The National Mule Memorial is an unstaffed outdoor sculptural installation located in

Muleshoe, Texas Muleshoe is a city in Bailey County, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1913, when the Pecos and Northern Texas Railway built an line from Farwell, Texas, to Lubbock through northern Bailey County. In 1926, Muleshoe was incorporated. Its p ...

. Built by the National Mule Memorial Association in 1965, the Memorial is embellished with an official Texas

historical marker A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, typically attached to a wall, stone, or other ...

calling attention to the role of mules in Texas's history and development.

Description

Until the mid-20th century, the

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two pos ...

was a common sight on American farms. A sterile hybrid of horse and

donkey The domestic donkey is a hoofed mammal in the family Equidae, the same family as the horse. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a ...

, the mule was credited by owners with highly productive work habits as a

draft animal A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks instead of being slaughtered to harvest animal products. Some are used for their physical strength (e.g. oxen and draft horses) or for t ...

in challenging conditions, especially those associated with

plowing A plough or plow (Differences between American and British spellings, US; both ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses, but in modern farms are draw ...

furrows in sticky

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

soil. The application of the

internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combus ...

to farm machinery, starting in the early 1900s, led to the end of use for the mule. Unlike domesticated animals that are fertile, the mule cannot parent its own kind and could not transition from draft animal to rural pet animal. In the mid-1900s, the headcount of mules in the U.S. central states was dropping towards zero. Jackass admirer V. H. Torrance of

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

lamented the disappearance of the mule from the American scene, and published a call for the vanishing animal to be memorialized. The plea was widely reproduced and found readers throughout Texas. Gil Lamb, owner of radio station KMUL in

Farwell, Texas Farwell is a city in and the county seat of Parmer County, Texas, United States. Its population was 1,363 at the 2010 census. The city is located on the Texas-New Mexico border with the city of Texico, New Mexico, across the border. History Fa ...

, took up the campaign and added to it a demand that the memorial be placed in Muleshoe. The memorial was dedicated in July 1965. It centers on a representation of ''Old Pete'', who at the time of his reproduction in sculpture was an 18-year-old, 1,100-pound live mule in Muleshoe. Old Pete was rendered in

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

by sculptor Kevin Wolf. The statue was invited to and attended the first inaugural of President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

. The memorial is located adjacent to the Muleshoe Chamber of Commerce on the north side of the

Texas Panhandle The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a square-shaped area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east. It is adjacent to ...

rural town. The installation is located on U.S. Highway 84.

References

1965 sculptures Fiberglass sculptures in Texas Mules Tourist attractions in Bailey County, Texas {{Texas-sculpture-stub