Mason County has been honored to be the site of several Former Texas Ranger Cross Ceremonies through the years. Without these gutsy, determined men, we would have been vastly unprotected across Texas, and in particular in Mason County and surrounding areas. The “Settlement Line” into the 1860s and ‘70s did not extend this far west, meaning that we were not well enough inhabited or armed to fend off the renegades of any kind who plundered and kidnapped and killed.