penas from barstow and pecos, Texas

Barstow, TX - Elfie's Home Town
Barstow, Texas
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BARSTOW, TEXAS- Barstow is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 80 and Farm Road 516, on the Missouri Pacific Railroad, five miles east of Pecos in southwestern Ward County. The town was named for George E. Barstow,qv a Rhode Island land promoter who established it. The Texas and Pacific Railway reached Barstow in 1881. Ten years later the townsite was laid out and a post office established. In 1889 the Pioneer Canal Company was formed with a franchise to take 1,020 cubic feet per second from the Pecos River. Barstow became the county seat when Ward County was organized in 1892. That same year George E. Barstow formed the Barstow Improvement Company to promote the sale of land irrigated by the Pecos River. He constructed and maintained canals, flumes, dams and feeders to serve farms in Reeves and Ward Counties and brought trainloads of prospective settlers to the town in land promotions. A red sandstone courthouse was constructed in 1893. By 1900 Barstow had a population of 1,103, while Grandfalls had 542 residents and Monahans had 319. In 1914 the community had three churches, a bank, a hotel, an opera house, and a weekly newspaper, the West Texas Journal. Two years later a power plant was built to generate electricity. The farms around Barstow grew Melons, a variety of vegetables, almonds, peaches, apples, pears, strawberries and grapes. In 1904 the Barstow Irrigation Company won a silver medal for grapes at the St. Louis World's Fair. The same year an earthen dam on the rain-swollen Pecos River burst, and the resulting floodwaters raised soil salinity levels, thus ruining many of the farms. In 1907 and 1910 serious droughts plagued Barstow farmers. Vineyards and orchards began to decline in 1911, and by 1918 farming ceased. The population fell from 1,219 in 1910 to an estimated 490 in 1925. Barstow had 468 residents in 1930. In June 1938, after the discovery of oil in Winkler County and eastern Ward County, Monahans replaced Barstow as the county seat of Ward County. Barstow had a population of 683 in 1955. Four businesses and an estimated 637 residents remained in 1982. The population in 1990 was 535. Alfalfa was a major crop and Barstow Common, a special variety of alfalfa, was developed and became a major crop. The strand had died out by the early 1960's.

The first set of pictures were taken back in the mid 80's. The second set were taken in May 2001. I spent an afternoon walking around Barstow and looking into the vacant buildings. I wish I had a second memory card so I could have taken some pictures of the interior of the building. Maybe next time.
I found some sites with information on Barstow and some of the other town in the area.
Click on to see pictures of these small towns and go to to read more about the towns in west Texas. But visit my pages first!

Old Pictures
1. 2. 3. 4. CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO ENLARGE
Barstow saw its glory years at the start of the last century. This is Main Street which is about 60 feet wide. Many of the old buildings have been torn down making the town look very small. This building was located on the eastside and had the ring on the sidewalk where the horse's reigns could be secured to. The 3rd picture is the back of the same building. The old, old school is still standing even now. This school had already been abandoned in the late 1960'S when Elfida started school. This pictures were take in the mid 1980's. Elfida's grandfather, Bernardo Peña, was born here in 1903. His Parents lived in town since the town was founded.

New Pictures
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
While going to the Kermit High School graduation in May 2001, we decided to go to Barstow and take a tour of the town. We are now going to take you with us.
We will start where the old community center use to be. This is just east of the tennis courts. We are looking south down Main Street. Most of the buildings are gone. Walking to the back we can see the playground. The two story portion of the building that is still standing use to be the Library. This is the first library Elfida went to. Sitting in that library as a little girl she never imagined that she would grow up to be an assistant librarian and love it. Lets walk down 2 blocks down Main Street and look at the Ward Bank Building. The red sandstone looks almost new. The building with the tin siding use to be a discount store. Elfida remembers going there to buy school supplies, bobby pins, lotion, etc. The yellow building use to be a grocery store run by "Josefina". The white building at the end is the old Post Office. It has been closed down and the residents now get their stamps in a little portable building located on the empty lot next to the old building. Walking on down we come to the Barstow fire Department. It is still made up of volunteers. Elfida remembered the competitions the volunteers use to have there on Main Street. Her father was one of the volunteers back then.
Going across the railroad tracks and across the road which leads to Pecos we come to the gas station and store runned and owned by Jose Bustillos. There was a bar next door which was also run by Mr. Bustillos. This is the first place I stop at in 1978 when I went to pick up Elfida. I found the people there very distrustful of strangers. It wasn't until Elfida's father introduced me as his future son-in-law that they showed how friendly they were. I wish I had taken an extra memory card for my camera. There were so many things to photograph.

Other Pictures
6. 7. 8. 9. After a little rest under the canopy at the Bustillos store we walk behind the building where we see this old saltwater ceder tree. It has a circumference of about 6 or 7 feet. I had not seen a saltwater cedar tree this tall or with such a wide trunk. I don't know how old it is but I bet it's as old as Barstow.
Walking back across the road and the railroad tracks we go along the dirt channel back to the street which runs in front of the old community center. A block east of the channel we find the Barstow Presbytarian Church. This church was built in 1900 and looks bo be in excellent shape. Well we are back to where we started, so lets get in our car and visit two other places. We drive north of town towards the Barstow Cemetery, but we turn west on the first road we come to. Going about two miles down we come to a big curve in the road. My wife did not recognize this curve. She is told by her brother, Ishmael, that they closed down Sullivan's bridge and built a new bridge. That is the reason for the curve. We go off the paved road and onto a short stretch of gravel to where the old Sullivan bridge use to be. All we find is the enbankments. The bridge is gone. Ishmael said it was closed off after the rear wheels on a truck broke through the floor. Going back to east we head for the cemetery. My wife visits her mom's grave and lays some new flowers on it. Ishmael and her walk among the graves remembering old relatives and friends. There is a fence that runs through the middle of the cemetery. It use to be segregated. Mexicans could only be buried on the eastside of the cemetery. White people were buried on the westside. Click Here to got to the Ward County site. It has more pictures of the Cemetery and information on about the county.
Well, we enjoyed the tour and your company. It is a hot day and we are hungry. Want to follow us to Pecos? We are on our way to the Dairy Mart, I am going to try one of their Jumbo Frito Burgers!