EARTH to VENUS

 

All Aboard Earth to Venus: with stops in Amherst, Littlefield, Anton, Slaton, Southland, Shallowater, Ragtown, Post, Snyder, Hermleigh, Roscoe, Sweetwater, Merkel, Thurber, and Venus.

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Want to really get the feel of West Texas? Go on a trip from Earth to Venus, stopping at small towns along the way to discover what they might have in common and what stories they might have to tell. Earth, and several others we will visit, are on the Llano Estacado or the Staked Plains. It is one of the largest mesas in North American, 5,000 feet in altitude at its highest point. Driving from Earth to Venus is a drop of about 3,000 feet. The good news is that going from Earth to Venus is all downhill. Before beginning the journey from Earth the Venus, we drove uphill directly from Boerne to Lubbock staying overnight at the Cotton Court Hotel l610 Broadway.

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EARTH (pop. 897 elev. 3,694)

We were up early for breakfast for the trip to Earth. My breakfast place is always a Waffle House, but there’s not one in Lubbock so we opted for the Midnight Shift restaurant located in the hotel. Then on the road for the one-hour drive to Earth, taking US 84 west to US 384 north, and then in Spring Lake a left onto west on US 70.

Before getting to Earth, we took a quick side trip with a right turn on FM302 to visit the Spring Lake–Earth High School located all by itself out in a west Texas field at 472 FM 302. Students from Earth attend the Springlake-Earth high school. The football stadium, yes there is one, has the requisite press box, lights, and 1100 seats, more seating than the combined populations of Springlake and Earth. We quickly discovered that football, 6 man or the regular 11 man, unites these towns and that each, regardless of town or school size, has a stadium. It’s worth a quick drive.

The school’s mascot is the Wolverine, and a mounted wolverine skin is displayed at the high school. The 1,100-seat Wolverine stadium supports track and field activities as well as six-man football. One of its female cross-country runners was State Champion in Girl’s conference 1A in 2023-24 and state champion in the three previous years; she never lost a race in four years of competition. Her story is worth reading here https://tinyurl.com/8szcmx42 .

 

In front of the school is a brick “Veterans Wall” honoring Springlake-Earth veterans. Each brick is engraved with the Veteran’s name and dates of service.. He retired from the Air Force in 1955 with the rank of Lt. Colonel having received the Freedom Foundation Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Cross, the Purple Heart, and the Chinese Breast Order of Pao Ting, among others. Bob Hite’s story is another one of those stories from a tiny Texas town worth telling.

After visiting the school, we took a quick tour of Earth in Lamb County. Highway 70/Main Street runs east and west. A Dairy Queen opened in 1970 but has since closed even though a DQ commercial was filmed there in 1989; some said it was the most exciting thing that had ever happened in Earth. The commercial can be seen on Facebook at

https://www.facebook.com/groups/131989253498733/.

There’s also the Working Ranch Cowboys Association Rodeo held in Earth usually in September to showcase the skills of working ranch cowboys. Earth also has the requisite, ubiquitous “Dollar General” and boasts a public swimming pool, baseball field, six churches, and the Wolverine Drive In, an honest American diner run by local family for over a generation.

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Heading south leaving Earth on Farm Road 1055 to Amherst, the Xcel power “Plant X” dominates the scenery. The plant uses natural gas to create steam from water taken from the Ogallala Aquifer; sadly, so much water is used by the plant that ground water has been severely depleted, and Lamb County lakes like Spring Lake and Soda Lake have dried up.

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AMHERST (pop. 655 elev. 3,652)

Only 16 miles and 42 feet “downhill” from Earth, Amherst is just off U.S.84 on Farm Road 37 a mile from the Santa Fe railroad tracks. The townsite was platted in 1923, named by a railroad official, and by 1930, Amherst had 35 businesses including the Amherst Hotel, a popular stopping place between Clovis and Lubbock. The hotel burned in 1952, and some businesses are no longer there, but there is a K-12 school located at the north end of Main Street. It was not hard toto find the Bulldogs’ six-man football stadium. We found it and its 800-seat grandstand.

 

On the drive into town there is also a rather brutal fortress-looking building; it’s the Harmonee House, a long-term skilled nursing facility which previously served as the second building constructed for the South Plains Cooperative Hospital Association.

In 1940, since there was no local doctor in Amherst, and the closest hospital was more than fifty miles away, Amherst became the unlikely place for the first cooperative hospital in Texas. The South Plains Association was modeled on the first United States cooperative hospital established in 1931 in Elk City, Oklahoma by Doctor Michael Shadid a graduate of John Tarleton College in Stephenville and later Washington University. Shadid worked to replace the traditional fee-for-service practice of medicine. He supported affordable, prepaid healthcare with cooperative ownership of hospitals and with physicians practicing as a group. Stock was sold to build an eight-room facility in Amherst. The hospital was so successful that by 1945, the building was expanded to sixty beds. By 1954 there were more than 2,600 memberships, and it was considered one of the best medical facilities west of Dallas. The first hospital building still exists and serves as The Amherst Christian Retreat (ARK). A new building was built in 1982, but the hospital closed in 1989, and that building is now houses Harmonee House.

 

Littlefield (pop. 5,768 elev. 3,560)

Leaving Amherst by the same route we came in on, we turned left on U.S. 84 in the direction of Littlefield, 10 miles to the southeast and about 100 feet lower in elevation. Even with a population of 5,768, Littlefield still seems small, so we took a quick drive through since it is the Lamb County county seat. The Littlefield Wildcats play in a well-lit, 3,035-seat stadium with artificial turf. At night, its lights can be seen from highway 84. If you are driving an RV, you might want to take advantage of the free Waylon Jennings RV Park on Highway 385 (1938 Hall Avenue). It might be a good time to stop at the large Locos Restaurant just across the street from the Food King Grocery store.

We did neither and continued US-84 for 12.6 miles and down 171 feet to Anton.

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ANTON (pop. 916 elev. 3,389)

I think the folks who initially laid out the site for Anton had big dreams. The mostly deserted Main Street includes what was intended to be a circular central plaza, but now the plaza only has a rather dilapidated park and a painted concrete block building that serves as the City Hall. Main Street continues north as a double lane parkway and dead ends at Anton High School, home of the Bulldogs. You can’t miss purple trimmed buildings and the three tree trunk carvings of the mascot that sit at the school entrance. The 1,500-seat Matthew Hoover Family Stadium hosts their six-man football games and sits behind the school buildings.

 

Nothing much more about that except that oddly enough there was at one time a large and famous rabbit processing plant in the city of Texas in Queensland, Australia. Seems like the high school mascot should have been the “Rabbits” not the Bulldogs. A Catholic church and Baptist Church are well taken care of and sit on opposite sides of Main Street, Catholic on West 4th, Baptist on East 4th.

We didn’t see any rabbits on the 13-mile trip to Shallowater, a drop in elevation of only 95 feet, and we didn’t spend much time in Shallowater. You might skip the Shallowater exit off highway 84 and simply read about it below.

 

SHALLOWATER (pop. 2,932 elev. 3,294) Todd Field 3,106

The 2022 renovation of the 3,106 seat Todd Field may have helped the Shallowater Mustangs in 2024/25 to a 11-3 and 3-0 in District 3A-1 record, only to lose to Paradise in the state quarterfinals. That’s big news in Shallowater but not the biggest news story to come out of Shallowater.

Much earlier in 2012, the high school’s tradition of having the senior boys dressed in suits and ties and the girls put on frocks and heels made the national news. Newsweek noted that “Female students were asked to ‘dress in a feminine manner to please the men,’ ‘not complain or whine’ and ‘obey any reasonable request of a male.’ … The stated purpose of the assignment was to demonstrate ‘to the school how the code of chivalry and standards set in the medieval concept of courtly love carries over into the modern day.’” The New York Times said, “A Shallowater High School assignment meant to demonstrate medieval-era misogyny was scrapped after at least one parent objected.” The school district reviewed the assignment and decided to eliminate the assignment, and “despite its historical context, it does not reflect our district and community values.” From what I could discover, this “chivalric” event has been Shallowater’s biggest scandal, not such a bad record.

 

SLATON (pop. 5,684 elev. 3,084)

On the way to Southland, we took a quick tour in Slaton 31 miles from Shallowater, to see the 1912 Slaton Harvey House, an historic bed and breakfast, event center, and railroad museum. It is one of only six Fred Harvey Eating House locations in Texas, and has been restored as a museum, a hotel with five bedrooms, and Events Center. It’s worth a stop and even a sleepover. We also took a quick peak at the 2,000-seat Blake J Boyd Memorial Stadium which hosts the Slaton Tigers.

 

SOUTHLAND (pop. 160 elev. 3,022)

Only 62 feet downhill and a quick 8 miles from Slaton, Southland was established about 1907 as a trading center for the nearby ranches It’s about two miles from the Caprock, the rocky formation that separates the High Plains from the Rolling Plains. The Pecos and Northern Texas Railway stimulated Southland’s growth when it decided to build through the town in 1910 rather than build a new railroad town. The most prominent buildings in this tiny town are the Ag Products store, the K-12 school, and an 850-seat football field for the six-man Eagles.

 

Next to the modern school is a remnant that of a building. Centered on 8th Street, it would have been the main entrance to the former school since the vacant area behind it appears to be the footprint of a previous foundation. I wish they had saved the old facility. The remaining details on the remnant have more character than the current building.

 

Ragtown Gospel Theater

On the way to Post, we took a detour off US 84 for the Ragtown Gospel Theater which is a few miles left on County Road 183 then left on Golf Course Road. The 400-seat indoor theater sits just below the Caprock. The auditorium serves as a 360-degree set that resembles a Jerusalem street during the time of Christ but is less than realistic. The productions are from biblical scripture. Unless you wish to attend the productions, the detour is not worth it.

 

POST (pop. 3,486 elev. 2,605)

In 1907, C.W. Post from Battle Creek, Michigan, the eccentric millionaire and inventor of Grape Nuts and Post Toasties, set out to establish a utopian city located at mid-point of the eastern border of the plains of the Llano Estacado. Still going downhill, the site of Post City, Texas, a good 400 feet below Southland, was to become the county seat of Garza County and the funnel through which the region’s food and fiber products flowed. The Post high school Antelopes play in the 2,318-seat Jimmie Redman Memorial Stadium and have access to a separate track and field facility.

A life-sized statue on the lawn of the county courthouse honors “the cereal man.” One of his eccentricities was “rain battles,” firing canons and setting off explosions in the area in failed attempts to produce rainfall. Another was to prohibit alcohol and brothels. On the positive side, he developed agricultural innovations to help farmers become more productive and a railroad depot that would open the region paying the Santa Fe Railroad $50,000 to ensure a depot would be built before his death, and it was built. The depot now houses the Post Area Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center. A complete history of Post’s activities in Garza County and Post, Texas, is available at

https://www.txgenwebcounties.com/garza/history_of_post.html .

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SNYDER (pop. 11,187 elev. 2,320)

We headed south on US 84 for a 45-mile 285-foot drop to Snyder. Once known as “Hide Town” and “Robber’s Roost,” Snyder was established by Buffalo hunters who built buffalo hide dwellings and served as a haven for dubious characters roaming west Texas. It’s a bit too populated to be considered small, so we did not stop and missed the 5,718-seat Grant Teaff Tiger stadium. We continued a little uphill toward Hermleigh.

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HERMLEIGH (pop. 429 elev. 2,441)

Twelve miles and a miniscule 20 feet higher than Snyder, Hermleigh supports a quite modern high school facility including a first-class 1,650-seat six-man football stadium, track, baseball, and softball fields. In 2023

 

We noticed a vacant field with what appear to be the foundations of the old school buildings. After we returned home, I discovered a wonderful “Texas Country Reporter” video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRpp4F2jtwE  about the demolition and move from the old school to the new one.  Hermleigh has a couple of other claims to fame. First it is the hometown of the former Baylor Bears coach, Grant Teaff. Second, the most expensive pig ever sold at that time was owned by Hermleigh resident Jefferey Roemisch. He sold his crossbreed barrow named "Bud" for a record-breaking $56,000 in 1983.

On the way to Roscoe, Sweetwater, and Merkel, we saw clear evidence of the more than 2,000 area windmills generating more than 2,000 MW of electricity helping make Texas the world’s fifth biggest wind energy generator.

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ROSCOE (pop. 1,220 elev. 2,388)

One of the largest wind farms in the world and the largest in Texas is the Roscoe Wind Farm. Spurred by the opportunities generated by the windfarms, the Roscoe Collegiate ISD has developed an innovative curriculum and partnerships with area universities and colleges to supply the critical agricultural STEM workforce “to meet the daunting challenge of feeding and clothing 9 billion people on the planet by 2050.” It also has fine athletic facilities for the “Plowboys,” including an excellent lighted football field with enclosed press boxes and seating for over 1,400.

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SWEETWATER (pop. 10,620 K elev. 2,175)

            Sweetwater is slightly downhill from Roscoe, a drop of about 200 feet in about nine miles. During WWI, Sweetwater’s airfield was used to train Britain's military flying cadets, and in WWII, the Women's Airforce Service Pilots were trained here. TexasBob.com says, “There is no better High School football stadium in the Texas than the Mustang Bowl in Sweetwater. The Mustang Bowl was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1939 making it older than most stadiums currently in use, but the community has maintained and modernize the facilities over the years in a way that makes it a modern venue for football.” The Mustang Bowl holds 17,000 fans, cost about $39,000 in 1939 ($1.5 million in today’s dollars) and is worth the drive to see it.

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MERKEL (pop. 2,433 elev. 1,870)

            And for a change Merkel is 250 feet higher than Sweetwater but hardly noticeable over the 24-mile trip. Known as "Windmill Town" not because of the recently established electrical windmills but because of the many windmills needed in the past to supply water to the town. Merkel has a public library, senior center, heritage hall, Merkel Museum, a pharmacy, Chuck Roach's Art Museum, and many small businesses. The Tin Cup Country Club has a restaurant bar, swimming pool, and RV park. The school district has about 1,000 students, and uniquely, a day care center for district staff. My guess is that the dare care center is a benefit to lure teachers to this little spot in west Texas. The Badger football stadium with 3,059 seats has a capacity larger than the population.

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THURBER (pop. 8 elev. 1,090)

            Ninety-eight miles down the road, and I mean down -- 800 feet lower in elevation than Merkel – Thurber is a ghost town but has a surprising history. Even though the only buildings are for the volunteer fire department, the Smokestack Restaurant housed in one of two remaining older buildings, and the remnant of an old smokestack, it’s worth a stop.

 

            With a population of 10,000 peaking around 1918-1920, it was the principal bituminous-coal-mining town in Texas. Coal mining began in 1886, and the operator recruited miners from all over -- Italy, Poland, the United States, Britain, Ireland, Mexico, Germany, France, Belgium, Austria, Sweden, and Russia. Because many of the miners did not speak English, the owners maintained a repressive environment. According to the Texas State Historical Association, after a strike, the new owners “fenced a portion of its property and within the enclosure constructed a complete town and mining complex, including schools, churches, saloons, stores, houses, an opera house seating over 650, a 200-room hotel, an ice and electric plant, and the only library in the county. Eventually the strike ended, and the miners and their families moved into the new town. In addition to the mines, the company operated commissary stores. As in the typical company town, low pay, drawn once a month, forced employees to utilize a check system between pay periods, whereby the customer drew scrip, reportedly discounted at 20 percent, for use at the company's commissary stores. In 1897 a second industry came to the town, a large brick plant; Hunter was also a partner in this operation, which, although it was separate from the mining company's holdings, used clay found on company property. A stockade, armed guards, and a barbed wire fence, which restricted labor organizers, peddlers, and other unauthorized personnel, regulated access to the town.… Continuation of such activities resulted in a concentrated effort by the United Mine Workers to unionize the Thurber miners. Following the induction in September 1903 of more than 1,600 members into the Thurber local of the UMW and the organization of locals of carpenters, brick makers, clerks, meat cutters, and bartenders, the company opened negotiations with the workers and, on September 27, 1903, reached an agreement resulting in harmonious labor-management relations. Thurber gained recognition as the only 100 percent closed-shop city in the nation. The victory at Thurber indicated what unions might accomplish with effective leadership…. Thurber remained a union stronghold until the demise of mining operations in the 1920s, after railroad locomotives began to burn oil rather than coal. … The conversion to oil-burning locomotives led to Thurber's demise. … Many miners accepted UMW assistance and moved to mining areas in other states. Numerous Italians returned to Italy rather than work in nonunion mines, and in 1926 the union chartered two railroad cars to return to their homeland 162 Mexicans, who likewise refused to scab. By the end of 1927, no union miners remained in the state. The company maintained operation of the brick plant until 1930.”

At its height, the mines produced 3,000 tons of coal a day, and an estimated 127 million tons remain untapped.

            Across I-20 from the smokestack we visited the W. K. Gordon Center for Industrial History of Texas. It houses a collection of photographs, films, personal histories, and mementos from the coal mining days. Inside the gift shop is a “working" model of a wooden oil derrick; watch out for the gusher!

            Another long haul of 98 miles, mostly on I20 East, and drop of about 400 feet finally will get you to Venus just south of Fort Worth on US67. But we wanted to avoid the Interstate, so we headed south from Thurber on Texas 108 toward Stephenville, then to US 67 West to Venus. It’s five miles further and took us about 20 minutes longer than if we had taken the Interstate. But it goes through more small towns.

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VENUS (pop. 7,528 elev. 673)

              By the time we got to Venus, it was evident that we had left the high plains. Venus looked more like the East Texas town that it is. More trees, bigger trees, greener grass, and not quite so flat. Originally known as “Gossip,” Venus’s most recent claim to fame was in November 2022 when crews transformed Venus into Hardin, Montana, to film a dramatic scene in Yellowstone season five. Founded in 1903, the historic appearance of the town square apparently made it ideal for “Yellowstone.” In the 1940s, Venus almost became a ghost town with just a drugstore, and Venus’s residents donated five dollars each to keep the drugstore open after it threatened to shut down. The Venus Bulldogs, like the others, play in a modern high school and lighted football stadium.