Codman, Texas Panhandle Ghost Town history, travel, photos, vintage map & more. (original) (raw)

The farm as seen from the railroad tracks
Photo courtesy Erik Whetstone, April 2004

On the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway

History in a Pecan Shell

A post office was granted in December 1892, discontinued eleven months later, then reopened in July 1901 for ten more months.

Codman�s population was a mere 25 in 1947 when a store and the towns grain elevators rose above the residences.

The repaving of highway 60 bypassed Codman�s center which further diminished the community � making Roberts County a one-town county.

Photographer's Note

These are the only buildings I found in the town of Codman.

I really liked the Codman site, I probably spent 45 minutes at that one site, of course a good part of that time was walking to get to it. I had read up a little on Codman before my trip because the map of Roberts County I have shows it to be on the north side of the railroad, but it does not show a road leading to the site. I had been curious as to if I would see anything when I got there, and luckily there is two miles of rough dirt road that leads to it. I'm sure the limited access to the site is the main reason so much of it is still there.

I'm not sure if there were any other remaining structures in Codman, There are quite a few no trespassing signs posted along the railroad tracks. Since my map didn't show Codman to be on the south side, I didn't venture across the tracks, but from what I did see there was nothing there.

There were probably a half dozen or so electrical poles that went from the house towards the rail road. I thought they were interesting because you could see that they were hand made, and also because they were probably only six and a half feet tall. One of the first things I thought about when I saw them was Mr. Trew's article on barb wire telephones. While I was out there, I wondered if anyone had ever stepped a little too close to the poles, if they still had the wires running across, I could easily have reached out and touched them. - Erik Whetstone

More on Codman, Texas

Ghost towns aplenty in Texas Panhandle by Delbert Trew

During my research, I continue to find more Texas Panhandle ghost towns I didn't know existed. Ray Carter from Lefors called my attention to Codman, located in Roberts County. The site is located eight miles southwest of Miami, alongside the Santa Fe Railroad tracks. The legend and lore appears to be as follows, based on several different but interesting versions... more

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