Hotel Dallas, 1912

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Eagle Lake was laid out in the 1850s, and from the very beginning, a man named Gamaliel Good understood something the rest of the world was still figuring out: put a hotel on the right corner, and the world will come to you. And come to him it did.

The Good Hotel stood as a stagecoach stop, then a railroad stop, and with three railroads crossing through town, commerce was heavy. Three railroads. In a town that size, that's not a coincidence, that's a symphony.

By 1912, the economy had found a new rhythm, built around rice farming, and a new structure rose on that same storied ground. They called it the Dallas Hotel, and it became the social and business center for Eagle Lake. Travelers passing through, drummers working their routes, they all needed a place to sleep and somewhere to talk business, and the Dallas Hotel was that place.

It wasn't alone, mind you. Several hotels competed for every one of those guests, each one trying to out-charm and out-accommodate the others. But then the railroads began to fade, and the automobile came surging up to take their place, and when the way people moved changed, the way people stopped changed too.

Business decreased. The competitors, one by one, closed their doors. And the Dallas Hotel, the one built in 1912 when rice was king and three iron rails ran through this corner of Colorado County, is the only one left.

All those others are gone. This one is still standing. Sometimes the last one standing is the whole story.

What the marker says

Hotel Dallas, 1912 After Eagle Lake was laid out inthe 1850s, Gamaliel Good built a hotel on this corner. The Good Hotel served as a stagecoach and railroad stop. Three railroads crossed town, and commerce was heavy. By 1912 the economy had become dependent on rice farming and this structure was built. The Dallas Hotel was the social and business center for the town. Several hotels competed for the travelers' and drummers' business. With the decline of the railroad and the upsurge in automobiles, business decreased. This is the only one left of the historic hotels. (1979)