DUANE
Duane's take
The way I tell it, I'm drawing straight from the official marker — so let's see what it has to say about Papalote Creek. A few yards south of where this marker stands, there runs a creek with a name worth stoppin' to think about. The Karankawa Indians — fierce people, by the marker's own word — crossed these waters and found kite-shaped pebbles along the banks.
They called the place Papalote. That word means kite-shaped, or wing-shaped. The name stuck.
In the 1830s, the leaders of the Power and Hewetson colonists came along those same banks, holdin' Mexican land grants. And on the Rata tributary — a branch feeding into all of this — there's evidence the Mexican Army made camp, on its way to suppress the Texas Revolution. History was movin' through this country in a hurry.
By 1857, a town had taken shape right here. Papalote. And for a good while, that town was the center of entertainment for the county.
Cowboys wanted to dance, so they traded steer yearlings — three dollars a head — for lumber, and they built themselves a circular dance hall. There were rooster fights. Ring tournaments.
Horse races. This little bend of South Texas was alive. Then in 1886, the railroad came, and Papalote was booming.
Seemed like the kind of place that just keeps going. But a town's story doesn't always run the way you expect. After the turn of the century, Papalote began to die away.
A land company sold lots to settlers who came from as far away as Hawaii — people expecting to grow citrus fruits in this soil. Then the first killing frost came, and it doomed the project. All those plans, all that distance traveled, and the cold just settled that argument.
Then came a different kind of fear. Threats of Pancho Villa's raids continued as late as 1916. Women and children hid in a brick schoolhouse.
Whatever Papalote had been — dance hall, racetrack, boomtown — it was now a place where people huddled and waited out the danger. In 1948, Main Street was bypassed by U.S. Highway 181.
The road that might have kept things moving went around instead of through. Today there's no post office. Just a rural route for the few remaining households.
That circular dance hall where cowboys once traded yearlings for lumber — just a memory riding the name of a creek and some kite-shaped pebbles the Karankawa noticed a long, long time ago.
What the marker says
A few yards south passes Papalote Creek, crossed by the fierce Karankawa Indians who found kite-shaped pebbles and named it Papalote, which means "kite-shaped" or "wing-shaped". Along its banks came the leaders of the Power and Hewetson colonists, holding Mexican land grants in the 1830's. On its Rata tributary there is evidence the Mexican Army camped on its way to suppress the Texas Revolution. By 1857 the town of Papalote had emerged. It was the center of entertainment for the county, boasting of a circular dance hall built by cowboys trading steer yearlings at $3 a head for lumber. There were rooster fights, ring tournaments and horse races. In 1886, when the railroad came, the town was booming. After the turn of the century, however, Papalote began to die away. A land company sold lots to settlers from as far away as Hawaii. Expecting to grow citrus fruits, they were disillusioned when the first killing frost doomed the project. Threats of Pancho Villa's raids continued as late as 1916, when women and children hid in a brick schoolhouse. In 1948, Main Street was bypassed by U.S. Highway 181. Today there is no post office--only a rural route for the few remaining households. (1965)