Buffalo Gap was probably named for a pass in the Callahan Divide crossed by thousands of buffalo that once inhabited this area. Besides providing the native Apache and Comanche Indians with food, buffalo drew the first white hunters here about 1874, and the first homes in the present town were dugouts of buffalo hunters. The community began to grow in 1878 when it was named county seat and was located on the Western Cattle Trail. In 1883, however, the new railroad town of Abilene became county seat, and Buffalo Gap, like many small Texas towns, lost prestige.