The journey of this little gothic-styled wooden church building has crossed a swath of West Texas over nearly a century—but it’s landed now in a permanent home where visitors can appreciate its ties to the ranching history of the West. The National Ranching Heritage Center (NRHC), which relocated Spur’s historic Trinity Mission to its outdoor museum on the Texas Tech campus last fall, will dedicate the church Friday, Sept. 17, as part of its outdoor park of historic ranchrelated buildings. The NRHC had obtained the structure via a gift from the Episcopal Diocese of Northwest Texas, moved it on a flatbed trailer from its latest home in Brownfield, and began working diligently on research and restoration. Sometime in the early 1920s the fledgling Episcopal congregation of Spur built the structure, for which they had begun raising funds since 1911. Early Spur residents Carl and Kate Senning were instrumental in obtaining authorization to form a congregation back then, but communicants relied on the other denominations in town to lend meeting space until they could build their own house of worship.
