FRENCH: Trading point on US 85, 9 mi N of Springer. Named for Capt. William French, who came to America in 1883 from French Park, Ireland. He owned the W-S (William Slaughter) Ranch, first in Grant County; when it moved to Cimarron, he organized the French Tract, a group of farms with French as a center. Because of litigation over water rights, the plan failed and little remains today of the farms and town. French was the author of 'Recollections of a Western Ranchman, 1883/1889. (1927)FRENCH LAKE. 7 mi E of Cimmaron. Submitted by: Samuel W McWhorter

My interest stems from it being listed as the birthplace of Charles H. Dingus, in 1916.  Charles went on to join the Army Air Corps in 1941 and then on April 23, 1943 while a navigator in the 22nd Anti Submarine Squadron with Fred M Speake as copilot, dissapeared with all hands into the Atlantic Ocean.  My father should have been on that plane, but asked Lt. Dingus to take his place as my step mother was coming to visit my father with their first born.

Submitted by: conrad matt