Dumas by George

Dumas.  By Louise Carroll George.  Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2009. 128 pages, b & w photographs, paperback.  ISBN: 9780738570617. $21.99.   In the middle of the volume is a 2-page spread showing the background mountains around Dumas.  I visited Dumas in 1979 while working at the nearby Amarillo Public Library, and I do not remember mountains.  There are none.  The "mountains" in question are the awesome, high, and dark clouds of dust that rolled into town April 14, 1935 as one of the worst dust storms of the Dust Bowl.  What must have rolled through the first-hand viewers at the time can only be considered worthy of Hollywood disaster scenes.  But the photograph stands in testament. We can thank Louise Carroll George for concerting this photo history of Dumas, Texas and its surroundings.  George has presented the area's history before in No City Limits and Some of My Heroes are Ladies.  The ladies on the front-cover no doubt had their own say in public in the 1910's because one of them was Cara May McKee, editor of the early Moore County Pioneer newspaper. The most remarkable thing about Dumas' first decade was its abandonment three times before the glue held tight.  The over-200 photos collected by George cover the Alibates quarries, the Antelope Creek people of 800 years ago, Adobe Walls, on up to Goodnight and Bugbee, freighting, and the scarce population and flat land in that farming and ranching village that enjoyed an occasional boom from the oil and fields.  One of my favorite's is on page 50 featuring a windmill, an water tower and tank, and the courthouse for its sheer genuine honesty.  The more modern images reflect, flapppers, leather-headed footballers, early cars and airplanes, local refineries, World War warriors about to leave, business and retail settings.  Should you need proof, George provides graphic documentation of coyotes, roughnecks, harvesters, blizzards, and tumblweeds - much of which is likely in the Killgore Memorial Library, also included in Dumas.