DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Shafter Lake Townsite, out in Andrews County. Now, before Andrews County was even a county — before it had a courthouse, a county seat, or so much as an official name on a map — there was a town out here first. Platted in 1908, Shafter Lake holds the distinction of being the very first town in what was then still unorganized Andrews County.
And the story of how it got started is the kind of thing that makes you appreciate what water means in West Texas. The lake itself takes its name from a survey charted in 1875 — the work of Colonel William R. Shafter.
His maps, and his victories over powerful Indians, were what opened the Permian Basin to settlement in the first place. So when a man named John Underwood, of the Shafter Lake Sand and Gravel operation, built a water trough out here, he put it on land that had already been set aside for a courthouse. That trough wasn't just a convenience — it was a destination.
See, ranchers and freighters coming in from Jal and Monument, New Mexico, headed into Texas had to stop somewhere. And they stopped here. Right at that trough.
And when people start stopping in the same place day after day, well — a town has a way of growing up around them before anybody quite decides to build one. Shafter Lake was on its way. It had momentum.
It had a future. And then came 1910. That year, when a vote on county organization was held, the question of where the county seat would land got answered — and the answer was Andrews.
Not Shafter Lake. Andrews. So the town moved there.
Just like that. The people, the commerce, the whole living weight of a young settlement — it followed the county seat. What's left at Shafter Lake now is the site itself.
The land once set aside for a courthouse that never got built. And somewhere in there, the memory of a water trough that started it all — the first gathering place of the first town in a county that wasn't quite a county yet, in a basin that not long before hadn't been open to settlement at all. West Texas has a way of reminding you that towns, like water, go where they're needed most.
What the marker says
First town in yet-unorganized Andrews County. Platted 1908. Named for lake charted in 1875 survey of Col. Wm. R. Shafter, whose maps and victories over powerful Indians opened the Permian Basin to settlement. Water trough built by John Underwood of Shafter Lake Sand and Gravel is on site then set aside for a courthouse. It was stopping place for ranchers and freighters on way from Jal and Monument, N. Mex., into Texas. Town started to grow around trough. But when vote in 1910 county organization gave county seat to Andrews, town moved there. (1965)