BARSTOW
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BARSTOW |
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NAME: BARSTOW COUNTY: TEXAS ROADS: 4WD GRID: 1 CLIMATE: DESSERT BEST TIME TO VISIT: ALLWAYS |
COMMENTS:
7 MILES FROM PECOS, TX REMAINS: EVERY THING. (STILL GHOST TOWN.) |
| Barstow is one of the rare towns in Texas where the founder/ namesake is buried in the local cemetery. George E. Barstow was an interesting man who came to Texas from Rhode Island (via New York) and was one of the leading world experts on irrigation.The town was organized in 1892 and the courthouse built the following year.The population in 1900 was over a thousand people, due to recruiting efforts of Mr. Barstow Irrigation was successful enough for Barstow to win a silver medal for grapes at the 1904 World's Fair. 1904 was also the year that fruit and vegetable farming received a nearly fatal blow when the Pecos River dam broke. Droughts followed and by 1918, farming was a memory. The population in 1930 was 468 - less than half of the 1910's 1,219. Ward County Courthouse The former courthouse built in 1893 was razed in the 1950s. The red sandstone used for the courthouse was quarried locally and was also used in the construction of the first bank in Ward County Submitted by: STEVE |
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