DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. It starts with a train. April 16, 1881 — a Texas and Pacific supply train rolls into Colorado City, and it isn't carrying passengers or cattle or any of the goods that would later make this place famous.
It's carrying materials. The raw stuff of what's coming. Because before you can ship a single hide or bale of wool out of West Texas, somebody's got to build the depot first.
And that depot, completed the following month at the foot of Oak Street, was no rough-hewn shack thrown together in a hurry. They modeled it after the AT and P Station in Fort Worth. Fort Worth.
So Colorado City wasn't just getting a train stop — it was getting a statement. Then came the cattle pens, built to the east of the station on land donated by four men: Aaron W. Dunn, John Wesley Mooar, W.H.
Snyder, and George W. Waddell. Four names worth remembering, because what they gave didn't just hold livestock — it helped plant Colorado City at the center of something enormous.
The railroad and those stockyards together turned this town into the major shipping center and supply station for the vast ranching region of West Texas and sections of Eastern New Mexico. That's a lot of ground for one depot to carry on its shoulders. And then in 1885, a man named W.A.
Crowder showed up as agent for the T and P Railway. He stayed thirty-five years. Thirty-five years.
During that stretch, local rail traffic flourished — trains hauling in barbed wire and windmills for the ranches, trains hauling out cattle, hides, salt, ice, wool, and buffalo bones headed east to market. Think about that list for a second. Buffalo bones.
The frontier was being cleared and cultivated and shipped away, all through this one depot at the foot of Oak Street. Now, that 1881 depot — the original, the one that started it all — was later destroyed by fire. It was replaced by a new freight station in 1896.
And in 1907, another depot rose up, this one at the foot of Walnut Street, built for passenger trains. People came and went through that station for decades, until the day the last passenger train made its final run and service to Colorado City ended — March 22, 1967. Eighty-six years after that first supply train pulled in carrying nothing but potential, the last train left.
That's not a sad ending so much as a full one.
What the marker says
Rail service to Colorado City began on April 16, 1881, when a Texas & Pacific supply train arrived with materials for the construction of a freight and passenger depot in the town. Completed the following month at the foot of Oak Street, it was similar in style and size to A T & P Station in Fort Worth. Cattle pens were constructed later to the east of the station on land donated by Aaron W. Dunn, John Wesley Mooar, W.H. Snyder, and George W. Waddell. The railroad and stockyards established Colorado City as the major shipping center and supply station for the vast ranching region of West Texas and sections of Eastern New Mexico. W.A. Crowder came here in 1885 as the agent for the T & P Railway. During his 35 years of service, local rail traffic flourished. Trains brought the necessary manufactured products for local ranches such as barbed wire and windmills. Goods shipped from here to Eastern markets included cattle, hides, salt, ice, wool, and buffalo bones. The 1881 depot was later destroyed by fire and replaced by a new freight station in 1896. Another depot, built at the foot of Walnut Street in 1907, was used by passenger trains until service to the city ended on March 22, 1967. (1981)