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History
in a Pecan Shell
Earth had no 19th Century history. It began in 1924
and was originally called Fairlawn or Fairleen.
The source
of its unusual name is unclear and three stories are given:
1. When the first
postmaster was filling out the application for a name, a sandstorm blew in.
2. The town founder had wanted to call it Good Earth which was shortened by post
office bureaucrats and
3. The postmaster described the storm on his applications
and the reply from Washington (supposedly) stated : "Since the earth seems to
move in that country, the post office shall be named Earth." (Or words to that
effect.)
In 1930 Earth had a respectable population of 350 Earthlings.
By 1940 it was 600 and it reached its zenith in 1980 with 1,512 residents.
The population increase (rare in West Texas) is due to irrigation and Southwestern
Public Service's plant outside of town.
Earth
Historical Marker
Earth
by Mike Cox ("Texas Tales" column) |
Photographer's
Note:
These last
trips to the Panhandle have given me a whole new perspective on this part of the
state. Most of the towns were totally pleasant to visit. They each have their
own personalities. - Barclay
Gibson, September 2009 |
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Earth
by Mike
Cox ("Texas Tales" column)
...Rancher William
E. Halsell did not make the heavens above, or the fishes in the sea, but he created
Earth in 1924. He had been in the area since 1901, when he bought up a huge chunk
of the old XIT ranch for $2 an acre. In August 1924 he had a town site platted
and began selling lots.
The Halsell Land Co. built a hotel, a cotton
gin and the first house. Within a couple of years Earth could boast of a café,
a service station, a store or two and more residences. And that’s about all the
solid ground there is when it comes to the history of Earth.
Researchers
have un-earthed at least four versions of how a point in a rural High Plains county
became Earth:
The first settlers wanted to call the new town Tulsa,
but the U.S. Post Office quickly took them back to Tulsa as a bad choice, since
such a town already existed in Oklahoma.
Halsell supposedly called his
town Fairlawn (some say Fairlene), but the frequent blowing dirt inspired someone
to come up with Earth.
Another tale has R.C. “Daddy” Reeves, who operated
the new town’s hotel, declaring: “We’ve got more earth here than anything else,
let’s call it Earth.”
A final version has Halsell, wanting to emphasize
the fertile soil around his town, came up with Good Earth. Washington, this tale
holds, did away with “Good” and made the place plain old Earth.
While
accounts vary as to how Earth, Texas got its worldly
name, you can take to the soil bank that Earth is the only place in the United
States called Earth. (There’s Black Earth, Wisc., Blue Earth, Minn., White Earth,
Minn. and Md., Earth City, Mo and Middle Earth, Md. but that’s as close as it
gets.) Neither does a global search reveal another Earth anywhere on Earth.
Someone seemingly with all the time on Earth has also discovered that in
addition to Earth, the state of Texas has a small solar system of other towns
named after the planets swirling around our sun. Beyond Earth, Texas’ extraterrestrial
town names include Mercury,
Mars, Saturn and Pluto. Several states have Venus, Jupiter and Neptune as town
names, though no state has chosen to honor Uranus.
But to get back to
Earth, despite its all-encompassing name, it’s a pretty down-to-Earth community,
a rural agricultural center whose principle landmark is a shiny silver-colored
water tower with the green (as in “God’s green Earth”) letters E-A-R-T-H painted
on its tank.
Speaking of paint, several of the buildings along State
Highway 70, the town’s main thoroughfare, have been enhanced by someone handy
with a brush. The former movie theater, long since closed, has been dolled up
as “The Tin Star,” featuring Anthony Perkins perpetually playing in “The Blob”
with showings at 6 and 10 p.m. daily and matinees at 2 p.m. on Saturdays.
Down the street at Main and Cedar is the paint-enhanced office of the Earth
News, an imaginary newspaper “Dedicated to the Development of the World’s Richest
Irrigation Area.” On the side of another building, someone painted a giant green
population sign reading “Earth Pop. 1019.”
That population is not big
enough to support its own school, so students go to class in nearby Springlake.
Because of that, the football team is known as the Wolverines, not Earthmen.
Small but tough, Earth endured the Dust Bowl and the Depression but stayed
in slow decline until the late 1970s. The high point of Earth’s orbit came in
1980, when the town’s population peaked at 1,512. But the number of those calling
Earth home has dropped by nearly a third since then.
Even the Dairy Queen
stands abandoned these days.
© Mike Cox
"Texas
Tales"
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