HOME     INDEX

40

The Tampico Song continued with another twelve verses mainly dealing with the fun making, singing and dancing that was part of the young life of the Town of Tampico. Mr. McDonough should be given recognition as an historian because in his writing of these stanzas, he revealed a great deal of the social atmosphere 0f this young frontier town.

*******************************
*    BUILDINGS of TAMPICO     *
*******************************

David D. Davis is thought to be the one that was first to build in the area. It was said that he built the residence that was used as a store and hotel. He operated the store for several years and then sold the business to Ira Hunter and W. J. Crouch and the store was then called Crouch and Company. This company; under Crouch's guiding hand did not do a very good business - apparently it tried to sell expensive wares to the home spun community.

Tampico had a good blacksmith shop, which was more than just a place to get shoes for the horse or have some wrought iron hardware made. In the back of the shop was a workbench and a wood turning lathe where the wagonmaker, Meshach Davis turned wagon spokes and made chairs. Meshach or McDavis as he was commonly called, worked with this blacksmith to make wagons for the town and the community.

Bill Bowers built the Arcade Saloon in 1858 and then he was the owner and bartender. A picture of this building as it appeared in 1904 is shown below. This picture was obtained from the Homer Museum at Oregon State University. The open field in the left of this picture is the area of the Tampico Race Track.

Across from this Arcade Saloon was the Tampico School House. It was also built in 1858. The school had been built mainly to serve the educational needs of the community but it also was utilized for other community or social functions.

North of the saloon was the Livery Stable and in a corral next to the stable could be found the Bronco Buster Dave English who rode wild horses for as long as they would buck for a dollar a head.

North of the stable was Crouch's Store.

There were about three rooming houses about the town in addition to the Davis Hotel.

I have been told of one other structure that was to be found in Tampico and that was the jail. Ironically, this structure was so well built that it was the last to go - it finally was burned up in a forest fire. So this was the Town of Tampico at the height of its glory l858.

(- 40 -)