Sonora, Texas

The Caverns of Sonora contain some of the most extensive and pristine helictite formations in the world. The cave was discovered by a ranch hand in 1955.

The Caverns of Sonora are ten miles southwest of Sonora in Sutton County (at 30°33' N, 100°49' W). Their formation began during the Cretaceous Period, several million years ago, while the area was submerged. Limestone pockets were dissolved by acidic groundwater, and when the sea receded, empty chambers were left underground. Millions of years of dripping water subsequently deposited a variety of colorful formations. The cave entrance was discovered on Stanley Mayfield's ranch in 1900, but extensive exploration did not begin until 1955. A 1,800-foot section of the cave was opened to the public in 1960, and an additional 1,700 feet was made accessible in 1961; by mid-1979 the cave's public tour was 1½ miles long. Although small in size-the 7½-mile cave has no huge rooms or giant formations-the Caverns of Sonora have been ranked as one of the most spectacular cave complexes in the world. It has been said that the caverns' beauty "cannot be exaggerated, even by Texans." Unlike most caves, the caverns have hundreds of helictites, ranging in shape from soda straws to fish fins. The most famous attraction is a pair of symmetrical fishtail helictites that form a butterfly shape. The people who prepared the cave for public viewing took care to preserve the cave's natural humidity levels, and the temperature inside is a constant 71° F. Ninety-five percent of the cave is "alive," with formations still growing. The Caverns of Sonora were named a National Natural Landmark in 1966. In addition to the underground tours, the caverns offer aboveground facilities for camping and picnicking. In the 1990s visitors averaged 40,000 annually.

Sonora, the county seat of Sutton County, is on Interstate Highway 10 sixty-five miles south of San Angelo and ninety miles north of Del Rio in the north central portion of the county. About 1885 Charles G. (Charlie) Adams, a rancher and merchant from Fort McKavett, settled on four sections of land two miles north of Winkler's Well (later Wentworth). He named the site Sonora, after a family servant from Sonora, Mexico, in 1887 and drilled a well in 1889, the year the community received a post office. Adams offered free lots in his town, which in 1890 was selected as the county seat. The community comprised eighteen houses, three stores, two livery stables, two hotels, a combined schoolhouse and Masonic lodge, and fourteen tents. The weekly Devil's River News , in 1990 Sutton County's oldest continuously operating business, began publication in 1890 under the direction of Mike Murphy. By 1892 Sonora had 700 inhabitants, two saloons, a grain and flour mill, a restaurant, three physicians, and at least one church; it was connected to San Antonio by a mail stage. R. W. Callahan, who owned much of the city property, donated land for the courthouse, which was completed in 1893. Most of the area residents were ranchers. In 1900 a number of merchants led by E. F. Vander Stucken formed the First National Bank of Sonora. On September 12, 1902, a fire wiped out nearly half the town's businesses. Proprietors who could afford to rebuild did so with native stone. A new school building was completed in 1904. In the early days supplies were freighted from San Angelo and Fort McKavett by wagons, a round trip that took from six to fifteen days. In 1908 the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway was awarded a contract to lay track from San Angelo to Del Rio with a stop in Sonora. Work began in 1909, but financial problems retarded progress. Eventually, in 1928, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe acquired the Orient line and began construction on the San Angelo-to-Sonora portion of the original proposed route. On May 13, 1930, after a wait of some twenty-three years, the first train rolled into Sonora. From a population of 738 in 1904, the town grew to 1,009 in 1925 and nearly 1,800 by the end of the decade. Between 1910 and 1920 several churches were constructed, including Baptist, Episcopal, and Methodist. In 1914 the First National Bank reported capital holdings of $100,000, and a second newspaper, C. R. Meyers's New Era , began publication. Sonora was incorporated in 1917. Above all else, prosperity continued to depend on livestock and livestock products. With the price of wool and mohair steadily rising throughout the teens, in 1916 Sonora moved to ensure the industry's continued health by using a $15,000 state grant to establish, in tandem with Texas A&M, a Texas Agricultural Experiment Station on five sections of land outside the city limit. This project is dedicated to researching livestock diseases and methods to improve production. When the Great Depression caused the price of wool to drop by more than half, local sheep and goat raisers organized the Wool and Mohair Cooperative Marketing Association, later known as the Sonora Wool and Mohair Company. The cooperative sold 2,738,600 pounds of wool in its first year, and as time went on it helped stabilize commodity prices. The Sonora Wool and Mohair Company continued to handle most of the region's production into 1990; in 1964 it marketed four million pounds of wool and mohair at a return of $3 million. It sponsors the annual Sonora Wool and Mohair show, where the National 4-H Wool Judging Contest has been held since 1938 ( see WOOL AND MOHAIR INDUSTRY ). The population of Sonora remained steady in the 1920s at about 1,900, and the number of businesses, after declining from fifty-five to forty-three between 1931 and 1933, held firm for the rest of the decade. Federally sponsored programs, largely administered by the Work Projects Administration , enabled Sonora to construct a combination f

This building site of all land transactions incident to development of county. Water well, a few feet from building, was first water here, where sheepmen watered their flocks, hence locating here as a home. Father of founder of the townsite killed father of one of West Texas' most prominent families on site of Courthouse over argument concerning watering sheep.

At outbreak Civil War, this veteran soldier, Ranger, Indian fighter joined 7th Regiment Texas Mounted Volunteers. Elected lt. colonel, led five companies Arizona-New Mexico campaign designed to make Confederacy an ocean to ocean nation. Mortally wounded in Battle of Val Verde while leading rifle assault against enemy cannons, he refused immediate aid and motioned on his battalion which captured the battery. A memorial to Texans who served the Confederacy.

Millard Cope, newspaper publisher, was born on December 31, 1905, to James A. and Hattie B. (Parkerson) Cope in Sonora, Texas, where at the age of twelve he began working for the local newspaper setting type by hand for a nickel a stick (about two column inches). As a student at Sonora High School he was elected the first chairman of the executive board of the Texas High School Press Association when it was organized at Baylor University in 1922. In 1925, during his third year at Howard Payne College, he was elected president of the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association. He received his bachelor's degree in journalism in 1927 after a senior year at the University of Missouri, where he covered the state capitol for the student newspaper. In 1958 he was Howard Payne "Man of the Year," and in 1959 he received the University of Missouri's Honor Award for Distinguished Service to Journalism. After graduating he joined the staff of the San Angelo Morning Times , newly begun in 1927 by Houston Harte , as a morning edition of the San Angelo Standard . His next assignment, from 1930 to 1936, was as publisher of the Sweetwater Reporter when it was purchased by Harte and Bernard Hanks of Abilene ( see HARTE-HANKS COMMUNICATIONS ). After its sale he was assigned to the Dallas office of the Texas Daily Press League, from where in 1940 he went to Denison as publisher of the Denison Herald . In January 1945 he was made publisher of the News Messenger in Marshall, where he remained for seventeen years and where his service to journalism brought him to national attention. He was director of the Associated Press (1959–64) and president of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association (1957). By appointment of Governor Allan Shivers in 1953 and reappointment by Governor Price Daniel in 1959 he was a founding director of what is now the Texas Historical Commission and of the Texas Historical Foundation. In 1956 he served as a member of the Texas Commission on Higher Education, with supervisory responsibility over eighteen Texas institutions of higher learning. Governor Daniel also appointed him a member of the Texas Civil War Centennial Commission, for which service he received an award from the national commission. In 1963 President John F. Kennedy appointed him to the national advisory council for the Peace Corps. Cope became publisher of the San Angelo Standard-Times in August 1962. During his many years as publisher of small Texas dailies Cope discovered and trained a number of young men and women who went on to establish national reputations of their own. Most notable of these were brothers James and Bill Moyers of Marshall, Lloyd May (Cissy) Stewart of Cleburne, and Jack Maguire of Denison. Although Cope did not openly profess a party affiliation, he was a conservative. Bill Moyers, who named his older son Cope, later wrote of his mentor, "In a way he was to small-town publishing in the 40s and 50s what William Allen White was to small-town editing, although White's reputation spread through his writing, and Millard's through personal character." Cope married Margaret Kilgore of San Angelo on December 12, 1931. They had a son and a daughter. He was a Presbyterian. He died on January 4, 1964, and was buried in San Angelo.