DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, there are towns in Texas that rose up fast, burned bright, and then just — quietly — let go. Anarene, out here in Archer County, is one of those towns.
And the story starts, as so many Texas stories do, with a man who owned some land and a railroad that needed to cross it. The man was Charles E. Graham, born in 1872.
And in 1908, he made a deal with the Wichita Falls and Southern Railroad — granted them a route right across his property. Smart move. Because wherever the railroad went, people followed, and where people followed, towns appeared.
Graham didn't just shake hands and watch. He platted a town right there at that site. Now, what do you name a town?
Well, Charles Graham had a wife. Her name was Annie Lawrence Graham, daughter of a pioneer cattleman by the name of J. Marion Keen.
And so the town got a name built from Annie's own — Anarene. That's the kind of thing a man does when he's proud of his family and he's building something meant to last. And build he did.
Graham put up a hotel. He got a post office established. He brought in cattle pens, a dipping vat, the facilities a working town out on the Texas range would need.
The schoolhouse pulled double duty, serving the community for religious services too — which, if you've ever been to a small Texas town, you know is not unusual at all. For a while, Anarene was doing just fine. And then, in 1921, oil was discovered nearby.
That'll get a town's attention. A refinery followed — built in 1938. So here you've got a railroad town that became an oil town.
That combination, friend, is about as Texas as it gets. But here's where the story turns quiet. Oil production ceased.
And the trains stopped running. Both of those things happened in 1954 — and when they did, Anarene didn't linger. The marker says it plainly: Anarene quickly declined.
Charles Graham, who started it all back in 1908, had died in 1937. He didn't see what became of it. The town he named for his wife, the hotel he built, the post office he obtained — all of it now falls under that word the marker puts right up front.
Extinct. Anarene is an extinct town. And out here on this road, that's the whole story — a man, a railroad, a name made from love, and a silence that crept in when the oil quit and the last train rolled away.
What the marker says
Landowner Charles E. Graham (1872-1937) in 1908 granted the Wichita Falls and Southern Railroad a route across his property and platted a town at this site. Anarene was named for his wife Annie Lawrence Graham, daughter of pioneer cattleman J. Marion Keen. Graham built a hotel and obtained a post office, cattle pens, dipping vat and other facilities. The town schoolhouse was used for religious services. In 1921 oil was discovered nearby. A refinery was built in 1938. When oil production ceased and the trains stopped running in 1954, Anarene quickly declined. (1976)