[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 132 (Tuesday, September 16, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H7531-H7532]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 JOURNEYING THROUGH THE 23RD DISTRICT OF TEXAS, THE TOWN OF SANDERSON, 
                                 TEXAS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Gallego) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GALLEGO. Mr. Speaker, this morning, I would like to highlight one 
of the really interesting towns of west Texas as we continue to journey 
through the 23rd District, which encompasses nearly 24 percent of the 
land area of Texas, some 800 miles from one end of the district to the 
other.
  With a population of over 800 people, Sanderson, Texas, is known as 
the Cactus Capital of Texas. It was originally named Strawbridge or 
Strobridge, and Sanderson was founded as a switching point for the 
Southern Pacific Railroad.
  In 1882, a roundhouse was built there, and the name of the town was 
changed to Sanderson, after Thomas P. Sanderson, who was the engineer 
in charge of construction. In the following year, in 1883, a post 
office opened in Sanderson.
  In Texas lore, there is a very famous person by the name of Roy Bean 
who was known as the Law West of the Pecos. Judge Roy Bean, wanting to 
capitalize on the new town with a lot of promise, opened a saloon in 
Sanderson in the early 1880s, but he couldn't compete with Charlie 
Wilson's Cottage Bar Saloon.
  After Bean opened his saloon, Wilson allegedly spiked the whiskey 
with coal oil. Judge Bean soon had to move eastward to Vinegarroon and 
Langtry, and Sanderson was dubbed as being ``too mean for Bean.'' Those 
were the years of railroad workers and cowboys which filled the area.
  At the turn of the century, in 1905, the once unruly Sanderson became 
the county seat of the newly-created Terrell County, and it remains the 
county seat even to this day.
  Shortly after becoming the county seat, Sanderson started looking 
more and more like a town on the move, but, as time passed, Sanderson 
left behind its Wild West origins and became a crossroad--the midpoint, 
if you will--between San Antonio and El Paso.
  The courthouse was built in 1906. Near the courthouse some years 
later, in 1931, an art deco-style high school was built, and 
Sanderson's population continued to grow to about 3,000 people during 
the first half of the 20th century.
  Sheep and goats became the main goods as part of the livestock 
industry, and they are still main commodities of the area today. For 
example, in 1970, over 1 million pounds--over 1 million pounds--of wool 
and mohair were shipped out of Sanderson.
  In 1965, Sanderson was devastated by a flash flood. The usually dry 
Sanderson Creek overflowed and claimed 24 lives. After the tragic 
event, 11 flood control dams were built around Sanderson by the Army 
Corps of Engineers to make sure that that would never happen again.
  Sanderson was built around the railroad, and its fate has largely 
been determined by the railroad. A series of decisions altered, 
decisively, Sanderson's growth. During the 1970s, the new construction 
of Interstate 10,

[[Page H7532]]

I-10, bypassed Highway 90, and it bypassed Sanderson. It left Sanderson 
out of its path.
  In addition, Union Pacific later moved its crew from Sanderson to 
Alpine. These had a detrimental effect on the community; but today, 
Sanderson remains a small but proud community which fights to maintain 
its rich history and its tradition of railroads, cowboys, and west 
Texas culture.
  Sanderson High School, known as the Sanderson Eagles, produce a lot 
of incredibly talented kids who go to universities from Rice to my own 
alma mater, Sul Ross State University in Alpine. In fact, many of the 
kids that I went to Sul Ross with were from Sanderson, Texas, and many 
of their teachers have degrees from Sul Ross.
  In more recent times, Sanderson has put out a number of people. My 
immediate predecessor in the legislature, Judge Dudley Harrison, was 
from Sanderson, and ``Chago'' Flores, who is the first Latino elected 
county judge in the history of Terrell County, is serving even now.
  If visiting that area, I want you to know that you will have access 
to an extensive variety of memorabilia at the Terrell County Memorial 
Museum, and I want you to know that Sanderson is still the Cactus 
Capital of Texas and the East Gate to the Big Bend Wilderness Area.
  I invite you to stop by Sanderson if you are ever visiting the 23rd 
District of Texas.

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