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DELL CITY,
TEXAS
Hudspeth County,
West Texas
FM 1437 off US 180
92 miles E of El
Paso via US 180
90 miles NW of Van Horn via
Hwy 54
65 miles N of Sierra
Blanca via FM 1111
105 miles to Carlsbad Caverns
Population:
413 (2000) 569 (1990)
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Texas state
Line
Photo by Jason Penney |
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Thanks
to Jason Penney, we have more photos of Dell City than the Handbook
of Texas has text. According to the Handbook of Texas Online,
the town was started "sometime before 1949 when a post office was
established there." There is no information on who the town is named
after, but we'll ask around.
The population was a little less than 200 in the early 50s, and
peaked just short of 1000 in the early 60s. An estimated 40,000
acres are irrigated and onions, tomatoes and cotton were the principal
crops.
We called the
Dell City Chamber of Commerce and spoke to Gene Lutrick,
the President of the chamber and a man who holds numerous other
positions vital to the city. Mr. Lutrick has been in Dell City since
1950 when he moved from Abernathy (Lubbock County). He was kind
enough to fill in a few blanks for us
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The
Dell City Billboard,
A Classic from the Golden Age of Community Billboards
Photo by Jason Penney |
"The
Farmer in the Dell"
First
of all, Mr. Lutrick is a little more accurate about the date. 1947
is the year that men came looking for oil and discovered the underground
water. Developers from Austin and Midland immediately got busy
promoting the town.
When we asked who Mr. Dell might have been, Mr. Lutrick asked if we
were familiar with the nursery song "The Farmer in the Dell".
There was no Mr. Dell - it's Dell as in "a small, secluded, usually
forested valley." Just forget the part about the forest.
One would think that Michael Dell of Austin would open an office here,
at the very least a small one to receive mail or to have outgoing
items post-marked Dell City. Mr. Lutrick also mentioned that Texas
Monthly had sent someone to Dell City to gather information for an
upcoming article due out sometime in the Spring of 2001. We'll look
forward to reading it.
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The
Dell City Animal Control Shelter
Photo by Jason Penney |
Early
Days in Dell City
Eager
to put the water to use, the developers planted 200 acres of cotton.
This was great news for the local rabbits who ate all but 14 acres
of it. The uneaten cotton produced 21/2 bales per acre, and farmers
started planting alfalfa to keep the rabbits occupied. Today,
in addition to the onions and tomatoes previously mentioned,
chili peppers are also grown and a vineyard sends sweet
grapes to Lubbock.
Reports on wildlife include abundant deer and antelope.
We asked Mr. Lutrick about buffalo (roaming or otherwise) and
he said that there were none in Dell City. He did say that he has,
on occasion, heard a discouraging word. We didn't ask what it was.
Local sheep ranchers reduce the coyote population by
hunting them from helicopters and a recent hunt killed 40 in just
two days. One entrance to the Guadalupe Mountain National Park
has been closed due to numerous sightings of mountain lions.
Schooling:
The
first school in Dell City was a trailer beside the First Baptist Church
and there were only four or five children according to Mr. Lutrick.
He said that at one time there were close to 400. Today there are
around 200 students and some are bussed in from New Mexico.
The state of New Mexico pays the school district, which you have to
admit is a pretty sensible arrangement for all concerned.
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West
Texas View from Orange, New Mexico
Photo by Jason Penney |
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Orange, New
Mexico is
just across the state line and TxDoT hasn't given Dell City one
of those fancy granite state silhouettes like they have when you
enter Texas on major highways. Although Orange is a ghost town now,
it used to be a stagecoach stop on the Butterfield Stage Line.
We are sorry to report that the ruins of the actual stagecoach building
have been bulldozed long ago.
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The
Jail in Dell City dates from the 1940s
Photo by Jason Penney |
Small
Town Newspaper
Dell
City has its own weekly newspaper. It's the Hudspeth County Herald
and Dell Valley Review. There are also 2 groceries, two cafes
and two Hudspeth County Deputies who keep law and order.
We called the newspaper and Mary Louise Lynch, the editor returned
our call and gave us a few more interesting facts on the town. She
has been printing the newspaper for 35 years and the Review absorbed
the Herald sometime in the 60s.
Ms. Lynch comes from California, but has been in Dell City from the
very beginning. She remembers when the first residents lived in tents
and (correctly) points out that Dell Citizens were Texas' last
pioneers. The alfalfa that was meant to distract the rabbits from
the cotton is now a major crop and cotton is long gone. Mary Louise
thinks that the nearby Delaware Mountains may have had some
bearing on the town's name.
She reported that the El Capitan Theater closed in the
60s and that for some time it was used as a residence. A fire destroyed
the town's major grocery and the proprietors retired rather than rebuild.
Most Dell Citizens make grocery trips to El
Paso. She's seen one or two dogs in the pound in the last three
or four years and can't remember the last time the jail had an inmate.
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Vintage
Fire Equipment in Dell City
Photo by Jason Penney |
Dell
City's crisis now is more threatening than rabbits. It's a familiar
problem with small West Texas towns having their groundwater literally
drilled out from under them and sold to over-populated and always
thirsty El
Paso.
Dell City local and tourist information:
City Hall 915-964-2344
Chamber of Commerce: 915-964-2424
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Dell
City Texas Forum
Subject:
Dell City Texas
Hello I have a few pictures but they don't show anything in particular
but us kids living in Dell City Texas and going to the Guadalupe
Mountains in the summer when my parents could afford it.
Hi-my name is Belia Padilla. Our family lived in Dell City Texas
until about 1975 or so when we moved away to the Texas Panhandle.
My father farmed 5 miles out of Dell City (Bailey Farm-yellow house)
grew alfalfa, corn and raised Angus cattle for Mr. Bailey out of
El Paso Texas. I remember the Dell City Mercantile Store owned by
the McCoys.
As I read up on Dell City it took me back and I remember a Gene
Lutrick as a young child living in the outskirts of town on the
way to the catholic church (don't know if it's the same person)
and the Lynchs who lived in a big and beautiful house with peacocks
running around on a hill in Dell City. What I do remember is Mr.
Lusk the school principal (got one spanking from Mr. Lusk) and Betty
Snodgrass the school secretary. I used to clean house for the Snodgrasses.
I have been curious all these years as to how Dell City is doing?
Are there people living there and if so how many? I don't know if
anyone will read this or not but I sure would appreciate an update
on good old Dell City. - Belia Padilla, April 19, 2006
Subject:
Dell City STONE Land developer
I may be the only person alive today that helped clear the first
rangeland near the location where Dell City is today.
In 1946 a group of Lynn county farmers went to Salt
Flats to grub out the Mesquite trees and turn this ranch land
into farming land. Thad Smith and his brother Ores Smith. Thad Smith
owned the Hd 14 Alas Chambers Crawler that the grubbing ploy was
mounted on. The two drivers of this rig were Harley Smith, and JB
Williams. Harley and JB were brother in laws, Vera Harley's wife
also lived at the camp or near by, they slept in their 40 model
Ford. Camp was a little shotgun one room house that most of us slept
and eat in, everyone had his army cot and a change of clothes.
I remember the old Cafe. I think it was sort of a cafeteria style
back then. We had been home for a few days and were returning to
camp and back to our jobs and we would always stop at Salt Flats
and have apple pie and coffee. On this trip JB and his sister Vera
had brought along their (Getair) and Mandolin, and they played on
and on and on, everyone would holler one more time. Pilipino Baby.
To get to the place where we camped we would turn north just east
of the Salt Flat Cafe and down a cow trail road through I think
seven gates, I know I got smarter as I would always try to set in
the middle so I wouldn't have to open those gates, I was just a
boy at the time, my job was burning the brush that my dad and uncle
raked up into big piles. With a big rake they had invented and welded
with our little farm welder and hauled all the way over to Salt
Flat on a bob tail truck.
The first crop that was planted was Alfa, it didn't turn out very
well because they had the land in borders, and were going to use
flood irrigation like they use to do over in the Hondo valley, well
the water wouldn't flow the way it was supposed to and Mr. Stone,
the big boss decided to level it after it had been planted so all
of the Alfa ended up at one end of the field.
The thing I remember most is how that dirt would make my hair stand
straight up and my mom would say I looked like I had been plugged
into a light socket, I was 14 years at the time. I worked through
the summer and up into the fall then had to go back home and go
to school, we were always late getting into school as we would have
to pull cotton to pay for shoes and a coat to wear to school, that
was the good old days.
There was a government trapper working that area back then and he
would stop by our camp every time he was in that area and I would
get to go with him and help him run his trap line. Coyotes and Bob
cats was what he would catch most of the time. When the rabbits
ate up the cotton I'm sure there were folks that would have liked
to have had the Coyotes and Bob cats back.
Dad and I, along with my wife and son and my mother drove over to
Dell City in 1958 just to see the town and to look around some and
we felt kind proud that we had a little part in making that happen,
we were the first ones to acutely start the farms. They pumped the
first water into reservoirs and that was part of my job at times
to watch for Gopher holes in the dam's, it would wash out in a short
time and no way you could stop it once it got ahead of you and that
shovel.
I have rambled on more than I should have but when I saw your story
and how you had opened the old Cafe up again it brought back lots
of memories, and all the folks that I went out there with are all
gone on but they are the ones that got it all started. Thanks for
listening I would like to do it all over again. - Glen Lowe,
Lubbock, TX, August 08, 2005
Our
sincere thanks to Mr. Gene Lutrick and Mary Louise Lynch for their
candid, entertaining and informative telephone interviews. We look
forward to including more about Dell City in the future and hope
that you'll visit Dell City and make it part of your next West Texas
itinerary.
© John Troesser
More photos by Jason
Penney
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