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Texas Ghost
Town
MASTERSON, TEXAS
Moore County, Texas
Panhandle
Not on the state map
Hwy 287 and 87
19 miles S of Dumas
35 miles N of Amarillo
26 miles W of Lake Meredith
Population: 15 (1990)
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MASTERSON,
TEXAS
by Louise George
In 1927 three companies combined their resources to construct an industrial
plant to produce and process natural gas from the enormous reserves
in the Hugoton Gas Field, which extends through the Texas Panhandle,
the Oklahoma Panhandle and part of Kansas. The plant operated under
the name of Canadian River Gas and was located in Moore County, Texas,
thirty-two miles north of Amarillo
and sixteen miles south of Dumas. Construction
began in late 1927 on the plant complex and a 342 mile pipeline to
transport natural gas to Denver, Colorado. At the same time, a hotel
for single workers and twelve houses for married workers and their
families were being built. The housing area was commonly known as
a camp.
The plant was built on land purchased from Lee Bivins, member of a
prominent ranching family. The community would be named after him.
The plant was known as Bivins Compressor Station. On April 15, 1928
the Amarillo Sunday News carried an article with the headline:
GROWTH OF GAS INDUSTRY LEADS TO NEW TOWN
“BIVINS” SPRINGS UP IN SOUTH MOORE COUNTY
The article predicted grand things for Bivins; such as, a lake, a
swimming pool, a church and a school. Not all those predictions came
true. There was a church and a school, but there would be no lake
and no swimming pool. The last sentence in the story read: “The town
‘Bivins’ will be on the map….” If Bivins was ever on the map, it didn’t
stay there for many years.
After the houses were occupied, the wife of a worker set up a classroom
in her home and taught the five children who lived in the camp. By
1930 there were eighteen students and a one-room school was built.
In 1937 the plant expanded and an additional twenty homes were built.
That year a three-room brick school building was constructed at a
cost of $14,485.
Early on, a Sunday school was organized and meetings were held in
the homes of its members. Later, classes were held in the schoolhouse.
From time to time over the years, there was not enough interest to
keep the church going. During those times folks who really wanted
to be in church drove to Dumas.
During the thirties, the demand for helium increased greatly when
the army and navy expanded their aviation programs. In June, 1941
the United States Department of the Interior requested a new facility
to meet the even greater demands for helium that would occur if the
United States became involved in World War II. A survey across the
southwestern region of the nation, determined that natural gas with
the highest content of helium was to be found in the Panhandle field
of Texas. In March 1942 a contract was signed for land, located three-quarters
of a mile west of Bivins, for a helium plant to be constructed and
operated by the U.S. Bureau of Mines. The plant was hurriedly constructed
and by March 1943, helium was being produced by the Exell Helium Plant.
Natural gas was delivered to the plant from Bivins Compressor Station,
the helium extracted and the gas returned to Bivins. During the war,
helium was used chiefly in dirigibles that escorted ship convoys across
both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to deliver troops and military
equipment and supplies. Later, helium was important to the space program.
Seventy-five homes were built adjacent to the helium plant and the
population of Masterson swelled to almost five hundred. The drastic
increase in school enrollment called for a larger building. Wartime
shortages, however, would delay any addition until 1946 when four
rooms were added. A few years later a gymnasium and cafeteria were
added.
First Baptist Church in Dumas organized a mission in 1943 to serve
the entire community. It was called Exell Baptist Church and services
were held in the school. In 1947, members voted to borrow $2,000 for
a cinderblock structure and they spent their summer working on the
church. The building had only an auditorium with areas curtained off
for Sunday school classes. Later, an old barracks building was bought
and moved in for classrooms.
When Bivins came into being, mail was carried by train from Amarillo
to Channing where a carrier picked
it up and delivered it to Bivins. Residents picked up their mail in
the office. Later, it would be carried by the bus that transported
employees who lived in Amarillo to and from work. After the helium
plant was built, the storekeeper, who lived in Amarillo, picked up
mail there and delivered it to the plant. Camp residents picked up
their mail at a guard shack near the entrance to the plant.
In 1946, Steve Scott returned from a stint in the U.S. Army and went
to work in the office at Bivins Compressor Station. The next year,
he bought and moved an old barracks onto land he leased from Lee Bivins.
He established a combined grocery store and gas station and began
the tedious job of obtaining a post office. When that was done and
he met the qualifications for postmaster, he had to choose a name
for the town. To him, Bivins was the obvious choice, and that’s the
name he submitted to the Postal Service. The request was denied. Another
small town somewhere in the state was named Bivens. Next, he submitted
the name Levi. It was also rejected. There was already a Levi, Texas.
Robert B. Masterson was a prominent rancher in the area. Mr. Scott
submitted the name Masterson and the community finally had an official
name. Reta Horn would become postmaster soon thereafter, and she held
the position for more than thirty years. |
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Downtown
Masterson circa 1950s
Photo courtesy Louis George |
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After
the town was named, the church also selected a new name – First Baptist
Church of Masterson. Though it was a Baptist church, it was attended
by members of all denominations. People who lived in two other camps,
located outside the school district, came some distance to participate
in the church and its activities. The community also presented opportunities
for them to take part in 4-H, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Home Demonstration,
youth and adult softball and various other social activities.
Beginning in the forties and continuing for nearly twenty years, the
school averaged an enrollment of around a hundred students from first
through the eighth grade. At Bivins, scholastics were first priority
and eighth grade graduates were well prepared when they started school
in Dumas. Students scored well in interscholastic meets and in every
year but one from 1953 to 1970, Bivins had winners in either Junior
or Senior, or both, divisions of Moore County Spelling Bee. Over the
years competition in sports included baseball, volleyball and track,
but basketball was the most popular. Most residents were avid fans
of the Bivins Broncos and drove many miles to cheer them on when they
played other small schools in the area. |
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Bivins
School - 1963
Photo courtesy Louis George |
1963 was the beginning of the end. That spring, Bivins camp residents
were notified that all the houses in their camp would be sold within
the next two years. Reluctantly, families began to move into new homes
in Dumas or Amarillo.
A few months later the people at Exell got notice that houses vacated
in their camp would be sold. Seeing the certain demise of the community,
residents of that camp also began to move.
In the spring of 1966, the church had a special ceremony to burn the
note on the auditorium and parsonage built several years earlier.
In January of the following year, members voted to disband. There
were not enough members left to support the church.
Except for two houses at Exell, both camps were gone by 1970. Still,
the school struggled on for several years. The majority of its few
students came from Middlewell,
a farming community which had closed its school some years earlier.
With only four students scheduled to enroll for the school year ‘77-‘78,
trustees voted to close the school after the spring semester of 1977
and bus students to Dumas.
To serve the few remaining families in the area, the post office and
store remained open until 1984, when Mrs. Horn retired.
The federally operated Exell Helium plant fell victim to privatization
and was closed in the late 1990s. The plant’s buildings remain, but
all the equipment has been sold. Canadian River Gas sold the Bivins
plant to Colorado Interstate Gas Company in 1951. In 2002 Pioneer
Natural Resources bought them out and the plant continues to produce
and process natural gas. Artifacts from both plants are on display
at Window on the Plains Museum in Dumas.
Nowadays, the store and post office building are empty. The church
building is used for storage and a retired couple lives in the parsonage.
The school was sold to a Borger church to use as a retreat. A Masterson
reunion is held there every other year. |
Everyday
Life in a Camp > next page
Excerpts from the book tell more about life in a camp.
"No City Limits, The Story of Masterson, Texas" was published
in 1994 by Louise George who can be contacted at (806)935-5286 or
lgeorge@ nts-online.net or Box 252, Dumas, TX 79029. |
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