White Deer Land Museum
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Welcome
    • History
    • Location
    • Volunteer
    • Donate
  • Exhibits
  • Eloise Lane Articles 1-100
    • Articles 1 - 20 >
      • About Eloise Lane
      • The "White Deer" Name
      • The Log House
      • Obtaining The Land
      • The Lands Organized
      • Cattle Brands Tell Story
      • Ghosts And All . . .
      • Southern Kansas Railroad
      • Fire Guard Dam
      • When The Railroad Came
      • The Sutton RR Station
      • Post Office At Pampa
      • The Bell Family
      • J. C. Short
      • Pampa 1892-1902
      • Pampa Laid Out in 1902
      • Crystal Palace Founded
      • Gray County Organization
      • Organization - Continued
    • Articles 21 - 40 >
      • The "White Deer" Name
      • Gray County - Lefors
      • McLean - The Largest Town
      • Gouge Eye
      • The "Mother Road"
      • German Family Reunion
      • Desks From Hopkins
      • Grandview School Begins
      • The Oil Money
      • History Wall Painted
      • Boydston Or Boydstun?
      • Ontario???
      • Laketon - Early Farming
      • Laketon - Continued
      • First Couple To Marry
      • Hoover
      • Water Well Drilling
      • Kingsmills Visit Pampa
      • George Tyng Left
    • Articles 41 - 60 >
      • Tragedy In Utah
      • T.D. Hobart - Manager
      • M.K. Brown Arrives
      • Rider Livery Stable
      • The Pioneer Cottage
      • Pampa's First Doctor
      • Doctor Makes House Calls
      • A Red Cross Nurse
      • Pampa's First School
      • Hobart Went To London
      • Cemetery Began In 1904
      • First Business District
      • C.P. Buckler Arrives
      • Five Barrett Brothers
      • Influence Of The Santa Fe
      • Trains Still Roll
      • John V. Thomas - Teacher
      • Cattle-loading Center
      • Rolla J. Sailor & Arrowheads
      • A.H. Doucette Arrives
    • Articles 61 - 80 >
      • Lands Are Advertised
      • The Holland Hotel
      • Wheat Left Pampa
      • First National Bank Begins
      • Pampa News Begins
      • First Denominational Church
      • 2nd Office Of WD Lands
      • J.N. Duncan Arrives
      • Nels Walberg Sells. . .
      • Dormer Simms
      • Fourth Of July Celebrations
      • Pampa's First Cars
      • Pampa In 1907-08
      • J. S. Wynne Family Arrives
      • Gray County State Bank
      • Baptist Church Organized
      • Joe And Lizzie Bowers
      • Threatened By Prairie Fire
      • Library Began In 1907
      • J.R. Henry
    • Articles 81 - 100 >
      • Sir Gordan & Lady Cunard
      • Three Vicars Brothers
      • Dodd Grain And Produce
      • December 29, 1991
      • D.C. Davis Family
      • Long Christmas Celebration
      • First Christian Church
      • Facts About Pampa
      • Buster Brown
      • The Last Hanging
      • Bones Hooks
      • The "Red Brick" Is No More
      • The Purviances Family
      • The Dr. E. von Brunow Park
      • Boards Of 1st Headquarters
      • Mary Jane Purvis
      • Cook - Adams Addition
      • Nativity Scenes
      • Clyde Carruth
  • Eloise Lane Articles 101-200
    • Articles 101 - 120 >
      • The Mine Tragedies
      • Additions To Pampa
      • Third Family In Pampa
      • Frank Dittmeyer
      • Bricklayer Indian Jim
      • A.A. Tiemann
      • First Movies And Lights
      • Pampa Incorporated
      • Mark And Sara Fletcher
      • Annie Baker Daniels
      • Pampa's Business District
      • Birthday Tea Of 1919
      • Former Pampa Minister
      • John Mack Patton
      • The First Brass Band
      • Early Graduating Class
      • "How We Met"
      • F.P. Greever Is Assassinated
      • George Tyng's Father
    • Articles 121 - 140 >
      • L. H. and Lula Greene
      • John and Lena McKamy
      • Robert and Mary Yeager
      • "Dear Old PHS"
      • Supt. Believed in People
      • William A. and Ruth Greene
      • Jason A and Alice Poole
      • Wayside School
      • Pampa Football Begins
      • The Pampa School Building
      • Rev. C. E. Lancaster
      • Panhandle Lumber Co.
      • Will Wilks & Mora Hughey
      • An Unusual Valentine
      • Charles A. Tignor
      • O. A. Barrett
      • Poppies In Flanders Fields
      • Barnard & Williams Families
    • Articles 141 - 160 >
      • 4th of July Celebrations
      • Cuyler Street Underpass
      • The King Family
      • Kretmeier and Baer Families
      • Stephen B. Oates
      • Phebe Worley
      • Organization of Gray County
      • First Courthouse
      • Pampa Laid Out in 1902
      • Pampa in 1902
      • W. R. Kaufman
      • The Pampa Country Club
      • Living In Pampa in 1902
      • Pampa Buildings of 1902
      • May Foreman Carr
      • Scaffers - Early Residents
      • Nita Luna
      • Former Sub Debs Reminisce
      • PHS In 1932
    • Articles 161 - 180 >
      • PHS Appreciated
      • The Forth Worth and Denver
      • From Pampa to Childress
      • The Origination Of "Taps"
      • The Warners
      • J. C. Studer
      • Floyd, John and Otto
      • Our American Flag
      • Stories and Memories
      • Museum in Pampa?
      • The Franklin Farm
      • The Franklin Family
      • Beryl Wayne Vicars
      • Historian Made Cookies
      • The Pioneer Cottage
      • The Orginial Swastika
      • Library Clerk
      • Women's Clothing Store
    • Articles 181 - 200 >
      • Jon and Pat McConal
      • Whitey Walker Gang
      • How Rudolph Began
      • Gwendolen Avenue
      • Jerry Kerbow
      • Two Paintings
      • Second Part - Paintings
      • Bones Hooks
      • Original Nativity Figures
      • Why "V" Instead of "U"
      • Pampa Incorporated
      • Prairie Fires
      • Abert's "Day of Anxiety"
      • George Autry's "A Fable"
      • Girls Basketball
      • Thomas and Lard
      • Henry and Jenny Ledrick
      • C. J. Walstad
      • Ledrick and Walstads
      • Bert and Annie Lard
      • Peter Gray
      • H. H. and Kate Heiskell
      • The Story of Elsie (Lard) Hall

Influence Of The Santa Fe

Eloise Lane PhotoEloise Lane
The Southern Kansas Railway Company of Texas , Santa Fe subsidized and commonly known as the Santa Fe , constructed a roadbed from Miami to Panhandle City in 1887. The line did not operate trains, except for construction purposes, until January 15, 1888.

On that date the only thing that resembled a structure of any kind at the station designated as Glasgow (now Pampa ) was a boxcar intended to be used as an "open station." An "open station" is basically a station that is open for people to come in and take care of their business themselves.

Because of confusion with Glasgow , Kansas , railroad officials changed the name of the station to "Sutton" before August 15, 1888. Because freight shipments were mistakenly sent to Sutton County , Texas , railroad officials changed the name of the station to " Pampa " about February 1892.

Emily Case said that, in those early days, towns would have contests as to which town could catch the most snakes. The catchers would put the snakes on drying racks near the railroad so that the reptiles could be counted as the trains went by.

On May 26, 1898, George Tyng wrote: "The Southern Kansas Railway Company is having loaded here at Pampa , a steam engine, boiler and derrick for putting in a well and pumping station upon the success of which, it is said, other improvements will follow."

On July 2, 1900, Tyng wrote: "The Southern Kansas RR has put in a second well at Pampa where it maintains a steam pump and the largest storage tank on the line. It also has the largest and best section house and one of its best stock yards with every facility for rapid dispatch of large herds." (The section house at 315 West Atchison was moved in from another location.)

In June, 1901, Tyng wrote: "The railway company now has at Pampa two wells, steam pump, an unusually large steel reservoir, boiler house, small station, small house for the pumper, tool house with fenced yard and planted trees, and Thomas Lane has built a tidy cottage (? at 221 East Atchison ) to replace the one that burned."

When M.K. Brown came to Pampa in April, 1903, the depot consisted of two boxcars situated west of the present underpass on Cuyler Street .

In 1905 the Santa Fe built the first real depot in Pampa . According to Ed Langley of Amarillo , the building was 24 feet by 42 feet. Located near the cattle loading chute, the depot was between West Atchison (about the 101 block) and the railroad - on the west side of Cuyler Street . The depot, which served the Wells Fargo Freight Company as well as the Santa Fe Railway Company, was destroyed by fire in 1914.

In 1908 the Santa Fe rebuilt its entire line to Panhandle and on into Amarillo . The White Deer Land Company had to give additional right-of-way for the part of the line that crossed the property of the land company. The Santa Fe then abandoned its tap line that had been constructed in 1888 to connect the Santa Fe at Panhandle with the Fort Worth and Denver at Washburn.

Also in 1908, the Santa Fe built a coal chute on the railroad near present 417 West Atchison . The 85-foot black wooden structure was used to coal up many locomotives back in days when wheat was Pampa 's principal resource.

When the railroad began using oil burning locomotives in the early 1920s, use of the coal chute was discontinued. It remained unused until 1938 when the structure was purchased by a private citizen who had the structure torn down.

The families of T.D. Hobart, J.E. Chapman and J.N. Duncan were among those who lived in the area of North Somerville and West Foster in early days. Wade Duncan and others (perhaps including Berton Doucette, Wilks Chapman and Paul Schneider) liked to climb to the top of the the coal chute. They claimed that they could see the town of White Deer from that vantage point.

A train wreck near the present Pampa News building (403 West Atchison ) caused great excitement sometime in 1910. Wade Duncan joined nearly everyone in Pampa in picking up fruit that had spilled from the overturned cars.

Between the years 1886 and 1914, the Santa Fe built a fabulous railroad empire in the Panhandle and South Plains of Texas . This was done by purchase, by piecemeal construction of segments of track, and by putting together the segments as purchased and constructed.

In 1914 several Santa Fe lines of Texas were incorporated under one name---the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway Company. That spring the Santa Fe used an average of fifteen steam locomotives to handle one transcontinental passenger train between Chicago and Los Angeles.

Previous Article
Next Article
Home | About Us | History | Location | Exhibits | Volunteer | Donate

116 S Cuyler St | Pampa, TX 79065 | Phone (806) 669-8041 | Fax (806) 250-2185

Website Design by TechnicalLee
✕