Thurber Dairy Silos -- Thurber TX
N 32° 30.446 W 098° 23.782
14S E 556700 N 3596843
The silos for the Thurber Dairy, long out of business, still stand at the dairy site, now privately-owned pasture land.
Waymark Code: WMPTYA
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 10/20/2015
Views: 4
Thurber in its heyday was a busy boomtown for the Texas and Pacific coal company. Thousands of immigrants flooded here on the prairies of Erath County, Texas seeking opportunity in the coal mines, brick plant, dairy, and other industries needed to support a thriving community of about 10,000 people, all of whom lived in Texas and Pacific Coal Company housing and worked in Texas and Pacific Coal Company industries.
Thurber thrived between the years of 1885 to 1935, when thousands of emigrants and others poured into this area seeking opportunity in the coal mines that were opened to exploit a narrow vein of bituminous coal needed to fuel locomotives that crossed the plains. By the 1920s, most coal-fired locomotives have been converted to oil burners, and the rise of organized labor meant that workers wages are on the rise as well. These two factors doomed the town, and today it is a footnote to history and a place to stop for a beer and a burger on the I-20. As of the 200 census, only 8 people lived in Thurber.
Today all that is left of the Thurber Dairy are these solitary silos, near a historic marker that reads as follows:
"Site of Thurber Big Lake and Dairy
In 1891, a 20-acre "Little Lake" was built south of the Thurber townsite to supply water to the community. It soon proved inadequate, however, and five years later a 150-acre "Big Lake" was constructed here about a mile southeast of town. Texas and Pacific Coal Company president R. D. Hunter organized a hunting and fishing club at the Big Lake for company executives and staff. Water from the lake irrigated company-owned farmland in the valley below, and provided water for the nearby Thurber Dairy. The dairy's twin silos are still visible decades later. (1995)"
Material: Concrete (Poured)
Specify other material: Not listed
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