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The farm as seen from the railroad tracks
Photo courtesy Erik
Whetstone, April 2004 |
On the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway
History in a Pecan Shell
A post office was granted in December 1892, discontinued eleven months
later, then reopened in July 1901 for ten more months.
Codman’s population was a mere 25 in 1947 when a store and the towns
grain elevators rose above the residences.
The repaving of highway 60 bypassed Codman’s center which further
diminished the community – making Roberts
County a one-town county. |
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Photographer's
Note
These are the only buildings I found in the town of Codman.
I really liked the Codman site, I probably spent 45 minutes at that
one site, of course a good part of that time was walking to get to
it. I had read up a little on Codman before my trip because the map
of Roberts County
I have shows it to be on the north side of the railroad, but it does
not show a road leading to the site. I had been curious as to if I
would see anything when I got there, and luckily there is two miles
of rough dirt road that leads to it. I'm sure the limited access to
the site is the main reason so much of it is still there.
I'm not sure if there were any other remaining structures in Codman,
There are quite a few no trespassing signs posted along the railroad
tracks. Since my map didn't show Codman to be on the south side, I
didn't venture across the tracks, but from what I did see there was
nothing there. |
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There were probably
a half dozen or so electrical poles that went from the house towards
the rail road. I thought they were interesting because you could see
that they were hand made, and also because they were probably only
six and a half feet tall. One of the first things I thought about
when I saw them was Mr. Trew's article on barb
wire telephones. While I was out there, I wondered if anyone had
ever stepped a little too close to the poles, if they still had the
wires running across, I could easily have reached out and touched
them. - Erik
Whetstone |
More on Codman,
Texas
Ghost
towns aplenty in Texas Panhandle by Delbert Trew
During my research, I continue to find more Texas Panhandle ghost
towns I didn't know existed. Ray Carter from Lefors called my attention
to Codman, located in Roberts County. The site is located eight miles
southwest of Miami, alongside the Santa Fe Railroad tracks. The legend
and lore appears to be as follows, based on several different but
interesting versions... more |
Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and recent or vintage photos, please contact
us. |
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