A post office opened in Shafter in 1885, soon followed by a Catholic church and an adjoining school, a dance hall, saloons, multiple businesses, and a jail. While they owned the land, the four men lacked the finances to mine the ore, so they sold the property to the Presidio Mining Company of San Francisco for $1,600 in cash and 5,000 shares of company stock each.īy spring 1884, large-scale excavations had begun, and the town of Shafter grew alongside the Shafter Mine as the mine hired more workers. Army, discovered silver ore in the Chinati Mountains and convinced three ranking officers to join him in purchasing the land surrounding the site. Known for silver mining, Shafter is located near the east end of the Chinati Mountains, about 19 miles north of Presidio. Photo from TxDOT archives Shafter (Presidio County) Periods of low water also uncover some signs of the farming town that once was. While most of Hagerman is underwater, the church and cemetery remain above water level and are still visible. Hagerman was flooded in 1943 with the completion of Denison Dam in total, 83,000 acres of land were submerged by the lake. The creation of Lake Texoma threatened to completely submerge the town, and by 1940, the population had dropped to about 150. The town’s prosperity was short-lived, however. By the next year, Hagerman had roughly 250 residents and several businesses, as well as a school, a church, a railroad depot, and a cotton gin. The name changed to Hagerman, in honor of railroad attorney James Hagerman, in 1909 after the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad reached the town. Steedman of Grayson County, the town was officially established and given a post office in 1880. In the early 1870s, farmers began colonizing an area 80 miles north of Dallas that would eventually become Hagerman. While no one lives there anymore, visitors can still see what remains of Belle Plain College and the dean’s residence.ĭenison Dam, which impounds Lake Texoma, caused Hagerman to be submerged. By 1987, there were only four families left in Belle Plain. Many residents and businesses moved to Baird, including the newspaper and jail, and Baird won the county seat in 1883. The Texas and Pacific Railway had established a new town, Baird, only 6 miles north of Belle Plain. The town itself was already in trouble before the college closed. The college closed after only 11 years due to financial hardships brought on by a drought of 1886-87. While the college taught classical courses like philosophy, history, astronomy, and physics, the college’s reputation relied on the music department, as the school reportedly had a dozen grand pianos. In 1881-its first year-the college enrolled 22 students. At that time, the town had several stores and saloons, a jail, a hotel, and even a newspaper, the Callahan County Clarendon.īelle Plain College was the pride of the town, as it was one of the first institutions of its kind in West Texas. Robson, a newspaper proprietor and editor from New York, in an 1879 edition of the Fort Griffin Echo.īelle Plain was established in 1876, 40 minutes southeast of Abilene, and designated as the seat of Callahan County in 1877. “We do not know of a more pleasant or beautiful place or one with brighter prospects for a prosperous future than Belle Plain,” wrote Captain George W. Ruins of the Callahan County Courthouse in the ghost town of Belle Plain Belle Plain (Callahan County)ĭuring the 1870s, Belle Plain was thought of as one of the most promising West Texas towns.
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