Near the northwest corner of the Texas Panhandle lies the tiny town of Texline, population slightly more than 500. It lies just 8 1/2 miles from Clayton, New Mexico and Clayton is where residents of Texline do most of their shopping and where they have most of their social activities, since there is also a movie theater and several restaurants, in Clayton.
Most of the streets in Texline are dirt and many of them are rather rough. Texline is the oldest town in Dallam County. It was founded in 1888 when the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad set up divisional offices and shops slightly more than half a mile inside the Texas Panhandle. This was less than one year after the rail line first entered Texas. The town that soon developed around the railroad shops took the name "Texline" due to its location close to the New Mexico border. At the time, New Mexico was still a territory. Three years later, in 1891, Dallam County was created by the Texas Legislature and, since Texline was the only town in the county, it was named county seat, a position it held for twelve years, until 1903, when the county government moved to the new, and bustling, town of Dalhart on the county's southern border. Due to the fact that Texline is the oldest town in the county, it can claim several "firsts." The first county courthouse, first school, first marriage license issued in Dallam County and the first public road, which led from Texline to the Northern Division Headquarters of the famous, but now defunct, XIT Ranch. I will have more about the XIT Ranch in another edition of this blog. Its history is integral to the history of Dallam County and this part of Texas in general.
Texline today is basically a railroad town and a farming town, though the Fort Worth and Denver Railway liquidated in 1982 and the line is now owned by Burlington Northern. Texline sits at a lofty elevation of 4,673 feet above sea level, which, I believe, makes it the second highest town in Texas, behind Fort Davis, which is 5,050 feet above sea level. The grain elevator is one of the biggest employers in town, along with the school district and the town government.
There is a claim that the Texline area is the only part of Texas where you can actually see the Rocky Mountains from Texas soil, but that is not all together true because the "official" end of the Rocky Mountains is just north of downtown El Paso, in far west Texas, at the foot of the Franklin Mountains. There is a commemorative plaque in El Paso saying so. I guess it depends on what your definition of the Rocky Mountains is. At any rate, the mountains of northern
New Mexico can be seen from the Texline area, though they are more than 100 miles away, and that is something many people do not realize.
Texline is located at the junction of U.S. Highway 87 and Farm Road 296 (a secondary state highway that is unique to Texas), and these are the only paved streets in town. Highway 87 parallels the railroad and it is a very busy highway and it follows one of the busiest rail lines in the country. Highway 87 runs at an angle, northwest to southeast, through part of New Mexico, across Dallam County and part of neighboring Hartley County. It is a four-lane, divided highway for most of that distance, but it is not a freeway. It does not have exits, instead it has
"grade crossings," or direct crossings, with connecting roads. In Texline, however, it is not divided, it is a four lane street that widens into a divided highway on each end of town.
Texline was recently the subject a news story that made its way around Texas, and parts of New Mexico and Oklahoma, recently. It was the "feel good" story of the year. I will discuss that in the next edition of this blog.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Saturday, April 13, 2013
The Northernmost Part of Texas
I initially had only one travel blog, called "In My Travels," that was set up for me by my sister at the time when I didn't know how to create a blog. I wrote in that blog alot, but I had so much stuff I wanted to write about that I created this blog, on my own. The first topic I wrote about in this blog was Union County, New Mexico, in the northeast corner of that wonderful and beautiful state. Union County borders Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado and is only 72 miles from the Kansas border. I said that I believe Union County is my absolute favorite county in the United States. I have written quite a bit about Union County and will write more about it in the future.
Meanwhile, in my other travel blog, I am resuming my writing about the Oklahoma Panhandle, that narrow, 34 mile wide strip of the state that sits above the top of the Texas Panhandle. All the while, I have basically neglected writing about the Texas Panhandle, which, along with Far Western Texas, is my favorite part of the Lone Star State.
I will start with the northwestern part of the Texas Panhandle, to be exact, Dallam County.
Dallam County was created in 1876 and was named for James Dallam, a lawyer and newspaper publisher. It covers 1,505 square miles, which makes it one of the larger counties in a state that has 254 counties, the most, by far, of any state in the nation. One thing that is noticeable about the Texas Panhandle, when looking at a map, is the fact, most of the counties are the exact same size, give or take a few surveying errors. They were laid out to be 30 miles long and 30 miles wide with the county seat at, or near, the center, if possible. The county size is uniform except for the four counties in the northwest part of the Panhandle. These are Dallam, Hartley, Oldham and
Deaf Smith Counties and these counties are almost double the size of all the other Panhandle counties, roughly 1,500 square miles compared to roughly 900 square miles.
Dallam County is the coldest place in Texas, on average. The average date for the first freeze in Dalhart, the county seat, in Autumn, is October 16 and the average date for the last freeze in Spring is April 23, which are rather anomalous statistics for Texas, yet the Panhandle has been known to get snowstorms as early as the first week of October and as late as early May. The Texas Panhandle is also known for crippling blizzards and Dallam County has had blizzards where the snowdrifts have been as high as 30 feet! The average first freeze date for Dallam County's second largest town, Texline, is October 12 while the average last freeze date is April 27. A few years ago, I spent the night in Dalhart in the first week of September and the temperature got down to 28 degrees that night!
Dallam County is next door to Union County, New Mexico, where I started this blog. The first Dallam County town I will write about is Texline, which is located just 8 1/2 miles from Clayton, New Mexico, the county seat of Union County.
Meanwhile, in my other travel blog, I am resuming my writing about the Oklahoma Panhandle, that narrow, 34 mile wide strip of the state that sits above the top of the Texas Panhandle. All the while, I have basically neglected writing about the Texas Panhandle, which, along with Far Western Texas, is my favorite part of the Lone Star State.
I will start with the northwestern part of the Texas Panhandle, to be exact, Dallam County.
Dallam County was created in 1876 and was named for James Dallam, a lawyer and newspaper publisher. It covers 1,505 square miles, which makes it one of the larger counties in a state that has 254 counties, the most, by far, of any state in the nation. One thing that is noticeable about the Texas Panhandle, when looking at a map, is the fact, most of the counties are the exact same size, give or take a few surveying errors. They were laid out to be 30 miles long and 30 miles wide with the county seat at, or near, the center, if possible. The county size is uniform except for the four counties in the northwest part of the Panhandle. These are Dallam, Hartley, Oldham and
Deaf Smith Counties and these counties are almost double the size of all the other Panhandle counties, roughly 1,500 square miles compared to roughly 900 square miles.
Dallam County is the coldest place in Texas, on average. The average date for the first freeze in Dalhart, the county seat, in Autumn, is October 16 and the average date for the last freeze in Spring is April 23, which are rather anomalous statistics for Texas, yet the Panhandle has been known to get snowstorms as early as the first week of October and as late as early May. The Texas Panhandle is also known for crippling blizzards and Dallam County has had blizzards where the snowdrifts have been as high as 30 feet! The average first freeze date for Dallam County's second largest town, Texline, is October 12 while the average last freeze date is April 27. A few years ago, I spent the night in Dalhart in the first week of September and the temperature got down to 28 degrees that night!
Dallam County is next door to Union County, New Mexico, where I started this blog. The first Dallam County town I will write about is Texline, which is located just 8 1/2 miles from Clayton, New Mexico, the county seat of Union County.
Monday, April 8, 2013
The Town Too Tough To Die--Finale
Today, Tombstone is a tiny town of 1,400 people that lives off of its Wild West fame. Daily re-enactments of the Gunfight at the OK Corral take place. Stagecoach rides are offered along Allen Street, which is in the historic heart of downtown. The Old Cochise County Courthouse is now a fascinating museum that is devoted to interpreting the history of this legendary town. The old courthouse is a state park and has been since 1959. It is Arizona's smallest state park, but one of the most heavily visited. It sat vacant for nearly three decades after the county government moved to Bisbee in 1929.
A 3 block stretch of East Allen Street is now closed to vehicles and has been turned into a pedestrian-only street. The only vehicles allowed are emergency vehicles and delivery trucks that supply the stores in the area. Of course, the stagecoaches are also allowed. This stretch of the street was closed approximately five years ago after being discussed for several years before that, but the closure was postponed because the post office was located in that area. After the post office was moved to another part of town, the street was closed. At first, dirt was dumped on top of the asphalt to give the street more of a frontier look, but, every time it rained, the dirt turned into a sea of mud and flowed downhill, creating a horrible mess. Today, the street is still paved which does not add to the Wild West ambience at all, but the business owners do not want the pavement ripped up because they think it will make their businesses too dusty, and yet they want the street to look more authentic. Hmmmm. I think the pavement should be torn up, but I guess I really don't have a say in the matter.
One block away, there is a short stretch of East Toughnut Street that is closed to traffic. I noticed this on my visit to Tombstone last month. I am not sure what the reason for this closure is, but it does not seem to correspond to a partial closure of that street a few years ago. That closure was due to the fact that a mining tunnel underneath Tombstone has caused a portion of the street to collapse. Therein lies one of Tombstone's biggest problems today. It is severely undercut by mining tunnels that could cave in at any time because the miners a century ago cut their subterranean tunnels too close to the surface of the ground in their quest to extract as much silver
and other minerals as possible.
The Tombstone of today is a busy town, but nearly all of the employment is of the minimum wage variety. What surprises most people is the fact that the Tombstone school district is one of the poorest school districts in Arizona. After decades of holding high school and middle school classes in dilapidated facilities, they finally built a new middle school/high school combination on the edge of town, near the water treatment plant. However, they cannot afford to build outdoor sports facilities until the old high school and middle school are sold. They are currently playing baseball on the football field, on the edge of the historic district, even though the bathrooms were condemned by the city a few years ago and spectators have to use port-a-potties. They are playing baseball and football amongst abandoned buildings. The old high school is abandoned except for the gym, which is still used for basketball practice on an alternating basis between the boys and girls teams, and as dressing rooms for football games. The tennis courts at the old school are in such bad shape that they are almost unusable. Opposing teams have complained about Tombstone's sports facilities, but the athletic league knows the school district is doing everything they can to alleviate that situation.
Tombstone is a town that survives because of its legendary past. It is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Arizona, but there alot of problems that threaten this little town and many of the problems are the direct result of the town's legendary past.
A 3 block stretch of East Allen Street is now closed to vehicles and has been turned into a pedestrian-only street. The only vehicles allowed are emergency vehicles and delivery trucks that supply the stores in the area. Of course, the stagecoaches are also allowed. This stretch of the street was closed approximately five years ago after being discussed for several years before that, but the closure was postponed because the post office was located in that area. After the post office was moved to another part of town, the street was closed. At first, dirt was dumped on top of the asphalt to give the street more of a frontier look, but, every time it rained, the dirt turned into a sea of mud and flowed downhill, creating a horrible mess. Today, the street is still paved which does not add to the Wild West ambience at all, but the business owners do not want the pavement ripped up because they think it will make their businesses too dusty, and yet they want the street to look more authentic. Hmmmm. I think the pavement should be torn up, but I guess I really don't have a say in the matter.
One block away, there is a short stretch of East Toughnut Street that is closed to traffic. I noticed this on my visit to Tombstone last month. I am not sure what the reason for this closure is, but it does not seem to correspond to a partial closure of that street a few years ago. That closure was due to the fact that a mining tunnel underneath Tombstone has caused a portion of the street to collapse. Therein lies one of Tombstone's biggest problems today. It is severely undercut by mining tunnels that could cave in at any time because the miners a century ago cut their subterranean tunnels too close to the surface of the ground in their quest to extract as much silver
and other minerals as possible.
The Tombstone of today is a busy town, but nearly all of the employment is of the minimum wage variety. What surprises most people is the fact that the Tombstone school district is one of the poorest school districts in Arizona. After decades of holding high school and middle school classes in dilapidated facilities, they finally built a new middle school/high school combination on the edge of town, near the water treatment plant. However, they cannot afford to build outdoor sports facilities until the old high school and middle school are sold. They are currently playing baseball on the football field, on the edge of the historic district, even though the bathrooms were condemned by the city a few years ago and spectators have to use port-a-potties. They are playing baseball and football amongst abandoned buildings. The old high school is abandoned except for the gym, which is still used for basketball practice on an alternating basis between the boys and girls teams, and as dressing rooms for football games. The tennis courts at the old school are in such bad shape that they are almost unusable. Opposing teams have complained about Tombstone's sports facilities, but the athletic league knows the school district is doing everything they can to alleviate that situation.
Tombstone is a town that survives because of its legendary past. It is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Arizona, but there alot of problems that threaten this little town and many of the problems are the direct result of the town's legendary past.
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