DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, every now and then you come across a story that moves faster than a West Texas thunderstorm — builds up big and beautiful, then just... blows itself out. This is one of those stories.
This is the story of Geraldine, Archer County, Texas. It starts in 1901, with a company out of Indianapolis — the American Tribune New Colony Company — lookin' for land. They'd gone to Oklahoma first, searchin' for something suitable, and Oklahoma didn't give it to them.
So they turned their eyes to Texas, the way folks tend to do, and they acquired over fifty-nine thousand acres right here in this area. Fifty-nine thousand acres. They had a plan, and the plan was grand: an immigration project, a whole new community rising up out of the Texas soil.
And friend, they did not waste any time. By March of 1902, a post office was established. And then came May twentieth, nineteen-oh-two — grand opening day.
Now stop and think about what they pulled off before that ribbon got cut. The town of Geraldine had been surveyed. Two water wells drilled.
Seventy-five buildings erected. And one hundred and twenty-five farm families had already settled in and hung their hats. One hundred and twenty-five families.
In a town that didn't exist the year before. That is ambition. That is the kind of belief in a place that makes you want to tip your hat and shake somebody's hand.
But here's where the story turns, and it turns hard. The land had its own opinion about all of this. A severe drought set in.
And when they went looking for ground water to ride it out — it wasn't there. Not enough of it, anyway. One by one, then in waves, families packed what they could and left.
By January of 1903 — not even a full year after that grand opening — all but twenty families had gone. Twenty. Out of a hundred and twenty-five.
Then, in 1905, the County Court sold the tract back to the former owner, a man named Luke F. Wilson. And with that, Geraldine was vacated.
Official. Final. Seventy-five buildings.
Two wells. A post office. A hundred and twenty-five families with hopes stacked high as the Texas sky — and inside of three years, the land had the last word.
Geraldine didn't fail for lack of trying. She failed for lack of water. And out here in Archer County, that marker stands as the only thing left to say her name.
What the marker says
In 1901, after failing to locate suitable land in Oklahoma, the American Tribune New Colony Company of Indianapolis acquired over 59,000 acres in this area for an immigration project. A post office was established in March 1902, and by grand opening, May 20, 1902, Geraldine had been surveyed, 2 water wells drilled, 75 buildings erected, and 125 farm families settled. A severe drought and lack of ground water caused all but 20 families to leave by Jan. 1903. In 1905 County Court sold the tract to former owner Luke F. Wilson, and Geraldine was vacated. (1973)