Site of Belle Plain College

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do it justice. Way out in Callahan County, there was once a college. Not a little schoolhouse, not a one-room affair, but a genuine institution of higher learning sitting on the West Texas frontier.

Belle Plain College. Founded in 1881 by the Methodist Church, and for a stretch of years, it was something to see. Enrollment climbed all the way up to three hundred students, and they came from throughout the region, which out here in that era was no small feat.

People made the journey. That tells you something right there. The college put together a superior course of study, with a particular strength in music.

Music. Out on the West Texas plains. They had an orchestra.

They had a brass band. Picture that on a still evening, notes drifting out across the open country. A girl's dormitory went up soon after the founding, and then in 1885 came something even more ambitious: a three-story stone building.

Three stories. Stone. That was a statement of permanence if there ever was one.

The school even had a military branch operating in town, and the pupils wore blue and gray uniforms, which must have cut quite a figure marching around Belle Plain. Now, here is where the story turns. In 1883, the town of Baird pulled off what towns do when they win and other towns lose.

Belle Plain lost the county seat. It lost citizens. A good many of them, gone to Baird.

And a college, however fine its orchestra and however solid its stone building, cannot survive on an empty town. Belle Plain College eventually closed. Three stories of stone, a brass band, three hundred students from across the region, and then silence.

That's West Texas for you. It gives and it takes, and sometimes all that's left is a marker and a story worth telling.

What the marker says

Early college of West Texas. Founded in 1881 by Methodist Church. Enrollment reached peak of 300 and students attended from throughout the region. College developed a superior course of study, with special strength in music. It had an orchestra and a brass band. A girl's dormitory was built soon after founding, and in 1885 a 3-story stone building was erected. School also had a military branch in town. Pupils wore blue and gray uniforms. After town lost both county seat and many citizens to Baird, 1883, college eventually closed. (1969).