DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I wouldn't change a word. Now, you want to talk about something that changed the landscape of Carson County just as surely as any oil derrick or fence line? Let me tell you about a bright red bus that you could see coming from miles away.
They called it The Library Bus. And friend, in an era of sparse settlement out on these Texas plains, that red bookmobile rolling toward your ranch or your school or your oil camp must have been something to behold. Books.
Two thousand of them circulating every single month, coming right to you. This was the first bookmobile in Texas. Started in 1938, based right here at the county library on this very site in Carson County.
For nineteen years — all the way through 1957 — it kept its routes. Think about what those years held. The sparse, quiet stretch of ranch country before the war.
Then World War II and the growth it brought. Then the later wave of industrialization changing the face of the land again. Through all of it, that red bus kept moving.
It stopped at ranches. It stopped at schools. It stopped at oil camps.
Wherever people had settled — even thinly, even temporarily — The Library Bus showed up. Now, Texas had private libraries. It had rental libraries in the early days.
The Republic itself once had a National Library. But most county libraries? Those got founded or instigated by local citizens.
Nobody handed them down from on high. And this pioneer bookmobile was no different — local citizens made it happen. By 1966, Texas still had fifty-one bookmobiles running in other counties.
But Carson County got there first, with a bus the color of a fire engine that you could spot across the plains before you could hear it coming. Sometimes the most important thing to arrive at your door isn't a telegram or a supply wagon. Sometimes it's a bright red bus full of books.
What the marker says
In use 1938-1957. Based at the county library on this site. A bright red, visible for miles, this first bookmobile in Texas was called "The Library Bus." It stopped at ranches, schools, oil camps; circulated 2,000 books a month; served in era of sparse settlement, World War II growth and later industrialization. There were private and rental libraries in early Texas; the Republic had a National Library, but most county libraries were founded or instigated by local citizens- -as was this pioneer bookmobile. Texas still has 51 bookmobiles in other counties.