Megargel
Megargel, Archer County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1910, thirty years after the Texas Legislature created Archer County, the Gulf, Texas & Western Railroad began extending its track from Jacksboro to Seymour. That year the trinity townsite company laid out a new town along the tracks on land purchased from the prominent Meade family. The company named the town Megargel for the rail company president, Roy C. Megargel. Within a few months of its founding, Megargel had almost two dozen stores, a hotel, a bank and a post office. Town residents soon organized a school district, served initially by three teachers. The population continued to grow and in 1914, the Megargel Times began its run as the city paper. In 1917, Megargel residents built a new schoolhouse; the first graduating class, in 1918, consisted of five students. A second population boom began in 1923 with the opening of the nearby Swastika oilfield. Although Megargel suffered a disastrous downtown fire in 1925, it continued to grow rapidly as a result of regional oil production. By 1926, there were approximately 350 operating wells in the vicinity. During that time, the town's first theater opened. The school district, also growing, created one of Texas' earliest high school bands in 1927. Although the area continued to produce oil, the Great Depression and other factors caused a decline in population. During World War II, the railroad was abandoned and many residents left for military service or to work in wartime industries. Today, in addition to oil, agriculture is an important part of the economy. The Megargel Cemetery and other historic resources help preserve the link to the town's history and boom era. (2004)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Megargel was born of the railroad in 1910, when the Gulf, Texas & Western pushed its tracks across Archer County and a townsite company platted a new town named for the line's president. Within months it had stores, a hotel, a bank, and a school, and it boomed again in 1923 when the nearby Swastika oilfield came in, bringing hundreds of wells, a theater, and one of Texas' earliest high school bands. A downtown fire, the Great Depression, and the abandonment of the railroad during World War II thinned its ranks, but oil and agriculture kept the town alive.
Why it matters
Megargel is a textbook example of the railroad-and-oil towns that spread across early-twentieth-century Texas, boomed on petroleum, and endured the long contraction that followed.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the early twentieth century, the railroad decided which towns would live and which would wither. A town on the tracks could ship its cattle and cotton and receive goods, mail and newcomers. A town without them often faded away. Across Texas, new lines created whole towns where there had only been pasture.
Archer County, in North Texas between Wichita Falls and the rolling ranch country to the west, was created by the legislature in 1880. Thirty years later it was still sparsely populated ranching land. When the Gulf, Texas & Western Railroad began extending its track from Jacksboro toward Seymour in 1910, it brought the kind of connection that could create a town from nothing.
The other great force came a little later: oil. In the 1910s and 1920s, oil discoveries changed North Central Texas, setting off booms that filled small towns with drillers, roughnecks and businesses almost overnight. For a few years, many quiet farming and ranching communities became hubs of frantic activity.
Then came the long decline. The Great Depression, falling oil production and changes in transportation hit many of these towns hard. World War II took young people away to service and war work. Many communities never fully recovered their boom-era populations, but many also held on, reshaped by agriculture and the oil that kept flowing.
People & events
Megargel was laid out in 1910 by the Trinity Townsite Company, on land bought from the prominent Meade family. The company named the town after the railroad's president, Roy C. Megargel. It was a common gesture in railroad towns, where the line that created a town often gave it its name. Things moved quickly. Within a few months there were nearly two dozen stores, a hotel, a bank and a post office.
Residents soon organized a school district, which started with three teachers. The town's ambitions grew with it. In 1914 the Megargel Times began publishing, and in 1917 a new schoolhouse was built. The first graduating class, in 1918, had just five students, a small number that meant a great deal to a young town.
The second boom began in 1923, when the nearby Swastika oilfield opened. The name came from a symbol used widely as a good-luck sign in that era, long before it became associated with Nazi Germany. Oil brought another wave of growth. In 1925 a disastrous fire swept through downtown, but the town kept growing. By 1926 there were around 350 working wells nearby, and Megargel had its first theater.
In 1927 the school created one of the earliest high school bands in Texas, a point of pride for a small town. Over the following years, though, the Depression and other pressures drew people away. During World War II the railroad that had created the town was abandoned, and many residents left for military service or war-industry jobs.
Its place in the American story
Megargel captures two of the great forces that shaped the American West in the early twentieth century: the railroad and oil. Railroads created towns and decided where people would live. Oil brought sudden wealth and sudden growth to places that had been quiet. Megargel experienced both in less than twenty years.
Its story also shows how fragile such places could be. Towns built around a single railroad line or a single oilfield could grow fast and decline just as fast when the economy shifted. When the railroad that created Megargel was abandoned, it symbolized a wider change across rural America as cars, trucks and highways replaced branch lines.
The Depression and World War II pulled people out of countless small towns. Young people left for cities, factories and military service, and many never returned. Megargel's decline after its boom years is a story repeated across the rural South and West.
Yet towns like Megargel also show endurance. Oil and farming have kept the town going, and its cemetery and historic sites keep the memory of its boom years alive. The early high school band is a reminder of how much civic pride small boom towns could build in a short time.
If you visit
As you drive into Megargel, try to imagine it in the 1920s, with busy streets, a theater and derricks dotting the countryside around it. Today it's a much quieter place, and that contrast is part of what makes it interesting to visit.
Look for traces of the railroad that built the town. Rail lines often leave behind straight corridors, embankments or the layout of the town itself, with the main streets set out in relation to the tracks. Notice too how oil and agriculture still shape the surrounding landscape.
The inscription mentions the Megargel Cemetery as one of the town's links to its past. A visit there can add a human dimension to the boom-and-bust story. Be respectful, since it is a burial ground still cared for by the community.
Megargel fits well into a drive across North Texas ranch and oil country, with Wichita Falls as a natural base. Pair it with other markers about railroad towns and the region's oil booms to see how the same forces shaped community after community across this part of Texas.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Roy C. Megargel
Themes & tags
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