Comanche Chief Quanah Parker

With steel rails becoming ever present on the Southern Great Plains near the turn of the 20th Century, seemingly isolated communities were soon bound together in the era of the railroads. As business activity increased, both large and small railway companies emerged to tend to the needs of many firms.

In northwest Texas, the Quanah, Acme & Pacific Railway Company or the QA&P served four counties in the region. The QA&P company began as the Acme, Red River and Northern or the ARR&N in 1902. However, the ARR&N ended about 1909 and the QA&P began operations.

The company extended from Hardeman County into neighboring Cottle County, Motley County, and Floyd County. The railroad extended from Quanah all the way to Floydada, Texas. The QA&P had fifty-eight freight cars, ten company cars, two passenger cars, and six locomotives in 1916.

Even with many changes in the early to mid-20th Century, the Quanah, Acme, and Pacific Railway continued to be active with the Saint Louis and San Francisco Railroad Company (Frisco) in the east and the Santa Fe Company in the west. The QA&P disappeared as a corporate body in 1980 when the Frisco joined with the Burlington Northern.

On the so-named "Quanah Line", the famed Comanche Chief Quanah Parker, his family, and associates rode the train in 1910 to the State Fair of Texas at Dallas. From the Dallas Morning News article dated October 24, 1910, the account described Quanah Parker in the following manner:

". . . The chief is a striking figure. He was attired in ordinary street costume and a soft black hat, his braided locks, tied in two plaits down his back, his erect bearing, his seamed and wrinkled countenance immediately disclosed to most observers his identity."

Amazing picture of the celebrated Comanche Chief Quanah Parker, circa 1890. Photograph courtesy of the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.