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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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