I enjoy spending time on campus at Colorado State University. The campus is just a few blocks from my condo, an easy walk, bike ride or a short bus ride to the transit center on campus. I use the library for quiet time to read and write. There are three little coffee shops on campus, one in the library and two in the Lory Student Center. There are images everywhere when you look: architecture, colors, patterns, art. And, what a place to watch people, mainly young students, as they move from class to class. And, if your into fast food you’ll think you’ve d moved on to heaven.
The roots of my family, after immigrating to the the states, is in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandle. I still have family farming and ranching in the area. I visited a year and a half ago for a family reunion and was able to see and hear a bit more of the areas history. While down there last weekend for a funeral my cousin Daryle took my sister and I on a heritage tour of the Darrouzett, Texas area. This small community is located along State Highway 15 in northern Lipscomb County. It is at the junction of Plummer and Kiowa creeks. Upon completion of the rail line in 1919–20, settlers and businesses moved south from the Sunset community in Oklahoma to be near the railroad. By 1920, when it was incorporated, Darrouzett had various businesses, two churches, a school, a post office, and a population of 425. In 1984 Darrouzett reported twelve businesses and a population of 444. In 1990 its population was 343, and in 2000 it was 303.
There was mass migration to this area after the Civil War. This area held promises of rich grass, rich soil and a place for new life: Texas Panhandle. Bound by a lawless area to the north known as “No Man’s Land,” what was to become known as Lipscomb County must have appeared both beautiful and formidable at the same time.
The early settlers in this part of Texas found everything needed to establish a home, running water, tall grass, wild turkey, prairie chickens, wild plums and grapes and the bountiful buffalo sod for building. This future Lipscomb County was bisected by Wolf Creek and laced with its tributaries and offered many pleasant groves of cottonwood and willows as a relief to the vast expanses of buffalo grass. This area where Plummer and Kiowa creeks merged, was to soon become a favorite picnic area for the settlers in outlying areas and some years later, the site of Darrouzett.
My mother’s early childhood was in the Sunset community. She attended this one room schoolhouse as did her three siblings. She later moved to Laverne, Oklahoma, where she graduated. My dad was raised 13 miles east of here in another small community called Follett, Texas.
Late yesterday afternoon a front moved into the area bringing light rain, some thunder and lightening and pea size hail. The foothills were covered with snow from the snowfall during the night. By mid-morning today we began to see snowflakes mixed with rain and temperatures hovering just above freezing in town. But a little snow and cold weather was not going to stop a special graduation for us folks from Colorado.
My youngest granddaughter, Madie, had her graduation today along with nine other students. All of these kids have come a long way to walk these stairs and receive their diplomas. It wasn’t easy an path. Each one of the students shared something personal about their experience at Centennial so there wasn’t a dry eye in the place. Thank goodness for autofocus. Congratulations to Madie and her classmates. Madie now moves on to a junior college this fall with a full ride for her first year. She then plans to transfer to Colorado State University. Did ya notice her smiling in every image?
