TodayÛªs challenge in surveying is the garden spot of Northern Reeves County, Texas. This dusty little burg is miles from civilization and services and makes Orla look like a major metropolitan destination. It was platted in 1911 along with many other now defunct towns along the right-of-way of the Pecos River Railroad like Arno, Angeles, Dixieland, Riverton, and Patrole speculating on a great land rush brought on by the development of canals and cheap farmland. Unfortunately, the sales of rights to Pecos River water far exceeded the actual quantity of water that the river could provide especially with the development of dams and lakes in New Mexico considerably reduced the flow.
The plat was signed J.L. Walker, president of the Pecos Valley Interstate Livestock Company whose principle place of business was Groesbeck, Limestone County, Texas. The partnership included L.B. Cobb, Jr., W.W. Brown, R.L. Reese, R.M. Cralle, L.L. Brown and F.F. Brown. The plat is based on a survey mad by L.B. Cobb. It is a very large map and has no recording information. It is kept in a big folder at the courthouse and all the deeds referencing it just cite ÛÏLot #, Block # in the Town of Mont Clair, Reeves County, Texas as shown by the map or plat of said town of record in the Deed Records of Reeves County, Texas.Û The map shows a bearing along the north side of the town limits of N 70å¡20Ûª E. The east line of Section 12, Block 57, Twp. 1 is annotated NS and the Pecos River Railroad slices through the northeast part of the town on a 50 foot right-of-way. There is no call for any monumentation and no ties to the section corners. The blocks are 250Ûªx250Ûª with 20 foot alleys and 60 foot street rights-of-way.
Several other sections adjoining and in the vicinity are also platted into farm lots, 80 equal sized lots on the typical section ringed with an apparent right-of-way of unknown dimension. It is my belief that the sections were presumed to be 640 acres oriented to the cardinal directions.
A Reeves County history says that a Post Office was organized for Mont Clair in 1911 but I do not know if a building was constructed or any houses at all. I have found nothing indicating a railroad depot was ever built here, although several of the other ghost towns listed did have a depot at one point. Lot and farm sales must have been good because in 1952, G. E. Ramsey and G. E. Ramsey, Jr., sued over 1,000 property owners and won a judgment in a Trespass to Try Title suit.
http://law.justia.com/cases/texas/supreme-court/1961/a-7892-0.html
While the Ramseys did gain title to close to 6000 acres of land, some landowners successfully defended their title and if you read the court case linked above you will see that some of the landowners successfully sued for the return of their property a few years later. We have been hired to locate 2 of the town lots and 2 of the farm tracts. You may wonder why anyone would be concerned about a few acres of scrub desert land that can barely support cattle or farming in the middle of nowhere but youÛªd be surprised with the commuter adjusted daytime population of the town of Mont Clair. It sits atop the Delaware Basin oil shale formation and is one of the most active fields in the State of Texas. IÛªm sure the landowners who sued to reclaim their property were more concerned about maintaining their mineral interests than the surface use.
In talking to one of the Reeves County officials, the plat has never been vacated. No field work has been scheduled yet but I am not optimistic about finding any evidence. We have previously tied the railroad right-of-way through this section and there are several different opinions about where the section corners are supposed to be as evidenced by multiple monuments at each corner.
PDF of reconstructed plats: http://www.rplsfaq.com/survey/montclair/montclair5.pdf
I have reconstructed the town using the geometry that I am able to glean from the plat. I found L.B. Cobb Jr of Groesbeck Texas in several directories online and his primary occupation seems to be banking. Based on the results from reconstructing his drawing, it seems surveying is a generous description of his effort. The map approaches ÛÏfanciful cartoonÛ status and I believe I will have to employ plenty of pro-rating to get the farm lots to exhaust the acreage in the section as there is definitely more than 640 acres out there. The town lots are constructed strictly to the geometry indicated on the town plat and they do not appear to occupy the amount of area indicated on the farm plat. If no additional evidence is found on the ground that leads me to a better placement, I will hold the intersection of the north line of the Section 12 with the railroad right-of-way. From previous field work in the area, I have determined that the angular relationship between those two lines on the ground is within 0å¡02Ûª of the angles shown on the map.
this must have been the gas station in mont clair. took this about 5 years ago, cruising back home from a ski trip, coming down 285 out of loving. right after we crossed the state line there's this building just smoldering by the side of the road. car would go by about every 4 minutes, otherwise there was scant evidence of life other than the trees in the picture (and they mighta been dead for all i know).
the kids were crazy from hours in the car, i had to take a leak, and the sight of this just begged me to pull over and hang for a bit.
now i know where i was.
That's Stateline. Montclair is about 3 miles southeast. I think there was a restaurant or dance club there at one point but it never looked open while I was there.
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Andy Nold, post: 409007, member: 7 wrote: That's Stateline. Montclair is about 3 miles southeast. I think there was a restaurant or dance club there at one point but it never looked open while I was there.
31.962020, -103.999236
well, i reckon the mont clairians probably made the commute up to the dance club here and there. if i recall correctly, it's either that or the closest allsups is at least 20 miles in any direction.
Since I wrote this, I have been contacted by a couple of people who have an interest in Mont Clair and found the post through internet searches. Today I received a request for the post to be included on an oil and gas blog, which I am pleased to allow. I took a few minutes today to clean it up a little for better readability and fix a few errors. I also added some new information at the end:
Today??s surveying challenge is the garden spot of northern Reeves County, Texas. Mont Clair is a dusty little burg miles from civilization and services that makes Orla look like a major metropolitan destination. Mont Clair was platted in 1911 over several sections of Blocks 57 and 58 of Township 1 of the T&P Railway Company Survey, bisected by the Pecos River Railroad (later the Panhandle and Santa Fe). Speculation on a great land rush brought by the development of canals and cheap farmland, Mont Clair joined many other now defunct towns along the railroad like Arno, Angeles, Dixieland, Riverton, and Patrole. Unfortunately, the sales of Pecos River water rights far exceeded the actual quantity of water that the river could provide especially with the development of dams and lakes in New Mexico that reduced the flow.
The subdivision plat was signed by J.L. Walker, president of the Pecos Valley Interstate Livestock Company whose principle place of business was Groesbeck, Limestone County, Texas. The partnership included L.B. Cobb, Jr., W.W. Brown, R.L. Reese, R.M. Cralle, L.L. Brown and F.F. Brown. The plat purports to be based on a survey made by L.B. Cobb. It is a very large map and has no recording information. The plat is kept in a big folder at the courthouse and all the deeds referencing it just cite ??Lot #, Block # in the Town of Mont Clair, Reeves County, Texas as shown by the map or plat of said town of record in the Deed Records of Reeves County, Texas.?
The town is aligned to the railroad, occupying most of Section 18 and portions of Sections 13 and 19. The north town limits are annotated N 70?ø20?? E. The east line of Section 18, Block 57, Twp. 1 is annotated NS and the Pecos River Railroad slices through the east third of town on a 50-foot right-of-way. There is no call for any monumentation and no ties to the section corners. The blocks are 250??x250?? with 20-foot alleys and 60-foot street rights-of-way.
Several other sections adjoining the town lots and in the vicinity are also platted into farm lots, 80 equal sized lots on the typical section ringed with an apparent right-of-way of unknown dimension. It is my belief that the sections were presumed to be 640 acres oriented to the cardinal directions.
A Reeves County history says that a Post Office was organized for Mont Clair in 1911. I do not know if any buildings or residences were constructed at all. I have found nothing indicating a railroad depot was ever here, although several of the other ghost towns listed did have a depot at one point. Lot and farm sales must have been good because in 1952, G. E. Ramsey and G. E. Ramsey, Jr., sued over 1,000 property owners and won a judgment in a Trespass to Try Title suit.
http://law.justia.com/cases/texas/supreme-court/1961/a-7892-0.html
While the Ramseys did gain title to close to 6000 acres of land, some landowners successfully defended their title. Other landowners successfully sued for the return of their property a few years later. My company has been hired to locate 2 of the town lots and 2 of the farm tracts. You may wonder why anyone would be concerned about a few acres of scrub desert land that can barely support cattle or farming in the middle of nowhere. You might be surprised to learn that the commuter adjusted daytime population of the ghost town of Mont Clair is much greater than zero as various people pursue their daily occupations. The town sits atop the Delaware Basin oil shale formation which has some of the most active oilfields in Texas. I??m sure the landowners who sued to reclaim their property were more concerned about maintaining their mineral interests than the surface use.
In talking to one of the Reeves County officials, the plat has never been vacated. No field work has been scheduled yet but I am not optimistic about finding any evidence. We have previously tied the railroad right-of-way through this section and there are several different opinions about where the section corners are supposed to be as evidenced by multiple monuments at each corner.
PDF of reconstructed plats: http://www.rplsfaq.com/survey/montclair/montclair5.pdf
I have reconstructed the town using the geometry that I am able to glean from the plat. I found L.B. Cobb Jr of Groesbeck Texas in several directories online and his primary occupation seems to be banking. Based on the results from reconstructing his drawing, it seems surveying is a generous description of his effort. The map approaches ??fanciful cartoon? status and I believe I will have to employ plenty of pro-rating to get the farm lots to exhaust the acreage in the section as there is definitely more than 640 acres out there. The town lots are constructed strictly to the geometry indicated on the town plat and they do not appear to occupy the amount of area indicated on the farm plat. If no additional evidence is found on the ground that leads me to a better placement, I will hold the intersection of the north line of the Section 12 with the railroad right-of-way. From previous field work in the area, I have determined that the angular relationship between those two lines on the ground is within 0?ø02?? of the angles shown on the map.
As a footnote, some months after I composed this post, I was provided a copy of an affidavit of cancellation filed by G.E. Ramsey Junior in the volume 172, Page 332 of the Reeves County deed records. It describes the Reevs County Commissioners Court meeting of 12 November, 1956 where the court authorized Ramsey to cancel the subdivision of the Town of Mont Clair and ??to restore the lands to acreage by written instrument, recognizing, however, the right of ingress and egress of present third party record owners of various town lots and farm tracts or parcels??? Now, here is where it confuses me as it goes on to say that, ??northing therein should be construed as cancelling the Plat of the Town of Mont Clair or the Farm Subdivisions, which should remain in full force and affect for the purpose of describing and locating the various town lots and farm tracts or parcels;? I??ll leave that to the lawyers to determine how that language affects things.
Additionally, I found field notes in a patent to the original developers which gives calls to Mount Clair Tower. I don??t know if this was an USGS triangulation tower, water tower or what, but I??m guessing it wasn??t a multi-story residential or business tower.
