[Music] [Travis] In 1887, the Texas Stat Legislature carved Ward County from a portion of Tom Green County.

The county was officially organized in 1892, where Barstow held the county seat.

By 1904, Barstow became a farming and ranching trade center.

However, in 1904, an earthen dam on the Pecos River burst, ruining many of the farms near Barstow.

But Barstow not only survived it, but the county has thrived.

[Music] [Frame Click] [Music] Ward County has an interesting past.

It is located on the Southern edge of the High Plains region of Southwest Texas and is made up of seven towns Barstow, Pyote, Wickett Thorntonville, Royalty, Grand Falls and Monahan's.

The largest community and became a county in 1887.

But what brought people to the area is as diverse as the people themselves.

From the Butterfield Overland Mail, using the Emigrants Crossing of the Pecos River to the farming, ranching and cotton planning all became vital to the prosperity of the area.

Let's take an early journey through the twists and turns that make up this unique community.

[Greg] Ward Ward County was uh carved out of Tom Green County uh when when the county was organized um and like many uh Texas cities and counties, uh Ward County gets its name from a hero of the Texas Revolution.

a Thomas William Ward is the the a person a for whom Ward County is named.

Ah, Thomas William Ward a fought in the early battles of the Texas Revolution.

Um, he is um I don't know if it's affectionately or not, but he is referred to as old peg leg.

Um, and the reason for that is he fought in the battle to take the Alamo.

So uh most folks are familiar with the battle or the siege of the Alamo in in uh March of 1836, about three months prior to that, in December of 1836, the Texans uh sieged the Alamo themselves uh because the Mexican army was in control of the Alamo and uh the Texians were able to take the Alamo in December.

Uh, Santa Ana and the Mexican troops returned about three months later for uh the famous siege of the Alamo.

But during the battle in December of 1835, Thomas William Ward was an artillery man.

And he was uh firing a cannon in the streets of San Antonio toward the Alamo and in return received a cannon shot to the leg, and his leg was amputated uh there in the streets of San Antonio.

Uh, he was 28 at the time um and was from then forward, referred to as old peg leg.

Uh, though he was only 28 years old, uh, but um, he uh participated in that battle under Ben Milam and um then went on to serve in in a number of different capacities for the Republic of Texas, the state of Texas, and even the United States.

Uh, once Texas had joined the Union.

[Ellen] Tom Green County was eventually chopped up some.

And so Midland, Ector, a lot of counties were formed out of Tom Green County, Ward, being one of those counties that was formed from Tom Green County.

So Ward County was formed in um 1887, but there weren't very many people that lived here.

Not enough to have a county government.

So so Ward County, as were some other counties, were was attached under Reeves County.

So, Reeves County had this extensive, making sure I guess if you broke the law, you would go to Reeves County jail if you were in a Ward or something.

Loving County was also attached to Reeves for a period of time.

But in 1892, they had petitioned the state to become a county, and they wanted to, you know, have a commissioner get their elected officials, be able to build a courthouse and everything.

And so they were granted permission in 1892 to form the county to create the government and everything.

And so the courthouse, they did the bonds and the courthouse in Barstow was built, and it was built from the red sandstone um thats from the Quito Quarry that's just outside.

And the Quito quarry, the sandstone was specified by architects.

It was um highly valued.

And so the Bear County Courthouse, which is San Antonio, the Dallas County Courthouse, um uh the Ellis County Courthouse, which is in Waxahachie, and a number of other buildings, including, of course, the the Ward County courthouse, were built from that red sandstone.

And so the gates here at the Million Barrel are made from the red sandstone from the Quito Quarry.

And the one nearest to Seeley I know is from a building that collapsed that was built around the same time that the courthouse was.

And the Commissioner went to help clear because it was a health and safety risk.

And so he saved the sandstone and from that building.

And so we we had them bring it over here from Barstow, where they were holding onto it to have that gate made out there.

So we have a little bit of that history of that particular quarried sandstone dates back to the original courthouse.

- An interesting story about Thomas William Ward uh is a story from his life that connects to the story of Ward County, um because in Texas uh early on, uh there was a great dispute, a great controversy as to the location of the capital uh for Texas, initially for the Republic of Texas, and then for the state of Texas.

Once Texas joined the Union.

Uh, there was a tremendous controversy as to whether the capital would be in Houston, which was the namesake of Sam Houston, who had defeated Santa Ana uh at uh San Jacinto uh for Texas Independence.

Uh, Sam Houston naturally wanted the capital in Houston.

And then there were a number of folks that wanted the capital in Austin.

Uh And uh Austin was viewed as uh this city um way out west in Indian Coun, and Indian territory.

And and yet there were folks that wanted the capital there.

So the capital began in Houston, was there for a couple of years.

Uh Thomas William Ward actually designed and constructed the first capital building, which was in Houston.

Uh, after a couple of years, the capital uh seat of government was moved to Austin, and a couple of years after that, there was this tremendous controversy and battle of some sorts uh as to the location of government.

It is referred to as the Texas Archives War uh took place in 1841.

And essentially what happened was the the government, the capital of Texas, was there in Austin.

Sam Houston ordered the governmental leaders to return to Washington on the Brazos near Houston.

Um.

They did all of them, except for Thomas William Ward, who at that time was the Texas Land Commissioner.

So the records, the land records were in Austin.

um, Thomas William Ward was in charge of those records.

Uh, he was a great advocate for um uh issuing patents and in ensuring that people, uh the early uh um people who came to fight in the Texas Revolution were promised land.

And Thomas William Ward was instrumental in seeing that they received the land that they had been promised.

And so he was there in Austin protecting the records.

The rest of the governmental leaders went to Washington on the Brazos.

Well, the reality is you can move your your leaders of government wherever you like, but the reality is the location of your archives, of your records really determines the seat of power, the seat of government, I should say.

- The County seat, of course, originally was in Barstow and and Barstow held the County seat and until um actually held it longer.

But the interesting part is Pyote then had the oil boom because of the Winkler County oil fields, and that was the offload for the train stations.

And they had a lot of people come in and Barstow had kind of dropped down because the Pecos River dam had broken and the floodwaters that sort of put all too much saline into the soil and all of the orchards and other crops failed.

And they pretty much eventually had to stop farming.

And so that population dropped.

That was driven by all the farming happening.

But here you have Pyote which boomed up and everything during the oilfield, and they said, you know, we should be the County seat and and truly the way the legislature set it up County seat should be sort of in the center of the county where where anybody is like a day's ride from the courthouse by horseback was how they originally were set up.

So you'll see in many counties that county seats can be much more central to the county because thats how they were set up Barstow on the extreme Western side.

Monahan's is on the extreme Eastern side, Pyotes pretty much in the middle about 15 miles either way, um.

So, so it was the right one.

So in about 1927, 28, they had a ballot and they voted to move the County seat to Pyote.

Most people seem to not be aware of that one.

They're kind of mad about Monahan's.

But nobody seems to be aware of the fact that Pyote tried it too.

However it didnt pass because obviously the residents although they had dropped off in Barstow, are residents, people that have lived there a long time and everything Pyote is all these people that came in from all over.

You're probably not even registered to vote.

Um don't care about a vote because they're just they're making money in the oilfield.

So they just didn't really have the votes in spite of the fact they had a much larger population.

And so it failed and it didn't make it.

- And almost exactly a hundred years after the Texas Archives War, we had a similar controversy here in Ward County.

Um, initially, Ward County uh had as its County seat, Barstow, the town of Barstow, which is on the the Western edge of the County near the Pecos River.

Barstow is just across the river from the town of Pecos City, which is the uh County seat of Reeves County.

So Barstow was the County seat of Ward County.

Uh.

They had a courthouse that was built in the late 1800s.

And by 1937, 1938, um the population in Barstow had decreased and the population in Monahans had surged uh due to the oil and gas boom that was going on.

And um what happened was the uh citizens of Ward County, primarily those of Monahans uh, voted twice uh to uh move the county seat from Barstow to Monahans.

The Commissioners Court of Ward County met in 19-uh-38 and voted to confirm that election.

So the Commissioners Court voted 3 to 2 uh in order to uh confirm the election and move the county seat from Barstow to Monahans.

Well, just like in the Texas Archives War, you can make a decision about where the seat of government will be and you can move your governmental leaders.

But what really matters is the location of your records, the location of your archives.

So in 1938, the people of Ward County had voted to move the county seat to Monahans.

The Commissioners Court had confirmed that uh by a vote of 3 to 2 and literally minutes after the Commissioners Court voted, there was a group of people who arrived at the courthouse in Barstow.

There were three moving trucks, moving vans that arrived a large group of of of armed volunteers, uh primarily from Monahan's, uh who just happened to be in the vicinity, uh arrived at the courthouse in Barstow and immediately began loading the records, because, again, the land records were what was important.

You had to move the archives in order to move the County seat.

So just minutes after the Commissioners Court voted uh to approve the election, um the moving vans arrived, the armed citizens arrived.

Uh, Sheriff Dyer supervised the whole operation.

They loaded up the records and drove them back to Monahans, and they parked these moving trucks across the street from City Hall here in Monahans.

Well, the one of the deputy clerks in uh Barstow or at the courthouse in Barstow sped off to Kermit because the District Judge happened to be in Kermit.

And the residents of Barstow had asked for a temporary injunction preventing the move of the records.

Uh, she uh uh Gail Burkholder, sped off to Kermit and she was able to obtain that restraining order.

The judge signed a restraining order.

She returned with that restraining order.

But the problem was her official seal, which was needed to be placed on the document to make it effective, was in the moving truck with the records uh locked up and under uh under armed guard in Monahans.

And so they wouldn't let her into the truck.

They wouldn't let her get her seal.

And so the order never became effective.

The records remained in Monahans um over a period of the next two years, the County government met in City Hall and constructed a new courthouse.

And so the Ward County courthouse that we know today was constructed in Monahans in 1940, again, almost exactly 100 years after the Texas Archives War.

[Rex] Monahans got its start in um 1881.

Uh John Thomas Pat Monahans was a surveyor for the Texas Pacific Railroad, which is the Union Pacific now, um they were headed through here building railroad track, and he was out ahead of the um they made it to about Sierra Blanca, I guess, and he was serving out here, realized there was water there, some low areas in the Sandhills where you can actually see water in good years um.

Through the railroad we need wat At this at that time.

The railroad was having to bring its own water from Big Spring uh every day.

And so he dug a well that uh was somewhere around 53 to 55 foot deep, about 19 feet wide.

And so much water flowed into it.

They couldn't stop it.

They uh steam pump couldn't pump it out.

And so he knew he had a fantastic supply of water.

Um, so um the railroad put a depot out here and um a couple of little, um you know, community buildings came about mainly because the ranchers were showing up, finding out there was plenty of water and um they had farmers.

So agriculture kind of took off as best it could out here and around that.

They built started building a little community.

Um They put up a billboard advertising.

Monahans Well, everybody started calling it Monahans, and uh and then somewhere about 19 about 1893, the post office, they asked the federal government to put a post office here.

And so they took they designated a post office here and named it Trueheart.

So then Monahans was named Trueheart for a while.

Um However, when the post office was actually built and designated, everybody called it Monahans and it was going to be Monahans.

And so uh Trueheart went a way and and it was designated the Monahans post office.

And so it's really been Monahans since then.

Um And then in 1926 or so, oil was discovered near here.

And this being the closest town, um you know, just started growing around here.

The population started growing.

Other than ranchers and farmers, Then you had everything that comes with the oil industry.

[Music] [Todd] The Butterfield Stagecoach route ran through through Ward County.

The initial route did.

Um What brought that on is in 1858.

A gentle, I'm a New Yorker by the name of John Butterfield, won the right to carry mail between St Louis, Missouri, and San Francisco, California.

And we think about the geography of that.

You're thinking what in the world.

Is that route running through Ward County, Texas for.

But they basically they called it the Oxbow route because it ran south and then went back up.

And they did that predominantly because they didn't like to go across the plains because it was still very heavily um Indian occupied.

And also they didn't want to go straight across the Rocky Mountains.

So they were avoiding they were coming South of the Rocky Mountains and went through a little bit of it over the Fort Davis area, but much lower than trying to cross the Colorado area anyway.

So he wins that contract.

They start to stay drought and it comes South through Texas and then comes West, and it came over to what is today still known as Horsehead Crossing and the Northern route that they ran for a couple of years.

They call this the Northern Route.

What it turned it Horsehead Crossing, and it followed the river on the East side of the river, which is Ward County, all the way up through Ward County, past South of Grand Falls, but very close to Grand Falls, Texas, down here, and went all the way up through Ward County and passed just South of Barstow before it exited, Ward County, moved into Loving County and then turned East and went to El Paso.

Um That that stage route lasted three years.

Um From my studies, what happened mainly is the Civil War broke out.

[Music] You know, I'm sure there were risk, if you think about it, this was still had some Indian occupation in the area.

There was raiders as close enough to Mexico.

They had risk of some bandits coming across.

I read an account of a reporter, a young reporter, a 23 year old reporter that rode on the first stage route from from Missouri all the way to to um San Francisco.

And he stayed.

They had to do it in less than 25 days.

That was the that was the requirements of the contract they did in 24 days.

And he said, well, I know one thing.

I know what 24 days of hell feels like was the exact quote.

So [Music] Our Confederate battle and it's one of the other reasons that was one of the leading causes for them to set the two decide to cancel the route because there was an actual civil war battle and early civil war.

Think about it.

It just it started that happened right on the Butterfield Route South of Springfield, Missouri, I think and so that was another key factor to my ending the the route.

- So the Butterfield Stagecoach, of course, came through here carrying riders and carrying mail and everything it crossed would use Horsehead Crossing at times and Horsehead is actually um between probably Pecos County and Crane County, but it's relatively close to us.

We actually had Emigrants Crossing that between Reeves and Ward.

and Butterfield also used Emigrant's Crossing to cross over.

And it would be hard to believe today.

But the Pecos River, before it got dammed so many times, all the way back up to Pecos, New Mexico, where the headwaters are, where it starts um was pretty raging at times when it rained would flood voracious, and take over and and often had a lot of water, but it had a soft bottom.

So it's either too fast, it's going to wash your way.

Or are you going to get clogged down?

So, Horsehead Crossing actually had more gravel and rocks, as did Emigrants Crossing and on further up uh between Loving County and Reeves is Pecos Crossing.

And so those just had a little bit more rockyness gravel there so that they didn't go in.

And maybe that's just a little bit higher.

I don't know.

But I mean, if it's flooding, you're not getting across the Pecos.

It's not happening.

It's going to have to be down.

But you have um so you have Butterfield.

It's going back and forth that's helping again, developed to open up the West to bring people out, to delivering the mail, you know, so people can keep up with family members and everything um obviously would have had been robbed at times by the highwaymen um possibly.

I'm sure that from time to time the Indians attacked because, you know, we're in their territory and they're not being respectful of their traditions and everything.

And so they're not wanting all these new things here and everything.

And so um so just really something that came out to help open up the landscape to bring more people out here um in a way, coming through here and coming through Ward um that travelers could come through and maybe say, hey, maybe I'll stop in and develop uh my family there, develop my business there or something, because we certainly had Mr. Barstow coming out.

we had the Sittons who came out um for in Pyote so they opened a mercantile store and everything had a lot to do with the development of Pyote.

uh they didn't come by Butterfield that I know of, but it's still travelers coming out and then other people coming in the county developing.

[Music] - One thing about being in West Texas, you got to be tough.

Uh It doesn't rain enough uh it's dry and and it feels like a lot of years, just like this year, we've had not enough rain.

You have to make decisions on reducing your herd.

Uh You have to do things that you don't want to do to keep surviving, uh but you do.

You keep evolving.

You always had to be willing to evolve with with how much rain you're going to be blessed with or not be blessed with that year and And um you got to be flexible and you got to be tough.

[Angelo] We had to work pretty hard to get enough wood for the ranch and then for the branding pen you know, because it had wagon team go get it and course they been hold it forever, you know, [laugh] and it's pretty hard to go get a load of wood.

And to this day I always look at them piles of wood.

I would you know hell would you go load ten wagons.

[Laughter] - You know what?

Cotton was a very, very strong, vibrant crop from probably the early 1900s to the to the 1930s in in Ward County, especially in what they call the Pecos Valley that ran along the Pecos River.

And there was lots and lots of cotton farming.

And that is basically nonexistent now um because of, like I said, because of the lack of flow of the Pecos River mean restricted because of dams as well as a lack of the same moisture, I believe.

So - That I worked when Bill White uh was gonna lease the Edwards ranch And that was in 56 I guess And, yeah it was.

Uh.

Trade where we'd get them boys and the cattle.

Goofy for you.

Couldnt do nothing with them and so we gathered what we could and then went and roped tied and get the rest of them you know got em off of there.

And then I worked for Bill White for a long time there.

They were quite a good bunch of people.

But all the ranchers they they kinda half to gas they're having to be pretty good.

I was always being asked to help doing something.

[Laughter] but its been real.

know, this vest over here you know that pretty hard on cattle and horses but you sure didn't they were easy to get wild cause them sandcattle dont like to travel and they get the bush, you stand there and you have to go on.

And then you got a bunch of them That as soon as the see ya they go on for about 3 miles.

[Laughter] So it it's it's always something that one thing that old man Bill Vest always told me is that you've got to have more time than the cows got and you finally get it done.

[Laughter] [Jeppie] Um, the I think um SamAnne Vest, of course, our last name now is Watkins uh sweet people.

Theyre another family that blessed us.

In fact, the house that I grew up in for 16 years was right across the street from the Vest Ranch on B street no thats C Street, C Street.

I can remember Miss Vest now.

She would sit out there in their front porch because they used to live in that.

I mean, she was there.

She's gone on to really sweet them.

That lady is so nice that when we had a tornado here, people keep saying it was 77.

I think it was 78.

I may be wrong when we had the big tornadoes here, but she was so sweet.

She had several cowboy houses around the community because when the cowboy season came on, you know, in the and the Cowboys would come here with the big diesel trucks and cows galore.

I mean, there may have been like it felt like 10 to 12000 herd of cattle.

I mean, they were mooing all night and for the first couple of nights it would keep everybody awake.

But after a while, you got used to it that the third night you go to sleep with that.

Moo, moo, moo, moo, moo.

But anyway, when we had those tornados, she actually opened up our houses, [laughs] [Music] - I think what keeps you ranching is, is the love of it, in the love of lifestyle.

Um If you were going to get rich, you don't take ranching.

And we know that in this country, I think less than 2% of the population in agriculture in the United States nowadays.

So it's a choice of a lifestyle.

You can you can make a living at it.

Uh There's some really good years and there's some tough years and uh the fact that you get to do things that a lot of people dream of getting to do is what keeps you doing it.

I think it's something that everybody has a little bit of desire to be a cowboy in them, a little bit of adventure in them.

And when you get to do that a little bit every day, I think that that's worth more than money.

-Ward County has a certain tenacity that comes through adversity and diversity.

The economy has changed.

The county seat has been firmly planted in Monahans that has contributed to the growth of the community.

The Butterfield Overland Mail.

The discovery of a water well, the unwavering commitment to life in the West Texas desert has helped not only grow but form a beautiful community.

I'm Travis Sawyer.

Join me next time as we explore Monahans the Center of the Permian Basin.

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Travis] What makes Ward County and its communities unique Throughout the years, the county has had to adapt through the ups and downs of the West Texas desert.

Monahans has had its own history right from the beginning.

In 1881, with the digging of the water.

Well, as ranchers, farmers and business people set up shop right here in the Permian Basin, over the years, businesses have evolved with modern times, and so has our community.

I'm Travis Sawyer, your host for tonight's discussion on Monahans.

We're coming to you live from the Chamber of Commerce in Monahans Texas, with the generous support from the Monahans Chamber of Commerce, the City of Monahans, the Ward County Historical Commission.

This program is designed to interact with you, our viewers.

So if you have a question you would like to ask one of our panelists, please visit the Basin PBS Facebook page and we will do our best to answer your questions.

Tonight.

We have five very special guests who have played a central role in the creation of this program.

They are active community members who have graciously shared their stories and time to bring the conversation forward.

Tonight, I'd like to introduce our guests.

First, we have Teresa Burnett our Executive Director of the Monahans Chamber of Commerce.

We have Todd Hunt who's a fifth generation Ward County rancher.

We have Camilla Blum, a lifelong Monahans resident and real estate agent.

We have Rex Thee who is our the city manager for the city of Monahans.

And then we have Judge Greg Holly, who's the Ward County judge.

- Welcome, everyone.

Teresa, I want to start with you first.

So how did this project come about and why is it important now to preserve these stories?

[Teresa] Well, about a year ago, uh I got the honor and privilege of attending a documentary in Midland about Midland and their heritage in their cultures.

While I was sitting there reviewing this and everything, all I could think about was, you know, this is something that Monahans needs to do.

Uh, we have so much history here.

We have so many traditions that we need to keep going.

Uh We need to emphasize how resilient our our community is, how we've gone through the ups and downs of the oil and gas industry, how we've gone through the the drought in the floods of the ranching industry.

Uh.

We've already lost so many good people in our community that have added to what makes Monahans the best it can be.

That keeps us growing and and surviving through all of the ups and downs that we have.

And I just feel like that that history is so much an important part of a community surviving.

So um I approached the right people in the community, let's do this.

And everybody was on board.

And here we are today.

- I think we could all agree that um just watching that first episode, you think you know everything, but you learn new things every time you hear somebody talk that's been around.

So that's that was a great introduction to that.

Um What are some of the things you would like the viewers to take away from watching the show?

- I I just want them to know that we really are a great county.

We're a great community.

Um Basically, we all work together for the good of this community.

Um, one of the strengths that we have even today is how well that all of us work together.

You know, our county, our city, our economic development, our chamber, our business people, our leaders, and all of the organizations.

We all work together very well.

We come together to make things work for the betterment of not only our community, but also the region.

You know, the Permian Basin is important to us and we're important to the Permian Basin so that everything that we do reflects and makes us just stronger as an area.

- Great.

Great.

Thank you, Teresa.

Um Judge Holly, I'm going to bounce to you next on this.

Uh.

We share a passion for for history.

Uh We've shared book titles and podcast uh and discuss those together.

Um.

Why is it important to not only share stories of the past, but to document them in some way?

[Greg] Well, we we do love history.

Uh, and, um, you know history is important um, recorded history is important because, you know, oral history um is is very quickly lost um over a generation or two Um, you know, if you think about um things that your grandparents told you that your grandparents told you and there are times you think, well, I just you know, I wish I could remember that that story or I wish I could remember what he said or she said.

And and that oral history is really important.

Um.

But to preserve that history and make that history available uh for future generations is important.

Um, it's important for them to be able to enjoy.

Um, and it's also important for them uh to learn from for us to learn from as we we read history, and we enjoy reading that history and we learn from it, and so preserving that good documented history is is really important.

- Yes, it absolutely is.

Um, Rex, you're up next.

Um, I'm going to direct this question to you.

So what is the value of preserving these stories and memories and and how do we become good stewards of those?

[Rex] Well I think the easy answer is to just quote Winston Churchill, that those that don't study history are failed to repeat it uh if they don't learn from it.

But uh for us, it's I think it's more Um the history that people themselves have with the people they interact with is more important than in the end than the history of the big picture, world history, national history, and all of the wars and intrigues and those types of things.

In the end, it comes down to the history of those individuals that stepped up and did things that created communities and keep those community going, um and uh especially the people who live like here in Monahans and those people that have lived here and the people that will live here, they need to take away with them and tell those stories and record them in writing or or in some other means such as this, um what they are doing now to make things better, what they are doing now, to live life and prosper, um both materially and spiritually uh in a in a setting that is a community.

And uh in the end, I think that's where recording history and preserving it and having your memories to pass on is most important.

[Cough] - Yes, absolutely.

And and in one thing and we'll discuss this later on uh in the segment, but uh the the value of a Ward County museum and what has been put together at that compound, uh, just to gather it all together, we have something very special, very special there.

Uh, Todd, your family roots go back a long time in Ward County and the area.

Uh Can you talk to us about what brought your family to West Texas and what has kept you here?

[Todd] Well, I am fifth generation Ward County, but it's not the way that most people think.

[Clears throat] Most people think it's through the Hunt side But actually, from my mother's side, through the Browns, they moved here in 1890, to Grand Falls to to farm.

And um and they have been around Grand Falls and then they moved into Pecos County to farm and then my on [Clears throat] my dad's side.

They moved here in the early fifties and were able to acquire the ranch that we're on uh, over the years.

Uh, but but my family's been here a long time and and I guess basically agriculture in some way initially and farming and then and ranching now has held us here through the years and uh um maybe we were too broke to leave before.

I don't know why we stayed all this time, but but been a blessing uh to be here and get to be part of part of this community and part of the agriculture community, because there's so many good people uh in this community um that you couldn't be in a better place.

So - Yes, yes.

And just as Mr. McAnally had spoke uh in the episode we get to watch, it's not easy.

Uh, and it's you know, it was really hard.

At least, you know, things have changed, um Your neighbors, other ranching families, um have you seen that, you know, its changed over time uh, what what have you seen in that industry here?

- You know what, there there has been there's been some ranchers that have been here a whole lot longer than our ranches have.

But but there has been a lot of changes and some ownership, too.

And and Mr. McAnally has seen a whole lot of them.

He's one of our living legends, and I don't say that lightly, um But anyway, there there's been like the Vest have been here since basically the county started.

I know down in the part where we ranch, the Esteses is owned almost all of that land down in that area, and now all of that has been broken up into separate ranches.

Out further uh West.

You know, you had the Wilsons and and the Thorntons came in and then and then further West there was others.

Um But anyway, there's some, you know, locally, Edwards have been here a long time.

Uh, there's some folks that have still been here a long time that are still ranching.

The Gates have been ranching a good while um the heritage continues.

It's it's really neat to see it continue on.

And I'm proud to say the sixth generation on our in our families now running the ranch and I'm proud of that.

So - Yeah, that's you know, it it seems that when you get further West in West Texas um the agriculture's is the roots of the community.

Even though, you know, the times have changed, that's still the the roots of it that that hold the community together and kind of show the heritage of what we have here.

Carmilla, your turn.

[Camilla] My turn [Laugh } [Clears throat] - So this this community has some very special people.

There was one uh very special person that uh you knew.

Domino.

Tell us Domino story and what made him so special to Monahans.

[Camillia] [Clears throat] Well, of you know I was raised on the railroad.

My dad was the agent, and we lived in an apartment on top of the depot.

And there really weren't too many places for children to play.

So Domino was a sort of a babysitter.

He was um a very great he was a gentleman to all of us.

And uh he helped us learn that there is a different culture here.

And he would get the mail off the trains and he would put it in the baggage cart and he would take my brother and I in that baggage cart all the way to the post office and all the way back.

And he was just a friend to everybody in town.

I think the school on the North side, originally the black black school was the name for him.

He was just a wonderful man and one day my dad came in and told Mom, don't let the kids go downstairs because Domino had passed away in the front of the depot and he was his picture for many, many years was in the First State Bank.

And after that, I think it was at the courthouse for a few years.

And then now I think it's out at the Million Barrel.

But he was a wonderful gentleman.

He taught us all a lot how to live together peacefully.

- Thank you for sharing that.

Um, and that was a great way to to honor his legacy by naming the school and then some of the the paintings that were put up around town as well.

Uh Camilla You said that your family came to the area via the railroad.

Um, how important was the rail system to the area and how is it helped with the growth of the community?

- Well I kind of believe back at that time that the Texas spefi Texas and Pacific Rail Railroad was like Amazon for Ward county, because everything that anybody got came through the Texas Pacific Railway.

And so it was very important to the community and it Christmas we never saw our dad because the mailboxes were full of Christmas cards, Christmas letters and that was the only way that anybody got anything in town was through the railroad.

Now, in 1955, the railroad burned down and they were going to rebuild the railroad.

And they did rebuild it out of asbestos so it wouldn't burn down again.

But uh we lived there 19 years.

And at the end of that time, my dad retired and they just they took down the railroad.

But the baggage cart, baggage room, they cut it off and it's on Todd's ranch.

So he has part of the depot at his ranch.

- That's [Laughter] another thing that probably most of us did not know.

Thank you for sharing that.

[Laughter] Uh Todd and Camilla, I believe y'all are the only two panelists up here that are born and raised in Ward County.

Uh.

Tell us about how it was growing up.

[Laughter] - Well, I was raised in Reeves County.

I mean, I was born in Pecos, so anyway.

- Well, I wouldn't admit - I was born and brought over here when I was 18 months old, to live at the depot.

But back then, you could just do anything.

I mean, kids could run the streets.

You could walk anywhere you wanted to.

You weren't afraid of your parents were not afraid for you to go to town and spend your money at Whackers or whatever it was over there.

And it was just uh it was just a nice place to grow up because you weren't afraid of, you know, you could go downtown and you could go to the movie, go anywhere, and your parents didn't worry.

They know you'd be home sometime, or they could call somebody that would know where you had been.

It was just a very relaxed time.

- It was it was really [cough] really good out there.

I I grew up halfway between Grand Falls and Monahans on the ranch and went to school in Grand Falls.

So I was a little nervous when it came time come to Monahans and drive, you know, that was the big town I was coming to.

So um but it was really good.

People were good.

It was a a really laid back atmosphere.

That's the one thing I noticed the difference with our economic boom that we've experienced.

Um.

You used to get get out on the back road and kind of drive and teach your kid to drive and learn to drive on those back roads.

And he better be paying attention.

Now, you might get run over by a sand truck.

- Thats right.

- But but it's been good.

- It's been really good.

- Good, good.

Thank you for sharing that as well.

Um What do you think?

And this is open to anybody, uh, but what do you think it is that keep people here?

- The people keep the people here.

- I agree.

- That's one thing that you can always count on in this county, in this town.

When somebody needs something, everybody shows up to help them.

- Yeah - and that's that's that's very beneficial in our area.

We don't have a lot of recreation, but we have friends we can count on.

- You know, one of the things that I noticed um and I've been here close to 30 years now, I guess, and so I'm kind of a newcomer.

But um [Laughter] um one of the things that I noticed even early on um were how many older people that I talked to in the church and in the community um who had a story that was similar in the story was that they had come here intending to stay for a very short time, you know, typically uh oil field related.

And they had planned to come for a year, come for two years or some short period of time.

And now here it was 50 years later, [Clears throat] you know, and they'd raise their kids here and and uh even ended up retiring here.

So I don't know that I could put my my thumb on the reason for that.

But but I kept hearing that story over and over uh again.

And and it's it's certainly played out.

- Uh, uh I agree, Judge um.

When I first came here 32 3 years ago, uh I was on my way somewhere else and I was lucky enough to grab a job pretty much out of uh college.

I went to Sol Ross State university, and um when I got here, I met uh uh, Walter Aber first and uh and he was just right away.

Uh Number one, you got to stay.

You're to love it here.

Number two, you got to buy insurance from me.

And I did both.

[Laughter] - But.

Uh.

But.

But the people are wonderful And I'll even say when I first moved here, the the police department was wonderful.

Even though I got a ticket [Laughter] the first night I was here for driving without my headlights and he didn't take uh my story and let me off of the ticket, which was a true story, that this is the biggest town I have ever lived in.

And it had streetlights and I didn't realize that my headlights were not on, but I got the ticket anyway.

And Judge Stricklin asked me what I was doing, and I told him that, uh well, I was driving with my headlights out.

Um, I didn't realize they were off.

So you're saying you're guilty?

And I had to admit, I guess that's what I'm saying.

So I did get a ticket and I paid my first ticket the first week I was in Monahans, but it didn't run me off because of the people.

- People - They, uh I've lived a lot of small towns, not a lot, uh but growing up, and you couldn't find any two or three people that were your friends, that were their friends, that were their friends.

And at Monahans, it was easy.

Everybody you knew introduced you to somebody else, and and it's still like that.

And that's why I'm still here.

- Good story Rex I like that.

Um Now we're going to jump to Judge.

Holly uh said that we'd circle back to the museum complex Um.

when people come to visit Monahans in Ward County.

The museum complex is is a great asset.

Can you tell us about the museum and what people can find there?

And what is your favorite part of the museum?

- Well, the you know, a lot of the credit uh for the museum goes to Ellen Friar who who you see on the video um having a real passion for for the museum and and the museum facility is is really a tremendous facility.

It is.

It is located at an historic location, that being the Million Barrel um, uh, um place where they had, uh you know, Million Barrel uh was the location where a a milli barrels of oil were originally intended to be stored.

So it in and of itself is is an uh historic location.

But but they're at the Million Barrel uh we have the Rattlesnake Bomber Base Museum, which celebrates and documents the history of uh the training of uh B-17 and B-29 pilots during um uh World War II Out in Pyote.

Um, we have the Holman House, which is an historic uh home from Monahans.

We have the Railcar Railroad Museum that uh houses some of what Camilla was talking about a moment ago, a Coca-Cola museum, just a variety of different things, community items, lifestyle items.

And so all of that is put together uh for a small town All of that is put together in a really nice facility, uh largely to Ellen's credit.

Um But um I guess my personal favorite is, is the Bomber Base Museum.

It's a it's a really well put together um collection of of that history in that time.

And are when when Pyote uh uh in Ward County was, you know, incredibly important to to the war effort.

So - Yes yes, thank you Judge Holly If you have not been to the museum complex in the Million Barrel, it's worth the trip about half a day, maybe just a little bit less to experience what all occurred.

And you'll youll be surprised.

Um, Teresa, uh We also have a state park in Ward County.

Um The significance of the Monahans Sandhills State Park to our, community uh and growth, tourism, um.

How big of an asset is that to Monahans?

- It's huge.

It's huge.

You know, we've had ups and downs with the Sandhill State Park as far as trying to keep a Superintendent here and everything.

We have one right now that absolutely loves this area.

And I know he's going to be here to stay.

Um The Visitor Center has completely gone through a complete remodel.

Uh New exhibits in there.

It was gutted.

Uh New restrooms and everything.

It's it's a really nice place.

They've even built a little outdoor um gazebo type thing.

We set up in there and we did a book reading.

A few weeks ago, um a gentleman had written a book about the Monahans in the Sandhills State Park, and he came to do that book reading, uh.

The the Park or, you know, it offers so many resources that people don't even realize there.

It brings a lot of uh scientists here.

You know, the sand, the the all the plants and the wildlife and everything that's here, the seeps that are out there.

Um Also, you know, it was a place where back in the the sand hills and it's hard to get to uh wagon trains came by.

There's still artifacts out there that they're finding in the sand.

Uh The Hemani Indians, um they were stationed out here.

That's this is their home.

Uh You'd find lots of Indian artifacts, arrowheads out there.

So the Sandhill State Park offers recreation, such as, you know, uh sledding, sand dune sledding, camping, um you know, kite festivals.

So it's its a great resource for Monahans.

- That's great.

Yes, it is.

And I mean, you can see the tourists, if you ever go and visit, you don't run into people from Monahans out there.

- No - it is people headed down the highway that stop and get to enjoy that.

Um kind of winding down here and I just wanted to end this with Judge Holly, looking back at what Monahans and Ward County uh look like when you first moved here versus what it has become today, what vision do you have on what it will look like in the next 50 years?

- Well, you know, the last 20, 30 years um and certainly the last 20 years, we've just seen such incredible growth um in in Ward County.

And and obviously thats largely due to the the um advances in technology in oil gas industry and the effects that that's had on on the uh the economy here.

And, you know, obviously that's going to continue to happen.

We would expect that that the communities had to deal with the ups and downs of of the oil and gas industry for for quite some time um and will continue to have to deal with that and deal with deal with growth as as we move forward.

But, you know, the good news is, um you know, everything back from what Todd's talking about um in in very early days in the county and the history of agriculture to um what we're hearing about and seeing in terms of the industry, um the people out here are resilient people.

Um, this is a difficult place to live.

It's a difficult environment in which to live.

There are a lot of challenges out here, but for some reason people come here and they stay.

And and what you end up finding are people who are resilient.

You find people who are independent.

You find people who are entrepreneurial.

You just find people, uh.

It seems to me that that just find ways to get things done, and and and that's great news for the future.

And I don't know what the future holds, but but I think that spirit remains, and I think that it bodes well for the future.

- Yes, I agree.

Uh.

Sorry to say that our time has come to a close.

Um, I would like to thank each of our panelists this evening for not only giving their time tonight, but sharing your heart for Monahans and Ward County.

I'd also like to thank the Monahans Chamber of Commerce, Ward County, Ward County Historical Commission, and the City of Monahans for their support on this project.

I'd like to thank our viewers for tuning in tonight to Basin PBS for part one of a four part docu series, Monahans Little City Big Stories.

Please tune each Thursday at 7 p.m. during the month of November for the next episode.

I'd also like to thank Basin PBS for their partnership with this docu series.

If you were not a member but would like to become one, please visit basinpbs.org for more information.

[Music] I'm Travis Sawyer.

Thank you and have a great night.

[Music]