Odessa Land & Townsite Company
Zanesville, Ohio, 1888
Reprint for the WWW
ODESSA LAND AND TOWNSITE COMPANY.
JAMES HERDMAN, President, Zanesville, Ohio
WILLIS BAILEY, Vice President, Zanesville, 0hio
W.J. FINLEY, Secretary, Zanesville, 0hio
T.F. SPANGLER, Treasurer, Zaneaville, 0hio
B. K. BRANT, General Agent, Odessa, Texas.
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TEXAS AND PACIFIC RAILWAY LANDS
W. H. ABRAMS,
Land Commissioner, 411 Main Street, Dallas, Texas.
FOR INFORMATION as to Maps and Folders, concerning Route, Rates
of Railroad Fare to Odessa, address: H.C. Townsend, General P.& T.
A. Mo. Pacific Railway, St. Louis, Mo.
ATCHISON, KAN.
C. E. STYLES Passenger and Ticket Agent
BOSTON, MASS.
A. H. TORRICELLI New England Agent, 214 Washington Street
CHATTANOOGA, TENN.
A.A. GALLAGHER Southern Passenger Agent, 106 Read House
CHICAGO, ILL.
JOHN E.ENNIS Traveling Passenger and Land Agent. 199 South Clark Street
CINCINNATI, OHIO.
N.N. WARWICK District Passenger Agent, 151 Vine Street
DALLAS, TEXAS.
J.H. MILLER Northern Texas Passenger Agent
EL PASO, TEXAS.
P.J. CR0SBIE Traveling Freight & Passenger Agent
HOUSTON, TEXAS.
H.P. HUGHES Southern Texas Passenger Agent
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.
COKE ALEXANDER District Passenger Agent 69 West Maryland Street
KANSAS CITY, MO.
J.H. LYON Western Passenger Agent, 533 Main Street
LEAVENWORTH, KAN.
J. N. JOERGER Passenger and Ticket Agent
LOUISVILLE, KY.
L. F. DRAKE Southern Traveling Agent, 425 Main Street
NEW YORK CITY.
W. E. HOYT Eastern Passenger Agent, 391 Broadway
OMAHA, NEB.
THOS. E. GODFREY Passenger and Ticket Agent
PITTSBURGH, PENN.
S. H. THOMPSON Central Passenger Agent, 1119 Liberty Street
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL
H. B. SMITH, JR Pacific Coast Passenger Agent, 605 Market Street
ST. JOSEPH, MO.
W.0. WILKINS Passenger and Ticket Agent
ST. LOUIS, MO.
W.H. MORTON Emmigration Agent, Union Depot
WICHITA KAN.
T.F. FISHER Assistant General Freight and Passenger Agent
page 2.
TEXAS.
THE NEW SOUTHWEST, THE NEW COUNTY OF ECTOR
NEW TOWN OF ODESSA.
Fine Opportunities to Secure Cheap Homes. Many
Advantages to Men of Family. Provisions have
been made for Colleges, Library, Public
Schools, Churches, &c.
NO SALOONS.
RE-Published by
LATHAM PUBLISHING
820 North Dixie
Odessa, Texas 79761
Copyright 1974, Odessa, Texas
[out of print in 1998]
The Staked Plain of West Texas
Are found Rich Land, Pure Water, and the Best All-
the-Year Climate in the World,
Odessa Land and Town-Site Co.
January 1, 1888
page 3
ODESSA'S WATER SUPPLY.
The following is a description and estimate of the irrigating capacity of the Odessa Well
SHAFT. -8x8 feet square, curbed 21 feet from the surface. From curb to surface of
water, circular form, t 5 feet, 6 inches. Diameter at bottom of curb, 8 feet; at water lime,
12 feet.
RESERVOIR.-12 feet in diameter at water line and 16 feet at bottom of well.
DEPTH OF WATER.-11 feet, 6 inches.
DEPTH OF WELL.-48 feet.
REs~RvoIR CAPACITY OF WELL.-14,500 gallons.
MATERIALS PASSED THROUGH. -Soil 7 feet; rotten limestone, 14 feet; concrete rock,
16 feet, -very hard and difficult to work; soft sandstone and gravel, 11 feet; water found
in gravel.
AMOUNT OF WATER FURNISHED HY WFIL.-5000 gallons per hour, perpetual pumping.
TEST MADE WITH KNOWL'S STEAM PUMP. -Capacity, 6ooo gallons per hour.
COST OF WELL.-$568.03.
With steam pump working ten hours per day, this well will yield 50,000 gallons of water
daily, or sufficient to cover 2 acres of land with water one inch deep. Worked five days
per week, during the year, it will give two inches of water per month to 20 acres of land,
or the equivalent of 24 inches annual rainfall, or 12 inches per annum to 40 acres. The
latter amount with the rainfall is simply sufficrent for orchard and vineyard purposes at this
point.
REMARKS..
This will fairly settle questions of doubt concerning an adequate water supply and its
practical application br purposes of irrigation. It also determines that the cost is moderate
for the great advantages, and security to crops afforded by this means. Aside from this
well, it is an established fact that our water supply is unlimited and never failing.
In the well above described, a drift could be extended under the i6 foot shelf of con-
Crete rock as far as desired, in safety, without expense of timbering and the quantity ef
water increased to any amount desired. In this way a daily supply of millions of gallon~
Cafl be securee from one well.
Page four
The Staked Plain of West Texas
THE NEW TOWN OF ODESSA.
The Natural Resources of the Staked
Plain.
The Staked Plain is a vast and beautiful
rolling prairie, extending south of the line of
the Texas and the Pacific Railroad for a
distance of about 100 miles. Along its line
for 100 miles and north of the railroad em-
braces a territory something like 200 miles
by 300 miles. It forms a large part of the
Pan Handle of Texas and New Mexico.
While this vast plain is broken here and there
by strips. of sand extending into it, there is
perhaps less waste land than can be found
anywhere in such a scope of country. Tak-
ing into consideration its extent, rich soil,
pure water and healthful climate, it is des-
tined, in the near future, to have an influence
that will be felt on the market of the world.
The soil is a sandy loam resting on lime-
stone. It is from one to twentv feet deep,
and varies in its proportions of clay and
sand. In color it runs from a brick red to
a black. The soil absorbs and retains
moisture to a remarkable degree. The wild
lands should be plowed in the summer or
early fall when the grasses are green; once
broken, they can be re-plowed at any time.
WATER.
There are but few lakes or springs, and no
streams on the Staked Plain. For several
reasons it is better that this is true, as the
best water in the state can be had in inex-
haustable quantities by digging wells from
10 to 70 feet deep, the average depth being
37 feet. The pubic well at Odessa is 48
feet deep. The absence of surface water
enables the stockman or farmer to protect
his grass and to control his water supply,
besides giving his stock pure, fresh water at
all times. Water is found in sandstone or
gravel. It is soft, pure and clear; having
a temperature of 65 degrees fahrenheit.
CLIMATE.
There has been much said and written
about Florida and California as health
resorts, and very little about West Texas,
which, when understood, will outrank either
in popular favor. The quick relief and
thorough cures that have been brought about
by the climate of the plains, would, if gener-
ally known, bring thousands here to gain a
new lease of life.
A few days in winter are colder than are
registered at Los Angeles or Riverside, Cal-
ifornia; the hours of the sultriness and the
damp nights of southern California are not
experienced on the Staked Plain. Cyclones
are unknown, sunstrokes never occur, and
there is no malaria or complaints arising
from overheating.
Persons, both north and south of Mason
and Dixon's line, seeking a resort away from
the heat, can here find a more delightful
mid-summer climate than at the popular
places to which they are attracted. Those
with pulmonary troubles improve the best
in a warm, dry atmosphere. This is not
found in low altitudes, where such diseases
are both common and fatal. At an altitude
of from 9,000 to 12,000 feet above the level
of the sea, the air is so rare that the patient
cannot endure the great change, and the ex-
perience is often marked with fatM results.
There is a happy medium in altitude, as in
everything else, and a conservative height
like that of the Staked Plain, which is from
2,500 to 3,000 feet, is where the invalid re-
covers the quickest and the most perfect
health is attained. Odessa is 2 ,900 feet
above the Gulf.
FUEL.
As there is no timber on the Staked Plain,
to those not acquainted with the country,
this fact appears against it. But so little fuel
is needed, that coal at $9 per ton lasts five
times longer than where it can be bought for
$2 per ton. The roots of the mesquite bush,
which may be had for the digging, make a
fire second only to charcoal or dry hickory.
A cord of roots can be dug with less labor
than to go into the forest, fell a tree, chop
and split a cord of wood.
There has been much said and written
about Florida and California as health re-
sorts, and very little about West Texas,
which, when understood, will outrank either
CATTLE, HORSES AND SHEEP.
It has been justly remarked that the
Staked Plain is the best stock country in the
United States. True it is that many hun-
4 THE 3TAKED PLAIN OF WEST TEXAS.
dred thonsand head have been placed there
during the past two years, and certainly stock
could not thrive better. No feeding has
been done in the winter, and mutton and fat
cattle are shipped to eastern markets almost
every month in the year. They are fattened
on the natural grasses of the prairie, of which
there are about twenty varieties; some of
them afford good pasture the year round.
Several of them cure on the ground and form
a winter pasture that fattens as rapidly as
grain fed stock in the north. The favorites
are the mesquite and gramma families. Not-
withstanding the drouth of '86, stock on the
~taked Plain did remarkably well, and bee
cattle in large numbers were shipped in July
and August.
FRUIT AND GRAIN.
The soil, climate and altitude are so near-
ly like those of the famous fruit and vine
growing districts of California, that there is
little doubt about this becoming a favorite
fruit growing section.
In California, the fruit and grapes raised
on the uplands bring from thirty to forty per
cent. better prices than those grown in the
valleys, which argues well for the section.
FARMING.
In a new country like that of the Staked
Plain, where a plow has never made a furrow
previous to July, 1882, great results could
not be expected. But the history of the
Marienfeld farmers, without other evidence,
is sufficient to satisfy the mind of any reas-
onable man, that the Staked Plain will, under
the strong arm of intellectual labor, prove to
be one of the most prosperous agricultural
sections ofthe State, at no distant day.
The Marienfeld farmers, east ofOdessa. on
the Staked Plain, inexperienced regarding
the soil and climate with which they had Ic
deal, raised on their sod land in 1883, frum
ten to eighteen bu~hels of wheat to the acre.
twenty bushels of barley, and a Ilale and
one-half of cotton, two tons of Johnson gra.~s,
and reported their vegetable crop as good as
could be expected.
The next year, 1884, they got as high as
eighteen bushels of wheat to the' acre, oats
fifty, millet 1/2 tons, corn 45, and every-
thing else a satisfactory yield.
Of the rainfall, Father Peters quotes for
1883, from May to December inclusive,
20.88.
For the year 1885, 20.36.
From January t~ August, 1885, 21.76.
Who Should and Who Should Not
Come to Odessa.
The many advantages of settling in a
new country are well known. There are
thousands who could better their condition
by coming West, and there are thousands
who are just as well off where they are.
On general and particular principles, and
in a spirit of honesty, we plainly indicate
the two classes
PEOPLE WHO SHOULD COME.
Those of delicate constitution, who would
avoid the extremes of heat and cold and
desire a warm climate, free from enervating
influences.
Those of Consumptive tendencies.
Those suffering with bronchial affections.
Those with mala~a in their bones.
Those with affections of the kidneys and
bladder.
Those suffering with nervous prostration.
Those afilicted with asthma or rheuma-
tism.
Those who value health and strength and
would keep what they have.
Men who bave a little capital and a good
deal of energy.
Men who have a good deal of capital and
some energy.
Men with capital, who wish to take life
easy.
Those who wish a home in the best all-
the-year climate in the world.
Ambitious young men who wish to 'grow
up," if they have the capital to get a foot-
hold.
People who are tired of the extremely
cold winters, or the excessively hot summers
of the North and East.
Workers.
Hustlers.
Old people, who have the mean~ to p~s
their declining years in ease.
Men of brains, muscle and grit.
Fruit g