The Ozark Trail at Tampico

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Ozark Trail at Tampico, out here in Hall County. Now, before the interstates, before the numbered highways, before the government got around to deciding what road was what, there were men like William Hope Harvey who decided they'd just go ahead and build the road system themselves. Harvey went by the nickname 'Coin,' and in 1913 he was operating a resort up in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas when he founded something called the Ozark Trail Association.

A private highway organization. Not a government program. A private one.

Coin Harvey looked at a map and saw a diagonal line from St. Louis, Missouri all the way down to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and said: that's a road. Texas and New Mexico counties signed on.

The effort grew. And Harvey had a vision for how travelers would know they were on the right path: white obelisks, standing at attention along the route, bearing official Ozark Trail green lettering. Town names.

Directions. Distances. Picture those markers rising up out of the flat Texas prairie, white against all that sky, pointing the way.

There were two routes through Texas. The central line went across Wellington. But a second southern route cut through a whole string of communities: Childress, Estelline, Tampico, Turkey, Quitaque, Silverton, Tulia, Nazareth, and Dimmitt.

And the man who really pushed to get those striking markers planted in this part of the country was J.E. Swepston of Tulia, elected president of the Ozark Trail Association in 1920. He was instrumental in seeing those obelisks go up across the region.

At that time, Hall County was a busy place; more than a thousand farms and ranches, and ranchland kept getting carved into new farms as settlers kept arrivin'. The trail was alive, the markers were standing, and things were movin'. Then came 1924.

The government decided it was time to bring some order to the roads of America: a national road-numbering system. And just like that, the Ozark Trail and other private highways like it were either abandoned or absorbed into the new national system. Coin Harvey's green-lettered obelisks were suddenly relics of another era.

Out at Tampico, there was a service station and a general store right next to that obelisk. And in 1929, the community got a jolt of its own: an oilfield started up and brought a short-lived boom. Tampico had itself a school.

But the oil supply proved minimal, and when the boom faded, the school consolidated into the Turkey school district. The boom came, and the boom went. But that white obelisk?

It stayed. Designated a State Archeological Landmark in 1999, it still stands out here, a marker for a road that a private man dreamed up, that a string of Texas communities believed in, and that a place called Tampico was once proud to be part of. Some things outlast the boom.

Some things outlast the road itself.

What the marker says

In 1913, William Hope "Coin" Harvey, who operated a resort in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, founded the Ozark Trail Association as a private highway organization. Several Texas and New Mexico counties joined the effort, and the line went diagonally from St. Louis, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico. As part of Harvey's plan, stops along the way featured white obelisks denoting, in the official Ozark Trail green lettering, town names, as well as directions and distances to other towns. The central Ozark route passed across Wellington, Texas, and a second southern route was built through the communities of Childress, Estelline, Tampico, Turkey, Quitaque, Silverton, Tulia, Nazareth and Dimmitt. J.E. Swepston of Tulia, elected Ozark Trail Association president in 1920, was instrumental in having the striking road markers placed in this area. At the time, Hall County had more than 1,000 farms and ranches, and ranchland continued to be divided into farms as more settlers arrived in the area. In 1924, however, with a government initiative to enact a national road-numbering system, the Ozark Trails and other private highways were abandoned or absorbed into the national road system. Adjacent to the Tampico marker was a service station and general store. In 1929, the Tampico oilfield started a short-lived boom in the community, which supported a school. After the oil supply proved minimal, the school consolidated into the Turkey school district. The obelisk, designated a State Archeological Landmark in 1999, remains as a tie to both the early efforts to increase automotive travel and to the community of Tampico. (2006)