Shane Lance

Discovering the Past Shane Lance

Discovering the Past: The Story of Quanah, Texas Volume 1, takes you back to the early days of Quanah. Quanah was a frontier, railroad town filled with interesting tales. In Volume 1, you will find the story of Texas Ranger Captain William J. McDonald hunting down a Quanah banker on the run to Mexico. Captain McDonald's personal banker embezzled from one of Quanah's first banks, and once his story unraveled, he took the first train towards Mexico. In 1891, Quanah was nearly wiped off the map by the Great Flood of 1891. Quanah and the surrounding area received 14 inches of rain in just a few hours. The Quanah cemetery was started when Joe Earle was killed in what may have been the very last Kiowa raid in Texas. With the railroad coming to Quanah and bypassing Margaret, the residents of Quanah, along with the railroad, put a plan together to steal the county seat. These stories, along with others, show the fascinating history of this small town.