Page Contents for Pyote, Texas

Statistics & Facts

Location

History & History-related items

Government

Historical Events

Schools.

Miscellany

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Statistics & Facts

The Texas state capital is Austin.
The population of Pyote is approximately 145 (2006), 114 (2010).
The approximate number of families is 85 (2000), 50 (2010).
The amount of land area in Pyote is 3.345 sq. kilometers.
The amount of land area in Pyote is 1.29 sq. miles.
The amount of surface water is 0 sq kilometers.
The distance from Pyote to Washington DC is 1605 miles.
The distance to the Texas state capital is 333 miles. (as the crow flies)
Pyote is positioned 31.53 degrees north of the equator and 103.12 degrees west of the prime meridian.
Pyote per capita income is $ 11,505 (2000).
Pyote median income is $ 27,900 (2005).
The Pyote median home price is $ 12,500 (2005).

Location

in western Texas about 57 miles from Odessa and about 227 miles from El Paso. Other nearby communities include: Wickett, Thorntonville, wink, Monahans, Barstow, Coyanosa, Kermit and Grandfalls.
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History & History Related Items

A Texas and Pacific Railway opened a telegraph office here in 1881. The area was called Pyote Tank at the time. Some say the Chinese workers here could not pronounce coyote property, leading to the name but others say it was named for the Peyote Cacti that is seen all around here.

A post office was opened in 1907 as well as a store. When the store opened, a barbeque was held and town lots were successfully sold. A school was also soon built. The community remained small for many years until oil was discovered in 1928. The population swelled rapidly to over 3,500 persons for a time until the railroad built a spur to Monahans which took Pyote out of the loop as far as oilfield shipping was concerned. The city had incorporated during the early 1930s. But by 1939, there were only 36 businesses left and, by 1941, there were only about 200 persons left in town with just 15 businesses remaining.

In 1942, World War II brought the Pyote Air Force Station and bomber training to the area. After the war many of the bombers were sent here for scrap metal processing. Two of the most famous planes housed here were the Enola Gay, which dropped the first atomic bomb and General MacArthur's plane, Swoose. Both these planes were rescued by the Smithsonian.

A history page for Pyote with some historical pictures.

This page lists Pyote as a Ghost Town. Read the history there.
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Pyote City Government

US Post Office
PO Box 175
Pyote, TX 79777-9998
Phone: 915-389-5621

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Return to the Pyote Community Page on Key to the City.

Pyote Historical Events

mid 1940's to 2001
Soon after World War two, the Army Air Corp. brought B-24 bombers to Pyote Air Base in such numbers that when one toped the hill, east-bound, on the Bankhead hiway (Texas/U.S. 80), you could see B-24s parked wing tip to wing tip; as far as the eye could see; in rows that left only enough room between the tail of one and the nose of the other for a truck to pass between.

As a child, traveling with my father in old trucks, it was hard for me to fathom so many big planes in one place, when I was accustomed to our family making a festive occasion of driving out west of my home town of Big Spring, TX, parking the car and waiting just to see the one old twin engine D C -3(?) come in for a landing!

Little did I dream that someone was going down each of those rows; setting charges of explosives in each plane, and loading the material on trucks, bound for smelters that would melt it down into sheets; again to be built into jet planes that would be flown in another war...no, the government called this one a "Police Action"; that would continue to this day, Oct. 15, 2001.

but, at age 70, I can still see the little town of Pyote, Texas, with its one little rest...no, not restaurant... CAFE, and the local Drug store, operated by a druggist by the name of Mchugh, whose daughter, Banena McHugh, would one day attend business school with me, more than 300 miles away, in San Antonio.

Submitted by Wm. S. Birdwell
Whitefish, MT 59937

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1944-1945
During World War II I was stationed at Pyote Army Air Base, Texas, from September 1944 through February 24, 1945. The base had been built during 1942 or 1943. Originally, it was a B-17 combat crew-training base for Replacement Crews that spent a few months there training before they transferred to combat units overseas. It was a very remote site. I well remember riding the Texas & Pacific railroad train from Ft Worth en route to El Paso. When the train stopped at Pyote, there was only a tiny building which served as the train workers office. All passengers stayed outside in the open air and waited for an Army truck to pick us up. There were no living accommodations for married personnel. Couples lived in Wink, Monahans, Kermit or Pecos. I had permission to live off base with my wife, with a family named Titus in Pecos, Texas. They were wonderful, kind folks. All Army transit personnel were assigned to the 236th AAF Base Unit (Replacement Combat Crew Training (Very Heavy)). The entire base was in the process of changing from training B-17 crews to B-29 crews. One of the requirements to complete our training was to fly a long over-water flight from Pyote to Havana, Cuba and return, which simulated the long over-water flights we were going to experience when we did combat flying from the Marianas Islands to Japan in the Pacific. After the war, the airport was used as a "storage facility" for Army combat airplanes. Eventually, they chopped up new and used airplanes and put them in a smelter which was built on the field. Later the name was changed to Rattlesnake Air Base.
Submitted by Joseph A Simonds

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1944
Bomber crew training in World War II
I've never been to Pyote, but I've known the name all of my life. My father flew 35 combat missions in B-17s in World War II, and I know five of his postings as well as my own name: basic training - Miami Beach; radio school - Scott Field (BLV), IL; gunnery training - Tyndall AFB (PAM), FL; crew training - Pyote, TX; combat - Glatton, UK (near Peterborough).

I don't know what the structure of the command at Pyote was, nor what designation of any interim training assignments were, but he ultimately flew in the 750th Squadron, 457th Bomb Group, 94th Combat Wing, 1st Air Division, 8th Air Force. His particular tour in England was from August through December, 1944, so I would think his time at Pyote would have been Spring and early Summer.I don't mean to give offense, but my father's recollections of Pyote were not particularly complimentary. I recall him mentioning hot and cold, and I think insects were involved, and my image was that the place was isolated and stark. But crew training was a matter of getting to know the people with whom you would eventually face the rigors of combat, so I can't help but believe that the surroundings, notwithstanding, the experience at Pyote must have been generally positive.

My father passed away in 1995. For the last 20 years of his life he was involved in various WWII reunion organizations, and, of course, Pyote was mentioned now and again amongst fellow airmen.

I don't know how many crews eventually passed through Pyote, but small town though it may be, it left an impression on its visitors far out of proportion to its size, and even for some of us who haven't even been there, it won't be forgotten for a long time.
Submitted by L. Rodney Peterson

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1942-45
World War II Memories
I recall B-29 bombers on training flights from Rattlesnake Field made wide turns over our home in Penwell. They were returning to base and sometimes tossed out odds and ends on the turn.
I had a horse and rode around the scrub brush countryside picking up their discards such as headphones, bullet casings, and such. They were very low and loud and you could hear them coming. Then, following war’s end, local people bought salvaged nose sections which made dandy green houses for their back yards. I often wonder if any of those greenhouses are still in use?
Submitted by Glenn Elliott, Houston

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1942, June 26
I was born in Kermit as Pyote did not have a civilian hospital. My grandpa, also Joe Whitefield, owned the infamous Aztec Cafe. The Fort Worth Star Telegram wrote an article in January of '43 about Pyote and the Aztec as the best steak house in all of West Texas, My dad was a civilian welder at Rattlesnake AFB and my mother was a secretary to Major Tenheuten, the base commander. Maybe he was a colonel. The druggist was McHugh, the railroad station / postman was Dealy, we had the only entertainment and everything was kept lawful according to Sheriff Tom Bowen, his way. I could write a book about Pyote, the rise and fall of Rattlesnake Bomber Base, Oakies passing through on the way to California and New Yorkers stationed in West Texas. Anyone interested call me. Joe Whitefield, Seattle WA 425-747-6282

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Return to the Pyote Community Page on Key to the City.

Pyote Schools

Monahans-Wickett-Pyote Independent School District
606 South Betty Avenue
Monahans, TX 79756
Phone: 432-943-6711

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West Texas State School
Ih 20 Mm 66
P.O. Box 415
Pyote, TX 79777
Phone: 432-389-5555

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Return to the Pyote Community Page on Key to the City. Pyote

Miscellany

The population of Pyote was:
1925 - 100
1928 - 3,500
1931 - 1,097
1941 - 201
1960 - 420
1990 - 348
2000 - 131
2006 - 145

The number ofhousing units was:
1990 - 97
2000 - 85

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Median age:
2000 - 39.6 years

Median household income:
2000 - $ 25,625
2005 - $ 27,900

Median house value:
2000 - $ 10,600
2005 - $ 12,500

Pyote is located in the Central Time Zone and does participate in daylight savings time during a portion of the year.