McCamey Calaboose -- Santa Fe Park, McCamey TX
N 31° 08.265 W 102° 12.980
13R E 765411 N 3448203
One of those awful metal strap calabooses, that McCamey had to buy after their old way of holding prisoners on a picket line failed
Waymark Code: WMV13F
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 02/05/2017
Views: 5
The metal-strap McCamey Calaboose, which served the needs to this town for many years during its wild and wooly oil-boom-town days, now on display at Santa Fe Park east of downtown.
From Texas: A Guide to the Lone Star State by the WPA:https://ia802605.us.archive.org/19/items/texasguidetolone00writrich/texasguidetolone00writrich_djvu.txt
"McCAMEY, 118 m. (2,241 alt., 3,446 pop.), has the appearance of a prosperous carnival, with its tiny frame business houses ringed about by oil derricks and red storage tanks.
When the No. 1 Baker well blew in on November 16, 1925, McCamey came into almost instant being. Dawn of the next day found grader cutting streets through the mesquite and greasewood flats, following the lines of the hurrying surveyors just ahead, who were laying out the town site. On November 18 the first lot was sold with the stipulation that a building was to be started within one hour. The buyer had carpenters at work within 30 minutes on a filling station and cafe.
Other buildings were erected in mad haste. People poured in, and above the roads hung an ever-present cloud of choking white alkali dust. Trucks lumbered in with drilling supplies, foodstuffs and furnishings. The town overflowed itself; tents bloomed white wherever on untenanted land their owners chose to set them up. The population reached 10,000 within a short time, and still they came. Prices went sky-high. Water sold at a dollar a barrel and was hard to get at that.
On the fringe of the town, in tents and shacks, the hangers-on of every new oil field plied their outlaw trades. One Ranger represented the law in McCamey. Troublemakers found themselves introduced to a new form of confinement. There was no jail, so the Ranger chained his prisoners to a stout post. The story is told that several husky roughnecks, chained to the picket line, as it was called, pulled up the post and dragged it after them to the nearest saloon. . . ."
Address:
Santa Fe Park
McCamey, TX
Open to the public: Yes
Hours:
dawn to dusk daily
Fees?:
0
Web link: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:
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