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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) |
