DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it along to you straight. You're rolling through Scurry County now, and the ground beneath these wheels has seen a whole lot of lives come and go — starting long before anyone called this place Snyder. Back at the beginning, this spot on Deep Creek was a trading post, raw and rough, built to serve buffalo hunters.
They called it Hide Town, on account of all the hide tents and dugouts that dotted the place. Not exactly a name that invites you to settle down and raise a family. But then came W.
H. Snyder — Pete, to those who knew him — a Dutch trader who set up a store here in 1878. And just like that, the place had a new identity.
The city of Snyder takes its name from that man. Now, a trading post is one thing. A real town is another.
Growth takes a spark, and in 1908 that spark came rolling in on rails — the Roscoe, Snyder and Pacific Railroad brought the Iron Horse to Snyder. The city had already incorporated the year before, in 1907, so the timing was just about right. Things were moving.
Then the decades rolled by, quiet enough for a county seat, and by the late 1940s Snyder had settled into a steady rhythm — ranching, farming, the kind of place where 4,000 souls knew their neighbors. Late in 1948, that rhythm broke wide open. The Canyon Reef Oil Field was discovered, and friend, that is a sentence worth sitting with.
Overnight — the marker says overnight — the population jumped from 4,000 to 12,000 in a year's time. Oil field workers and personnel poured in, and the quiet county seat of Scurry County became an overcrowded boom town before it could catch its breath. Three eras in one city: Hide Town on Deep Creek, then the Iron Horse, then the roar of oil.
Snyder just kept transforming. And today it carries all of that forward — still the county seat, still a regional trade center for ranching, farming, and oil production. Pete Snyder put his name on a store by a creek in 1878.
He had no idea what was coming.
What the marker says
Originally established as a trading post on Deep Creek for buffalo hunters and called "Hide Town," because of many hide tents and dugouts, the city of Snyder takes it name from W. H. (Pete) Snyder, a Dutch trader who established a store here in 1878. A major event in the town's growth came in 1908 when the Roscoe, Snyder & Pacific Railroad brought the "Iron Horse" to Snyder. The city incorporated in 1907. Late in 1948 the city moved into another era when the huge Canyon Reef Oil Field was discovered. With influx of oil field workers and personnel, the quiet county seat became an overcrowded boom town overnight, with the population jumping from 4,000 to 12,000 in a year's time. Today Snyder, the county seat of Scurry County, continues as a regional trade center for ranching, farming and oil production. (1966)