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Texas Ghost
Town
PYOTE, TEXAS
Ward County, West
Texas
Interstate 20, Hwy 80, Hwy115, FM 2355
7 miles W of Wickett
15 miles W of Monahans
26 miles E of Pecos
66 miles N of Fort Stockton
Population: 131 (2000) 348 (1990)
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History
in a Pecan Shell
Originally called Pyote Tank.
In 1881, before the Texas and Pacific Railway laid its tracks through
the area, the company opened a telegraph office at Pyote Tank. The
name for the town has been credited to the Chinese railroad workers'
pronunciation of coyote. Other sources indicate it was named for the
peyote cacti common to the region.
In 1885 J. A. Stewart established the 7S Ranch, covering forty sections,
three miles south of the community. In 1907 a post office was established
with Albert D. Pigman as postmaster. Also in 1907 Cicero S. Sitton
and his sons opened a store, a three-day barbecue was held, and most
of the town lots were sold. A school petition was circulated at the
barbecue, and later a one-room school building was constructed. Eventually,
a $100,000 school building was erected on land donated by Otey Nockells
Rogers.
In 1925 the population was a mere 100 persons but when oil was discovered
in 1928 it jumped almost overnight to 3,500. By 1931 it dropped back
to 1,097.
Thirty-one rooming houses and hotels were quickly built. City services
could not meet the needs of the increased population. However, the
boom ended in the 1930s when the railroad built a spur to Monahans,
eliminating Pyote from oilfield shipping. and 115 businesses. The
town incorporated before 1933 and maintained its population through
1939, by which time the number of businesses had declined to thirty-six.
By 1941 the population was reported as 201 and the number of businesses
as fifteen. |
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Distant
view of the Pyote
Air Base
Photo courtesy Erik Whetstone, 3-29-01 |
In
1942 Pyote
Air Force Station was constructed at Pyote south of Highway 80
on land owned by the University of Texas; it was used for bomber training.
After World War
II more than 4,000 bombers and fighter planes were sent to the
Pyote base for melting into scrap metal. Among those stored there
were the Enola Gay, which dropped the first atomic bomb, and Swoose,
General MacArthur's plane.* However,
those two famous planes were rescued from destruction by the Smithsonian
Institution.
In the early 1960s Pyote had a population of 420. Throughout the 1970s
it had fewer than 200 people and either one business or none. In the
1980s it had a population near 400.
Pyote is the site of the West Texas State School and the Pyote
Museum and Rattlesnake Bomber Base, which displays World
War II memorabilia in an old building from the base.
See Pyote
Air Force Station, AKA "Rattlesnake Bomber Base"
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| Photo
courtesy Charlene Beatty Beauchamp, 2001 |
Pyote Texas
Forum
*
Subject: General MacArthur's plane.
Dear TE, I really enjoy your write-ups [for towns in] Texas Escapes.
I was reading the article about Peyote and would like to offer some
corrections. Yes, the Enola Gay was there and in 1953 during Armed
Forces Day it was on display and the public (including me) was allowed
to crawl all over it - even sit in the pilot's seat. I'm sure I
appreciate it now much more than I did then when I was 12. However,
the comment about the Swoose being General MacArthur's plane is
inaccurate. His plane was "Baatan." Please go to these websites
for information: http://www.463rd.com/swoose.htm http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/usaaf/bataan.htm
Thanks, George Hollis, San Antonio, July 30, 2006
To
share history or photos of Pyote, Texas, please contact
us.
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