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| | Plains
welcome sign
Photo courtesy Ken
Rudine, August 2005 |
History in a Pecan
Shell
Originally settled by a family named Miller, it wasn't until
1905 when W. J. Luna moved his family to what is now Plains.
Mr. Luna
was the founder of the town and took responsibility for naming it. He donated
land for both the Yoakum County Cemetery and the Plains City Cemetery. Mary Luna,
W.J.'s wife was the first interment. In 1906 Luna established a store and applied
for a post office which was soon granted.
With the organization of Yoakum
County in 1907, Plains was the overwhelming choice for county seat. |
A newspaper with the
no-nonsense name of Yoakum County News appeared in 1910 and twenty one
years later a second newspaper arrived. Mrs. Dovie Moreland was the editor publisher
of the Yoakum County Review. The paper later merged with the Plains
Record in the early 1960s.
Mrs. Marion McGinty and other bibliophiles
collected a mobile "bookshelf" for the citizens - moving the location to various
homes to insure circulation. The was the germ that evolved into a county library
system.
Although the Sulphur Springs are now pumped dry, the creek which
they fed has been turned into a public park.
Without a railroad,
Plains was operating at a disadvantage, but when oil was discovered in the mid
930s, it insured the town's survival.
From a meager population of 150
in the late 1930s, Plains tripled its population in less than ten years. By 1980
it was around 1,500 - a figure that the town seems comfortable with.
A
historical oddity in town is a 1903 "bonus shack" now operating as a museum. Early
settlers used similar buildings to establish their claim to the land. |
| | Plains
High School
Photo courtesy Ken
Rudine, August 2005 |
| | Watermelon
Round-Up - Labor Day celebration, all the free melon you can eat.
Photo
courtesy Ken
Rudine, August 2005 |
| | Plains'
old water tower
Photo courtesy Ken
Rudine, August 2005 | |
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