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ALLAMOORE,
TEXAS
Hudspeth County, West Texas
I-10 / Hwy 80
11 miles West of Van Horn
22 miles SE of Sierra Blanca
at the foot of the Carrizo Mountains
Population: extremely scattered
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| | Cactus
and former church in Allamoore
Photo Courtesy Jason Penney |
History
in a Pecan shell
Allamoore in 1884 was named Acme (not to be confused
with the ghost town in Hardeman County).
The post office under that name
closed in 1886.
No one knows for sure how the town got its name, but
it may have had something to do with the first postmistress - Alla R. Moore who
reopened the post office in 1888. By 1900, 200 people were coming into Allamoore
to pick up their mail - from Alla Moore.
Plato and H. C. Clifford, owned
and managed the Hazel Mining Company, across the county line in Culberson County.
At one time the Hazel Mines were the most productive silver and copper mines in
Texas.
The post office closed again in 1895, but after another two years
of no mail, they opened another post office, retaining the name Alla Moore.
Only ten people occupied the town in 1914 and in the mid-1920s it had swollen
to 25.
Fifty more people squeezed into town just in time for the Great
Depression - making Allamoore a metropolis of 75. Within five years fifty people
left Allamoore, but it can't be said for certain they were the same 50 late arrivals.
Five miles east of town Gifford-Hill and Company operated a business
in the late 30s. They owned a lot of crushing equipment and in searching around
the area for something in abundance that could be crushed - they wisely decided
on rock. Detailed maps of the area still show the word "crusher"and a crossed
pick and shovel.
The population never broke 100 and from the mid-1940s
to the mid-1960s it remained fairly constant at 75.
According to local
folklore - a rancher once paid a teacher to occupy the otherwise empty school
"just in case a student happened to walk in."
Two companies producing
Talc opened -one in 1960 and one in 1971. The second one closed within a few years
and the Gifford-Hill rock-crushing business closed in the early 1980s. |
| | The
Allamoore school and swing
Photo Courtesy Jason Penney |
In 1988 the Allamoore
school had only eight children enrolled for it's 2,100 square mile district -
making it the smallest enrollment in the entire state.
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Allamoore,
Texas Forum
If anyone would like to submit a story, photo, anecdote, myth, legend, satellite
photograph, fact, theory or outright lie about Allamoore, Texas, please contact
us.
© John Troesser |
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