RAMBLING - What the Boomers found in the Texhoma area when they arrived in Spring and early summer, 1906.
They found a broad beautiful gently rolling prairie, -with a few "breaks" or rough land along Beaver Creek, and the North Fork (Sand Creek).
The land was covered with a thick, heavy growth of short, curly grass, (Buffalo grass) on the prairies, and on the rough broken land along Beaver Creek, and other arroyos, sagebrush and soapweed prevailed. There was no running water, except after heavy rains when there was run off water in the arroyos or draws, which ran down to low places on the prairie, where there was no outlet and these would fill up with water. In times long past the buffalos had beaten spots in the grass to give themselves a "dust bath". The bulls had tramped and puddled the dirt so it was watertight. Those old buffalo wallows would hold water like a jug.
When I arrived in July, 1906. the 3C Cattle Company had moved all of their cattle out; therefore, there were no cattle in the country, but there were a few wild horses, or at least they were not branded as was the custom at this time. In the winter of 1906 they were rounded up and branded by Mr. Tom Wakefield, who operated a large horse ranch on Beaver Creek, in Sherman County Texas, north of Stratford.
There were plenty of wolves, coyotes and a few "swifts [foxes]". The "swifts" were supposed to be the common gray fox that by nature had adapted themself to the country and its environments. Though there were not many of them here, they survived because they could outrun the coyotes. There were very few jack rabbits, but there were many of the smaller, "cottontails," rabbits around prairie dog towns. The wild fowls were mostly very large hawks, which some called eagles, and they lived on prairie dogs, rabbits, gophers. etc. In early fall wild geese, ducks, and cranes [sandhill] by thousands would move into the country on their way to their wintering places in the South.
Their constant "Honking" would keep one awake at night, especially so if there happened to be a maize field near. These geese and cranes grazed in fields of maize or kaffir corn which were the main crops of the country. At times when the crops, due to drought were poor, the geese and cranes would severely damage the crop.
There were plenty of badgers, gophers, ground squirrels, kangaroo rats, and skunks. The ground squirrel and kangaroo rats were a serious menace to farmers at planting time as they would grabble up the seeds, thus preventing a "stand".
Another pest and menace on the prairie was "The Side Winder" [prairie rattlesnake] which was a short rattlesnake. They seldom were more than ten or twelve inches in length, but were very vicious. They got their name because in their movements. their bodies would bend from side to side, hence the name - "Side Winder".
In the early days on these prairies, farmers-or would-be farmers-were badly handicapped in their efforts by a noxious weed. At first they were called Canadian thistles, (later they were identified as Russian thistles). They grew to be big round bunches, some as large as washtubs, and each bunch had thousands of seeds. Then in the fall, when a freeze would kill them, they would break loose from their roots, and the wind would roll them over the country, like a real "tumble weed". Every time in their rolling and bouncing movement, the seeds would scatter out - pretty much like a saltshaker. In the springtime when it rained, every seed so scattered on plowed ground would came up and grow to repeat the routine for the next year. These weeds were vigorous growers, and they would soon take up every drop of moisture that happened to be in the soil. They would choke out and kill any growing crops. It was a very discouraging condition for the homesteaders.
At that time (from 1907 to 1910) "we had a legislature composed of "Do Gooders". They had a panacea for every ailment of the people. So they enacted a law -which made it a misdemeanor for any landowner to permit these thistles to grow on his land, or on section lines, which surrounded his lands. This act fixed penalties for these violations. That law was like our childhood story of "Humpty Dumpty" who had a great fall and all the king's horses and all the king's men could not restore Humpty Dumpty again. It would have taken a regiment of soldiers to keep them from growing on one section. Many of the homesteaders took this act of the legislature seriously, but they realized they could not comply with the act. This was another misfortune to add to the homesteader's discouragement, and was the final straw that forced many homesteaders to leave the country.
OLD 3C WELLS - There were many of those old 3C Wells scattered over the spread. Most of those old wells had names. One out north of town, in Frank Berry's pasture where they had a dipping vat was called "The Dipping Vat Well". Another one further out, now in Glen Heath's pasture was "The Wild Horse Well".
The Twin Mills Well is now in George Bergner's pasture. The Cane Lake well is in Brook Spence's pasture. The Dry Lake. The Arizona, Deep Well, Willowbar and others are out in Cimarron County. There are others whose names I have forgotten. There were a few privately owned wells in the area, one of which was owned by Bill Patton and located in Cimarron County. Patton operated a horse and mule ranch with most of his grazing area along the Beaver Creek in Sherman County (Texas). When the "Boomers" began in 1905 to file homestead entries on the Public Domain lands (where the cattle companies had grazed their herds) the 3Cs moved to Arizona and left the wells, windmills, and tanks where they were. These wells furnished the only water for the "Boomers" at first until some of them could drill wells on their homesteads, which a very few of them did. This being a deep-water country, drilling a well was a very expensive project in those days.
When the Boomers began to establish residence on their claims, their first need was water, which under these prevailing conditions meant hauling it in barrels from one of those old 3C wells. In my case the nearest well was about three miles (The Twin Mills well, now in George Bergner's pasture). Hauling water for household uses, and livestock, was a routine necessity. The common practice was about three empty whiskey barrels in a common farm wagon. That practice had some defects. It must be remembered that this was a prairie country with no trees, fences or other obstacles. So it frequently happened in my case, that when we emptied a barrel of water and left the empty barrel standing in the wagon box, a high wind would take the empty barrel out of the wagon and start it rolling over the prairie. Several times I had to get on a saddle horse and follow my barrel until it lodged in some gulley or hill side, in order, to save my barrel.
At that time there were two saloons in town, running wide open, so there was a fairly good supply of empty whiskey barrels, but saloon keepers charged a dollar per barrel for empties and homesteaders, of course, wanted to save that dollar.
Later on in this Boom Period in Communities, the long distance from one of those old 3C wells would require neighbors to help one to finance a well. In my neighborhood we chipped in and financed a well, windmill, tank and a "handy Billie" pump where we could place our wagon with empty barrels and fill the barrels with the pump. That was a big improvement over the old method of dipping the water out of the tank with buckets. That plan worked fine until some one failed to drain the pump and ruined it. This well was on land then owned by W. M. Kimbell. It is now owned by the Jack Johnson estate and is locally known as the Eichelberger place.
That well was only two and a half miles from my place. Mrs. Taylor was raising chickens at the time, and to economize on water she used dishwater for her chickens until some of them got sick and died. That was the end of that scheme.