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Grandfalls, Texas

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Rivers & Roads in Song near Grandfalls

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Grandfalls.

Pecos River 12 songs Interstate 20 13 songs Interstate 10 36 songs

History of Grandfalls

Engineering an Oasis RoadyGoat

The existence of Grandfalls is an engineering marvel. In the late 1880s, settlers looked at the dry Chihuahuan Desert and the muddy Pecos River and devised a plan. Two brothers-in-law, R. I. Carr and J. T. Sweatt, threw a brush dam across the river above the great falls, powered their cotton gin off the drop, and cut canals to pull water out of the river valley and onto the arid plains. A flood tore the dam out, so they rebuilt it with mules and plows and pushed the canals farther. About two decades later they did it again, only bigger: around 1912 Imperial Reservoir was built upstream on the Pecos to feed the Imperial Canal and keep water in the ditches through a dry season. That system turned the desert green and grew cotton, alfalfa, and eventually cantaloupe. The Pecos had the last word — its salty water slowly poisoned the soil, and crops up and down the valley failed. Still, it was a remarkable application of engineering that let a community exist, for a time, in one of the most inhospitable climates imaginable.

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The Lost Falls of the Pecos RoadyGoat

The town of Grandfalls is named for a landmark most people passing through have never seen. When settlers arrived in the late 1880s, they found a stretch of the Pecos about three miles west of here where the river tumbled over rock ledges — not one great cataract but a long churning run of rapids that made a roar you could hear from the flats. They called the upper falls the Grand and the lower ones the Great, and the falls were more than scenery: R. I. Carr and J. T. Sweatt threw a brush dam above the lower falls and used the drop to power their cotton gin. Then the river took it back. A flood in 1894 demolished the raceway, destroyed the dam, and cut the Pecos an entirely new channel. Carr and Sweatt rebuilt and dug new canals to spread the water onto their fields. Since 1936 the Pecos through here has run on a schedule set a hundred miles upstream at Red Bluff Dam, released to the irrigation districts below. The falls that named the town belong now to old photographs and to the sign you're driving past.

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Grandfalls, TX RoadyGoat

The town of Grandfalls, Texas, owes its name to its proximity to the 'grand falls' of the Pecos River. This natural landmark serves as a distinguishing feature of the area and is the inspiration behind the town's name.

Butterfield Overland Stage Line

1858

One of the longest stage routes ever established, the Southern Overland Mail Line (Butterfield Route) which provided semi-weekly service St. Louis to San Francisco, 1858-1861. Followed substantially the route of this highway through Ward County.

Historical Marker →

Red Bluff Dam and Reservoir

1934

Red Bluff Reservoir is on the Pecos River in Reeves and Loving counties, forty-five miles north of Pecos (at 31°54' N, 103°55' W). It extends into Eddy County, New Mexico, and takes its name from red bluffs along the river. T. A. Ezell became interested in constructing a dam at the site in 1905, but it did not materialize. Ten projects were diverting water from the Pecos by 1914, and the West Texas Reclamation Association was formed to study possibilities. In 1916 The Pecos Valley of Texas Water Users Association filed a petition with the United States Secretary of the Interior requesting aid for a reservoir. A new organization, the Red Bluff Water Improvement District, developed plans to include lands from Red Bluff to Grandfalls, Texas. The water users' contract was approved in 1920, and surveying started in 1921. Agreement between Texas and New Mexico provided for construction in 1924. President Calvin Coolidge approved the plan in 1926. Seven water districts were combined into the Red Bluff Water Control District in 1927. The Public Works Administration approved the loan in October 1934, bonds were sold to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, construction was then started, and the dam was completed by September 1936 at a cost of $2 million. Water use started in 1937. The drainage area of the reservoir is 20,720 square miles, with usable storage of 307,000 acre-feet. The dam is an earthfill type, 9,200 feet long, 102 feet high at the river, and 25 feet wide at the top. The reservoir is used for irrigation of 145,000 acres and for two hydroelectric units with a combined capacity of 2,300 kilowatts. The lake covers the historic sites of Camp Pope and Pope's Crossing , a stagecoach stop and ford of the nineteenth century.

Tsha Handbook →

Water Improvement District #2

1896

Water Improvement District No. 2 office. Built 1896 by promoters of irrigated farming. Community Center. (Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1966.)

Historical Marker →

Grandfalls Union Church

1910

Built by three Protestant groups, 1910. First church building in town founded 1897. (Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1966.)

Historical Marker →

Imperial, TX (Pecos County)

1910

Imperial is at the intersection of Farm roads 1053 and 11, four miles south of the Pecos River and twenty-eight miles northeast of Fort Stockton in northern Pecos County. It may have been known as Redlands from 1908 until around 1910 but was apparently renamed for the Imperial Valley of California when a post office and school were established there in 1910. In 1911 a townsite was laid out for the owner of the property, Benjamin E. Bush. Water was diverted from the Pecos River, and a dam was built to form the Imperial Reservoir, eight miles west of the community. An irrigation canal was constructed through Imperial in an effort by land promoters to attract buyers. Water rights were given to buyers, but high saline levels, a declining water supply, and low profits made farming unproductive. In 1925 Imperial had a population of twenty-five. The town had eleven rated businesses and a population of 250 in 1949. By 1968 the population was nearing 1,000, and the town supported twenty-six businesses. However, by 1986 the population had fallen to 720, and only twelve businesses remained. In 1990 the population was still recorded as 720. The population dropped to 428 in 2000.

Tsha Handbook → · 10.7 mi away

Things to Do in Grandfalls

nature 19.4 mi away
Monahans Sandhills State Park

Four thousand acres of active sand dunes in the middle of the West Texas desert. The dunes are still moving -- wind pushes them several feet a year and the…

Everything Near Grandfalls

30 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

  • Red Bluff Dam and Reservoir · Tsha Handbook

    Red Bluff Reservoir is on the Pecos River in Reeves and Loving counties, forty-five miles north of Pecos (at 31°54' N, 103°55' W). It extends into Eddy County, New Mexico, and takes its name from red bluffs along the…

  • Grandfalls, TX · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Grandfalls, a town born from the power of the Pecos River. Back in the late 1800s, settlers were drawn to this spot, not just for the water, but for the dramatic upper falls. Farmers R.I. Carr and…

  • Water Improvement District #2 · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    Water Improvement District No. 2 office. Built 1896 by promoters of irrigated farming. Community Center. (Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1966.)

  • Grandfalls Union Church · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    Built by three Protestant groups, 1910. First church building in town founded 1897. (Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1966.)

  • Engineering an Oasis · 0.4 mi

    The existence of Grandfalls is an engineering marvel. In the late 1880s, settlers looked at the dry Chihuahuan Desert and the muddy Pecos River and devised a plan. Two brothers-in-law, R. I. Carr and J. T. Sweatt, threw…

  • The Lost Falls of the Pecos · 0.4 mi

    The town of Grandfalls is named for a landmark most people passing through have never seen. When settlers arrived in the late 1880s, they found a stretch of the Pecos about three miles west of here where the river…

  • A Six-Man Football Dynasty · 0.4 mi

    In Texas, football is a way of life, and in a town the size of Grandfalls that means six-man football. For schools too small to field eleven, this wide-open, high-scoring version of the game becomes the center of…

  • Grandfalls, TX · 0.4 mi

    The town of Grandfalls, Texas, owes its name to its proximity to the 'grand falls' of the Pecos River. This natural landmark serves as a distinguishing feature of the area and is the inspiration behind the town's name.

  • Butterfield Overland Stage Line · 1.6 mi · Historical Marker

    One of the longest stage routes ever established, the Southern Overland Mail Line (Butterfield Route) which provided semi-weekly service St. Louis to San Francisco, 1858-1861. Followed substantially the route of this…

  • Royalty, TX · 2.3 mi

    The local industry in Royalty was heavily influenced by oilfield activity, which at one point, saw the community's population peak at 750 in 1940. However, as the oilfield activity declined, the population also fell,…

  • Imperial, TX (Pecos County) · 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Imperial is at the intersection of Farm roads 1053 and 11, four miles south of the Pecos River and twenty-eight miles northeast of Fort Stockton in northern Pecos County. It may have been known as Redlands from 1908…

  • Trooper Billy Jack Zachary Memorial Highway · 16.5 mi · Historical Marker

    Interstate Twenty on the east side of Monahans, from mile marker eighty to mile marker eighty two, is named for Trooper Billy Jack Zachary. On New Year's Day, two thousand six, Zachary had two vehicles stopped on the…

Show all 30 nearby places
  • The Tank That Couldn't Hold Oil · 16.9 mi

    If you have a moment, you should see one of the strangest landmarks in Texas: the Million Barrel Museum. Its centerpiece is a colossal concrete tank built in 1928 by Shell Oil. During the frantic oil boom, pipelines…

  • Surfing the Texas Desert · 16.9 mi

    Just outside of town lies a landscape that feels more like the Sahara than Texas. Monahans Sandhills State Park protects 3,840 acres of sand six miles northeast of Monahans - and that is only a small piece of a dune…

  • An Engineering Failure in the Sand · 16.9 mi

    The Million Barrel Tank, now a museum, is a powerful lesson in civil engineering. Built in 1928 by Roxana Petroleum - later absorbed by Shell - it was meant to solve a logistics problem: where to put the flood of…

  • The Rattlesnake Bomber Base · 16.9 mi

    During World War II, the skies west of Monahans roared with the sound of B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-29 Superfortresses. Just 20 miles down the road near the town of Pyote, the military built a massive training…

  • The Toughest Town on the Pecos · 17.2 mi

    The West Texas oil boom that made this corner of the map arrived in 1926, when the Hendrick oilfield opened and Ward County went from empty to crowded almost overnight. Pipelines and railroad loading tanks went up at…

  • Engineering the Boom's End · 17.2 mi

    The oil that built this corner of West Texas came out of the Hendrick field, and the way it was produced is a hard lesson in reservoir engineering. The oil sat in porous limestone, and beneath it lay water under…

  • Monahans, TX · 17.7 mi

    Monahans' history as a community extends back to the late 1880s with the expansion of the Texas and Pacific Railway across the South Plains. The building of a transcontinental railroad through the area meant the arrival…

  • Holman House · 17.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Holman House, built around 1910 by early Monahans settlers Jas. R. and Mrs. Holman. "Dad" Holman ran a local business empire, but his son, Eugene Holman, became a titan of industry. Eugene rose…

  • Million Barrel Tank · 17.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Million Barrel Tank, a colossal oil storage facility built by Shell Oil in 1928. This massive tank covered eight acres and could hold over a million barrels of crude oil, though it…

  • Taming the Sour Gas · 18.0 mi

    Wickett exists because of what comes up out of the ground alongside the oil. This was a railroad switch called Arroya back in 1881, nothing more. Then the Hendrick field opened in 1926, an oil discovery followed in…

  • Wickett, TX · 18.0 mi

    Wickett sits high on the plains, a little over half a mile above sea level. The air is thin and dry, and the sky stretches on forever, a vast, pale blue bowl. This is Permian Basin country, a land sculpted by ancient…

  • Trooper Billy Jack Zachary Memorial Highway · 18.0 mi · Historical Marker

    Honors TX DPS Trooper Billy Jack Zachary, killed on New Year's Day 2006 when struck by a passing vehicle during a traffic stop on I-20 in Ward County near Monahans.

  • Christ The King Catholic Church_Sands Art Center · 18.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Christ the King Catholic Church, which began in the mid-1920s with services held in homes. A donation in 1938 allowed construction of this building. Though the congregation moved in…

  • The River Even the Army Warned About · 18.3 mi · Historical

    Here is a warning about the Pecos River, from Captain Randolph Marcy's eighteen fifty-nine guidebook The Prairie Traveler. Marcy was the army's expert on crossing the American West, and he had one line about this river…

  • Ward County · 18.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Ward County, Texas, formed from Tom Green County in 1887 and organized in 1892. It's named for Thomas William Ward, a man who served as Commissioner of the General Land Office and as a U.S. consul…

  • Monahans Sandhills State Park · 19.4 mi · Things to Do

    Four thousand acres of active sand dunes in the middle of the West Texas desert. The dunes are still moving -- wind pushes them several feet a year and the…

  • Monahans Sandhills State Park and Museum · 19.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the Monahans Sandhills, a landscape that's been a crossroads for thousands of years. Primitive peoples hunted here as early as 10,000 years ago, and later, tribes like the Jumanos and Apaches…

  • Monahans Sandhills · 19.6 mi · Natural Landmark

    Drive west of Odessa and the landscape turns into something that belongs in the Sahara. The Monahans Sandhills are a field of active sand dunes stretching across the West Texas desert, some rising 70 feet high, bright…

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