tee Pee Creek, eight miles north-northeast, Tee Pee City began in the 1870s as a trading outpost built to profit from the area's buffalo hide trade. The small settlement of picket houses and tents took its name from abandoned tipi poles found along the creek. Charles Rath, an important figure in West Texas history, was among the partners in the original operation that formed the settlement, bringing in wagons, cattle, mules, and dance hall equipment, before continuing south to establish his headquarters on the Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos and leaving management of the camp to others. An 1877 account recorded one or two saloons, a dance hall, gambling hall, two-room hotel, and other businesses, and the 1880 census listed twelve residents. The R.V. Fields and A.B. Cooper families arrived in 1879, the same year the post office opened. By then, few buffalo remained in the area after hunters had killed thousands and nearly depleted the southern herd. Cooper freighted supplies and ran a general store from a dugout. The community had a post office from 1879 to 1900 and a school from 1895 to 1902, but it became best known for rowdiness, brawls, and shootings that drew the attention of G.W. Arrington's Texas Rangers. In 1904, the Matador Land and Cattle Company bought the land and shut down the saloon, which Matador employees had been forbidden to enter because of its wild reputation. Little remains at the original site, which is now on private land.