Putting up peaches brings back memories

by Delbert Trew

...The mention of peaches brings to mind a story from 1951 on the old Griffin/Trew Ranch in the old rock house at the headquarters on Rana Creek. The late Jack Buxton of Logan, N.M., and I were single, batching cowboys — big men with big appetites and somewhat limited in cooking expertise. We could cook meat, biscuits, pinto beans and gravy. Though we both had “sweet teeth,” we were deficient in sweet recipes and the necessary ingredients to concoct.

With the screw worm season in full swing, we left before daylight, riding one horse and leading another and with saddle bags filled with screw worm dope, not leaving room for lunch of any size. We returned each evening late as tired cowboys riding sweating horses. The missed lunch had our backbones rubbing against the front lining of our empty stomachs. That evening meal became the high point of the day.

My mother devised a recipe even cowboys could produce. It called for a certain size Bisquick box and a certain size sack of sugar, all mixed and poured into a big pan. Last came a gallon of store-bought sliced peaches. She called it an upside-down cobbler; because of the size, we called it “super cobbler.” Just place the mixture into a preheated oven and miraculously, the crust rose to the top and browned. To the best of my memory, Jack and I ate one of these about every five days all summer and appreciated every bite.

As a growing boy of 17, I credit the super cobbler with saving my life several times. Many an afternoon, as I watched the sun slowly creep across the New Mexico sky, I called upon my vision of the super cobbler to restore my energy enough to get back to the house and unsaddle my tired horse.

I offer this salute to my mother and that grand desert.

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Firewood stories abound in history

by Delbert Trew

I would guess that since man first discovered fire, learned its uses and enjoyed its comforts, at least a zillion cords of wood had been burned down through the ages. History abounds with stories telling of the early Great Plains settlers sending out the children pulling wash tubs with ropes gathering cow or buffalo chips for fuel. Other settlers gathered rough tall grasses making small bundles called "hay-cats" to burn in their stoves. Prairie fuel was hard to find and keep in stock.

Chuck wagon cooks prepared for "woodless days" on the trail by swinging a dried cowhide beneath their wagon box, calling it a "coozie" and filling it with whatever prairie fuel found that day during the drive to the next camp ground. It might be wood, soto sticks from bear grass or just a pile of good cow chips found near a buffalo wallow.

Common sense tells us that Indians moved their camps regularly because of the lack of firewood more than any other reason. Every early western settlement provided jobs and business opportunities by the constant need for firewood, hauling water, moving outhouses and hauling off trash and manure the same as modern cities today.

My favorite firewood story comes from the history of a Colorado gold mining strike high in the Rocky Mountains. Winter forced most of the miners to flee the high altitude snows to lower altitudes to spend the winters in warm saloons. A few of the more hardy miners built good cabins, cut and stacked firewood for the winter, and stayed living near their mines.

One old-timer, well-experienced in winter survival, built a tight cabin and cut plenty of firewood to keep him snug through the winter. At some point that winter, he discovered someone was stealing from his firewood piles but was unable to determine the identity of the thief. He finally drilled a hole with a wood auger into a chunk of wood, filled it with black powder, plugged the hole and left the chunk near where the thefts were occurring.

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Putting up peaches brings back memories

by Delbert Trew

...The mention of peaches brings to mind a story from 1951 on the old Griffin/Trew Ranch in the old rock house at the headquarters on Rana Creek. The late Jack Buxton of Logan, N.M., and I were single, batching cowboys — big men with big appetites and somewhat limited in cooking expertise. We could cook meat, biscuits, pinto beans and gravy. Though we both had “sweet teeth,” we were deficient in sweet recipes and the necessary ingredients to concoct.

With the screw worm season in full swing, we left before daylight, riding one horse and leading another and with saddle bags filled with screw worm dope, not leaving room for lunch of any size. We returned each evening late as tired cowboys riding sweating horses. The missed lunch had our backbones rubbing against the front lining of our empty stomachs. That evening meal became the high point of the day.

My mother devised a recipe even cowboys could produce. It called for a certain size Bisquick box and a certain size sack of sugar, all mixed and poured into a big pan. Last came a gallon of store-bought sliced peaches. She called it an upside-down cobbler; because of the size, we called it “super cobbler.” Just place the mixture into a preheated oven and miraculously, the crust rose to the top and browned. To the best of my memory, Jack and I ate one of these about every five days all summer and appreciated every bite.

As a growing boy of 17, I credit the super cobbler with saving my life several times. Many an afternoon, as I watched the sun slowly creep across the New Mexico sky, I called upon my vision of the super cobbler to restore my energy enough to get back to the house and unsaddle my tired horse.

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Buffalo, bull fight a dud

by Delbert Trew

A story published by “The Voices of the Sandhills” in Tyron, Neb., in 2002 relates a contest held in 1907 between a Mexican fighting bull and a buffalo bull at a bullfighting arena in Juarez, Mexico.

Scotty Phillip, the man heralded for saving the buffalo species from extinction, heard a boast that his cherished buffalo would not stand a chance against a Mexican fighting bull in a battle. Phillip rose to the challenge stating, “A Mexican fighting bull would stand about as much chance against a buffalo as a snowball in hell.”

Smelling profit, gamblers collected a pot to finance the venture and dreamed of an even larger pot of gold from betting on the outcome. An 8-year-old and a 4-year-old buffalo bull were selected from Phillip’s herd, placed in a reinforced cattle car and shipped by rail to a bullfighting arena in Juarez.

The journey was long and well promoted at every town along the way. The profiteers followed along, taking bets. The bullfighting patrons were aghast at the thought a mere American buffalo might challenge their magnificent Mexican fighting beasts on their own ground. The arena was a complete standing-room-only sellout.

The older buffalo bull entered the ring first, stared at the screaming crowd, and, wondering why he had been brought all this way and feeling tired, laid down in the dirt and promptly went to sleep.

 The prized Mexican bull was let into the ring with tail up, horns glistening, snorting and blowing snot at anything that moved. Amid the crowd’s roar he finally saw the sleeping shaggy pile of hair lying in his arena. When he circled the apparition it arose and faced him. He bellowed his rage, lowered his horns and charged full speed.

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Turkeys' use of old windmill towers a twist

by Delbert Trew

There are few farm collectibles that rank in historical value and necessity quite like the windmill. One of the first priorities of the homesteader was to dig and equip a domestic water well. Volumes have been written and researched on the subject.

Recently a new twist came to the Trew Ranch concerning windmills. Sixteen years of intense rain water harvesting rendered the windmills on the ranch obsolete. The equipment was removed, the towers taken down and the wells capped in case they were ever needed again. As a result, I had three nice welded pipe towers to sell.

An ad in the San Angelo Livestock Weekly stated, "Windmill towers wanted, wheels and gears not necessary." I answered the ad by phone and the following strange twist came about.

The ad came from the Dallas area and the wheels and gears not necessary brought about the question, what the heck did they want with bare towers? I put the question to the Alanreed Coffee Shop regulars. We guessed light towers around an arena, wind turbine towers and even solar panel towers. When the return call came I asked the purpose of the towers?

It seems they have a prime hunting lease in South Texas with quail, dove, wild turkeys and deer. They have heavy brush but no large trees. Therefore, they have no place for the turkeys to roost at night and predators keep killing their turkey flocks. They hope to convert the ex-windmill towers into turkey roosts. You could have heard a pin drop in the coffee shop.

Heads up folks! Think now! Visualize the traditional old creaking, clanking windmill, which made living on the prairie possible, its tower now sitting amongst heavy brush, silhouetted against the beautiful sunset, holding up a flock of turkeys roosting for the night. This vision almost caused an aneurism among the old coffee drinkers. After two refills, the sight became somewhat plausible.

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Delbert Trew - Playing for dances brings back entertaining memories

The waltz is a favorite dance of a lot of older people. The name comes from the German word“walzen,” which means to roll, turn or glide. Originating in the 1500s, dancers were not allowed to touch each other. By the 18th century, partners were allowed to embrace as they danced. Introduced first in England, the dance was carried by Napoleon’s soldiers to France, where it became a favorite. Paris once boasted 700 night clubs where the waltz could be danced. It came to America in 1834 and instantly became the rage. By 1921, a new dance called the foxtrot was introduced and stole the spotlight. The waltz faded quickly. Growing up in a musical family, then later playing professionally for 35 years, I consider myself somewhat of a waltz expert. My father played all the old-time waltzes on his fiddle, and then later I learned the new waltzes as they became popular. Playing for dances for the public for many years provided many amusing stories. Here are a few that stand out...more

Trew: 'Tumbleweeds' took outlaws to prison

Among the more famous conveyances adapted and used by man were the "tumbleweed wagons." Actually, they were only common canvas covered farm wagons put to use hauling captured prisoners being taken to the Fort Smith prison. This Western District Prison, presided over by Federal Judge Parker, oversaw the Indian Lands, consisting of 19 counties in rough wild country. It contained the dregs of the outlaw world having fled the fast dwindling law-abiding West. The judge had 200 federal marshals hired to clean up the problem. The miscreants were so numerous and the marshals so tough and successful, that expeditions were organized with prison wagons, accompanied by chuck wagons to feed the prisoners and guards and supply wagons to haul food and water. The country was thinly settled with few towns around for service. The entourage followed the hard-riding marshals who scattered across the rough timbered lands acting on tips by the public who mostly wanted the outlaws removed. The title of tumbleweed wagons came from the erratic turns and side trips made as word came of arrests made by the marshals. Most expeditions began with one wagon loaded with handcuffs, leg shackles and log chains. Next came a chuck wagon, supply wagon and a tough selection of guards mounted on horseback and heavily armed...more

Trew: Shotgun shacks cheap, practical

History explains the shotgun house was named because one or more rooms were built in a row, with connecting doors arranged so a shotgun could be fired in the front door and would send its pellets completely through the house and out the back door into the prairie beyond. In reality, there was a reason for the shotgun structure. In the early days of the West, lumber came at great cost and the longer the length the higher the cost in producing and hauling. The long skinny houses used short lumber that could be hauled easily on wagons, most of which had beds only 14 feet long or shorter. Cost took precedence over a larger building. Another reason was that during the "homestead era" shotgun houses were more practical as they could be easily hauled or skidded on poles to a new location. Though no records exist, it is estimated that most homesteads changed, sold or were abandoned at least three times. Our ranch headquarters had a shotgun house set up on native rocks and was open around the bottom. We had everything from greyhounds, stray hogs, skunks, cotton tails, pack rats and lots of rattlesnakes live beneath where we slept. We had to remember always to jump out the door to clear ground when exiting. Supposedly during the ownership of Jules Bivins, during the early 1900s, the bunk house was skidded in from an old homestead for ranch employee use. My favorite shotgun house story happened on the old Hugh Parsell ranch on the Canadian River, upstream from Canadian. In the early 1940s, there was a large two-story frame house and a shotgun house located at the headquarters. A middle-aged couple lived in the shotgun house and the husband was sent to Borger to pick up pipe and sucker rod for windmill repairs. Without all the good country roads and highways of today, the trip required two days to go, load up and return to the ranch. When the driver returned, he was suffering from a bad limp in his left leg. He explained he was sitting in the hotel bar the night before when a fight broke out. During the melee he was shot in the thigh with a .22 bullet. Remember, this was during the later rough days of "Old Booger Town." After reporting, he limped on to the shotgun house to his wife. About an hour later, he came running from the house with the wife after him, swinging a broom. He slept at the big house for a couple of weeks after that. It seems his wife discovered he - despite having a bullet wound in his upper thigh - had no bullet hole in his Levis...more

Trew: Burning question counterintuitive

Recently, after enjoying an evening of good western swing music on a ranch near Quitaque, this question came up. "Why do western dance participants always dance in a counter-clock wise direction around the dance floor?" Not only did no one even offer a reason or theory, no one could remember the question being asked before. I grew up in a musical family, learned to dance by the time I could walk, my father supported us by playing dances during the Great Depression, then I played for dances professionally for 35 years. I should know the answer. Sorry, I don't have a clue. So, we present the question to our smart, handsome and beautiful readers, "Why do western dancers always dance around the floor in a counter-clockwise direction?" While contemplating the question I recalled a few "Trew" stories about the good old-fashioned western country dances. Here 'tiz! A lady I once knew was one of six daughters, aged two years apart, born to a real cowboy and his wife living way out on a ranch in New Mexico. She said her father was so afraid he would get stuck with an old-maid daughter or two he made every effort to supply them with every attribute possible to meet the demands of any suitor. Such as, he insisted they all become good dance partners, know how to play poker and be able to cook a decent meal. With no practice partners nearby, the daughters took turns both leading and following while learning to dance by a wind-up phonograph. After getting their homework done many nights they all sat around the kitchen table and dad taught them how to play poker using kitchen matches as chips. As a result all the sisters found decent husbands, most were wallflowers standing around the walls of the local dances. They pulled them out on the floor and taught them to dance. My friend says, "My husband leads while dancing until his "toddies" affect his coordination then she leads and he follows until time to go home. It has been working for over 50 years."...more

Trew: Early Texans relied on corn for cakes, livestock

To the early Texas settlers, raising corn was a matter of life or death. Survival often depended on how much corn you raised for food or sale. They selected only the best grain for seed, guarded it like treasure and prayed for it to mature at harvest. A second use was almost as important as corn was a good feed for livestock, especially the work horses and mules pulling the plows. After planting three grains of corn to a hill, they watched carefully as the plants grew. They taught children to check each hill, pull out the suckers or weaker plants leaving only the most vigorous stalks to grow. Everyone looked forward to fresh roasting ears as the crop neared maturity. Some waited for the tassel at the top to dry then cut the stalk off just above the highest ear and fed these tops to their cattle or horses. When the ear matured past the tender roasting ear stage, it was allowed to mature to be picked, shucked, shelled and stored to be eventually ground into corn meal. Corn shucks were used in crude mattresses and corn cobs used to caulk between logs in buildings and burn for heat. Corn meal could be mixed with water and salt and cooked in many ways. If working out on the prairie, small balls of cornmeal dough could be dropped into the ashes of a campfire and cooked. When done, the ashes were brushed off and eaten as "ash cake." If working out in the fields, the small balls of dough could be baked on a garden hoe and eaten as "hoe cake."...more

Trew: Did lost colony in the Okla. Panhandle exist?

Numerous stories abound about Robber's Roost near Kenton, once a haven for the William Coe gang of outlaws. Believing they were outside the federal law in No Man's Land, they built a rock fortress hideout complete with hotel accommodations, saloon and ladies of the night. Determined local citizens, tired of their numerous crimes caught and hanged the entire gang. Though unproven by records, some say the attack was aided by a mystery Army cannon borrowed from somewhere used to blast down the walls of the rock fortress. In January 1901, The Cimarron News printed a letter received from Woodward County, Okla., stating a colony of prominent citizens would be starting and settling a colony in the northwest corner of the newly established Beaver County. The letter stated they had filed on approximately 12 sections of land, intended to start a lumber yard, a brick yard, establish farming, ranching and mineral development. Following newspapers told of new settlers arriving almost daily, one wagon train containing a dozen or more wagons of supplies and equipment. Listed among the new colonists were an ex-congressman, and Temple Houston a famous attorney from Oklahoma and Texas, two doctors and many other prominent businessmen. As many as 40 families might be included in the new colony. Then, on June 28, 1901, came the last mention of the new colony. After that, nothing. No doubt there was the start of a colony. Did they stay awhile and leave? Did they all leave at once? Did hard times take its toll? Are descendants of the first settlers still living there?...more

Trew: Homesteaders Act greatest act ever passed

Not only is the act thought to be the most important act ever passed by the government, it gave birth to the "breadbasket of the world." Between 1870 and 1900, more than 2 million settlers took advantage of this "almost free land" opportunity. The cheap land was not a bargain in personal sacrifice. Enduring drought, blizzards, locusts, hailstorms, poor communication and national financial panics, about 60 percent of the 2 million plus claims were abandoned at least once. On the success side, about 783,000 claims were sustained, eventually comprising 270 million acres in titles issued. Montana had the most claims with North Dakota, Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma and South Dakota following. Almost all states boasted claims, including Alaska. Arriving in wagons, and in most cases without the presence of trees for lumber, most claimants had to dig holes in the ground or build houses of sod in order to be protected from the elements. As financial conditions improved, small frame houses were built, many on top of or beside the dugouts and soddies to provide for growing families. Many early settlers earned money by picking up bleached buffalo bones left by the hide hunters. Some had to harvest the bones before they could plow their crop land...more

Trew: Is this really progress?

Once upon a time, here in the Panhandle, groceries and other supplies were available only at Tascosa, Mobeetie, New Clarendon and Dodge City. This is a long way from our modern Quick Stops and Super Stores. Imagine making out your grocery list for enough staples to last six months or more at a time. Or, list the items needed on your chuck wagon to feed eight hungry, hard-working men on a cattle drive lasting for several months. Of course the fare was simple, mostly flour, salt, baking powder and dried pinto beans. Meat was butchered as needed whether at home on the frontier or on the trail. One of the most important facilities for a frontier home was a dirt-walled root cellar where almost anything could be stored in an effort to preserve food a little longer. When meat-packing companies developed home meat cures, everyone built a large wooden meat box to hold cured hams, shoulders, bacon sides and sausage after the fall hog killing. Another fall practice that worked well was hanging sides of fresh beef, wrapped in old bed sheets, in the windmill towers...more

Trew: Flats make one worn and tired

I can remember the early 1940s pretty well and don't remember many flats. But it was during the war and no one drove unless absolutely necessary. Also, much of the farm equipment back then still had steel wheels. Driving slower with lighter loads might have prevented flat troubles. The 1950s brought on more pickups and tandem wheel horse trailers. This doubled the number of tires on the ground. I've always believed pickups running ahead of trailers, disturbed the nails in the road making them mad, and they retaliate by jumping up into the tires of the trailers as they pass. I also believe the Lord put thorns on Mesquite trees to try the souls of ranchers. Countless years of wagon travel dropped nails, staples and pieces of wire onto dirt roads which now puncture new rubber tires. Most counties purchased huge magnets to pull along the roads to suck up such metal. It was amazing how quickly a barrel of potential flats could be harvested in a single trip down an old country road. I once hired a cowboy to tend my stock here at the ranch while I tended other business. Almost every day brought flat tires on the trailer and pickup causing him a trip to town and wait in the coffee shop while the flats were repaired. When I bought tire tools, patches and glue and provided an air-compressor for him to fix his own flats the problem seemed to evaporate, shall I say into "compressed air."...more

Trew: 'The times, they are a'changing'

My grandfather Charley Trew used to shake his head and say, "the changes, they just keep a'coming." As we modernized our farming equipment and methods after the Great Depression and Dust Bowl ended, it seems we were making big changes almost every week. The same holds true today. The ideas and advertisements in farm and ranch magazines make my head swim trying to figure out how they work and how to pay for them. A visit recently with a long-time used farm equipment dealer told of a change I had not heard. Seems the high price of scrap metal for the last few years has finally about cleaned out the old horse-drawn and early tractor machinery. He said those type of auctions held on old farms are a thing of the past. Sure makes me proud of my collection of 60-plus horse-drawn implements and other old farm tools. At least I can show them to my descendants and explain how they work. Although wind power seems to be all the rage today, solar power is slowly becoming the biggest change in ranching. The long-time faithful windmill, dependable if the wind blows, has become so expensive to purchase and maintain, solar-powered water pumps are becoming more numerous. For a while the new pumps had troubles; but the latest models seem to have that solved, and our solar pumps are working in great fashion, providing water whether the wind blows or not. If Ace Reed were still alive and drawing cartoons, he would have old Jake the cowboy up on a rickety ladder by a solar panel, rag and soap bottle in hand, cleaning the hoot owl poop off the screen and wishing for days past when he was checking the oil in a windmill...more

Trew: Book spurs memories of ol' saddle houses

Down on the Parsell Ranch on the Canadian River we had a large wooden barn with a hallway running between stalls, feed bins and milk stanchions. We hung our saddles from ropes tied to the rafters and our saddle blankets rested over a long pipe held up by barbed wire to keep the rats from chewing on the gear. We were constantly hunting cats, especially mamas with kittens, to help with the rats. The local coyotes seemed to appreciate our cat-hunting efforts. My favorite saddle house was on the ranch in New Mexico. It had a concrete floor, was built of rocks, had a low tin roof and a tin-clad tight door. The feed bins were located on the other end of the long shed so we had few mice problems. We learned to feed the barn cats inside the saddle house and leave them shut inside until the next morning. There were eight wooden saddle racks, and many had the initials of old previous cowboys who had worked on the ranch once owned by Jules Bivins. There was a coal oil lantern hanging by the door if you left that early in the morning. You could smell leather when the door was open, and a work bench held all the tools for replacing horse shoes and trimming horse's feet. An exposed two-by-four overhead held a rusty collection of worn-out horseshoes of every size and design. Here at the Trew Ranch, our wooden saddle racks are 60 years old as I built them myself right after we bought the place...more

Trew: English filled with nicknames in everyday life

America seems to always have had a passion for nicknames. Most of our heros have nicknames and obituaries nearly always list the deceased persons nickname so friends will recognize them. Sometimes we do not know the real names of closest friends. This habit also extends to objects. For example, for years I did not recognize the word camera. We called it a Kodak. As shaving progressed from a straight razor they called it, "shaving with a Gillette or Schick" not a safety razor. We did not vacuum the carpet we "Hoovered the rug." Women benefitted greatly with the invention of the Singer sewing machine. Consequently, all "sewed with a Singer." Isaac Singer once received a protest from a labor union against his invention wanting him to stop production. He answered saying, "You want me to stop producing the only thing that will keep a woman quiet for an hour?"...more

Trew: Digging post holes by hand was hard work

Among the hundreds of jobs associated with farming and ranching, digging postholes by hand is by far my least favorite. Today, most postholes are dug by equipment powered by tractors, motors and hydraulics. Iron tee posts driven into the ground have pretty well replaced the need for digging post holes. But not so long ago all postholes were dug by hand with a pair of diggers. Of interest is the fact the Devil's Rope Museum in McLean has approximately 60 patented post hole diggers on display all showing different designs and mechanisms to make the job easier. I can guarantee a long hot day on a pair of diggers in hard dry ground will conjure up many ideas to make the dreaded job less work. Among the first post-hole-digger-haters were the old dyed-in-the-wool cowboys who believed any work not carried out on the back of a horse was a sin, an embarrassment and beneath their dignity. If the truth were known, the famous "Cowboy Strike" carried out at Old Tascosa was probably as much in protest of building barbed wire fences as demanding higher wages and better working conditions on the ranches. The new-fangled barbed wire fences of the Old West were a joke at first. When finally accepted as a legitimate ranch improvement it was no easy chore to construct. First, trying to establish the correct legal boundary before building was almost impossible due to the many incorrect early day surveying methods. Once surveyed and staked someone had to spend weeks with an axe and saw in a cedar canyon somewhere cutting fence posts and hauling them to the site...more

It's all Trew: Branding is an old tradition

One thing cannot be argued, a healed brand is still the most visible, positive identifying process yet found. As examples of marking livestock, both legal and illegal, here are a few true stories with a bit of Trew flavor. Just how old are livestock brands? No one is sure but murals have been found in Egyptian tombs showing the branding of livestock. Early settlements dating from Moorish times required that in order to plant, raise and harvest crops, a practice called "transhumance" had to be carried out. This called for periodic removal of all livestock and large poultry from the cropping areas during the growing and harvesting seasons. The laws of the time, in order to prevent theft or mysterious loss of livestock, dictated all animals must be branded before being moved. Brands or painted markings were the only options available at the time to identify domestic stock or flocks. John Chisum, the famous rancher of the Pecos River Country, once caught and convicted a group of cattle rustlers who were changing one of the many brands he adopted when he bought and sold vast herds of cattle across Texas and New Mexico. The group had been acquitted by court once for theft because of "reasonable doubt." Evidently they were extremely clever in the alterations. Mr. Chisum set a trap by roping a number of odd marked steers and having his cowboys cut a small slit in the lower folds of the brisket and insert a silver coin into the slot which quickly healed over. Later, they caught the gang of thieves with some of the identifiable steers. With the law present as witnesses, the cowboys roped the steers and removed the coins as evidence. The thieves were sent to prison for long terms. Interestingly, I give a program about brands and have learned I can take the bare letter J without the top bar on the letter, and make every letter in the alphabet and numbers from 0 to 9. With patience, holding the iron at different angles, slants and touch-up, it can be done. Try it if you don't believe me...more

It's all Trew: Area full of historical tidbits

Perusing through countless magazines, newspapers and books, both old and new, turns up numerous interesting tidbits of history. These are tucked away in my inbox and when I find enough to fill an article I group them together. Here are some samples: Seventy-five years ago on March 18, 1935, the first "shelter-belt" was planted on the Horace E. Curtis farm near Willow, Okla., in Greer County. For those who don't know, a shelter-belt is a group of rows of various types of trees, chosen for their hardiness, drought resistance and fast growth. To help supply fruit for the sometimes desperate families trying to survive the Dust Bowl, various fruit trees including apricot, apple, pear and peach trees were planted. To help supply wooden posts for fencing and lumber, bois de arc and black locust trees were often added. Their primary purpose was to provide a shield against the prairie winds of the Dust Bowl. One of my recent articles told that today's Dalhart was known at one time as Twist when the first railroad was constructed through the area. This statement generated an e-mail from Gerald Hook of Russellville, Ark., who is my "resident railroad expert." He sent an article from a 1929 railroad magazine that reported on Dec. 9, 1928, at 2:15 a.m. a northbound freight train moving at about 25 mph ran about one mile beyond Twist, a sidetrack where it was supposed to wait for a southbound passenger train to pass by. It seems the passenger trains always had right-of-way over freight trains. This created a terrible train wreck...more