SANTA FE MOVES HAPPY

In 1906 the Santa Fe railway extended its line southward from Canyon. The survey called for the line to pass two miles west of the original town of Happy and the little village promptly moved to rail side. The railroad paused here temporarily before pushing on to Plainview, forty miles to the south.

Mrs. H. M. Baggarly was appointed the first agent. At first, the side track was filled with emigrant cars, settlers who would have a box car containing a milk cow, team of horses, pigs, miscellaneous farm equipment and household goods. The owner was permitted to ride in the car with his family followed by passenger train or wagon.

Principal commodities shipped in those early days were grain, gravel, coal and cattle. It was not unusual in the spring for the stock pens to

be jammed full with cattle and hundreds more held in nearby pastures.

In 1926 the oil boom broke on Borger. There were no pipe lines then. Oil had to be moved by tank car to Gulf Ports. This, coupled with a record wheat crop, taxed the Santa Fe to capacity. Southbound oil trains followed hard on the heels of each other. They were so congested that returning empty tank car trains were routed around by Clovis.

Happy had a large contingent of section hands stationed in Happy to maintain the tracks. Derailments were not uncommon, working all hands round the clock. Eventually, hundreds of Navajo Indians were brought in from Arizona. The Indians introduced their method of bathing as practiced in arid Arizona. They would dig into an embankment, line it with rocks, build a fire and when the rocks were hot, pour water on them and bathe in the steam.