Texline has a boundary story, but it runs the other way from what you'd guess. The town was established in 1888, when the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway bought land from the Capitol Freehold Land and Investment Company and put a division point right here against the New Mexico line - which is exactly where the name comes from. Nobody ever had to move it. What's crooked is the line itself. Back in 1859 a surveyor named Clark was sent out to mark the hundred and third meridian, and he missed, setting the boundary somewhere between two and a quarter and nearly four miles too far west of the true meridian. That error handed Texas a narrow strip of land it arguably never should have had, and Texline sits in it, along with Farwell, Bledsoe, Bronco and a piece of Glenrio. New Mexico has never entirely let it go. Its senate once passed a bill to fund a lawsuit in the United States Supreme Court to take the strip back. It didn't work. So Texline really is on the Texas line - just not the real one.
Texline exists because of logistics. When the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway pushed across the Panhandle, it bought land from the Capitol Freehold Land and Investment Company and, in 1888, built a division point here at the New Mexico border. That wasn't a random spot. Railroads ran in divisions - a stretch a locomotive could work before it needed water, fuel and servicing - and Texline was built to be that stop. The town went up fast. By the end of that same year it had a post office, a hotel, a depot and railroad shops. It picked up the Dallam County seat in 1891 and held it until 1903, when the county government moved down to Dalhart. And then the thing that made the town unmade it. The railroad shops were pulled out in 1923, and the population started sliding. Texline had incorporated in 1916, and it was still carrying about twenty-five businesses and several churches in 1940. It's a town that was built as a solution to a scheduling problem, and then outlived the problem.
Texline's history is marked by a territorial dispute between Texas and New Mexico. The town, along with others, was mistakenly placed within Texas due to a survey error in 1859 that set the border too far west of the intended 103rd meridian. Despite New Mexico's 1910 draft constitution stating the border should be on the 103rd meridian, the dispute over the strip of land, which includes valuable oilfields, has never been resolved. Today, Texline and the land in the strip are governed and taxed by Texas.
Colorado and Southern Railway
1898
The Colorado and Southern Railway Company was chartered in Colorado on December 19, 1898, and operated in Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. The company was formed on January 11, 1899, when the Colorado and Southern acquired the Union Pacific, Denver and Gulf Railway Company and the Denver, Leadville and Gunnison Railway Company, both formerly subsidiaries of the Union Pacific. In Texas, the Colorado and Southern controlled a rail system extending from Texline in Dallam County through Fort Worth and Dallas to Houston and Galveston, in addition to branches in the Panhandle , in the South Plains, and to Abilene. The Colorado and Southern system in Texas included ten railroads, of which eight were owned by the end of 1910. The oldest was the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway Company, which made direct connection with the Colorado and Southern at Texline. Other owned companies included the Wichita Valley Railroad Company, the Wichita Valley Railway Company, the Abilene and Northern Railway Company, the Stamford and Northwestern Railway Company, the Fort Worth and Denver Terminal Railway Company, the Wichita Falls and Oklahoma Railway Company, and a 50 percent interest in the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway Company. The Trinity and Brazos Valley also owned a 25 percent interest in the Houston Belt and Terminal Railway Company, the Galveston Terminal Railway Company, and one-eighth interest in the Union Terminal Company at Dallas. The Trinity and Brazos Valley was reorganized as the Burlington-Rock Island in 1930. The Texas properties were expanded during the late 1920s with the construction of the Fort Worth and Denver South Plains Railway Company and the Fort Worth and Denver Northern Railway Company. The Colorado and Southern also owned the Wichita Falls and Oklahoma Railway Company of Oklahoma, which was built in 1924. On August 7, 1951, the Fort Worth and Denver City was renamed the Fort Worth and Denver Railway Company, and, on June 13, 1952, it merged all of the Colorado and Southern properties in Texas with the exception of the Burlington-Rock Island. The Burlington-Rock Island was dissolved in 1965, with the Colorado and Southern's one-half interest merged into the Fort Worth and Denver. In December 1908 the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company purchased the Colorado and Southern, which, however, continued to operate as a separate company. On March 2, 1970, the Burlington was one of the railroads merged to form the Burlington Northern Railroad, and the Colorado and Southern was subsequently merged on December 31, 1981. See also BURLINGTON SYSTEM , BURLINGTON-ROCK ISLAND RAILROAD .
Its permanent water made it known at opening of 17th century as a great hunting ground alive with buffalo and mustangs. A cow camp before 1878. Since 1882, headquarters of XIT Ranch, once largest fenced ranch in the world consisting of three million acres. Exchanged for the construction of the State Capitol. Erected by the State of Texas 1936 (1936)
The Colorado and Southern Railway Company was chartered in Colorado on December 19, 1898, and operated in Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. The company was formed on January 11, 1899, when the Colorado and Southern…
You're driving through Texline, Texas, right on the state line! This town owes its existence to the railroad, specifically the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway, which built a division point here in 1888. It quickly…
Texline has a boundary story, but it runs the other way from what you'd guess. The town was established in 1888, when the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway bought land from the Capitol Freehold Land and Investment…
Texline exists because of logistics. When the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway pushed across the Panhandle, it bought land from the Capitol Freehold Land and Investment Company and, in 1888, built a division point…
Texline, TX · 1.9 mi
Texline's history is marked by a territorial dispute between Texas and New Mexico. The town, along with others, was mistakenly placed within Texas due to a survey error in 1859 that set the border too far west of the…
Prepare to be amazed by a touch of San Antonio magic right here in Clayton, New Mexico! Back in 1943, a local speculator named Bayliss Froman was so taken with the work of artist Dionicio Rodriguez in San Antonio that…
Hotel Eklund · 10.5 mi · Things to Do
An 1892 railroad hotel where cattle barons and outlaws ate in the same dining room.
Luna Theater · 10.5 mi · Things to Do
A 1916 movie house still screening films -- one of the oldest operating theaters in NM.
Clayton Railroad Depot · 10.5 mi · Things to Do
The Colorado and Southern depot that made Clayton a cattle shipping capital.
Black Jack Ketchum Hanging Site · 10.6 mi · Things to Do
The 1901 hanging went wrong -- the rope decapitated the outlaw.
Dust Bowl Memorial Union County · 10.6 mi · Things to Do
The 1930s buried fences in sand dunes 30 feet high. Half the county population fled.
Herzstein Memorial Museum · 10.6 mi · Things to Do
A free museum in an old church telling the story of Jewish ranchers on the high plains.
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Cimarron Cutoff Santa Fe Trail · 11.3 mi · Things to Do
The shortcut traders chose when in a hurry and willing to risk Comanche country.
On May eighteenth, nineteen thirty seven, a Texas highway minute order gave the name Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Highway to a chain of roads. The route started at the New Mexico state line at Texline and ran to…
Its permanent water made it known at opening of 17th century as a great hunting ground alive with buffalo and mustangs. A cow camp before 1878. Since 1882, headquarters of XIT Ranch, once largest fenced ranch in the…
Imagine crossing endless prairie, desperate for a sign you're on the right path. Rabbit Ear Mountain's distinctive twin peaks, just ahead, were *that* sign for countless travelers. This mountain served as a crucial…
