Fort Blair, C.S.A., a few miles to the southwest, was the largest far western family fort used throughout the Civil War. It was started by C.C. Blair, a settler of 1857. From 1861 to 1865 its occupants were Wm. Arthur, Blair, J.M. Ellison, Jasper, Jim and Tom Gilbert, W.C. McGough, W.H. Mansker, and sometimes others. The fort had 12 log cabins, 14 ft. square and 14 ft. apart, arranged in two parallel rows, with pickets walling the spaces between cabins. Ammunition and supplies could be bought only by making long, dangerous trips to the Brazos settlements or to the south, and men were hard to spare from the fort's defenders against Indians. Candles, soap, soda, food, and clothing were made in the fort from fat renderings, beeswax, wood ashes, wild herbs, bark, roots, berries, and animal skins, and families had to promote education for their children. Other area forts included Allen's Ranch in Eastland County, Lynch and Green ranches in Shackelford County, Buffalo Springs in Clay County, Braggs and Murray's forts in Young County, and Picketville, Fort Davis, Owls Head, and Mugginsville in Stephens County. After the war, Desdemona was established as a stop on the old Waco-Ft. Griffin road, and it boomed to fame when oil was discovered in 1918; its call for help to end lawlessness added new glory to Texas Rangers.