Wagon Wheel Drive-In
13020 County Road 24,
Spearman,
TX
79081
13020 County Road 24,
Spearman,
TX
79081
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The Wagon Wheel Drive-In was opened by June 1951 when it was operated by J.D. Willbanks. It could acommodate 250 cars and as it was a fly-in-drive-in it could also accomodate 8 airplanes. It was still open in 1957, but had closed by 1963.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
The Wagon Wheel Drive-In opened in June of 1951 according to an item in Billboard. The Wagon Wheel was also a Fly-In Drive-In accommodating eight airplanes.
A closer address is 13020 Co Rd 24, Spearman, TX. The drive-in was located SW of the town. There is no evidence in a 1962 aerial photo of an airstrip nearby (that I can see). However, the back of the drive-in seems to have ramps that can accommodate small aircraft.
Today, a restaurant called the “Hungry Cowboy” occupies the property, although you can still see the ramps on the north side. http://tinyurl.com/zbefpme
I think this might be the Fly-in Drive-in mentioned briefly on page 99(chapter 10 – strange drive-in’s) of Drive-in theaters a history of their inception in 1933(Kerry Segrave).
By the time of a 1962 aerial and a 1965 topo map, Spearman’s landing strip was immediately north of town. That same 1962 aerial places the drive-in past the southwest corner of Spearman, about a mile away and across the railroad tracks from that strip.
The only explanation that fits is that the Wagon Wheel used to provide its own shorter runways on land immediately north of the drive-in, and that they were gone by the 1962 photo.
This April 3, 1963 note in Motion Picture Exhibitor suggests the Wagon Wheel was closed by then: “Wright Hale, who operates the Lyric, indoor house, and the Holiday Drive-In, Spearman, Tex., and Everett Mahanley, who is constructing the Corral Drive-In, Guymon, have purchased the Wagonwheel (sic) Drive-In, Spearman, from J. D. Wilbanks and will dismantle the drive-in.”
Boxoffice, Nov. 18, 1950: “SPEARMAN, TEX. - J. D. Wilbanks, farmer three miles east of here is planning to build a drive-in theatre on his farm. He had all materials and equipment on hand before curbs were put on construction of amusement projects. He plans a 200-car drive-in to be in operation by February.”
The April 6, 1957 issue of Boxoffice included a long article about the “giant-size miniature train for adults” that Wilbanks installed in 1956. The “young, energetic exhibitor” laid his own 2,500 feet of track, which looped in front of the screen tower and returned to a station in the rear of the ramp area. The article included photos of the train and a nice aerial view of the drive-in with the track.
Using the 1962 aerial, I found a drive-in three miles east of Spearman which fits the description of the stories that MichaelKilgore has put in the comments about the Wagon Wheel Drive-In.
It is three miles east of Spearman. There is a landing strip about ¼ mile to the east of the drive-in. And you can see (barely) small train-tracks that run around the perimeter of the drive-in and the station at the back of the property.
I can’t get an exact address, but it is located to the east of 10850 FM759, Spearman, TX. Across Co Rd 28 on the south side of HWY 759.
By 1971, the drive-in had been totally demolished with only faint parch marks of the ramps and outline. That disappeared rather quickly and today there is no trace of the drive-in.
As for the drive-in at the 13020 County Road 24, Spearman, TX address. I’d submit it is the Corral Drive-In. Freshly built in 1962, but perhaps not ready to open, the drive-in was still intact in 1985, but had been demolished by 1991.