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SWEETWATER,
TEXAS"Wind
energy capital of Texas"Nolan
County Seat, Texas
Panhandle
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: 11,415 (2000) 11,967 (1990) |
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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) |
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Sweetwater
Landmarks/Attractions Nolan
County CourthouseAvenger
Field, AKA Sweetwater Army Airfield
WWII WASP Memorials & National WASP WWII MuseumNational
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
915-235-8547Lakes:
Sweetwater, Trammell and Oak Creek ReservoirSweetwater
Hotels |
| Sweetwater Today
- Drives Around Town |
The
1926 Municipal Building.
In the National Register of Historic Places
Photo
courtesy Mike
Price, December 2007 |
Sweetwater
Municipal Building Auditorium historical marker
Photo courtesy Mike
Price, December 2007 |
Sweetwater
Municipal Building - Police Dept.
Photo courtesy Mike
Price, December 2007 |
The
Ragland Building downtown
Photo courtesy Mike
Price, December 2007 |
Ragland
Building historical marker
Photo courtesy Mike
Price, December 2007 |
1911 building downtown
Photo courtesy Mike
Price, December 2007 |
Sweetwater
Reporter
Photo courtesy Mike
Price, December 2007 |
Sweetwater
Reporter Historical Marker
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 |
Midway
Drive-In Theatre
Photos courtesy Mike
Price, December 2007 |
The
Closed Drive-In Theater.
Photos courtesy Mike
Price, December 2007 |
| "Sweetwater's
favorite animal, taken 10 miles east of Sweetwater just by chance." - Mike
Price, September 2007. More Texas
Animals |
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
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Sweetwater
Chronicles
Roy
Crane and Captain Easy
by Clay Coppedge ("Letters Fro 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 |
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Postcard courtesy
rootsweb.com/%7Etxpstcrd |
Broadway
Street looking East, circa late 1940s
Photo courtesy Donnie Fort |
Sweetwater
Texas Forum
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 | |
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