Planning a road trip to West Texas? I’ve been on an extreme West Texas kick since my road trip over New Year’s Eve to Big Bend National Park, y’all. There’s a whole section of this state that no one knows anything about… or at least, I didn’t know anything about it because no one really seems to talk about. (What you’re seeing here is my own desire for bite-size interesting history about specific places. Why isn’t this already a thing???)

This post highlights some of the weird history of West Texas to help make your road trip come alive. 🙂

The Santa Fe Expedition (1841)

In its early years, the Republic of Texas was trying to make it on its own against Mexico, the United States, and the very unhappy local Indian tribes. A lot of folks thought Texas should just give up and join the United States. Instead, Texas President Mirabeau B. Lamar decided to send a group of men to establish trade with New Mexico (a.k.a. taking over the Santa Fe Trail to try to annex New Mexico into Texas so that Texas would have more money and wouldn’t have to join the United States). Lamar didn’t bother getting congressional approval for this obviously amazing idea. 

The expedition left Central Texas heading west with about $200,000 worth of equipment and an army detail. Unfortunately the troupe was doomed pretty much from the start, lacking organization, facing Indian attacks, and running short on supplies. When the bedraggled group finally arrived in New Mexico, they were greeted by the Mexican army which had been called in by the governor of New Mexico (because SURPRISE SURPRISE the New Mexicans weren’t keen on being taken over by Texas). The group was taken prisoner and marched down through West Texas to Mexico City, where they were imprisoned until 1842.

This marks the period of time when people started to realize that Texas probably couldn’t hold on to its western frontiers alone. President Lamar was roundly blamed for the fiasco and left the office mostly in disgrace. Texas joined the US three years later in 1845. Learn more about the Texan Santa Fe Expedition here.

 

The Great Camel Experiment (1859)

In the middle of the 19th Century, Jefferson Davis, (then-Senator of Mississippi and future President of the Confederate States), thought that Americans should use camels to explore the American Southwest. (Hey, why not, right?) He was largely unsuccessful in bringing this plan to fruition until he was made Secretary of War. In 1855, the US Congress approved Davis’ plan to set aside $30,000 to establish the United States Camel Corps. Camels began arriving in Texas in 1856, and they were used by the military to transport military supplies.

In addition to transportation of supplies, the camels were also used in three long-distance expeditions, including one through West Texas. In 1859, members of the U.S. Army Corp of Topographical Engineers set out from Fort Stockton (then known as Camp Stockton) on camels to survey the Trans-Pecos region. They explored the Chihuahuan Desert, where the camels survived eating the desert plants available. They eventually followed the Comanche War Trail and returned to Camp Stockton without having lost a single camel.

The camel experiment was disbanded in 1866 after the Civil War ended and pretty much everything Jefferson Davis had ever done fell out of favor. (Sucks to suck, Davis.) Learn more about the Camel Experiment here.

 

The Fence Cutting Wars (1883)

This was the Wild West, y’all. In the late 19th century, a battle was taking place between landless cattlemen who showed up and wanted to make a go of raising cattle and those  who had already established themselves in the area. The cattle kings began putting up barbed wire (invented in 1874) to establish their own permanent ranches and keep others off the land they considered theirs. (Some of these fences included property on public land.)

The battle culminated in what came to be known as the Fence Cutting Wars, especially in West Texas. Precipitated by the drought of 1883, armed bands of cowboys calling themselves names such as the Owls, Javelinas, or Blue Devils traveled at night cutting the barbed wire fences. These gangs eventually caused damage estimated at $20 million. Legislature was passed to make fence cutting a felony, which generally ended the practice, although fence cutting lingered somewhat in West Texas so that the Texas Rangers had to be called out. Learn more about the Fence Cutting Wars.

 

The Odessa Meteor Whoopsie (1939)

50,000 years ago, a thousand-ton meteorite landed in Odessa, TX, making the second-largest meteor crater in the US at 550 feet wide. Unfortunately, since that time, the hole has been filled in with West Texas dust and is now only about 2-3′ deep.  From 1939 until 1941, University of Texas scientists misguidedly conducted extensive evacuation of the crater to try to acquire the meteor that caused the crater. They eventually dug a shaft 165 feet deep, only to find a thick limestone layer and no meteor. (Scientists now know that the meteor would have destroyed itself on impact.) Oops. Learn more about the Odessa Meteor Crater.

 

Wink Sinks (1980)

In 1980, a sinkhole appeared in Wink, TX near Kermit. The sinkhole was due to the oil and gas extraction in the area from 1926-1964, eventually opening up a hole 350′ in diameter! As the water table in the area changed, a second Wink Sink formed in 2002, with scientists predicting the sinkholes may eventually join forces to make a truly epic hole. Learn more about the Wink Sinkholes.

 

Did I miss anything? Leave me a comment and let me know. Check out the rest of my West Texas series: