09/03/1967
On Saturday, Hudspeth County will look back into 50 years of Western history, 50 years of Western tradition and 50 years of progress and still see an old piece of Americana long vanished from many parts of the United States.
The 50th anniversary of Hudspeth County, formed in 1917 by an act of the 35th Texas Legislature, will bring the 4,000 and some odd residents of the county to the steps of the historic county seat Courthouse at Sierra Blanca, 84 miles east of El Paso, for a gala program and barbecue dinner beginning at 4 p.m.
On the side of the old adobe Courthouse, still in use as the County seat, a plaque honors the Texas Legislature which gave birth to the county and also to Claude B. Hudspeth, the district’s congressman who was instrumental in legislatively forming the county and separating it from its parent – El Paso County.
From the County seat, separated by low, rolling plains dotted everywhere by sagebrush, the other communities of Hudspeth include Dell City, Fort Hancock, McNary, tiny Allamore, abandoned Nulo and Finley, Esperanza, and famous Indian Hot Wells.
Much of the same terrain covered by the modern farmer and rancher of Hudspeth on jeep and truck was covered by the early Spanish explorers who tracked in the area in search of riches. The same area was the stomping grounds for the marauding Indian tribes who came from as far north as Canada. This is the same area where the first federal troops in the 1850’s built lonely outposts at old Ft. Quitman and at Ft. Hancock.
The early settlers in the county where sheep herders who came into the area before 1850. Reports of the Hudspeth County Historical survey Committee state that those first settlers in the area herded sheep in what is now known as “Frenchmen’s Canyon,” It was not until the coming of the railroad that these sheep men begin to disappear.
It was the Texas and Pacific, the Southern Pacific and the late entry of the Rock Island railroads that spelled the future of Hudspeth.
The Old Butterfield Stage line from the Sacramentos in the north and the Eagle Peak stage run to the south were easily bypassed, when the mighty railroads first laid track into what seemed like virtually dangerous Indian territory.
The prevalence of five mountain ranges (Sierra Diablos, Rim Rock, Finley Mountains, Quitman Mountains, Eagle Mountains) encouraged extensive mining activity which dotted much of the early Hudspeth scene around 1900.
A talc mine at Allamore, still in operation, and the old Bonanza mine, west of Sierra Blanca, brought operations that were staffed by up to 400 laborers. They searched for silver, zinc and copper but found only hardship and depredation.
TOURIST NOW SPEED BY
However, more to the present are the efforts which have restored old Ft. Quitman and Indian Hot Springs to attract many of the tourist who whiz by on Interstate 10 unaware of the historic importance of the area.
Members of the Hudspeth county Historical committee have organized themselves to wipe out this ignorance. They have made plans, in conjunction with the Texas Historical survey Committee, to mark some 20 historic points prominent in Hudspeth county history.
Many mementos of the County’s history are maintained in a fabulous collection of Hudspeth county Sheriff E.A. “Doggie” Wright. His listing in the Texas museum Directory is an indication of the amount of work he has put into his collection.
Sheriff Wright’s photographs represent the preservation of frontier Hudspeth. His picture of the early ranchers who were Hudspeth’s first county officials is a sharp contrast to the ranchers who are fewer now yet own larger sections of land.
The gradual trend toward big ranches and the elimination of railroad section houses and water stations have steadily lowered the county’s population from what it was in the early ‘20s. Present population is centered mainly in the rich and fertile farm lands in the Dell City area and also along the lower Rio Grande Valley consisting of Fort Hancock, McNary, Esperanza and Acala.
Thus the third largest county in Texas with over 4,500 sections of land (640 acres per section) faces the future with strange optimism, and a hope for increased attention from tourists to bolster its agriculturally based economy.
SEEK HISTORIC SITE STATUES
The planned establishment of Victorio Canyon as a historic site to rival the Grand Canyon of the Colorado is being pushed by Wright and other committee members.
Close cooperation has been accomplished by the society and the State of Texas, the T&P Railroad and the University of Texas system. The latter three are the three largest land owners in the county.
Each of the above three groups hold on the average of 300,000 acres each. They have, however, leased the land to many area ranchers.
Such close cooperation has resulted in plans by the Texas Historical Society in developing a route to extend the old Presidio National Park. A dream perhaps, but a dream that belongs to the Hudspeth County residents.
The establishment of this road, first supported by John B. Sheppard, former president of the state Historical Society, would bring plans for improvement of the county to 2-3 completion.
The main obstacle to progress today by the County is the presence of non-resident owners. Many ranches have only a token amount of ranch hands to keep the spread in good shape for owners who often live outside the County.
It has been ranchers like V.J. McAdoo, W.W. Schussler, Ted Frederick and Henry Wilbark, a few Sierra Blanca ranchers, who hold the key to the economic future of Hudspeth County.
DELL CITY HAS BOOM
Another boom to the county’s economy has been the flourishing of Dell City which, with its 40,000 acres of fertile land, has brought new investment into the area. This is exemplified by the establishment of a new Price’s Dairy complex and feeding pens and the introduction of El Paso Neutral GasCo. pipelines through the Cornudas station, 20 miles south of Dell City.
The growth of Dell City, however, did not begin until late in 1948 when the discovery of abundant water in the northern part of the County gave the town the largest population in the county. It is the center for vegetable, alfalfa, cattle and cotton production.
As the county’s only incorporated city, Dell City is the stepping stone to famous Salt Flats, some 17 miles south. In the past wagons hooked onto other wagons made the trek to the salt beds. Much of the scenery of the northern part of Hudspeth County was a by-product of the vast wagon traffic to the salt formations.
Mule drivers, guiding these large wagon trains, often took mesquite seeds to feed the animals. As they fed along the way, seeds were strewn aside producing a landscape of mesquite bushes a sharp contract to the low, rolling grassy plains the area once had.
These mule drivers and early ranchers were the rough breed of men who had to carve out an existence in this virgin land. Much of the rugged individualism has remained but the attitude is different. Almost all residents are imbued with a sense of history, a sense of what their region has played in history of the State and of the Country.
UNOFFICIAL HISTORIAN
Sheriff Wright, known as “Doggie” to all county residents, is the unofficial historian of the county. His wife is the secretary-treasurer of the historical committee.
Leo Threadgill, curio shop owner in McNary, 20 miles south of Sierra Blanca, is a part time museum curator who has crammed every conceivable old time artifact into his small store. Known affectionately in the territory as “Leo’s junk,” the collection includes fossils, pistols, rock collection and every type of western paraphernalia.
Threadgill and Tommy Powell, owner of the replica of historic Ft. Quitman, have a friendly rivalry in the collection of old weapons.
Threagill says he has more than 100 guns he would sell for around $3,500 but Powell said that he will wait for December until the price goes down.
Mrs. Joe Neeley, widow of one of the county’s earliest settlers, lives in the rugged country in the Lower Valley.
Her family was one of the first of the Dell City area before it ever became a town. From their 1907 Dell City farm they have moved south to a few miles outside the small community of Esperanza where the family has lived for the past 50 years.
Mrs. Neeley’s son, Tom, is the County judge and an area rancher. He has also seen the southern part of the county flourish though it has decline somewhat the past few years, because of the decrease in Rio Grande runoff. Gone are the days thousands of laborers were used to reap the rich and full cotton harvest of the Lower Valley.
Dependence upon well water has brought a slight drawback for the water contains some salt.
TO DEVLOP WELLS
Yet the Hudspeth dwellers also face the future with “rugged optimism’ as those who staff the famous Indian Hot Wells which are tucked 24 miles south of Sierra Blanca, deep into the Quitman Mountains.
R.V. Langston, manger of the hot-water resort, has supervised a recent $125,000 rebuilding job of the long abandoned mineral well. Now, with additional funds supplied by new owner H.L. Hunt, noted Texas multi-millionaire, plans are in the making for a new swank two-level, 50-unit hotel, forming an oasis in the mountains.
With this new investment in the south, residents and area ranchers have pressed for additional roads linking Presidio with the resort area looping into Sierra Blanca to West Texas’ newest vacation resort.
In Hudspeth County your neighbor is not across the street or around the corner. He is either across the plains or around the mountain. But the ties are closer than if they lived on the same block. Although miles of mountains and rolling plains separate family and friends, Hudspeth residents have developed a spirit – “County spirit.”
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