Roaring Springs Depot

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, out here on the rolling plains of Motley County, things didn't just happen by accident; they happened by railroad. And behind that railroad stood a man named Samuel Lazarus, born in 1855, gone in 1926, and in between those two years, busy as any man had a right to be.

Under his leadership, the Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railroad did something for this part of Texas that the land alone couldn't do on its own: it opened it up, economically speaking, in ways folks out here had been waiting on. The line pushed through this country stop by stop, and one of those stops was meant to be a place called Roaring Springs. Now here's the part worth savoring; the townsite was platted in 1912, a full year before the tracks even reached it.

Think about that. Somebody drew the map before the train showed up. They weren't hopin' the railroad was comin'.

They knew. And sure enough, the tracks arrived. Within a year of that, a depot was standing (brick, mission revival style, the kind of building that says we intend to stay).

It handled passengers, it handled freight, and it kept right on doing both for decades. From the time those tracks reached Roaring Springs all the way until 1971, that depot was workin' for a living. Then the work stopped.

But the building didn't fall. In 1972, the city of Roaring Springs purchased it, and in doing so, held onto the oldest structure in town. That depot outlasted the trains, outlasted the freight, outlasted a whole era of how this country moved.

It's still there, brick and mortar and mission revival arches, standin' as proof that sometimes the map really does come before the territory.

What the marker says

Under the leadership of Samuel Lazarus (1855-1926), the Quanah, Acme & Pacific Railroad contributed much to Motley County's economic development. One of the townsites along the line, Roaring Springs was platted in 1912, one year before the tracks reached this point. This brick mission revival style depot was completed within a year, and handled passenger and freight traffic until 1971. Roaring Springs' oldest structure, it was purchased by the city in 1972. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-1977