By Scott Shephard
Sanderson, Texas, with a population 837 would be a fairly large “little” town by South Dakota standards. But it has a story very similar to cities I drive through in parts of my home state. (I’m thinking of Zell, Polo and Hayes here, among countless others). Sanderson developed at the nexus of two major train lines and was dependent on that and on agriculture. In addition to that, a major Texas highway (US 90) ran through the heart of town. This highway would have been a link between El Paso in the West and Austin, San Antonio and Corpus Christi in the East.
But railroad practices changed, interstate highways were built, and agricultural markets dried up. So Sanderson began to fade. Add to all of this a devastating flood in the 1960s, and it’s not hard to see why the town may seem to be struggling.
Many of the businesses along the highway through town look like this one. But to be fair, Sanderson still has much going for it: it still has a high school with a 6 man football team (The Eagles). And it is the county seat with a nice courthouse. Also, Cormack McCarthy (and the Cohn Brothers) made Sanderson one of the many settings in the book and the movie No Country for Old Men.
I love highways like US 90 and towns like Sanderson. The town is tenacious and the highway through it is a great road with a fascinating high-plains, semi-arid landscape. The road has few towns and little traffic. It looks and feels a little like central South Dakota (minus the cropland.) To me, then, It feels a little like home.
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