Essays From West of 98: Shameless Frontier Mayor and Booster
A mayor’s job today, inspired by propaganda of the past
A little over a year ago, I found something extraordinary in the archives of the Museum of the West Texas Frontier in Stamford. It was a promotional pamphlet dating to about 1910 with the innocuous title “Swenson Avenue Addition.” It was ostensibly intended to market newly-platted lots in an area north of Stamford’s downtown. In reality, it was one of the most extraordinary pieces of local propaganda I’ve ever read in my life. It starts strong on the cover, with a series of apparent slogans from the first decade of Stamford’s history:
The Paved City of the West
The City of Roses
The Metropolis of the West
The Railroad Center of West Texas
(Fans of “Parks and Recreation” might think of the wild series of nicknames that Pawnee had adopted over the year, from “The Paris of America” to “The Akron of Southwest Indiana” to “Welcome German Soldiers” to “First In Friendship, Ninth in Obesity.” If you did, you’re not alone.)
These slogans actually do feature some interesting historical facts. Stamford’s red brick streets (manufactured locally) were innovative for their time in a rural community.1 This innovation renders all the more maddening Stamford’s subpar streets in the 21st century, but that’s a topic for another day. Stamford surely was the Railroad Center of West Texas. The important Texas Central and Wichita Valley lines crossed here. Local investors organized their own regional line, the Stamford and Northwestern. These railroads were major employers and spawned both a gorgeous depot and a unique roundhouse, both of which are sadly long gone, along with all the other rail infrastructure.
What about The City of Roses? I’ll be honest. I have no idea where this came from. I know more than my share of Stamford history and, until I found this pamphlet, I had never heard Stamford claiming a unique position as to roses. Perhaps this was a bit of unrealized idealism.
Then there’s The Metropolis of the West. What an aspiration! This honestly made me emotional the first time that I read it. I felt it. I believed it. In fact, I still do! This slogan might even be inspiring another writing project. In 1910, The Metropolis of the West was an ideal but also a legitimate goal. Today, an outsized part of the West Texas population resides in Lubbock, Abilene, and Midland-Odessa and they influence culture and economy accordingly. In 1910, Stamford’s population of 3,902 was significantly larger than any of those cities except Abilene. Stamford College existed.2 Texas Tech University did not. There was no reason to believe that Stamford was NOT destined to be The Metropolis of the West.
Back in 2021, my friend Sarah Self-Warbrick (then with Texas Tech Public Media) featured Stamford in a story on the struggle to bring high-speed internet to rural communities. It was an important, impactful story and I am proud that Stamford now has exponentially more access to high-speed internet today than it did three years ago. As we drove around Stamford, I casually referred to myself as a ‘Shameless Frontier Mayor and Booster.” That phrase made its way into her article. I liked it so well that I ran with it. It is still my Twitter name today.
When read this pamphlet from 1910 (it gets even wilder once you read past the cover!), I think of the proud boosterism that was evident in those early town leaders. There was certainly some embellishment, but above all else, it was HOPEFUL. That’s what I admired so much. That’s why I gleefully adopted that moniker. In a world full of negativity and rural decline, hopeful boosterism helps us dream of what is possible.
If I can’t or won’t be the shameless booster of our local hopes and dreams, then who will be? What’s the job of a town mayor even for?
Next week: the modern day role of the shameless frontier mayor and booster.
James Decker is the Mayor of Stamford, Texas and the creator of the West of 98 website and the Rural Church and State and West of 98 podcasts. Contact James and subscribe to these essays at westof98.substack.com and subscribe to him wherever podcasts are found.
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In 2022, the Museum featured an exhibit for Black History Month that included some extraordinary pictures of some of Stamford’s earliest black citizens working as bricklayers on these streets. It was history unknown to many of us, but an important piece of local culture.
Stamford College burned in 1918 and was not rebuilt by the Methodist Church. The last president of the College was James Winfred Hunt. Hunt promptly collaborated with Abilene leaders to build a new Methodist college in nearby Abilene that became present-day McMurry University. He is hailed as the founder of McMurry and has a building named after him. He almost assuredly collaborated with the Abilenians before the “mysterious” fire destroyed Stamford’s college. This was far from the only reason that Abilene grew beyond Stamford in their early days, but it certainly didn’t help. I will never let this go.
The conspiracy theory seems well founded. I’d run with it.
I’m from Abilene and just learned an interesting bit of Abilene history!