Photos by Becky Hudgins

History of Iatan: By Jim Baum, April 1, 1993.
IATAN - Once called " 'Satan's Flat' because of the hot summer days, and low flat land," never grew to more than 300 people. But the town was a shipping point for cattle in 1881, and had four stops on the Texas and Pacific Railroad. When the town submitted an application for a post office, the clerk misread the name Satan, or for what ever reason listed the town as "Iatan." The low flat area the residents had settled in turned into a lake of mud whenever it rained, and for this reason, the town was moved several times, once two miles west upon a hillside, and then back down on the flat again. In 1891 there was a building that served as a one-room school-house, and as a Methodist Church. When motorized vehicles came into existence at Iatan, and the rain would commence, motorists would get stuck, and only a team of mules could be used to drag them out of it. Odis Wise used to make extra money that way. "When it rained, I'd ride a mule and lead a couple of others and get over there with my log chains, roll up my britches legs and get with it." Later the town would grow to include a filling station, post office, grocery store, café and depot. Most of the residents built there homes north of the railroad tracks, and all of the streets were dirt, even the highway back then. Eventually Interstate 20 would replace the old highway. Wise once said that he used to trap prairie dogs for Mr. Dupree's store to sell to tourists, and rattlesnakes were kept in "tin tanks for them to look at." In 1909, a developer named I. E. Lasseter began a new town site two miles east of Iatan, and called it "New Iatan." For several days, lots were sold and given away through various enticements. Lasseter advertised that "New Iatan was in the heart of the red prairie lands of West Texas and no better land can be found anywhere in the state." Red soil or not, Iatan never really made it, and in 1924 when the Postmaster John Hence died, the post office was closed and the town began to die. Oil booms would give the small town hope, but were never enough to sustain the towns growth. In 1938 the town was forced to consolidate it's school with Westbrook, and by 1942, the town was officially dead. Two miles north of "New Iatan", the town's cemetery remains. The only remaining remnant of Iatan.

Location: Highway 29 East to RR 2241, then turn left on Highway 29. Go through Lone Grove Community.

Transcriptions by Pat Hudgins & Pearl Smith