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History
in a Pecan Shell
The first post office was known as "Blue Goose" for an hapless
Heron that cowboys killed thinking it was a goose. The town was later
named after Sweetwater Creek but it was spelled Sweet Water
until 1918.
A
timeline of significant facts concerning Sweetwater:
1877: first store
set up
1879: post office opened as Blue Goose
1881: county was organized - Sweet Water becomes county seat - Texas
and Pacific Railroad arrives
1883: a saloon robbery kills the proprietors and necessitates the
opening of a bank
1885: blizzard kills 90% of the county's animals
1886-1887: a drought forces the population to move to greener pastures
1891: first totally separate courthouse is built (former courthouse
shared space with jail and store)
1898: town lake built
1914: Trammell Lake built
1918: Sweet Water becomes Sweetwater
1929: Lake Sweetwater built
1940s: Sweetwater's airfield (Avenger
Field) was used to train British pilots, American pilots and in
1943 - Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASPS) |
Sweetwater
WW II WASP Memorials
The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) were a little known group
of female pilots who performed many duties short of combat during
WW II. Their story makes pretty good reading for those interested
in WW II. All were trained at Avenger Field in Sweetwater.
While the army was forming the 509'th group (to deliver the atomic
bombs) the men pilots did not want to fly the large and complicated
B-29 which had a reputation for problems. The commanding officer brought
in two WASP pilots and in a couple of days trained them to fly that
plane and they proceed to shame the men into flying. - Mike Price,
December 08, 2007 |
Broadway
Street looking East, circa late 1940s
Photo courtesy Donnie Fort |
Sweetwater
Attractions
National
Register of Historic Places
- Sweetwater has 90 entries on the National Register of Historic
Places.
The Nolan
County Coliseum
is perhaps the city's architectural centerpiece.
Pioneer
City-County Museum:
610 East 3rd Street
915-235-8547
Avenger
Field, AKA Sweetwater Army Airfield
WWII WASP Memorials & National WASP WWII Museum
Lakes:
Sweetwater, Trammell and Oak Creek Reservoir
Sweetwater
Hotels
Book Your Hotel
Here & Save
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"Sweetwater's
favorite animal, taken 10 miles east of Sweetwater just by chance."
- Mike
Price, September 2007
More Texas Animals |
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Photo
courtesy Barclay Gibson, February 2007
More Water Towers |
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Sweetwater
Tourist Information
Sweetwater
Chamber of Commerce: 810 E. Broadway
P.O. Box. 1148, Sweetwater, Texas 79556
Phone: 1-800-658-6757, 915-235-5488
Website: http://www.sweetwatertexas.org/ |
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Postcards
courtesy rootsweb.com/
~txgenweb// postcards/Index.html |
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Sweetwater
Texas Forum
Sweetwater,
Texas
Enclosed is picture of Sweetwater (see top photo) as it looked as
I was growing up. I graduated in 1955 from Newman High. It was a
very nice town for a person to grow up in with the pride of the
times and the size of the town. I was taught to respect the Texas
Flag and the US Flag and other people. As a child I worked for the
Sweetwater Reporter, Homer Baxter as a delivery boy. Anybody that
has lived in the area for any amount of time knew Homer. History
includes The Sweetwater Swatters (baseball team), the old court
house and the square, the overpass on the West side of town, Starr's
Drive Inn, Sweetwater Lake, flying kites down by the ball park,
drug stores and their banana splits and sundaes, Newman High School,
Sweetwater Mustangs and of course the Texas Movie House, Avenger
Field and the WASPS plus the churches in the area. - Donnie Fort,
May 29, 2006
Subject:
Scary Snakes of Sweetwater
My name is Brandon, from Fort Worth, Texas. We spent a lot of our
childhood going to Sweetwater because it's where my dad was from.
They have some pretty cool stuff, like the annual Rattlesnake Round-up.
Sweetwater is in West Texas so there are plenty of Western Diamondback
Rattlesnakes. Personally I am very afraid of snakes, but I still
had a lot of fun at the Rattlesnake Round-up most years. They have
a huge carnival and flea-market, good barbeque, and you can look
at the scary snakes. I had to stay there the entire summer I turned
15. It's not a very fun place for a city kid from Southwest Fort
Worth but I had cousins there my age and they seemed to like living
there just fine. I always thought it was an interesting little town,
just too in-the-middle-of-nowhere for me, and too snake infested.
The Rattlesnake Round-up is a huge tourist attraction, so check
it out! - Brandon Cunningham, February 22, 2006
To share
history or photos of Sweetwater, Texas - please contact
us.
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