Dalhart, Texas

Dallam and Hartley Counties’ generally flat terrain, thermal activity, dry, clear skies and a local bond to purchase more than 3,000 acres of land southwest of Dalhart resulted in the opening of a training site during World War II. In May 1942, Dalhart Army Air Field [DAAF] (U.S. Army Air Forces Glider School [USAAF]) opened. While under construction the command’s temporary headquarters operated from a tent city in Amarillo. In Sept. 1942, cadets began arriving for training on the new Waco CG-4A “Hadrian” glider. Cadets honed their skills––takeoff, flight while in tow behind C-47s on 350 feet of nylon rope, holding position on a double tow & recovery techniques involving being snatched by a tow aircraft flying overhead––above the Texas panhandle. Cadets also learned infantry skills, as they were expected to serve as combat soldiers after landing. DAAF’s training mission changed in March 1943, when the glider school transferred to the South Plains Army Air Field (Lubbock). DAAF's new assignment became the training of B-17 bomber crews as replacements for losses suffered from sorties in the European theater of operations. Cadets flew training missions over practice target areas in the panhandle, while fighter aircraft cadets practiced bomber escort duty at two satellite fields––Aux. #1 (Hartley) & Aux. #2 (Dallam)––built in 1943. However, combat needs late in the war once again altered DAAF’s mission. By early 1944, America’s strategic bombing needs lay in the Pacific and several bombardment groups (B-29s) trained at DAAF for deployment in thePpacific. One of these, the 393rd Bomb Squadron, 504th Bombardment Group–– later selected by Col. Paul W. Tibbets, jr.–– served as the core of a unit trained to drop atomic bombs on Japan in 1945. Thus, in little more than three years, DAAF and Dallam & Hartley counties were all impacted by the evolving demands of the U.S. war effort. In Dec. 1945, DAAF closed bringing an end to the USAAF presence in Dallam & Hartley counties. TEXAS IN WORLD WAR II – 2009

Great Texas ranch of international fame. Payment made in an 1882 contract for the construction of granite capitol building in Austin. As contractors, some out-of-state investors (headed by the wealthy Chicago merchants, John V. and Senator C.B. Farwell) built the largest state capitol in North America and received in payment 3,000,000-acres of land. The grant, 200 miles long and of varying widths (enclosed later by a 6,000-mile barbed wire fence), extended from near site of present Lubbock to the Oklahoma line 40 miles north of here. It included land in counties of Bailey, Castro, Cochran, Dallam, Deaf Smith, Hartley, Hockley, Lamb, Oldham, and Parmer. Trail Boss Abner Blocker delivered first herd to Buffalo Springs in 1885 and scratched the "XIT" in corral dust with boot heel to design famous brand. Although its land was parcelled and sold, the XIT lives in Texas memories -especially here, 32 miles south of its Buffalo Springs headquarters. Dalhart holds an annual XIT reunion with rodeo and parade featuring a horse with an empty saddle, in honor of range riders of the past. Permanent tribute to XIT cowboys is this "empty saddle" monument, designed by western artist Bobby Dycke, dedicated in 1940. (1968)

Joseph Tyre Sneed, Jr., Panhandle rancher, one of three children of Joseph Tyre and Lillian (Beall) Sneed, was born on June 12, 1876, in Milam County. By 1879 his father had built up a substantial ranching operation based in Georgetown, Williamson County. The young Joe thus developed a keen interest in the cattle business, to which he devoted most of his life; he also became involved in banking. It was these interests that drew him to the Panhandle around 1900. He ran the Dalhart National Bank (later First National Bank) in Dalhart until 1904, when he became associated with the Amarillo National Bank. When the American Pastoral Company decided to liquidate its LX Ranch holdings in 1906, Sneed was one of the three-the other two were Robert Benjamin (Ben) Masterson and Lee Bivins to purchase those vast ranges. The story relates that just before making that investment, Joe Sneed, along with his younger brother John Beal and an uncle, made a preliminary inspection tour of the range in Moore County, south of Dumas. The uncle was all for his nephews' proposition until a severe dust storm blew through and lasted two days. Though he changed his mind, the Sneed brothers went ahead with the purchase. Shortly afterward, John Beal Sneed sold his interest in the spread to their father; later John Beal was one of the principals in the Boyce-Sneed Feud . Joe Sneed and his father built up and expanded their Panhandle acreage, on which they grazed steers exclusively until after the latter's death in 1912. Sneed then added cows and calves and became one of the first ranchers in the area to improve his herds with higher-grade cattle. For a brand he used the Pot Hook, or Tumbling A, which he had acquired in 1900 from W. H. Ingerton. As more land was made available, Sneed bought it up; gradually, he acquired portions of the old XIT Ranch domain in Dallam County in addition to his original Moore County holdings. His first headquarters was on Plum Creek, in the ranch's southern portion, but in 1918 he acquired an old three-room house from Lee Morrison, renovated it, and made it the permanent headquarters since it was more centrally located. Lew Haile served for years as foreman and later was a trustee of the Sneed estate. It was said that Sneed's cattle always brought a premium. He served as president of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and later served on its board of directors. With Lee Bivins, he organized the Amarillo Livestock Loan Association; he was also affiliated with the Texas Livestock Marketing Association. Sneed's wife, Bradley, was a widow who had three daughters from her first marriage; later they adopted another daughter, Elizabeth. In addition to the ranchhouse, the Sneeds maintained a residence on Harrison Street in Amarillo, where they attended the Polk Street Methodist Church. Sneed supported such charitable organizations as the Preventorium and the Childrens' Home in Amarillo, as well as Southwestern University in Georgetown. He was also an early member and chairman of the board of directors of Texas Technological College in Lubbock; a dormitory on the campus bears his name. In 1923–24 Sneed's fortune was enhanced even more with the discovery of natural gas deposits on his property. By 1936 he owned more than 200,000 acres in Dallam, Moore, and Hutchinson counties in the Texas Panhandle and also in Cimarron County, Oklahoma. Never in his life was he known to have sold any land. He died of a heart attack at his home in Amarillo on October 15, 1940, and was buried in Llano Cemetery in Amarillo. Subsequently Sneed's Panhandle ranching operations were carried on by his daughter, Elizabeth Sneed Pool Robinett, and her son, Joseph H. Pool.

(Jan. 10, 1887 - July 23, 1966) Chronicler of a unique era in the history of the Southwest. Born in Belton, Mo. At 17, taught school in Indian Territory (Okla.) In 1907, she married Robert L. Duke, a ranch hand who had risen to division manager of the XIT Ranch (then world's largest). In addition to ther own family, she "looked after" the 150 cowboys who worked the 3,000,000-acre spread. Kept a diary of everyday events in ranch life around her and successfully encouraged 81 others to do likewise. Thus was preserved an authentic account of a passing phase of American life -- the cowboy and his work. (1969)

Regina Tatum Cooke, painter and journalist, was born on August 22, 1902, in Corsicana, Texas, the daughter of Reese and Frances Hunter Tatum. She grew up in Dalhart, where her father was a district judge; her mother, a painter and homemaker, died when Regina was a child. At age fifteen Regina accompanied her father on a visit to Taos, New Mexico. She graduated from Dalhart High School as salutatorian of her class, and subsequently attended Ward-Bellmont Junior College, a girls' school in her father's home state, Tennessee. After graduating with honors she studied under the Swedish artist Birger Sandzen at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas. She also studied at Broadmoor Art Academy before receiving a bachelor's degree in art from Colorado College in Colorado Springs. She married and spent the next five years in Denver, where she bore a son and exhibited her work at the Denver Art Museum. After her divorce in 1930 she returned to Dalhart. Regina Cooke won prizes for works exhibited at the Tri-State expositions held in Amarillo in 1931-32. In 1933 the Dust Bowl prompted her to move to Taos, which became her permanent home. There she studied with Walter Ufer for two years and was heavily influenced by his realistic depiction of colorful southwestern subjects. She worked in the Regionalist style popular at the time, painting landscapes featuring the Rockies of Colorado and the mountains of New Mexico and Texas. She also painted still lifes of arrangements that typically might include garden flowers, pottery, or Indian and Mexican art objects. Cooke received several commissions from the WPA. She painted a series of reconstructions of Southwestern missions, later published in Mission Monuments of New Mexico (1943); she also painted the landscape backgrounds for a series of dioramas now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Art in Santa Fe. During the war years she taught art in several schools in southern California. Upon her return to Taos in 1948, Cooke began her career as chronicler of the arts at the Taos Star , where she was the society and arts editor. She subsequently worked at El Crepúsculo de la Libertad before she became arts editor at the Taos News in 1959. For years Cooke reported on art events in Taos, building up a vast reserve of knowledge on its art community. She was not just an observer, however, but a participant who helped to found the Taos Art Association in 1952 and served as its first secretary. She also started the Taos municipal schools' art collection in 1948 and helped to found the Taos Little Theater. Cooke won more than 100 state and national newspaper awards for her articles. In 1969 she received the New Mexico Press Women's Woman of Achievement Award, and in 1987 the Taos Press Women established an award in her name to recognize women who have contributed most to the arts in New Mexico. Cooke continued to write a weekly column for the Taos News and submit occasional articles to Southwest Art after her retirement in 1971. She died on September 3, 1988. Her work is included in the collections of the Museum of New Mexico and the Museum of Fine Art, both in Santa Fe.

Dalhart, the county seat of Dallam County, straddles the border of Dallam and Hartley counties in the northwest corner of the Texas Panhandle. The original settlement was platted early in 1901 by W. J. Blair and Charles W. Thornton when the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway built west from Liberal, Kansas, and crossed the Fort Worth and Denver City line. The site of the crossing was known for a time as Twist Junction. J. H. Conlen supervised the laying of the Rock Island tracks and made an old boxcar into a section house on the site. Later the settlement was named Denrock, a combination of the names of the two railroads; in 1901 Robert B. Edgell named his new newspaper the Denrock Sun . But when postal authorities objected, the town adopted the name Dalhart, combining the first syllables of the names of the two counties in which it is located. On June 11, 1901, Ora D. Atkinson and other promoters incorporated the Dalhart Town Company, and the first and only sale of lots was held on July 20. Dalhart was incorporated as a town on May 6, 1902, and as a city on April 6, 1904. It replaced Texline as Dallam county seat, as a result of an election on February 21, 1903. From that time on, Dalhart quickly grew as a shipping center for the XIT Ranch and other area ranches. The activities of the W. P. Soash Land Company also contributed significantly to Dalhart's progress. C. E. Williams, a noted well driller, built the town's first water tower in 1906. Previously, it had been necessary to buy water at twenty cents a barrel from barrels lining the railroad tracks. By 1912 Dalhart had a population of 3,500. The two railroad lines, which erected machine shops, roundhouses, and a lever control tower, contributed to the town's prosperity, and Dalhart played a major role in establishing the Enid, Ochiltree and Western and other small railways. In addition, it had three banks, a flour mill, a large grain elevator, a planing mill, a modern utilities system, a hospital, an ice plant, several hotels and churches, and a high school athletic program serving an ever-expanding agricultural area. When oil companies began drilling in the Panhandle , Dalhart was among the first towns to sell oil leases. The Dallam County Public Library, the first county library in Texas, opened for circulation in January 1921. Dalhart's population was further increased with the development of its East Heights addition in 1928. During the drought years of the 1930s Dalhart was notorious for its "black dusters" ( see DUST BOWL ). R. S. (Uncle Dick) Coon, a wealthy businessman who owned the DeSoto Hotel, became legendary for his generosity to depression-stricken farmers and cowboys. In August 1934 Dalhart became the site of one of the first three erosion-control demonstration projects in Texas, sponsored by the federal land bank, and the first to be devoted specifically to wind erosion. The Work Projects Administration and National Youth Administration also had chapters in Dalhart. Dalhart Army Air Field was established about two miles southwest of town. In 1990 Dalhart remained an agribusiness center for a wide area of Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. In addition to cattle feedlots, a bottling plant, and feed and meat processing plants, Dalhart is noted for its schools, hospital, and nursing home. The Dalhart Texan has served as the area newspaper since December 11, 1902. The Rock Island shops continue to help furnish the city's payrolls. Three U.S. highways, 87, 385, and 54, converge at Dalhart. Since 1936 Dalhart has been the home of the XIT Ranch Reunion and Rodeo, held in August. It was the XIT Reunion Association that built the landmark Empty Saddles monument and later established the XIT Museum. Another community event is the annual Railroad Week. Two miles south of Dalhart is Rita Blanca Canyon, site of Rita Blanca Lake. The city's population increased from 5,899 in the 1950s to 6,854 in the 1980s. In 1990 it was 6,246, and in 2000 it was 7,237.