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SITE OF OWENS SPRING CREEK FARM

In 1926, a young man named Clifford Boyce Owens, originally from Forney, Texas, and his wife, Kate, were living on a triangular-shaped farm that they leased, which lay alongside what is now Arapaho Road. The northernmost point of the triangle was the intersection of Alma Road and Greenville Avenue. From time-to-time, in their farmhouse kitchen, they made themselves a tasty breakfast sausage made from pork and a blend of spices set down in an old family recipe. During the Winter of 1928, as Mr. Owens later told a reporter for the Dallas Morning News, he said to his wife, "Kate, maybe we've got something here, Suppose we slaughter a hog now and then and make our saugsage for sale. It'll give us a little more income, and it'll give us something to do in the winter."

At first, Cliff and Kate Owens made their "country sausage" themselves, on Fridays, in the kitchen of their farmhouse and sold their product primarily to the people of Richardson and other nearby communities. However, as demand grew, what had started out as a sideline business became their principal occupation as they found themselves with no time for anything else but making sausage, which they stuffed into sacks handmade by Kate. In time, they moved production from their kitchen to their barn, where they employed a dozen people to help them.

By the end of the Second World War, realizing that they needed to expand, the Owenses had a factory built on Highway 75 (present-day Greenville Avenue), near downtown Richardson, where they they would make and sell "Owens' Country Sausage," as they now called their product, as well as various cuts of meat, vegetables, and Cabell's dairy products as well. The factory opened in March 1946. In 1953, they enlarged the facility. In 1959, they expanded their fleet of refrigerated trucks to twelve.

During these years, Clifford and Kate Owens lived at 331 E. Tyler Street in Richardson, in a house that's still standing today.

Nine years later, in 1962, the Owenses bought 60 acres of land called "Spring Creek Farm," about two miles north of downtown Richardson, where on April 20 of that year, construction began on a new, more modern production facility. As it happened, this spot wasn't far from the place where the business first started some thirty-five years earlier. The new facility was put into operation in mid-July 1963, and in August an open house was held. By this time, Cliff and Kate's thirty-year-old son, Jerry, born in 1933, was part of the family business, serving as Vice-President. His father, Cliff, was President, of course, and his mother Kate served as Secretary-Treasurer.

In 1966, the Owens product line was expanded to include a beef chili, available in groucery stores in a tubular package similar to the sausage, which by this time was judged to be Texas' No. 1 breakfast sausage.

Starting in 1978, a portion of Spring Creek Farm, featuring a museum, a butcher shop, a farm kitchen, and a blacksmith shop, was open for free two-hour tours, one from 9 to 11 a.m. and the other from 1 to 3 p.m. Visitors could also see Belgian horses, chickens, and a variety of other farm animals in a children's petting zoo, in addition to Miss Belle's Place, a late 19th century house which had been donated to the city of Richardson and transferred from its original location to Spring Creek Farm. Each October, the farm hosted an annual "Pumpkin Patch." Hayrides were another popular offering. Area schools often took their students there on field trips.

In 1987, Ohio-based Bob Evans Farms bought bought both the Owens Country Sausage brand and the Spring Creek Farm facility, which continued to produce sausage until 2013, when it was closed and soon after, demolished. Tours of the farm, which also contined after Bob Evans Farms took over, ceased in early November 2013.

As of December 2021, the site of Spring Creek Farm is completely devoid of any structures. Miss Belle's Place was the last to go, although unlike the other structures, it was moved rather than demolished.

As of December 2021, the City of Richardson has not yet approved any proposals for the future use of this site.

LOCATIONS: The Owens Country Sausage factory of 1946 to 1962, located at 301 N. Greenville Avenue, is long gone. Today, the site is a vacant lot. Spring Creek Farm, which covered 27 acres of land on the northeast corner of N. Plano Road and Lookout Drive is also now vacant land, the factory and farm buildings have been demolished sometime after the land was sold to investors.

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