Dry-Land Farming
Post, Garza County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This low rainfall area, limited usually to grazing, was colonized in 1907 by C. W. Post, creator of Post Foods and a philanthropist. By introducing new agricultural techniques, he was able to make farming profitable for colonists. Cotton, milo maize, Indian corn, and oats were grown here. Post also experimented with several types of fruits and vegetables. Men of small means could buy farms on easy terms from Post. He provided good houses, fences, windmills, and electricity. Also built Post Textile Mill to provide supplemental work and income for the colonists. 1967
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1907, cereal magnate C. W. Post—the mind behind Post Foods—launched an ambitious colony on the dry, low-rainfall plains of Garza County that most people thought fit only for grazing. Applying new agricultural methods, he made cotton, milo maize, corn, and oats profitable, and experimented with fruits and vegetables besides. Post sold farms to men of modest means on easy terms, outfitting them with houses, fences, windmills, and electricity, and even built a textile mill so colonists could earn supplemental wages.
Why it matters
Post's engineered farm colony captures the Progressive-era faith that science, capital, and paternalistic planning could make the American West bloom where nature seemed to forbid it.
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Related people
- · C. W. Post
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Llano Ranch
Post, TX
Established in 1880 and spanning 192 sections, the Llano Ranch was known as the "Curry Comb" for its cattle brand. Its first shelter was a half-dugout roofed with buffalo hides, replaced in 1883 by a two-story frame house that became the center of local social life. A baby girl born here in 1884 marked the first recorded birth in Garza County, and her nearby grave the first recorded death.
C. W. Post Home
Post, TX
Cereal-foods millionaire C. W. Post built this home in 1912 in the very town he founded, planting a colony on the West Texas plains that he stocked with settlers by selling land on generous terms and seeding new industries. True to his slogan "I Want Quality," he fitted the house with solid oak doors, redwood floors, and leather wallpaper. Post was as much a town-builder as a breakfast magnate, promoting agriculture and settlement across the region.
Old Post Sanitarium
Post, TX
Built in 1912 by the Double U Company of cereal magnate C. W. Post, this was the first hospital in its corner of West Texas and boasted remarkably modern facilities for its time — an X-ray laboratory, private rooms with steam heat, a diet kitchen, and nurses' training. It rose in the planned town Post created out of the ranchlands he bought on the plains. Its arrival brought medicine and modern comfort to a still-raw frontier region.
Charles W. Post
Post, TX
Charles W. Post (1854-1914), the internationally known creator of Post Cereals and an advertising genius, turned his fortune to town-building in 1906. Buying the Curry Comb Ranch and adjoining land — some 225,000 acres — he laid out Post City as a self-contained model community of towns and farms. He financed and supervised the work without profit, offering settlers homes and businesses far below cost in pursuit of his vision of debt-free private ownership.