Wiergate

A wooden calaboose is mentioned in a book entitled Nameless Towns: Texas Sawmill Communities, 1880-1942 (Texas A&M University Press 2010), p. 94 as having been present in the sawmill town of Wiergate.  These sawmill jails were most often referenced as calabooses but another term was the “cattle pen.”  These buildings often consisted of “a small room, strongly constructed of two-by-four boards, in which drunks and fist fighters were placed to sober up and cool off.  These were interim holding areas, only; lawmen transported serious lawbreakers to courthouse town jails the next day.