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El
Paso Salt War
Although
the major events occurred just East of El
Paso at San Elizario,
the salt lakes here were the cause of the much
written about San Elizario Salt War. It's an interesting chapter of Texas
history and is usually included in most books written about the Texas Rangers.
You can
check the Handbook of Texas Online under "Salt War of San Elizario"
for the details, but in a nutshell it was a non-family feud that came about
when a claim for title was sought for the flats which was thought by many (including
the rival faction) to be public property.
During
its seven-year simmer, the "war" claimed fewer than a dozen lives, but since it
involved factions on both sides of the border and the Texas Rangers as well as
the Army, it demands its place as a (rather large) footnote to El Pasoan and West
Texas History. Because of the Salt War Fort Bliss was reestablished later
the same year it had been abandoned (1877).
See Salt
Warriors: Insurgency on the Rio Grande by Paul Cool
An
award-winning history of the El Paso Salt War |
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| Salt
Flat History
in a Pecan Shell
The
physical town of Salt Flat can be traced back to a vegetable farmer who sold produce
in Van Horn. J.W. Hammack was
his name and he was employed at nearby ranches just after the turn of the (19th)
century. He raised a family here and in 1928 his son got wind of a planned highway
connecting El
Paso with Carlsbad, New Mexico. This valuable information was gotten from
the highway surveyors according to T. Lindsey Baker's Ghost Towns of Texas.
Things were just opening up for the independent driver during this time
as attested to by the opening of the numerous hotels in West
Texas. (See
El Capitan, El
Paisano in our Rooms
with a Past
series.)
A store and gas station were potential gold mines and
Hammack had the location. Almost immediately competition arrived and Salt Flat
soon had 2 stores and 2 gas stations. Both store owners opened cafes and then
"Tourist Courts," which were the forerunners
of motels.
Flying
over the Guadalupe
Mountains was difficult before aircraft cabins were pressurized. An early
passenger airplane crash in 1932 prompted the government to create an emergency
landing field at Salt Flat. FFA personnel manned the field 24 hours a day until
technological advances made it obsolete in the 1960s. |
Visits
to Salt Flat, Texas |
Approaching Salt Flat from the west
Photo Courtesy Barclay
Gibson, November 2009 |
Phoographer's
Note:
"On entering
a town it is not uncommon to have a reduced speed limit sign, 55 mph or even 35
mph, right there with the Road Sign. At Salt Flat there is the 75 mph sign as
if that should be your minimum speed through the berg." - Barclay
Gibson |
Is the cup half full or half empty?
Photo Courtesy Barclay
Gibson, November 2009 |
Honk - Courtesy Rest-Room
Photo Courtesy Barclay
Gibson, November 2009 |
The salt came from
shallow lakes that formed after rains in the Guadalupe Mountains. It was "mined"
for cattle as late as the 1930s, but wells drilled in Dell
City lowered the water table to where there was less and less salt deposited.
Photographer's
Note:
"Don't confuse the salt lake with the 'town', Salt Flat.
Two different and distinct entities, separated by about 5 miles." - Barclay
Gibson |
Salt Lake, aka
Guadalupe Lake, WarPhotographer's
Note:
There is a second marker southeast of El
Paso in San Elizario.
Here are both. Note the similar but not identical wording on the markers. -
Barclay
Gibson |
Salt War Centennial Marker
Photo Courtesy Barclay
Gibson, November 2009 |
El Paso Salt War
Centennial Marker Text
Resentment over private control of the salt lakes
in this region, often called Guadalupe Lakes, led to the El Paso Salt War 1877
which entailed the loss of many lives and much property. |
Salt Flat &
Salt Flat Cafe |
| Salt
Flat Cafe Turned 75
I just wanted to let you know that after the
death of my mother, Isobel Hammack Gilmore, I have started taking care of the
Salt Flat Cafe. It will be 75 years old on November 20, 2004. I don't plan a great
big celebration but would like people to know that it is still in operation, we
still have bus service and are still cooking good meals. We still offer the same
friendly service that my Grandparents and Parents offered. Come and see us. I
am still working on getting the many many pictures of the history my family left
me. Thanks - Shirley J. Gilmore Richardson, June 08, 2004
Salt
Flat Area Hotels:
El
Paso Hotels | Van
Horn Hotels |
Ona Hammack, Ed Hammack and Isobel Hammack Gilmore
1929 photo on display in
the Salt Flat Cafe
Photo Courtesy Barclay
Gibson, November 2009 |
"We
still have bus service"
Photo Courtesy Gerald
Massey, November 2009 |
"We
are still cooking good meals"
Photo Courtesy Barclay
Gibson, November 2009 |
"We still offer the same friendly service that my Grandparents and Parents
offered..."
Photo Courtesy Gerald
Massey, November 2009 |
Pancho Villa Refugees
"The many many pictures of the history my family
left me."
Photo Courtesy Barclay
Gibson, November 2009 |
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Subject:
The "second" cafe
in Salt Flat
I
am a near-native of Salt Flat Texas. Though I was born in El Paso, my mother was
from Salt Flat. My grandparents, Clyde and Catherine Grable, owned the "second"
cafe in Salt Flat. I remember it well, as we lived there for a number of years
and spent many vacations there. It was a wonderful place for a boy to live, full
of hot sun, thunderstorms, horned toads, bats (lived in the garage), snakes and
other desert dwellers. As a teenager spending the summer, walks across the desert
with a 4/10 shotgun in hand was heaven. There are many adventures that occurred
naturally there that now, seems more adventurous than the urbanized/civilized
man I've become. My parents are both alive, though my grandparents have passed
on. Eighteen years ago I visited Salt Flat, many years after my grandfather sold
it. Nothing remained that I remembered and the only thing remarkable was the amount
of grass visible, nurtured from the sand by a rare rainy season. Though I would
like to hear from others who might remember my family, I'm not sure any survive.
There are many stories, names and events I know we could hash over. Perhaps, if
anyone remains, we could talk about going to the movie in Dell
City, or "headlighting" jackrabbits on the airstrip or back highway to Dell
City, or picnics at McKittrick Canyon or visits to Ma and Pa Glovers at Nickel
Creek. I know my mother was glad to leave there, but I wish it was a place to
which I could return.
I would be glad to hear from others concerning
Salt Flat. There is a lot of history, both personal and "Texas-type" that would
be fun to share. My email address is mbmlpcctl@hotmail.com. Please share this.
Thanks for your time, Mike Mitchell, June 03, 2006 |
Subject: Clearing
the First Rangeland, and the Salt Flat Cafe
I
may be the only person alive today that helped clear the first rangeland near
the location where Dell City
is today.
In 1946 a group of Lynn county farmers went to Salt Flats to
grub out the Mesquite trees and turn this ranch land into farming land. Thad Smith
and his brother Ores Smith. Thad Smith owned the Hd 14 Alas Chambers Crawler that
the grubbing ploy was mounted on. The two drivers of this rig were Harley Smith,
and JB Williams. Harley and JB were brother in laws, Vera Harley's wife also lived
at the camp or near by, they slept in their 40 model Ford. Camp was a little shotgun
one room house that most of us slept and eat in, everyone had his army cot and
a change of clothes.
I remember the old Cafe. I think it was sort of
a cafeteria style back then. We had been home for a few days and were returning
to camp and back to our jobs and we would always stop at Salt Flats and have apple
pie and coffee. On this trip JB and his sister Vera had brought along their (Getair)
and Mandolin, and they played on and on and on, everyone would holler one more
time. Pilipino Baby.
To get to the place where we camped we would turn
north just east of the Salt Flat Cafe and down a cow trail road through I think
seven gates, I know I got smarter as I would always try to set in the middle so
I wouldn't have to open those gates, I was just a boy at the time, my job was
burning the brush that my dad and uncle raked up into big piles. With a big rake
they had invented and welded with our little farm welder and hauled all the way
over to Salt Flat on a bob tail truck.
The first crop that was planted
was Alfa, it didn't turn out very well because they had the land in borders, and
were going to use flood irrigation like they use to do over in the Hondo valley,
well the water wouldn't flow the way it was supposed to and Mr. Stone, the big
boss decided to level it after it had been planted so all of the Alfa ended up
at one end of the field.
The thing I remember most is how that dirt
would make my hair stand straight up and my mom would say I looked like I had
been plugged into a light socket, I was 14 years at the time. I worked through
the summer and up into the fall then had to go back home and go to school, we
were always late getting into school as we would have to pull cotton to pay for
shoes and a coat to wear to school, that was the good old days.
There
was a government trapper working that area back then and he would stop by our
camp every time he was in that area and I would get to go with him and help him
run his trap line. Coyotes and Bob cats was what he would catch most of the time.
When the rabbits ate up the cotton I'm sure there were folks that would have liked
to have had the Coyotes and Bob cats back.
Dad and I, along with my wife
and son and my mother drove over to Dell
City in 1958 just to see the town and to look around some and we felt kind
proud that we had a little part in making that happen, we were the first ones
to acutely start the farms. They pumped the first water into reservoirs and that
was part of my job at times to watch for Gopher holes in the dam's, it would wash
out in a short time and no way you could stop it once it got ahead of you and
that shovel.
I have rambled on more than I should have but when I saw
your story and how you had opened the old Cafe up again it brought back lots of
memories, and all the folks that I went out there with are all gone on but they
are the ones that got it all started. Thanks for listening I would like to do
it all over again. - Glen Lowe, Lubbock, TX, August 08, 2005
That
excellent, definitive style is present again in the Salt Flats article. I cannot
begin to express the extreme enjoyment I received while reading the story and
allow me to also offer "congrats" to Jason Penny for the excellent photos, which
really added to the "being there experience". - Mike Gerrick
El Paso
Hotels > Book Your Hotel Here & Save |
Subject: The
Mayor of Guadalupe
Pass
Dear TE, I am elated to find your magazine and your article
on Guadalupe
Pass. I was once called the Mayor of Guadalupe Pass. This may seem strange
but it's true. I lived two miles South of Guadalupe Pass for several years. I
also lived at Salt Flat, Texas and taught (other) young men to fly from the Salt
Flat Intermediate Landing Field. I climbed to the top of Guadalupe Pass long before
it became a National Park and I fell in love with the entire area. This was back
in 1948 and it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me. I flew by (and around?)
El Capitan for many years en route from Midland to El Paso. My good friend Bertha
Glover and her husband owned the Pine Spings Cafe.... Mrs.Glover received a letter
one day from a lady in Fort Worth, addressed to "The Mayor at Guadalupe Pass."
Mrs. Glover designated me to be the Official Mayor because she said she had that
"authority." I did answer the letter as I figured a Mayor from Guadalupe Pass
would. I have both of these letters in my files and will try to send them in when
they are found. You are doing a superb service. There is a lot of lost Texas History
and [only] a few of us Ol' timers still around. I might as well "fess up" - I
was 86 years old in November this year. - Sincerely, David Finnell, Hurst,
Texas, The Former Mayor of Guadalupe Peak, December 8, 2007
El
Paso Hotels > Book Your Hotel Here & Save |
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