Trails to and Tales of Sanderson, Texas

This is a work manly of fiction. However, many of the stories and characters are drawn from real life. It is a about life in a small ranching and railroad town in Southwest Texas just east of the Big Bend area. For nine months in 1958 and 1959, I had the pleasure of living in Sanderson, Texas. It was a time between high school and college that I needed to decide what I wanted to try to do with my life. Although I was born in a small town, Ionia, Missouri; my family moved to Springfield, Missouri when I was less than one year old so I never experienced small town life. Sanderson, Texas provided that missing ingredient.

Sanderson a small town, the County Seat for Terrill County, and at that time it was a busy, thriving, happy, community with almost every service that one needed with the exception of a Dental care and a Hospital. However, both were about an hour’s drive away.

The population appeared to be approximately one-half Anglo and one-half Latino. The cultures lived worked and in harmony. However socially each tended to keep to themselves and dating across ethnic lines was frowned on by both groups.

The Turner Hotel Café was located in the center of town and was the social center for the Anglos. Along with the café the building housed the Post Office and a small grocery store. Town people and local ranchers were always present in the café, almost everyone was a colorful character and all had stories to tell and lies to swap. It was a treasure trove of material a writer could use. I spent many hours drinking coffee in the presence of those characters listening to stories involving Mountain Lions, snakes, top hands, good men, strong women, good horses and faithful dogs living in a harsh and unforgiving land. I believe that the people, their times, their stories, adventures, misadventure, lives and loves are worthy of being recorded and shared.