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Texas became the 28th state on December 29, 1845
 
Capital - Austin
Motto - Friendship
Nickname - Lone Star
State Song - Texas, Our Texas
Flower - Bluebonnet
Tree- Pecan
Bird - Mockingbird
 


In memory of
Malcom Luther "Mike" Basham 
First TXGenWeb State Coordinator
25 May 1942
to
15 September 1997


Adjacent Counties
  Cochran County, TX - N
  Hockley County, TX - NE
  Terry County, TX - E
  Gaines County, TX - S
  Lea County, NM - W

TXGenWeb County Listings







COM
Feb 2007




 

Plains, TX

USGenWeb >> TXGenWeb  >> Yoakum County  >> Towns & Communities >> Plains, Texas

Yoakum County Plains.svg
Latitude 33°11'25"N
33.19028°N
Longitude 102°49'39"W
102.82750°W
Elevation
feet/meters
3638/1109
Zip Code 79355
Founded 1907
GNIS FID 2413140
TXGenWeb Site
 
Cemeteries
Library
Local Genealogy Society
Wikipedia
Plains Independent School District
Texas Escapes
 
US 82 / 380 and State Hwy 214
36 miles N of Seminole
99 miles N of Odessa
32 miles W of Brownfield
71 miles SW of Lubbock
13 miles E of the New Mexico State Line
 
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.

Historical population
Census Pop.
1960 1,195
1970 1,087 −9.0%
1980 1,457 34.0%
1990 1,422 −2.4%
2000 1,450 2.0%
2010 1,481 2.1%

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.


The Yoakum County Courthouse, located in Plains.Plains, the county seat of Yoakum County, is on U.S. Highway 82 thirteen miles east of the New Mexico border and fifty-nine miles southwest of Lubbock in the central part of the county. The area was first settled by a family named Miller, who claimed land as a homestead in the late 1800s. In 1905 the W. J. Luna family moved to Sulphur Draw which extends through the site of Plains. Luna founded and named the town and donated a lot in the townsite to each voter. He also donated land for the Yoakum County Cemetery and the Plains Cemetery, in which his wife, Mary, was the first person to be buried. Luna established a store and in 1906 a post office, to which mail was routed through Gomez.

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