Dairy Industry in the Santa Fe Area

Duane's take

The way I tell it, I'm drawing straight from the official marker on the Dairy Industry in the Santa Fe Area, Galveston County, so here's how it goes. Out on the coastal plain of Galveston County, three little railroad communities took root in the 1890s. Arcadia, Alta Loma, and Algoa.

Small names, but they formed the nucleus of what would become the Santa Fe area, right there at the turn of the twentieth century. In those early years, the land kept people busy with citrus and fig production, truck farming, and a burgeoning dairy industry. That word, burgeoning, that's the marker's word, and it fits, because what was coming was bigger than those early settlers might have guessed.

By 1912, creameries operating at Alta Loma and Arcadia were producing and shipping large amounts of butter and milk to markets in Galveston and Houston. Butter and milk riding the rails to the big city. That's a picture worth holding onto.

But here is where the story shifts. The citrus and fig industry didn't hold. Dairy farming, unlike those crops, emerged as a major economic base during the 1920s.

And according to local tradition, dairy farms became so prevalent during that time that most everyone had one. Most. Everyone.

Had. One. That is the kind of thing that sounds like exaggeration until you realize the marker just says it plainly, no embellishment needed.

By that same era, trucks had supplanted trains for hauling dairy products to Galveston and Houston. And if you needed a ride before community bus service was available, well, local citizens recalled catching rides on milk trucks. Early morning, cold cans rattling, heading to market.

That was your bus. Now, the 1920s weren't all smooth going. A crushing hoof and mouth epidemic hit in the mid-1920s.

Crushing is the marker's word, and it earns it. But the area's small dairies were able to recover. They came back.

Then came the 1930s, and with them, stock laws restricting grazing on public lands. Those laws made land leases for grazing necessary, and many small dairies simply couldn't afford them. Larger operations bought them out.

The little ones gave way to the ones with deeper pockets. The 1950s brought automation, and many dairies prospered with it. For a while, things looked good.

But prosperity has a way of pulling people elsewhere, and the gradual loss of workers to higher paying urban jobs began to tell. One by one, the dairies of the Santa Fe area went quiet. By the 1970s, every last one had closed.

From railroad creameries in 1912, to milk trucks doubling as public transit, to a hoof and mouth epidemic, to automation, to an empty milking stall. That's the full arc right there, written in butter and hard times on the Galveston County plain.

What the marker says

The railroad communities of Arcadia, Alta Loma, and Algoa, established in the 1890s, formed the nucleus of the Santa Fe area at the turn of the 20th century. Citrus and fig production, truck farming, and a burgeoning daily industry dominated the local economy at that time. Creameries operating at Alta Loma and Arcadia produced and shipped large amounts of butter and milk to markets in Galveston and Houston by 1912. Dairy farming, unlike the citrus and fig industry, emerged as a major economic base in the area during the 1920s. According to local tradition they became so prevalent during this time that most everyone had one. Trucks had supplanted trains for transporting dairy products to markets in Galveston and Houston by this time. Local citizens recalled catching rides on milk trucks before community bus service was available. Although able to recover from a crushing hoof and mouth epidemic in the mid-1920s, many small dairies were bought out by larger operations able to afford land leases for grazing purposes made necessary by stock laws of the 1930s restricting grazing on public lands. Though many dairies prospered with the introduction of automation in the 1950s the gradual loss of workers to higher paying urban jobs resulted in the closing of all Santa Fe area dairies in the 1970s.