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History
in a Pecan Shell
Earth had no 19th Century history. It began in 1924 and was originally called
Fairlawn or Fairleen.
The source of its unusual name is
unclear and three stories are given:
1. When the first postmaster was filling
out the application for a name, a sandstorm blew in.
2. The town founder
had wanted to call it Good Earth which was shortened by post office bureaucrats
and
3. The postmaster described the storm on his applications and the reply
from Washington (supposedly) stated : "Since the earth seems to move in that country,
the post office shall be named Earth." (Or words to that effect.)
In
1930 Earth had a respectable population of 350 Earthlings. By 1940 it was 600
and it reached its zenith in 1980 with 1,512 residents.
The population
increase (rare in West Texas) is due to irrigation and Southwestern Public Service's
plant outside of town.
Earth Historical
Marker
Earth
by Mike Cox ("Texas Tales" column)
Earth,
Texas Area Hotels:
Plainview
Hotels |
Photographer's
Note:
These last trips to the Panhandle
have given me a whole new perspective on this part of the state. Most of the towns
were totally pleasant to visit. They each have their own personalities. - Barclay
Gibson, September 2009 |
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by
Mike
Cox ("Texas Tales" column)
...Rancher William E. Halsell
did not make the heavens above, or the fishes in the sea, but he created Earth
in 1924. He had been in the area since 1901, when he bought up a huge chunk of
the old XIT ranch for $2 an acre. In August 1924 he had a town site platted and
began selling lots.
The Halsell Land Co. built a hotel, a cotton gin
and the first house. Within a couple of years Earth could boast of a café, a service
station, a store or two and more residences. And that’s about all the solid ground
there is when it comes to the history of Earth.
Researchers have un-earthed
at least four versions of how a point in a rural High Plains county became Earth:
The first settlers wanted to call the new town Tulsa, but the U.S. Post
Office quickly took them back to Tulsa as a bad choice, since such a town already
existed in Oklahoma.
Halsell supposedly called his town Fairlawn (some
say Fairlene), but the frequent blowing dirt inspired someone to come up with
Earth.
Another tale has R.C. “Daddy” Reeves, who operated the new town’s
hotel, declaring: “We’ve got more earth here than anything else, let’s call it
Earth.”
A final version has Halsell, wanting to emphasize the fertile
soil around his town, came up with Good Earth. Washington, this tale holds, did
away with “Good” and made the place plain old Earth.
While accounts vary
as to how Earth, Texas got its worldly name, you
can take to the soil bank that Earth is the only place in the United States called
Earth. (There’s Black Earth, Wisc., Blue Earth, Minn., White Earth, Minn. and
Md., Earth City, Mo and Middle Earth, Md. but that’s as close as it gets.) Neither
does a global search reveal another Earth anywhere on Earth.
Someone
seemingly with all the time on Earth has also discovered that in addition to Earth,
the state of Texas has a small solar system of other towns named after the planets
swirling around our sun. Beyond Earth, Texas’ extraterrestrial town names include
Mercury, Mars, Saturn
and Pluto. Several states have Venus, Jupiter and Neptune as town names, though
no state has chosen to honor Uranus.
But to get back to Earth, despite
its all-encompassing name, it’s a pretty down-to-Earth community, a rural agricultural
center whose principle landmark is a shiny silver-colored water tower with the
green (as in “God’s green Earth”) letters E-A-R-T-H painted on its tank.
Speaking of paint, several of the buildings along State Highway 70, the town’s
main thoroughfare, have been enhanced by someone handy with a brush. The former
movie theater, long since closed, has been dolled up as “The Tin Star,” featuring
Anthony Perkins perpetually playing in “The Blob” with showings at 6 and 10 p.m.
daily and matinees at 2 p.m. on Saturdays.
Down the street at Main and
Cedar is the paint-enhanced office of the Earth News, an imaginary newspaper “Dedicated
to the Development of the World’s Richest Irrigation Area.” On the side of another
building, someone painted a giant green population sign reading “Earth Pop. 1019.”
That population is not big enough to support its own school, so students
go to class in nearby Springlake. Because of that, the football team is known
as the Wolverines, not Earthmen.
Small but tough, Earth endured the
Dust Bowl and the Depression but stayed in slow decline until the late 1970s.
The high point of Earth’s orbit came in 1980, when the town’s population peaked
at 1,512. But the number of those calling Earth home has dropped by nearly a third
since then.
Even the Dairy Queen stands abandoned these days.
© Mike Cox "Texas
Tales"
column |
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Earth
Historical Marker on US 70
Photo courtesy Barclay
Gibson, August 2009 |
Historical
MarkerEarthBefore
white men entered this region in late 19th century, nomadic Apache, Comanche,
and Kiowa Indians followed the buffalo
from water hole to water hole. A favorite Indian camp was at a spring (5 miles
west), near which the Springlake headquarters of the XIT
Ranch were located in the 1890s. William Electious Halsell (1850-1934) purchased
Springlake Division in 1901.
Halsell and his son, Ewing Halsell (1877-1965),
established the 300,00-acre Mashed O Ranch in 1902. When the economic base of
the High Plains began to shift from ranching
to farming, and other large ranches were being sold for the plow, the Halsells,
in 1923, offered a portion of their land for sale to new settlers. Sale of fertile
rangelands attracted many farmers from the midwest, where land prices were soaring.
The Halsell family selected this site for a new settlement in August 1924,
built a hotel, cotton gin, and school, and named it, "Fairlawn". When the post
office opened in 1925, the names "Fairlawn" and "Tulsa" were rejected, and "Earth"
chosen. Marshall Kelley was appointed first postmaster. Earth soon had several
churches and business enterprises.
Earth was incorporated in 1946, and
continues to serve an area rich in agricultural diversification.
(1973) |
Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories, and vintage/historic
photos of their town, please contact
us.
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