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BOOKER, TEXAS
Formerly known
as La Kemp, Oklahoma
Lipscomb
& Ochiltree
County, Texas
Panhandle
36° 27' 12" N, 100° 32' 15" W (36.453333, -100.5375)
State highways 15 and 23
3 mile S of the Oklahoma State Line
NW of Lipscomb the county seat
16 Miles E of Perryton
15 Miles W of Darrouzett
ZIP code 79005
Area code 806
Population: 1,494 Est. (2019)
1,516 (2010) 1,315 (2000) 1,236 (1990)
Booker, Texas Area Hotels › Perryton
Hotels |
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History in
a Pecan Shell
Borders don't mean
much to Booker. Having crossed a state line - Booker's population
is now flowing over the Lipscomb county line into Ochiltree
County.
La Kemp was formed about the time of Oklahoma statehood - 1909. Ten
years later when the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway built from Shattuck,
Oklahoma, to Spearman,
Texas - the entire town moved seven miles across the state line.
Few people outside of the counties involved noticed. One has to assume
that the post office people in Washington had to be let in on this
move.
The town was platted shortly before the move in 1917 by Thomas C.
Spearman who had Spearman,
Texas named after him. The town was named for railroad engineer
B. F. Booker. Booker was a civil engineer - not the man who drove
the train.
An early aerial view of the town shows a simple heart shape - the
main road running down through the center of town and then splitting
at the top with both roads curving back to the bottom.
The population was 600 in 1920 and the town's infrastructure was finished
just before the Great Depression. 386 people called Booker home in
1940.
In 1949 oil exploration helped boost the economy to 1,500 - and oil
and gas has helped keep the population at about that level. |
Heart Cemetery
"My family
has lived in the area around Booker since the early 1900s. I am actually
the fourth generation to graduated from Booker High School. Booker
has always been in the shape of a square while the cemetery has been
in the shape of a heart and is named Heart Cemetery. The cemetery
was recently put on the historical registry of Texas." - Vanessa
Harper, Booker, Texas, February 11, 2008 |
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...Texas’ northern-most
community, Booker lies only three miles south of the Texas-Oklahoma
border at the top of the Panhandle,
but that’s seven miles farther south than it used to be when it
was in Beaver County, Oklahoma. The change of address had nothing
to do with its residents wanting to be Texans, however. They just
wanted to live somewhere with a more promising future, no matter
the location of their capital. And back then, a town’s prosperity
had a lot to do with whether it enjoyed railroad service.... more
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| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and recent or vintage photos, please contact
us. |
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