Madera Springs

Madera Springs is fourteen miles southwest of Toyahvale in north central Jeff Davis County. In the 1980s it included the remains of the main lodge of the Madera Springs Resort, a 228-acre resort on the north face of Timber Mountain at an altitude of 6,442 feet above sea level. The site was originally part of a 744-acre award from the state of Texas to J. B. Odell in 1908. In 1926 C. W. Starling bought the land from Timber Mountain Development Enterprises and undertook construction of the resort. A post office was assigned to the resort in 1926 but was discontinued sometime after 1930. Gonzales Brothers of Marfa, Texas, served as contractor for the project, using burros to carry building materials from the mountain's base to the construction site. The twenty-room main lodge and forty smaller cabins, built from adobe, logs, and native volcanic stone, were completed in 1928. Ultimately, the lack of a reliable water supply brought about the failure of Madera Springs Resort. In 1941 all but the 228 acres on which the resort was located was sold to Shannon West Texas Memorial Hospital (later Shannon Medical Center) of San Angelo. A significant number of surrounding sections were purchased by the hospital at the same time. In 1956 historian Ed Bartholomew purchased the 228-acre tract. In the late 1950s, to facilitate access to the lodge, he built a landing strip for small aircraft, but the strip was used only once, by Bartholomew, and later deteriorated from lack of use. In 1966 Bartholomew sold the lodge and land to West Texas businessman Tom Roden, who had a water well witched and drilled. Only then did sufficient water become available to Madera Springs. From 1964 to 1987 the population at Madera Springs was reported as two. By the early 1990s no population figures were available for Madera Springs.