Name: Sweetwater, Texas
Address: Sweetwater, TX

Sweetwater, TX RoadyGoat

Sweetwater's always been a place defined by its relationship with the land. You see it in the mesquite that stubbornly dots the horizon, the way the wind whips off those high plains, and even in Lake Sweetwater, a vital resource in this dry country. Lately, though, folks have been talking less about the drought and more about what's sprouting up on those same plains: wind turbines. Now, Nolan County ain't new to boom and bust. Oil had its day, and before that, ranching was king. But this wind energy thing feels different. It's changed the landscape, no doubt, those giant blades turning against the big Texas sky. Some worry about the birds, the pronghorn, even the view. But for a lot of families, especially the younger ones thinking about staying put instead of heading east towards the Metroplex, it's brought a sense of hope. It's provided jobs, of course, but also a feeling that Sweetwater might just have a future that isn't tied to the whims of the oil market or the next dry spell. It's a new chapter, powered by a resource that's always been here, blowing free across the plains.

Sweetwater, TX RoadyGoat

Sweetwater sits right in the heart of West Texas, and if you're driving through on I-20, you'll see right away that wind is a constant companion. What you might not realize, though, is how that wind has shaped the town's identity. While Sweetwater was founded near fresh springs and built on ranching, it's really the wind farms that define the modern landscape. Drive just a few miles in any direction and you'll see them, hundreds of turbines turning against the big Texas sky. The area is ideal for wind power. The high elevation, around 2,300 feet, combined with the open plains, provides consistent, strong winds. It started small, but over the years, Sweetwater has become a hub for wind energy development, attracting major companies and creating jobs. It's not just about the turbines themselves, either. There's manufacturing, maintenance, and all sorts of supporting industries that have grown up around the wind farms. It’s a new chapter for a town that’s seen its share of booms and busts, a way to harness the power of the land in a new way, even if that power is invisible.

Sweetwater: Sweet Meant Drinkable RoadyGoat

1877

Sweetwater, Texas sounds like sugar, like syrup, like something that tastes of candy. But the sweet here has nothing to do with sugar. The town is named for Sweet Water Creek, and out on the West Texas plains, sweet meant only one thing: drinkable. This is gypsum country, where many of the streams run bitter and mineral-heavy, water you can't stand to drink. So when settlers found a creek of clean, fresh water they could actually swallow, they called it sweet, the old plainspoken sense of the word, water that's good and pure. So the name isn't about candy or sugar at all. It's about the simple, life-or-death blessing of finding water you could safely drink in dry, bitter country.

W.A.S.P. (Women's Airforce Service Pilots) Training Base: Avenger Field

1942

Site of World War II drama. Here girls, like male cadets, learned to fly United States Army Air Forces planes. WASPs had civil service status rather than military. Of the 25,000 applicants, 1,830 were accepted; 1,074 won wings and flew 60 million miles for the U.S. Army Air Forces, receiving high praise for their record. At the request of the Air Forces' Commanding General H.H. ("Hap") Arnold, Jacqueline Cochran became director of women pilots. On November 17, 1942, when the first 28 trainees entered the women's flying training detachment at Houston Municipal Airport, the program began. On February 21, 1943, it was relocated at Avenger Field, 3 miles west of Sweetwater. The last class of WASP's graduated on December 7, 1944. British Royal Air Force cadets trained at Avenger Field June 22-August 1, 1942. U.S. Army Air Forces April of 1943. Arrival of WASP trainees made Avenger the only military coeducational flying field in United States history. WASP's came from varied backgrounds. Many were wives, sisters, or sweethearts of servicemen, hoping to hasten war's end. Women staff advisors supervised the nonflying activities of WASP trainees, who lived under military discipline: In army barracks. Trainees flew in "zoot suits" (ill-fitting GI coveralls), and had tan slacks and shirts for dress wear. After the santiago blue uniform was officially adopted, it was worn by graduates. Originally, the seven months course included 180 hours of ground school, 115 hours of flight training. From light planes, WASPs advanced to fly every air corps craft in use at the time. WASPs ferried planes; towed targets; flew tracking, smoke-laying, searchlight, strafing, and simulated bombing missions; did radio control flying, tested aircraft, gave instrument instruction; performed many other duties. Thirty-seven WASPs gave their lives serving their country. Ethel A. Sheehy was WASP staff field executive; Nancy Harkness Love, WASP staff executive-ferrying division; Leoti Clark Deaton, WASP staff executive-training bases. WASP wings, with diamond lozenge, signify women's pioneering wartime flight achievements. (1972)

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Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup

1958

The world's largest rattlesnake roundup, held annually in Sweetwater since 1958 by the Jaycees. Thousands of western diamondback rattlesnakes are caught, displayed, skinned, and fried.

Myres, Samuel Dale

1898

Samuel Dale (Tio Sam) Myres, saddlemaker, businessman, and civic leader, son of David Rittenhouse and Mary Jane (Dale) Myres, was born on November 22, 1871, in Johnson County, Texas, near the Cordova Bend of the Brazos River. He became a skilled frontiersman by riding, roping, and fence building to help his father and neighboring ranchers, and by the age of fifteen he often served as a scout and guide for families seeking land. He attended school for only three terms but retained a lifelong interest in history and mathematics. When his mother's health failed and his responsibility for his younger siblings increased he left school and did not return. A knee injury caused by a fall from a horse prevented him from going west to become a cowboy in the cattle boom of the 1880s, and he worked for three years as an apprentice to T. R. James and Sons, Saddlers, in Cleburne. He later left James, traveled for several years doing piecework, and settled in Weatherford in 1893. There he began to develop his talent for drawing and carving his own designs and making holsters. In 1894 Myres married Drusa Rogers, with whom he had three children; one of them, Samuel Dale, Jr., became a historian and author. In March 1897 the family moved to Sweetwater, and in 1898 Myres purchased his own saddlery and harness business. Extensive advertising, plant innovations, and attention to fine materials and workmanship contributed to his growing reputation and business from 1898 to 1902. In addition to the forty-dollar saddles he made for working cowmen, he designed and made saddles for movie stars, western show performers, and the Texas Rangers . In 1914 he produced the widely publicized "Miller $10,000 Saddle," with its intricate design, fifteen pounds of silver and gold, and more than 300 precious stones. His works were distinguished by an oak-leaf design and western images patterned after the work of Charles Russell. In World War I Myres turned to war production and made McClellan saddles for the cavalry. In 1920 he received a certificate of merit and a citation from the government for his war efforts. Myres served as mayor of Sweetwater from 1908 to 1911 and as a member of the school board in 1914–15. As mayor he was instrumental in bringing the Santa Fe Railroad through the town, helping to keep Sweetwater the Nolan county seat, and overseeing annexation of new subdivisions, street improvements, and the building of a new city hall and fire station. In 1919 the saddlery burned, and in 1920 Myres opened a new factory in El Paso. By this time he had divorced his wife and married Eva Forkner, a young woman suffering from tuberculosis, who died in 1928. Lessened demand for horse equipment during the 1920s, a generous divorce settlement for Drusa, large medical bills for Eva's illness, and the 1920s depression put Myres deeply in debt. Between 1934 and 1936 his son William and nephew Dace Myres joined the firm, and the three partners turned to volume production of quality holsters and gunbelts, which became as famous as the company's saddles. The Sweetwater store, which had been partially rebuilt, was sold in 1937 to pay debts. The business was solvent by 1941, and by 1950 the S. D. Myres Saddle Company was known as "Cowboy Headquarters for the Southwest." Myres was raised a Presbyterian but joined the Mormon Church when he married Eva. He taught Bible classes and, though tolerant of other religions, devoted much time and effort to proselytizing. He was also a Mason. He supported the El Paso Chamber of Commerce and the Kids Rodeo of El Paso, for which he repeatedly donated the championship saddle. During World War II , when he let his beard and hair grow long, Myres bore a striking resemblance to Uncle Sam; hence his nickname, Tio (Uncle) Sam. He died on July 2, 1953, in El Paso.

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Pan Zareta

1910

Pan Zareta, the greatest filly in racehorse history, was born in 1910 at the Newman Stables in Sweetwater, Texas. Dark chestnut, she was bred and owned by J. F. Newman, sired by Abe Frank out of Caddie Griffith. Trained by Harold Newman, a grandson of J. F. Newman, she loved to play, was smart, and easily trained. She started her career on January 14, 1912, by winning a 3½ furlong race in Juarez, Mexico, and winning a purse of $550. During her first year of competition she won thirteen of nineteen and placed in all but one race. Racing in three countries (United States, Mexico, and Canada), her career continued through 1917 while winning 76 of 151 races. She placed in all but twenty-three of those races. No other filly or mare has ever approached those numbers. Career winnings totaled $39,082. Perhaps her greatest claim to fame was her performance in handicapped races. She ran in one hundred of them and won forty-six. No other racehorse of any class has ever approached that level of performance. She won carrying 146 pounds, a fact unmatched by any other filly. On February 10, 1915, in a match race against the famous quarter horse Joe Blair, she set a world record at Juarez, Mexico, for five furlongs in 57⅕ seconds. The record stood for thirty-five years. After racing in the New York racing arena, she eventually returned to New Orleans suffering from a lung fever. A month later she died of pneumonia and was buried two days later according the New Orleans Times-Picayune "beneath a giant live oak …just inside the inner rail at the last sixteenth post." Sources differ regarding a specific death date, ranging from January 16 or 19, 1918, to December 25, 1918. Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans inaugurated the six-furlong Pan Zareta Handicap in her honor in 1966. Pan Zareta was inducted into the Fair Ground's Racing Hall of Fame (New Orleans) in 1971, the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame (Saratoga Springs, New York) in 1972, and in the Texas Race Horse Hall of Fame (Retama Park-San Antonio) in 1999.

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Sweetwater Army Air Field

1942

Sweetwater Army Air Field, better known as Avenger Field, was a World War II training base of the United States Army Air Forces. On May 14, 1942, the municipal airport in Sweetwater, Texas, was leased to the War Department for a dollar a year and renamed Avenger Field, the winning name entered in a local newspaper contest. The field, which had been in civilian use since the late 1920s, had been improved and expanded to 920 acres by the city. Its first wartime use was for the training of a single class of British pilot cadets of the Royal Air Force by an American civilian contractor. The RAF class was followed by ten classes of American aviation cadets and three classes of enlisted student pilots between April 6, 1942, and April 6, 1943. The most notable period in the history of the field began on February 21, 1943, with the arrival of the first trainees of the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs). Under the direction of famed aviatrix Jacqueline Cochran, experienced women pilots in civil-service status were trained to fly army planes to relieve men in combat duty. Heavy air traffic and weather problems at Howard Hughes Field in Houston caused relocation of the WASP training to Sweetwater. For a brief period, Avenger Field trained both men and women, but in April 1943 it became the "only all-female air base in history," except for the male instructors and support crews. Fourteen classes, totaling 1,074 pilots, earned their wings in every type of army plane before the WASPs were disbanded on December 20, 1944. In 1945 facilities at the field were considerably expanded to support the combat training of P-47 Thunderbolt pilots, but the end of the war brought the rapid phase-out of all training there. The field was closed in November 1945, and it reverted to peacetime use by the city of Sweetwater on June 3, 1947. Military interest in Avenger Field revived with the outbreak of the Korean War; on April 1, 1952, the United States Air Force again leased the facilities, as an auxiliary field for training pilots from Webb Air Force Base at Big Spring. In 1956 Avenger Field was made the site of an aircraft control and warning radar installation. On November 30, 1969, the facility was closed and the property was once more released to the city of Sweetwater. In addition to general aviation activities at Sweetwater Municipal Airport, the field is now the location of the Rolling Plains campus of Texas State Technical Institute, which opened there on July 31, 1970.

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Women Airforce Service Pilots

1943

Jacqueline Cochran, one to the most famous women pilots of the Twentieth Century, persistently lobbied U.S. Army Airforce General Henry "Hap" Arnold to establish a flight training program for women during World War II. Hard-pressed for pilots by mid-summer of 1942, General Arnold requested that Cochran return from England and put her women airforce pilots (WASP) plan into action. A WASP flight school, opened at Houston's Municipal Airport in late 1942, outgrew its facilities and was relocated to Avenger Field in Sweetwater. The school operated here from February 20, 1943 to December 7, 1944, during which time it became the first and only all-women military flying school in the world. The program successfully trained women to fly every kind of overseas duty. Of the 25,000 women who applied for WASP flight training, only 1,830 were accepted to the program. Of this number 1,074 went on to gain their silver wings and fly over 60 million miles on operational duty; 38 of them lost their lives serving their country. Considered civilian employees during the war, WASP pilots finally gained military benefits after special legislation passed in 1977. (1993)

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Sweetwater, Texas

Music in Sweetwater

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Rivers & Roads in Song near Sweetwater

History of Sweetwater

Sweetwater, TX RoadyGoat

Sweetwater, TX RoadyGoat

Sweetwater: Sweet Meant Drinkable RoadyGoat

W.A.S.P. (Women's Airforce Service Pilots) Training Base: Avenger Field

Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup

Myres, Samuel Dale

Pan Zareta

Sweetwater Army Air Field

Women Airforce Service Pilots

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