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Nolan County TX
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Sweetwater Hotels

 


SWEETWATER, TEXAS

"Wind energy capital of Texas"

Nolan County Seat, Texas Panhandle

32°28'5"N 100°24'26"W (32.468147, -100.407125)
I-20 and Hwy 70
US 84, FM 419
42 miles W of Abilene
21 miles E of Colorado City
38 miles SE of Snyder
Population: 10,755 Est. (2016)
10,906 (2010) 11,415 (2000) 11,967 (1990)

Book Hotel Here › Sweetwater Hotels

TX Sweetwater  automobiles
Sweetwater's Automobiles
Click on image to enlarge

Vintage photo courtesy of Dan Whatley Collection

Sweetwater, Texas Topics:

History in a Pecan Shell
Sweetwater Landmarks/Attractions
Historic & notable buildings, theatres & drive-ins, murals...
Sweetwater Vintage Photos › next page
Sweetwater Vintage Postcards › next page
Sweetwater Chronicles & Forum
Sweetwater Hotels

Sweetwater TX 1910

Courtesy Will Beauchamp Collection

Sweetwater Vintage Photos


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)

Women Air Force Service Pilots, WWII monument
  Postcard courtesy
rootsweb.com/%7Etxpstcrd

Sweetwater  City Lake, Texas

Courtesy www.rootsweb.com/%7Etxpstcrd/

Sweetwater Vintage Postcards


Sweetwater Landmarks / Attractions


Sweetwater Tx - Nolan County 1888 Courthouse Wall Mural
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, 2009
Nolan County Courthouse

Nolan County Courthouse and jail, Sweetwater, Texas
Nolan County Courthouse and Jail
1905 vintage photo courtesy THC

  • Nolan County Courthouse

  • Avenger Field, AKA Sweetwater Army Airfield
    WWII WASP Memorials & National WASP WWII Museum

  • National Register of Historic Places
    Sweetwater has 90 entries on the National Register of Historic Places.

  • Nolan County Coliseum is perhaps the city's architectural centerpiece.

  • Pioneer City-County Museum: 610 East 3rd Street
    915-235-8547

  • Lakes: Sweetwater, Trammell and Oak Creek Reservoir

  • Sweetwater TX - 1926 Municipal Building
    The 1926 Municipal Building.
    In the National Register of Historic Places

    Photo courtesy Mike Price, December 2007

    Sweetwater TX - Sweetwater Municipal Auditorium historical marker
    Sweetwater Municipal Building Auditorium historical marker
    Photo courtesy Mike Price, December 2007

    Sweetwater TX - Sweetwater Municipal Building  - Police Dept.
    Sweetwater Municipal Building - Police Dept.
    Photo courtesy Mike Price, December 2007

    Sweetwater TX - Downtown Building With Eagle
    Photo courtesy Mike Price, December 2007

    Sweetwater TX - Downtown Building Eagle
    Photo courtesy Mike Price, December 2007
    See Eagle Eyes of Texas

    Sweetwater TX Ragland Building
    The Ragland Building downtown
    Photo courtesy Mike Price, December 2007

    Sweetwater TX Ragland Building historical marker
    Ragland Building historical marker
    Photo courtesy Mike Price, December 2007

    Glazed terra-cotta in Sweetwater Texas
    Glazed terra-cotta in Sweetwater
    Montgomery Ward or Kress Building?

    Photo courtesy Mike Price, December 2007

    Sweetwater TX Downtown Building Gargoyle
    Gargoyle in Sweetwater
    More Texas Gargoyles

    Photo courtesy Mike Price, December 2007

    Sweetwater TX 1911 Building
    1911 building downtown
    Photo courtesy Mike Price, December 2007

    Sweetwater TX - Sweetwater Reporter Building
    Sweetwater Reporter
    Photo courtesy Mike Price, December 2007

    Sweetwater TX - Sweetwater Reporter Historical Marker
    Sweetwater Reporter Historical Marker
    Photo courtesy Mike Price, December 2007

    Sweetwater TX - Texas BankandTrust
    Texas Bank and Trust
    More Texas Banks

    Photo courtesy Mike Price, December 2007

    Sweetwater TX - Texas Theater
    Texas Theatre in 2007
    Photo courtesy Mike Price, December 2007

    Sweetwater TX - Texas Theatre neon sign
    Texas Theatre restored
    Photos courtesy Barclay Gibson, April 2013
    More Texas Theatres

    Sweetwater Tx Depot with steam engine Wall
    Mural of depot with steam engine.
    More Texas Depots

    Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, 2009

    Sweetwater Tx -  Galloping Horses Wall Mural
    Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, 2009.
    More Texas Murals

    Sweetwater TX
    Photo courtesy Mike Price, December 2007

    Photographer's Note:
    Once you get outside of the courthouse square you start running into more run down or abandoned buildings. - Mike Price, December 2007

    Sweetwater TX - Wholesale Grocers, abandoned building
    Photos courtesy Mike Price, December 2007

    Sweetwater TX abandoned building, ghost signs and railroad tracks
    Abandoned buildings, ghost signs and railroad tracks
    Photos courtesy Mike Price, December 2007
    See Texas Ghost Signs | Texas Railroads

    Sweetwater TX Midway Drive-In Theatre

    Midway Drive-In Theatre
    Photos courtesy Mike Price, December 2007

    Sweetwater Tx - Closed Drive In Theater
    Photo courtesy Mike Price, December 2007

    Sweetwater Tx - Closed Drive-In Theater screen
    The Closed Drive-In Theater.
    Photos courtesy Mike Price, December 2007

    Sweetwater Tx - Closed Drive In Theater
    Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, December 2009
    More Texas Theatres & Drive-Ins

    Sweetwater TX - Palomino Motel Neon Sign
    Palomino Motel neon.
    More Texas Old Neon

    Photo courtesy Mike Price, December 2007

    Rattle snake, Sweetwater, Texas
    "Sweetwater's favorite animal, taken 10 miles east of Sweetwater just by chance."
    Mike Price, September 2007
    More Texas Animals

    Sweetwater Texas wind farm
    One of the many wind farms in the
    "Wind energy capital of Texas"

    Photo courtesy Lexie Nichols and Jordan Gibson, August 2007

    Sweetwater watertower
    Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, February 2007
    More Texas Water Towers

    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/

    Sweetwater Hotels

    Sweetwater Chronicles

  • Roy Crane and Captain Easy by Clay Coppedge ("Letters From Central Texas" Column)
    That Roy Crane would end up in the funny papers did not seem pre-ordained when he was a boy growing up in Sweetwater. Comic strips hardly existed when Crane was born in 1901. He would be one of the people who would help create a crucial part of that art form, if you’re willing to call it that...

  • Bluebonnet Hotel by Mike Cox ("Texas Tales" Column)
    Now surrounded by so many 200-foot tall wind turbines that it has become the wind power capital of the nation, Sweetwater used to have a more traditional skyscraper – the seven-story Bluebonnet Hotel...

  • Sweetwater WW II WASP
    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

  • Pan Zareta: Queen of the Turf by Clay Coppedge
    Pan Zareta, the greatest filly in horse racing history, was foaled in Texas, in 1910 by breeder J.F. (Jim) and H.S. Newman in Sweetwater.


    History Cartoon by Roger T. Moore

  • Texas rangers naming Sweetwater

  • April 2, 1921: Threats of Secession
    Following Gov. Neff's veto of a bill creating West Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College

  • Jan. 24, 1876: Bartholomew (Bat) Masterson
    Jan. 24, 1876: Bartholomew (Bat) Masterson's legend gets off to a lead filled start in a Sweetwater saloon.

  • Sweetwater TX, 1910 - Hell-on-a -stick Cactus

    Courtesy Will Beauchamp Collection

    Sweetwater Vintage Photos


    Sweetwater Vintage Postcards

    Sweetwater Vintage Photos

    Sweetwater, Texas Forum

    Broadway Street, Sweetwater, Texas old photo
    Broadway Street looking East, circa late 1940s
    Photo courtesy Donnie Fort

  • Sweetwater, Texas
    Enclosed is picture of Sweetwater (see above 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 In, 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



  • Sweetwater Vintage Postcards

    Sweetwater Vintage Photos



    Take a road trip

    Sweetwater, Texas Area Destinations:
    Abilene | Colorado City | Snyder
    See Nolan County | Texas Panhandle

    Book Hotel Here:
    Sweetwater Hotels | More Hotels
    Texas Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories and recdent/vintage/historic photos, please contact us.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     


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