The deserted Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway freight station in Ft. Stockton, TX.
Located on Comanche Springs, Fort Stockton, originally named Camp Stockton, at one time was the third largest source of spring water in Texas. Comanche Springs was a favorite rest stop on the Comanche Trail to Chihuahua, San Antonio and El Paso Road.
The deserted station sits besides equally deserted tracts.
The current Fort Stockton is located on 960 acres leased from civilian landowners. Companies A, B, E, and K of the 9th Cavalry began construction under the command of Colonel Edward Hatch. About 87 percent of all soldiers garrisoned at Fort Stockton from 1867 until 1886 were Buffalo Soldiers from the 9th Cavalry.
In the early 1860’s entrepreneurs, convinced that the water from Comanche and nearby Leon springs could be used for irrigation, purchased large tracts of land for agricultural development. By 1870, the region had a population of 420 civilians, predominantly Irish, German, and Mexican Catholics who had come by way of San Antonio. Irrigated farmland comprised 7,000 acres by 1889.
After the military post was abandoned on June 30, 1886, and both the Comanche Springs and the Southern Pacific railroads had bypassed it, Fort Stockton experienced a decline. By then, however, it was rapidly becoming the center for an extensive sheep and cattle ranching industry, and in 1926, the opening of the nearby Yates oil field brought on an economic boom.
The Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway, started in 1900 by American railroad entrepreneur Arthur Edward Stilwell, was the predecessor to the Chihuahua al Pacífico railroad in Mexico. It was one of three connecting railroads that ran from Kansas City, Missouri, to Topolobampo, Mexico, a distance of 1,600 miles.
The United States portion was incorporated in 1900 as the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway, and completed between Wichita, Kansas and Alpine, Texas.
It was forced into bankruptcy in 1912, but its receiver William T. Kemper was to make a fortune when oil was discovered under its tracks. In 1914 it was reorganized as the KCM&O Railroad. Another reorganization in 1925 returned it to its original name. It was popularly called The Orient railroad.
The KCM&O was acquired by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in 1928. mainly to gain access to the west Texas oil fields. The Santa Fe then sold the Mexican portions. The 603 miles of the Orient of Texas was merged into the Santa Fe on August 1, 1965. The Santa Fe has subsequently disposed of all of the former Orient trackage in Texas, beginning with the abandonment of the Sonora line in 1976.
The interior of the station that once housed incoming and outgoing freight.
Recent Comments