Tahoka
Tahoka, Lynn County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In Dec. 1902, over 100 people met around a bonfire in a ravine to the southwest of Tahoka Lake and voted to petition for county organization and to select a townsite for a county seat to be named "Tahoka," an Indian word meaning "fresh water," Early in 1903, B. G. Sweet, Jack Alley, and W. T. "Bill" Petty organized the Tahoka Townsite Company. Sweet surveyed and platted the town, and he and L. E. King established the first mercantile store opposite the southwest corner of the public square. County elections were held on April 7, 1903, and the Tahoka Post Office opened on April 30, with Fannie N. Henderson as postmaster. Tahoka soon boasted a 2-story frame courthouse, school, two churches, a hotel, and several businesses, including a newspaper, "The Lynn County News," first published on Oct. 9, 1903, by Otis and Inez Lilly. In 1906, a bank and a cotton gin were built. The Santa Fe Railroad was extended from Slaton to Tahoka in 1910, and for several years Tahoka was one of the largest cattle shipping points in the nation. The community was incorporated on June 13, 1915, and J. E. Stokes elected mayor. Tahoka serves as a trade center for Lynn County farmers and ranchers. (1974)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In December 1902, more than a hundred settlers gathered around a bonfire in a ravine near Tahoka Lake and voted to organize a county and lay out a seat, borrowing an Indian word said to mean fresh water. A townsite company surveyed and platted the town in 1903, and stores, churches, a courthouse, a newspaper, and a post office followed in quick order. The Santa Fe line reached Tahoka in 1910, and for years it ranked among the nation's busiest cattle-shipping points.
Why it matters
Tahoka captures the sheer speed of West Texas town-building, where a bonfire meeting could become an incorporated county seat within a single decade.
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Related people
- · B. G. Sweet
- · Fannie N. Henderson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Lynn County
Tahoka, TX
Lynn County honors G. W. Lynn, remembered among the defenders who fell at the Alamo, but its ground tells a longer story of the South Plains. Its lakes and springs watered Indian, Spanish, army, and cattle trails; it saw the last great buffalo hunts and the U.S. Cavalry's 1874–77 campaign against the Comanches, with the final skirmish at Double Lakes in 1879. Open-range ranchers arrived in the 1880s, the county organized at Tahoka in 1903, the Santa Fe Railroad reached it in 1910, and it grew into one of the nation's leading cotton counties.
Spanish Explorers' Route
Wilson, TX
This ancient road across the Llano Estacado was first traced by Native peoples and later followed by Spaniards, U.S. Army units, and cattle drovers, running from Gholson Spring past Tahoka Lake toward Big Spring and the North Concho. In the 17th century it carried Spanish visitors including Father Salas, who came from New Mexico in 1629 at the pleas of the Jumano Indians, and treasure- and pearl-seeking expeditions in 1650 and 1654. The trail knit together centuries of movement across the high plains.
O'Donnell
O'Donnell, TX
Named for railroad promoter Tom J. O'Donnell, this Lynn County town sprang up in 1909 when the Santa Fe pushed a new line across the South Plains from Slaton toward Lamesa. Founders built a hotel and store, celebrated the first train with a Fourth of July picnic in 1910, and drew churches with free lots before incorporating in 1923. By the mid-20th century O'Donnell had become a dryland cotton center boasting what was briefly the world's largest gin—and the hometown of actor Dan Blocker.
Slaton
Slaton, TX
Slaton owes its very existence to the Santa Fe Railroad. When the Pecos and Northern Texas branch reached the South Plains in 1911, banker O. L. Slaton — who had helped secure the right-of-way — lent his name to the brand-new townsite, which opened for business only a month after its first lots sold. As a railroad division point complete with a Harvey House, roundhouse, and machine shops, Slaton boomed almost overnight into a farming and ranching hub.