Site of Virginia City
Maple, Bailey County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Part of a land promotion scheme begun 1908. Advertised as future metropolis by shrewd dealers, who implied that good rains and bumper crops were typical of region. Naive buyers were treated to tours through town, where they saw shops, a lot reserved for the courthouse, and a roadbed for the railroad. Town was named for wife of an early county landowner. Although a local cowboy had remarked that Virginia City's biggest crop was "suckers", many people bought land, only to face a ruinous drouth, 1909-1912. Most soon moved, leaving site vacant. (1969)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1908, promoters carved the paper town of Virginia City out of the Texas High Plains and sold it as a coming metropolis, luring buyers with staged tours past shops, a courthouse lot, and a graded railroad bed. Named for the wife of an early landowner, the scheme collapsed when the promised rains never came and a ruinous drought settled over the region from 1909 to 1912. A local cowboy had already quipped that the town's biggest crop was 'suckers,' and within a few years the disappointed settlers moved on, leaving nothing but empty ground.
Why it matters
Virginia City is a candid monument to the land-boom boosterism that filled the West with speculative townsites, most of which withered as fast as they rose.
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Related events
- · Texas Panhandle land promotion boom
- · Drought of 1909-1912
Themes & tags
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