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SPRINGER RANCH
The Springer Ranch was the first ranch in the Panhandle, but because
of its brief, checkered life, as opposed to the still-extant JA Ranch, the
latter also claims that honor.
After the Red River
War, in the spring of 1875 A. G. (Jim) Springer appropriated a spot of land
in present Hemphill
County
on Boggy Creek just north of its junction with the Canadian
River. Here he constructed a multiroom dugout to serve as a general store, hotel, and
saloon, as well as living quarters.
In addition, he dug a tunnel from the all-purpose roadhouse to a
nearby corral and stable that he built out of pickets. Since Springer's
hostelry was on the military route from Fort
Supply
to Fort
Elliott,
it quickly became a supply depot and gathering place for transient buffalo
hunters, soldiers, and cowboys. Black troops stationed at Fort Elliott, in
particular, found it the only place in the Panhandle where they were welcome
to play cards and enjoy good whiskey and tobacco.
"Old Springer" soon won considerable notoriety as a shrewd
poker player. His roadhouse later became a regular stagecoach stop, and in
October 1878 a post office was established there under the name of Boggy
Station. However, it was closed after only two months' operation, and mail
was routed to Fort
Supply.
Springer's role as a frontier rancher began by chance. In 1875 an
outfit driving a herd of 2,000 cattle crossed the Canadian
River near the roadhouse rather than at the
usual crossing on the trail some distance to the east. These cowmen sold
Springer 300 head and left a young trail hand, Tom Leadbetter,
to help manage them.
Springer, however, enlisted Leadbetter to
wait on customers at the store and bar, while the cattle, which bore their
new owner's hastily burned AGS
brand, freely roamed the nearby range with little attention from anyone. In
1877 the two men began constructing a "real house" from carefully
selected cottonwood pickets, with a thatch and dirt roof. One added feature
was a blockhouse loopholed on all sides to
accommodate gun barrels in case of an Indian attack.
On November
17, 1878, Springer and Leadbetter
were killed in a gunfight with disgruntled buffalo soldiers over a poker
game. They were buried at the ranch. A subsequent army investigation at Mobeetie resulted in the troopers' acquittal.
The ranch entered a new phase after Jim Springer's brother sold the
business to men named Tuttle and Chapman from Dodge
City. Before long Tuttle bought out
Chapman's interest, married in Mobeetie, and
personally operated the Springer Ranch for the next two years. He adopted a
CT brand, perhaps after his initials, and increased the herd to 1,800 head.
Tuttle also blazed a more direct route than the Jones and Plummer
Trail north to Dodge City, where he periodically sold cattle and bought
supplies. The Tuttle Trail was subsequently used by other area ranchers.
During Tuttle's brief tenure, the post office was reestablished in September
1879 under the name Springer Ranch; it remained in operation until February
1885.
In 1881 Tuttle sold out to a Denver
horse ranch partnership, the Rhodes and Aldridge Company. Rhodes was the son
of a wealthy manufacturer in Aston Mills, near Philadelphia, and Reginald
Aldridge was English. They changed the brand to
Quarter Circle U and operated the ranch as absentee owners, although Aldridge
did spend his summers there. It was from his experiences here that he wrote a
lively range-cattle guidebook, Ranch Notes (1884).
Rhodes and Aldridge reorganized their Texas holdings as the Springer
Ranch Company. As manager they hired Mose Wesley
Hays, an experienced cowman who, with his brother-in-law Joseph Morgan, had
driven cattle to Hemphill
County
from Padre Island in
1878. His wife, Lou Turner Hays, became legendary among area cowboys for her
hospitality.
Around 1889 the Springer Ranch Company sold out all its holdings
piecemeal. The former roadhouse was abandoned, and the ranch gradually ceased
to exist. The Hays family settled on Commission Creek in Lipscomb
County
south of Higgins, where Lou Hays died in 1910. Bonnie Hays Lake, near their homesite, bears the name of their daughter.
Mose Hays, who at one time
ran a general merchandise store in Canadian, later remarried and moved to San
Antonio, where he died in 1938. Since the 1940s part of the Springer
roadhouse site has been covered by Lake
Marvin.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Reginald Aldridge, Life on a Ranch: Ranch Notes in Kansas,
Colorado,
the Indian Territory,
and Northern Texas
(New York: Appleton, 1884; rpt., New York: Argonaut Press, 1966). Angie Debo, ed., Cowman's Southwest: Being the Reminiscences of
Oliver Nelson (Glendale, California: Clark, 1953). Glyndon M. Riley, The
History of Hemphill
County
(M.A. thesis, West Texas State College, 1939). Pauline D. and R. L.
Robertson, Cowman's Country: Fifty Frontier Ranches in the Texas
Panhandle, 1876-1887 (Amarillo: Paramount, 1981). F. Stanley, Rodeo
Town
(Canadian, Texas)
(Denver: World, 1953). Lonnie J. White, comp., "Dodge
City Times, 1877-1885,"
Panhandle-Plains Historical Review 40 (1967).
H. Allen Anderson
TEXAS LAND
AND
CATTLE COMPANY
The Texas Land and Cattle Company, Limited, was a syndicate in Dundee,
Scotland,
organized to take advantage of the American Southwest's "Beef Bonanza"
in the early 1880s. Robert Fleming was among its wealthy British
shareholders.
Its promoters in the United
States were Frank L.
Underwood and William A. Clark, who set up their business firm in Kansas
City and handled the company's
records. Early in 1882 the syndicate purchased Mifflin Kenedy's
Laureles Ranch, south of Corpus
Christi, for $1.1 million. It also
bought the Horseshoe Ranch, on Lake Creek in southeastern Hemphill
County,
and a portion of the Gunter-Munson survey along the Canadian
River valley.
By 1883 the Texas Land and Cattle Company controlled 80,000 acres of
land. In addition to the "lower ranch," it held vast acreage from Lake
and Cat creeks in Hemphill
County
to Cheyenne,
in Indian Territory.
This northern Panhandle range was used primarily for steers, which seldom
numbered above 10,000. The cows and calves, numbering around 80,000, were
kept on the range downstate.
The cattle on both ranges carried the Laurel Leaf brand, which the
syndicate purchased and registered in 1883. At its peak the company owned at
least thirteen ranches in Texas
and Indian Territory.
However, its prosperity was short-lived. The price of beef fell. Also, range
records revealed discrepancies in the inventories of purchasing agents, and
the investors actually owned far fewer cattle than was supposed.
Although new agents were sent from Scotland
to try to mend the situation, that action came too late. New land laws
likewise led to the company's demise; in 1885 the state of Texas
billed the properties in Hemphill
County
a lease fee of three cents an acre. In the winter of 1886-87, after several
thousand cattle had been driven to the Panhandle from South
Texas, severe blizzards destroyed close to 75
percent of them.
Consequently the syndicate gradually sold out all of its Panhandle
lands by 1888, and the Laureles property went back
to the King and Kenedy families by 1906. By 1910
the Texas Land and Cattle Company was ended.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Angie Debo, ed., Cowman's
Southwest: Being the Reminiscences of Oliver Nelson (Glendale, California:
Clark, 1953). W. G. Kerr, Scottish Capital on the American Credit Frontier
(Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1976). Tom Lea, The King Ranch
(2 vols., Boston:
Little, Brown, 1957). Glyndon M. Riley, The History of Hemphill
County
(M.A. thesis, West Texas State College, 1939).
H. Allen Anderson
PO RANCH
The PO
Ranch was established by the brothers Milton and Hammond
Pollard of Pueblo County,
Colorado,
from whose name the brand was derived. Having known Charles Goodnight in Pueblo,
the Pollards wanted to raise cattle in the recently opened Panhandle.
In 1878 they drove the first PO
herd to the Canadian valley and located their headquarters on Elk Creek,
between the divide of the Canadian and Washita
rivers and about six miles east of the site of present Canadian in Hemphill
County.
William Young, who had an interest in the stock, was the first foreman of the
ranch. William H. Hopkins and Edward H. Brainard
were also among the cowboys who helped drive the herd from Colorado.
About 1879 the English immigrant Robert Moody, who had known the
Pollards in Pueblo,
joined them at the ranch. Two years later he bought out Milton Pollard's
share and was in business with Hammond
Pollard for a year. In 1882 Hammond
sold out his interest to J. B. Andrews, a merchant from Pueblo.
By then the PO Ranch
controlled a fifteen-square-mile spread east and south of the Canadian townsite.
On the ranch approximately 6,000 head of cattle grazed. The PO cattle
were driven annually over the Rath Trail to Dodge
City for shipment to Kansas City, and supplies were freighted to the ranch
from there and Mobeetie, thirty miles to the south.
In 1884 the Moody-Andrews Land and Cattle Company began leasing neighboring
sections.
The Big Die-up of 1886-a year of drought, cold, and low market demand
for beef in which thousands of cattle died on the plains-prompted Andrews to
sell out his interest, leaving Moody in undisputed possession of the PO. As
sole owner, Moody began drilling water wells, an operation often hindered by
quicksand. However, the service he rendered the PO
enabled it to survive new land laws, a decline in cattle prices, and the
elements.
When the Panhandle and Santa
Fe Railway built through in 1887,
Moody moved his headquarters to Red Deer Creek southeast of Canadian. Taking
advantage of new state legislation making railroad and school land available
for purchase, Moody bought 15,000 acres south of the Canadian
River for seventy-five cents an acre. He joined
other ranchers in erecting windmills on his range so that even the farthest
pastures would have water.
With one of his sons, Thomas, Moody formed the Robert Moody and Son
Cattle Company. Additions in various parts of Hemphill
County
brought the PO
holdings to more than 100 sections. Thomas T. McGee, who had bought out Will
Young's interest, served as foreman; he later became sheriff of Hemphill
County
and was killed in the line of duty at Canadian in 1894.
Under Moody's leadership the PO,
from 1885 to 1895, saw a period of transformation from open range and line
riders to fenced pastures, blooded Herefords, and systematic business
methods. Even so, the ranch declined in size and importance after the elder Moody
turned it over to his heirs and moved, first to Kansas
City in 1900 and later to Long
Beach, California.
Over the succeeding years, particularly after Moody's death in 1915,
the PO Ranch was
sold piecemeal to farmers and smaller ranchers.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. H. Brainard, Interview by
J. Evetts Haley, July 19, 1926, Interview Files,
Research Center, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, Texas. Margaret
Moody Gerlach, "Robert Moody, 1838-1915,"
Panhandle-Plains Historical Review 4 (1931). W. H. Hopkins, Interview by L.
F. Sheffy, December 28, 1929, Interview Files,
Research Center, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, Texas. Glyndon
M. Riley, The History of Hemphill
County
(M.A. thesis, West Texas State College, 1939). Pauline D. and R. L. Robertson,
Cowman's Country: Fifty Frontier Ranches in the Texas
Panhandle, 1876-1887 (Amarillo: Paramount, 1981). F. Stanley, Rodeo
Town
(Canadian, Texas)
(Denver: World, 1953).
H. Allen Anderson
LAUREL
LEAF RANCH
The Laurel Leaf, or Horseshoe, Ranch had its beginning in 1878, when
Frank Karrick first brought cattle to the Lake
Creek range in southeastern Hemphill
County,
between the Canadian and Washita
rivers. Karrick established the Horseshoe Ranch,
but by 1879 he had sold it to J. V. Andrews, who in turn sold out to a man
named Burdick.
William H. (Bee) Hopkins, who was made foreman of the Horseshoe by
Andrews, later commented that this rapid succession of owners "sold the
outfit...so fast that I didn't know who to check on."
In 1882 the Texas Land and Cattle Company bought rights to the range
around Lake Creek and added to it a portion of the Gunter-Munson survey along
the Canadian River,
centered around Cat Creek, a tributary. Soon
afterward the syndicate began using the Laurel Leaf brand in place of the
Horseshoe.
The Laurel Leaf brand was first registered on April 18, 1868,
in Nueces and
Cameron counties by Mifflin Kenedy. It was derived
from the name of his ranch, Los Laureles, after the
laurel trees on the property. When the Texas Land and Cattle Company bought
the Laureles Ranch it also purchased the brand and
maintained the South Texas
ranch as a division of its holdings.
By 1883 the syndicate had registered the brand in Hemphill
County;
the brand was altered for the trail. Steers were the specialty of the Laurel
Leaf's northern range, which at its peak extended into Roger
Mills County,
Indian Territory,
while cows and calves were left on the Laureles
division downstate. The number of steers in the regular herd along the Canadian
River seldom attained more than 10,000.
Some of these were often sold as food to reservation Indians. Hopkins
was maintained by the company as range foreman for the Laurel Leaf, and Edgar
Wilson, a native of Iowa, was hired as general manager. Wilson's
domineering attitude and attempts to run off nesters and small stockmen
created friction between him and other ranch employees.
In 1885 the state of Texas
demanded payment of a lease from the company on threat of eviction, causing
Hopkins and other employees to fear ruin.
Such fears were realized in 1888, when reverses from land
legislation, falling cattle prices, and severe weather compelled the Texas
Land and Cattle Company to sell its Panhandle holdings. Part of the Laurel
Leaf range went to the YL Ranch of Beaver
County, Oklahoma,
with Charles Rheynerson as range foreman.
The new owners moved the headquarters from Lake Creek to Oasis Creek,
north of the Canadian River,
and added 11,400 Laurel Leaf cattle to their original herd. A few months
after the purchase the YL company decided to close out its entire holdings
and shipped five carloads of cattle a week to Chicago
from Higgins, until the entire YL herd was transported and sold to northern
markets.
A smaller portion of the old Laurel Leaf range went to its longtime
foreman, Bee Hopkins, and his brother Joseph Houston, who made it into a
successful ranching enterprise in which David M. Hargrave
served as manager. Hopkins
continued to use the Laurel Leaf brand for some time.
In 1901 Robert Driscoll sold it to Henrietta M. King. In turn, Mrs.
King gave the right to use it to John G. Kenedy,
who used it for horses. After his death the brand was inherited by his
daughter, Sarita Kenedy
East, whose heirs still use it.
Since 1883 several ranches in South and West
Texas have used a modified horseshoe brand,
most notably the Reilly, Lee, and Childress ranch in Tom
Green County.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gus L. Ford, ed., Texas
Cattle Brands (Dallas: Cockrell, 1936). Tom Lea, The King Ranch (2 vols., Boston:
Little, Brown, 1957). Millie Jones Porter, Memory Cups of Panhandle Pioneers
(Clarendon, Texas: Clarendon Press, 1945). Glyndon M. Riley, The History of Hemphill
County
(M.A. thesis, West Texas State College, 1939). Pauline D. and R. L.
Robertson, Cowman's Country: Fifty Frontier Ranches in the Texas
Panhandle, 1876-1887 (Amarillo: Paramount, 1981).
H. Allen Anderson
BLACK KETTLE NATIONAL GRASSLAND
Black Kettle National Grassland is on Farm
Road 2266 twelve miles east of
Canadian in Hemphill County, Texas,
and Roger Mills County, Oklahoma.
The 31,576-acre preserve was purchased during the 1930s by the United
States Department of the Interior under the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act in
an effort to return some of the badly eroded land of the Dust Bowl to its
natural state.
The preserve, which includes Lake
Marvin,
is administered by the United
States Department of
Agriculture Forest Service under a policy of multiple use
for range, watershed, recreation, and wildlife.
Open grasslands, marshes, and woodlands provide habitats for wildlife
ranging from deer and turkeys to wood ducks and barred owls.
Recreational facilities at the grassland include several cabins,
hiking trails, and camping and picnicking areas.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: George Oxford Miller, Texas
Parks
and Campgrounds: Central, South, and West Texas
(Austin: Texas Monthly Press, 1984).
Christopher Long
CANADIAN RIVER
The Canadian River, the largest tributary of the Arkansas River,
rises in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in southern Las Animas County,
Colorado, near Raton Pass and the boundary line with Colfax County, New
Mexico (at 37°01' N, 105°03' W), and flows south and southeastward,
separating the Llano Estacado from the northern High Plains.
It is roughly 760 miles long; a stretch of about 190 miles is in Texas.
The river is dammed to form the Conchas and Ute
reservoirs in northeastern New Mexico
before it enters Texas
at about the midpoint of the western boundary of Oldham
County.
The Canadian crosses the Panhandle, flowing eastward and
northeastward through Oldham,
Potter, Moore,
Hutchinson,
Roberts, and Hemphill counties. Most of the river's course across the
Panhandle passes through a gorge 500 to 800 feet below the plateau.
Particularly in its lower reaches in Oklahoma,
the riverbed contains great amounts of quicksand; this and the deep gorge
make the river difficult to bridge.
A tributary, the North Canadian, heads in Union County, New Mexico
(at 36°30' N, 102°09' W), and flows briefly into the northern Texas Panhandle
before continuing on to its confluence with the river in McIntosh County,
Oklahoma (at 36°30' N, 101°55' W). After crossing the state line back into
Oklahoma, the Canadian River flows generally southeastward to its mouth on
the Arkansas River, twenty miles east of Canadian in Haskell County, Oklahoma
(at 35°27' N, 95°02' W).
According to some sources, the river's name came from early explorers
who thought that it flowed into Canada.
Among the Canadian's principal tributaries in Texas
are Big Blue, Tallahone, Red
Deer, Pedarosa,
Punta Agua, Amarillo,
Tascosa, and White Deer creeks.
The Texas
portion of the Canadian River
is noted for archeological sites where extensive remains of Pueblo
Indian culture have been found. Some historians have said that Quivira Province,
long sought by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, was
on the Canadian. The Canadian is probably the stream that Juan de Oñate called the Magdalena
in 1601.
The area was Comanche country until the latter part of the 1800s, but
the stream was well known to the Comancheros, to
Josiah Gregg, and to others engaged in trade out of St.
Louis or Santa
Fe. Lt. James William Abert of the United
States Army Corps of
Topographical Engineers explored the river in 1845 and made an extensive
report of its physical features and of the Indians whom he encountered. With
the decimation of the buffalo, cattlemen replaced Indians in the area, and,
except for oil developments, the Canadian valley in Texas
remained in 1949 principally a ranching area.
The river is dammed to form Lake
Meredith
forty miles northeast of Amarillo
near Sanford
in Hutchinson
County.
The Panhandle Water Conservation Authority as early as 1949 was contemplating
construction of Sanford Dam to create a reservoir of some 1,305,000 acre-feet
capacity that would furnish a municipal water supply for eleven Panhandle
cities and serve the secondary purposes of flood control, soil conservation,
recreation, and promotion of wildlife; actual impoundment of water did not
begin until 1965.
Lake Meredith is named for A. A. Meredith, who was executive
secretary of the Canadian River
Municipal Water Authority. An aqueduct to serve Pampa,
Amarillo,
Lubbock,
Lamesa, Borger,
Levelland, Littlefield, O'Donnell, Slaton, and
Tahoka was estimated to cost $54 million. Cities purchasing the water would
repay the major part of the cost of the project over a period of fifty years.
The Canadian River
Compact Commissioner, appointed in 1951, negotiates with other states
regarding the water of the Canadian. The National Park Service assumed
management of recreational facilities at Lake
Meredith
in 1965.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A Summary of the Preliminary Plan for Proposed Water
Resources Development in the Canadian
River Basin
(Austin: Texas Water Development Board, 1966). Texas
Planning Board, The Canadian
River Basin
in Texas
(Austin,
1936). U.S.
Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, Guadal P'a: The Journal of Lieutenant J. W. Abert,
from Bent's Fort to St. Louis
in 1845 (Canyon, Texas: Panhandle-Plains Historical Society, 1941).
Hobart
Huson
CLEAR CREEK
Clear Creek rises at the junction of its two branches in north
central Hemphill County (at 36°04' N, 100°19' W) and runs south ten miles to
its mouth on the Canadian River, at the southern boundary of the Gene Howe
Wildlife Management Area (at 35°56' N, 100°19' W).
The surrounding flat terrain with occasional rolling hills is
surfaced by sand that supports sparse grasses and herbs.
WASHITA RIVER
The Washita River rises in southeastern Roberts County (at 35°38' N,
100°36' W) and flows east for thirty-five miles, crossing southern Hemphill
County to enter Roger Mills County, Oklahoma. From the state line the stream
flows southeast for 260 miles to its junction with the Red
River (at 33°55' N, 96°35' W) in Johnston
County, Oklahoma.
On its course through Texas,
the river flows through flat to rolling country where clay and sandy loams
support brush and grasses. Since the stream was a favorite campground for
nomadic tribes, the upper Washita was the scene of much military activity
during the sporadic Indian wars; Col. George A. Custer's attack on Black
Kettle's village, known as the battle of the Washita, occurred near present-day
Cheyenne, Oklahoma, on November 27, 1868.
The Indian siege of Capt. Wyllys Lyman's
wagon train took place near the Washita
in Hemphill County on September 9-14, 1874. Hide hunters frequented the upper
Washita, as did
early ranchers, for whom the stream was a favorite place to water their
herds.
In recent years a series of dams and small reservoirs has been
constructed along the Washita
and its tributaries in Hemphill
County.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Lester Fields Sheffy, The Francklyn Land & Cattle Company (Austin: University
of Texas Press, 1963).
BOGGY CREEK
Boggy Creek rises at the junction of its two branches in northeastern
Hemphill
County
(at 36°00' N, 100°11' W) and runs south for eight miles to its mouth on the Canadian
River (at 33°53' N, 100°11' W). It is dammed
near its mouth to form Kiowa and Marvin lakes.
The ranch and roadhouse of the mysterious A. G. (Jim) Springer were
on this creek in the mid-1870s. Later the Rhodes and Aldridge Company ranched
in this area.
The local terrain is marked by high relief and is surfaced with sandy
soil in which grow sparse grasses and nongrassy herbs.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Pauline D. and R. L. Robertson, Cowman's Country: Fifty
Frontier Ranches in the Texas
Panhandle, 1876-1887 (Amarillo: Paramount, 1981).
NEEDMORE CREEK
Needmore Creek rises in
central Hemphill
County
(at 35°48' N, 100°13' W) and runs north for five miles to its mouth (at
35°52' N, 100°12' W) on the Canadian River.
The land is flat to rolling with local escarpments, surfaced with
deep, fine, sandy loams that support hardwoods, brush, and grasses.
HORSE CREEK
Horse Creek rises in two branches in southwestern Lipscomb County (at
36°07' N, 100°27' W) and runs south for twelve miles, through flat to rolling
terrain surfaced by deep fine sandy loams, before reaching its mouth on the
Canadian River, in northwestern Hemphill County (at 35°57' N, 100°27' W).
Local vegetation includes brush and grasses. The stream was part of
the Cresswell Ranch range and on the route of the
Jones and Plummer Trail.
RED DEER CREEK
Red Deer Creek rises at the breaks of the Llano Estacado northeast of
Pampa in northern Gray County (at 35°33' N, 100°60' W) and flows northeast
for thirty-five miles, across southeastern Roberts County through Miami, to
its mouth on the Canadian River, near Canadian in western Hemphill County (at
35°56' N, 100°23' W).
Robert Moody established his PO
Ranch headquarters on Red Deer
Creek, and the stream's upper waters were part of the Diamond F ranges.
The area is flat with local shallow depressions; water-tolerant
hardwoods, conifers, and grasses grow in clay and sandy loam soils.
LAKE MARVIN
Lake Marvin, also known as Boggy Creek Lake, is an artificial lake
constructed in the 1930s on Boggy Creek in east central Hemphill County (at
35°53' N, 100°11' W) by the Panhandle Water Conservation Authority primarily
for soil conservation, flood control, recreation, and promotion of wildlife.
The reservoir has a capacity of 553 acre-feet and was named in honor
of Marvin Jones, retired judge of the United
States Supreme Court of
Claims.
The Panhandle National Grassland surrounds it, and the Gene Howe
Wildlife Management Area, named for the Amarillo
journalist and conservationist Eugene A. Howe, is located to the west on Farm
Road 2266.
GAGEBY CREEK
Gageby Creek rises eight
miles northwest of Mobeetie in northwestern Wheeler
County (at 35°37' N, 100°30' W) and runs east, then northeast, for a total of
fifteen miles before reaching its mouth on the Washita River, seventeen miles
southeast of Canadian in Hemphill County (at 35°43' N, 100°09' W).
The stream runs through flat to rolling terrain with some local
escarpments. Local vegetation consists mainly of mesquite shrubs and grasses
in deep fine sandy loam.
The creek was named for Capt. James Harrison Gageby
of the Third Infantry, who campaigned against Indians in the area.
The Buffalo
Wallow Fight of September
12, 1874, occurred on the divide north of the
creek, and the town of Gageby
was established near its north bank.
In the latter half of the twentieth century, a series of dams and
small lakes was constructed on the stream's upper waters in Wheeler
County.
CLINTON-OKLAHOMA-WESTERN RAILWAY
The Clinton-Oklahoma-Western Railroad Company of Texas
was chartered on July
30, 1927, to build a line from the Oklahoma
state line in Hemphill County,
Texas,
to Pampa,
in Grayson
County.
The line was projected as the Texas
extension of the Clinton and Oklahoma Western Railroad Company, which
operated from Clinton,
Oklahoma,
to the Oklahoma-Texas line. The initial capital was $100,000, and the
business office was originally located at Wichita
Falls.
Members of the first board of directors included Joe A. Fell of
Vernon and Frank Kell, C. W. Cahoon,
Jr., T. P. Duncan, L. N. Bassett, O. B. Womack, M. G. Scovell,
Charles Crowell, Leslie Humphrey, and T. R. Boone, all of Wichita Falls.
In June 1928 the Clinton and Oklahoma Western and the
Clinton-Oklahoma-Western Railroad Company of Texas
were acquired by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company.
The fifty-six miles between Pampa
and the state line was completed in 1929, and in 1931 an eleven mile branch
was built from Heaton to Coltexo.
Also, in 1931, the companies were leased to the Panhandle and Santa
Fe Railway Company, which operated
them until they were merged into the latter company on December 31, 1948.
Chris Cravens
(information from The Handbook of
Texas Online --
a multidisciplinary encyclopedia of Texas
history, geography, and culture.)
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