The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Wildlife Department, the refuge em-
barked on a program to restock Rio
Grande turkeys to the area with the
release of 41 birds.
There's one other sight to see at
Hagerman, an inconspicuous histori-
cal marker located near the visitor
center that commemorates the town
of Hagerman, after which the refuge
was named. In the late 19th century,
the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad,
known as "the Katy," ran a rail line
through here. (In fact, the main access
road through the refuge is laid down
over that old rail bed.) The switch lo-
cated at this particular site was named
for James Hagerman, the Katy's chief
attorney from 1892 to 1911. The four
Smith brothers came to the area from
Arkansas in 1889 and settled there.
When they divided the land amongst
themselves in 1904, the Smiths laid
out the parcel adjacent to the switch
for a townsite and just borrowed the
name Hagerman from the railroad.
The town had a pretty short life as
towns go, less than 40 years. It grew to
a population of 250, with a cotton gin,
churches, bank, school, post office, de-
pot and an ice cream parlor. Shortly
after the Great Depression, talk began
to circulate of a dam to be built nearby
on the Red River and Hagerman
started to die as a consequence. The
gin moved to Collinsville and the lum-
beryard to Whitesboro. When the
electrical plant failed, no one bothered
to spend money on it "because the
dam is coming anyway." Hagerman's
few remaining residents dragged out
their old oil lamps.
By 1943, the town was deserted and
water soon began to creep over its
outskirts. Many townspeople were
bitter about being forced out of their
homes and paid only a small amount
for their land and the mineral rights
that went with the land. Some held
out for those rights, finally accepting a
lower price per acre for the land only.
But those few soon reaped the bene-
fits. Hagerman sat on top of a major
oil field, discovered only a few years
later; there are still about 100 wells
operating within the refuge. To locate
the town site, stand in front of the his-
torical marker and look north. Hager-
man stretched west from the low
water crossing in front of you, and
roughly parallel to the present road.
Except during the spring floods, the
site is usually above water. * *
Sherrie McLeRoy is a freelance writer
living in Sherman. She specializes in
travel and history pieces, and currently is
working on a historical novel. Before
turning to afreelance career she spent 15
years as a director/curator ofmuseums.
TROTNLINLS
AT HAGERMAN
by Lynn A. Nymeyer
A trotline is an excellent way to get
a supply of fresh catfish, and if prop-
erly designed, it is relatively harmless
to everything but catfish.
But problems occur when one or
both ends of a trotline are attached to
a fixed object such as a tree. As long as
the line and hooks remain under the
water's surface, the danger is minimal.
But as water levels recede, the trotline
and its sharp hooks remain above the
surface of the water. When this oc-
curs, the trotline becomes a potential
death trap to egrets, herons, pelicans
and many forms of wading and diving
birds.
These birds hunt fish, frogs, craw-
fish and any variety of aquatic life for
food. They may foul hook themselves
on hooks near the surface, then face a
slow death struggling for freedom.
Many of the baits used, as well as fish
caught, will attract these birds when
the hooks come near the water's
surface.
44 Fchruary 1990
Hagerman Refuge regulations re-
garding trotline use are designed to
eliminate this form of needless death.
Refuge regulations prohibit the at-
tachment of trotlines to fixed objects,
requiring instead a floating trotline
design that is easy to build, simple to
place, and in reality more efficient
than the fixed-object line.
A floating line requires the trotline
and hooks, two long droplines, two
substantial weights and two large
floats. The weights should be heavy
enough to ensure that the largest of
catfish could not drag them away. The
dropline should be long enough to
reach from the water's surface to the
bottom, even during periods of high
water. The best floats are empty, one-
gallon bleach or anti-freeze bottles.
Gear T1 ag (some place gear tag inside jug and seal)
/ , JU'G JUG . /'
ThROTLINE
w
e 7
4,,,,tt 1 t- .
ror
ANCIOR ANCI OR
. . .,, >
.- `.a.,r ff . *` A