Latest posts
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Juan Seguín: The Texas Hero Who Was Driven From His Own Hometown
Texas history has a way of remembering a man’s battlefield service more clearly than what happened to him afterward. We put his name on a school, a street or a town, and sometimes forget to ask what his life was really like. Juan Seguín deserves a closer look. Born in San Antonio on October 27,…
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The October We Feared the World Might End: A West Texas Woman Remembers the Cuban Missile Crisis
Sixty-four years have passed, but when I think about the Cuban Missile Crisis, I think first about being a little girl in West Texas and feeling afraid. I could not have explained the difference between a Soviet missile and an American one. I did not understand diplomatic negotiations or military strategy. But children do not…
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Women of Terrell County History: Ranch Life, Work, Family, and Community
By the SandersonTexas.org History Desk This article was written by a woman raised in West Texas, drawing on local history, public records, and the practical knowledge passed down in rural communities. The history of Terrell County cannot be told only through railroads, ranches, cowboys, and courthouse politics. Women helped make daily life possible in this…
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Before Sanderson: The First People of Terrell County and the Changing West Texas Landscape
Long before Sanderson became a railroad town, before ranch roads crossed the open country, and thousands of years before Terrell County had a name, people already knew this land. The limestone hills, dry washes, canyon country, springs, and desert basins of what is now Terrell County were part of a human landscape for millennia. The…
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How Sanderson Canyon Shaped the Town of Sanderson, Texas
Sanderson, Texas, is a town shaped by the land around it. Visitors driving into town on U.S. Highway 90 quickly notice the rugged terrain, desert vegetation, rocky hills, and broad open country surrounding the community. Sanderson is not simply a town placed on a map in far West Texas. Its location in Sanderson Canyon has…
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Indigenous History of Sanderson, Texas: 13,000 Years in Terrell County
Long before Sanderson became a railroad town in 1882, the rugged land around present-day Sanderson and Terrell County was part of a much older human landscape. For thousands of years, Indigenous people traveled, camped, hunted, gathered food, made tools, raised families, buried their dead, and created enduring art in the canyons, caves, and desert country…
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How Terrell County Government Works—and How Residents Can Be Heard
How Terrell County Government Works—and How Residents Can Be Heard Terrell County government follows the traditional Texas county model: voters elect several county officials with separate responsibilities, while the County Judge and four precinct commissioners serve together on the Commissioners Court, the county’s main governing body. Terrell County was created from Pecos County in 1905,…
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Water in Sanderson, Texas: Why a Reliable Supply Matters for Residents, Travelers, and Terrell County’s Future
Water has always shaped life in Sanderson, Texas. In a remote corner of West Texas, dependable water is not simply one more local service. It is part of what makes homes livable, ranches workable, businesses possible, and long-distance travel safer. Terrell County is dry, wide-open country. The Rio Grande and Pecos River are part of…
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Life on the Line: Food, Pay, Danger, and Family Among Chinese Railroad Workers
Part 3 of the Railroad Builders of Far West Texas series Here in Sanderson, the railroad is more than a set of tracks running through town. It is part of the reason this community exists. In the first two parts of this series, I explored the Chinese laborers who helped build the Southern Pacific route…
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Why Was Sanderson “Too Mean for Roy Bean”? The Charlie Wilson Legend
The Charlie Wilson Whiskey Legend of Early Sanderson, Texas Before Sanderson became known as the Cactus Capital of Texas, it carried a far more hard-edged nickname: the town too mean for Roy Bean. The phrase comes from one of Sanderson’s best old tales—a saloon rivalry involving town founder Charlie Wilson, the legendary Judge Roy Bean,…