The Santa Fe Railroad in Plainview
Plainview, Hale County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Operating in the Texas Panhandle since 1886, the Santa Fe Railroad about 1900 laid plans to extend its line into the rich agricultural domain of the South Plains. Meantime, Plainview leaders saw the need for better transportation and in 1903 raised $75,000 to use in promoting a rail connection. J.N. Donohoo, Dr. Lee Dye, W.E. Dyer, L.S. Kinder, L.A. Knight, Charles McCormack, J.H. Slaton, R.P. Smyth, and Dr. J.H. Wayland led this endeavor. The city and the Santa Fe came to terms, and the first train reached here on Dec. 31, 1906. Regular service soon followed, and oldtimers rejoiced when train whistles heralded and end to isolation. Once or twice a week, land agents arrived with trainloads of prospective settlers. Local builders constructed a courthouse, new schoolhouse, new city hall, an electric plant, an opera house, residences and business buildings. Soon the Wayland Literary and Technical Institution was under construction. Railroad service made a major contribution to the economic development of Hale County, opening acreage to settlement and agricultural expansion. (1975)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Operating in the Panhandle since 1886, the Santa Fe Railroad planned around 1900 to push into the rich farmland of the South Plains. Plainview's leaders raised $75,000 to court a connection, and on December 31, 1906, the first train arrived to end the town's isolation. Land agents soon brought trainloads of prospective settlers, and a courthouse, schools, an opera house, and Wayland's new institute rose in the boom that followed.
Why it matters
The railroad's arrival transformed an isolated prairie town into a thriving hub, exemplifying how rail lines opened the South Plains to settlement and agriculture.
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Related people
- · J. H. Wayland
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Running Water Community
Plainview, TX
Drawn by the reliable water of Running Water Draw, the Morrison brothers founded a ranch here in 1881, and cattleman C.C. Slaughter later joined the operation that employed most of the area's early settlers. In 1890 Dennis Rice opened a post office in his dugout and set out to build a town, staging a Fourth of July barbecue in 1892 to sell lots; soon Running Water had a blacksmith, grist mill, store, churches, and school. But when the railroad bypassed it in 1928, the community faded — the post office moved to Edmondson in 1935, and by 1937 the settlement itself had taken that name.
Site of Lake Plainview
Plainview, TX
On the arid High Plains, water was everything, and Plainview's civic leaders staked the town's future on finding it underground. In 1911 they bored the region's first deep wells, and the next year the Texas Land & Development Co. sank a demonstration well that filled Lake Plainview—billed as the largest body of water in Texas fed by a well. Popular but costly, the lake reverted to nature after a 1917 fire destroyed its pump house.
First Baptist Church of Plainview
Plainview, TX
Founded in 1890 with just eleven charter members, this West Texas congregation grew in lockstep with the town around it. When the Santa Fe Railroad reached Plainview in 1907 and the first irrigation well tapped the water beneath the plains, both church and community boomed. The congregation raised its Classical Revival sanctuary in 1927, its twin porticos and cast-stone cornice a sign of hard-won permanence on the High Plains.
Former Office Site of Texas Land & Development Company
Plainview, TX
Founded in 1912, the Texas Land & Development Company was an agricultural experiment on an enormous scale, drawing Eastern and European capital to develop 65,000 acres across Hale, Floyd, and Swisher counties. By pioneering irrigated and dryland farming methods on the High Plains, the company helped make the region one of the most productive in America before winding down in 1956. Its officers, farm superintendents, and even a staff historian left their mark on Panhandle agriculture.