New questions arise over Shafter adobe walls labeled as ‘the jail’
Shafter residents and many of their descendants have traditionally looked at two small crumbling adobe walls off a street behind the town’s historic church and were under the impression that it was all that was left of an old county jail used to house troublemakers in the heyday of the nearby silver mine from the early 1900s through the 1930s.
The bustling times when the mine was profitable ballooned the Shafter population into the low thousands at times, but when silver prices plummeted, residents and mine employees began leaving for other opportunities, and time and weather left hundreds of adobes and rock houses deserted and falling to the earth.
Now, the ghost town of about 25 residents, 40 miles south of Marfa, has new historical restoration underway and it is bringing up the question of whether the walls are in fact the jail. John Poindexter—Cibolo Creek Ranch resort owner—and his nonprofit Tidewater Foundation are restoring, and in some cases doing large-scale reconstruction, of buildings, including a new ice house cafe and pub, the town’s post office, an old general store and gas station, and residences. Plans also call for an agreement with the Catholic Diocese in El Paso to make much needed repairs to the steepled church, which was built in 1890.
In the past two weeks, crews took to digging around the jail’s two adobe walls with the goal of seeing how to stabilize them. The result is more adobe walls, a floor, and steps through an entryway. It gives more form to something that would have been a jail. The problem is it doesn’t look big enough, and according to Cibolo Creek Manager Tom Davis, who is leading the restoration projects, he’s pretty sure an old photograph shows the structure to be a store. Reviews of photos in Shafter’s tiny Memorial Museum didn’t reveal any photos of a jail. Documents from the Marfa and Presidio County Museum didn’t provide any information either, except an undated map of structures in the town center with a small box and arrow noting “Jail” where the current building stands.
Shafter resident and former County Judge Monroe Elms believes there was a jail and it was made of metal of some sort and that former Presidio County Sheriff Rick Thompson moved it to Candelaria at some point in his nearly two decades at the post. Davis has heard that story as well.
So, what’s the answer to the mystery? Yes, I’ve found other references in thesis papers on Shafter (they curiously note a lack of a jail), and there could be hundreds of clues in the Sul Ross State University archives or the Portal to Texas History at the University of North Texas, but I haven’t found—albeit with brief looks—any detailed accounts of the Shafter jail. There’s where you come in. Send me any tips/information you have about this mystery to rob@bigbendsentinel.com. — Rob D’Amico