Featured in this lot is this Receipt for Lands Bought as "Sale of Lands for Delinquent Taxes", Sheriff El Paso County, Texas, 1881. Provenance: Tombstone Western Heritage Museum, Tombstone, Arizona. This receipt from El Paso County, Texas Sheriff Benito Gonzalez dated Aug 6, 1887 acknowledges monies "received of Maximo Aranda $250.80. Subject to correction Being Amt due from him on Lands bought as Sale of Lands for delinquent Taxes." Signed by the Sheriff and "Collector of Taxes El Paso County" embossed stamp. From 1880 to 1884, Benito Gonzalez was the Sheriff of El Paso County, one of the roughest times in burgeoning El Paso's growth. Most authorities agree that the arrival of the railroads in 1881 and 1882 was the single most significant event in El Paso history, as it transformed a sleepy, dusty little adobe village of several hundred inhabitants into a flourishing frontier community that became the county seat in 1883 and reached a population of more than 10,000 by 1890. As El Paso became a western boomtown, it also became "Six Shooter Capital" and "Sin City," where scores of saloons, dance halls, gambling establishments, and houses of prostitution lined the main streets. At first the city fathers exploited the town's evil reputation by permitting vice for a price, but in time the more farsighted began to insist that El Paso's future might be in jeopardy if vice and crime were not brought under a measure of control. Letter included is from John McNellis, Vice President of El Paso Saddlery Company. El Paso Saddlery had outlaws Black Jack Ketchum and John Wesley Hardin, as well as lawmen Bat Masterson and Pat Garrett as a clients. The letter traces ownership of the receipt to the Tombstone Western Heritage Museum. Receipt was handwritten with an inkwell fountain pen on lined paper, museum code handwritten in pencil on top right corner, "LO-250". Recepit is in nice preserved condition, age tanning exhibited, protected by clear plastic sleeve. Receipt measures 5"W x 7.625"L, sleeve is 6.25"W x 9.25"L, combined weight is U6.