Ogletree Gap Is Where Copperas Cove Started Moving

Ogletree Gap Park is not just a green space on Post Office Road. The stone house there was built in 1878, the same year Marsden Ogletree received his land grant. It worked as a family home, grain store, and stop on the Lampasas-to-Belton stagecoach line. When the mail rode the stage, Copperas Cove's post office opened in that house in 1879 with Ogletree as postmaster.

Then the center of gravity moved. In 1881, land was deeded for the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad right-of-way. The next year the railroad laid out the new Copperas Cove townsite. The post office and community center followed the tracks, leaving the stagestop behind as the older Cove, before the spelling settled and before the railroad gave the town its stronger frame.

The marker at the park keeps that move visible. Ogletree Gap holds the road-and-mail version of Copperas Cove in one stone building. It also keeps the old road geography honest: before the city grew around highways, a house, a store, a mail stop, and a stage line were enough to pull people through the gap.