Between "Walker, Texas Ranger" and "Lonesome Dove," the Texas Rangers have inspired their fair share of tales, but the truth about the storied law enforcement outfit is far more dramatic than anything that could fit on a screen—silver or otherwise.

The agency began in 1823 as a collection of 10 men who collected land rights from the Mexican government in exchange for patrolling the Texas range and warding off Comanche raids.

"We had a lot of Native American allies because we were fighting against their main enemy," said Amanda Crowley, research librarian at the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco. "Everyone was against the Comanche. They were like the New York Yankees. They were tough and good at what they did, but nobody liked them."

The Rangers were still a relatively new outfit when a prisoner exchange gone wrong led to one of the bloodiest conflicts in the outfit's history: the Battle of Plum Creek on August 12, 1840, near present-day Lockhart. The Comanche and Rangers exchanged gunfire on horseback, but the Native Americans were so heavily laden with plunder—cattle, horses, dry goods and whatever else they could carry—that the Rangers were easily able to defeat the retreating fighters.

The battle, which allegedly claimed the lives of 80 Comanche and 11 Rangers, is memorialized with a historical marker at the intersection of Hwy. 142 and US 183 in Lockhart.

After the Civil War, the agency's ranks ballooned to include close to 1,000 men, by Crowley's estimation. A bill voted through the Texas House in 1911 trimmed the Rangers' ranks to 80 men and raised their pay to $90 per month for privates, $100 per month for sergeants and $150 per month for captains.

Boom and busted

The oil boom of the 1920s and 1930s brought industrialization and population growth to cities throughout Texas, but the door was also left open to the seedy activities the Rangers did not take kindly to.

"Down south during this time, shanty towns were popping up overnight in Texas, and they would have prostitution, gambling and all those things," Crowley said.

Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker began their infamous crime spree throughout the Midwest in 1932. Barrow and Parker robbed a dozen banks, killed nine police officers and baffled law enforcement agencies that always seemed to be two steps behind the duo.

In 1934, when Barrow orchestrated a jailbreak for members of his gang that left Texas' law enforcement agencies with a collective black eye, former Texas Ranger Frank Hamer was put on the case.

The chase took Hamer across Texas and into Louisiana, but on May 23, 1934, on a dirt road in Louisiana, Hamer accomplished what no other law enforcement agency had been able to manage in more than two years: Bonnie and Clyde were brought to permanent justice. It had taken him 102 days.

The Bonnie and Clyde case, along with a radio show called "The Lone Ranger," which premiered in 1933, further raised the Rangers' profile and added to the Texas-sized myth surrounding it.

The modern Ranger

For all the differences between the first group of Rangers organized by Stephen F. Austin in 1823 and the collection of 150 men and women who patrol the state's highways and investigate its darkest corners today, there are some things that never change.

Rangers are required to don their signature hats to work, and they all still wear the signature five-pointed star badge.

While the car has replaced the horse and the guns have gotten bigger, the idea is the same: stop the bad guys.

McClennan County Chief Deputy Matt Cawthon spent 10 years as a state trooper for the Department of Public Safety before donning the Texas Rangers badge in 1992.

For Cawthon, becoming a Ranger harked back to his childhood, which he spent dreaming of becoming a lawman. When he reflects on his 17 years as a Ranger, it's the grit of the job that stands out to him.

"People want to believe that Rangers always rode around with white hats and always shot the guns out of bad guys' hands and always got the girl at the end of the movie, but back in the early days, there were some brutalities that were happening," Cawthon said. "Before Miranda rights and before everybody had a lawyer, these guys got the job done."

• 1823: Texas Rangers are formed by Stephen F. Austin
• 1840: The Battle of Plum Creek in/near present-day Lockhart claims the lives of up to 80 Comanche and 11 Rangers
• 1911: Command structure is established, Rangers' pay is raised and benefits are added
• 1933: First episode of "The Lone Ranger" is broadcast on Detroit radio station WXYZ
• 1934: Crime duo Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are caught and killed by a posse led by former Ranger Frank Hamer
• 1968: Texas Ranger Museum and Hall of Fame opens in Waco