Earth, Texas. (original) (raw)

by Mike Cox

Why on Earth would someone name a town Earth?

Just imagine the communication inconveniences plaguing those living in the Lamb County community of Earth:

�Where�re you from?�

�I�m from Earth.�

�Har, har! Me, too. Where are you really from?�

When you live in this High Plains town 70 miles northwest of Lubbock, every time you say goodbye to a visitor, you have to guard against a polite, �I�ll look forward to seeing you the next time you come to Earth.�

Or say you moved to Austin to attend the University of Texas, but occasionally like to go home to see family and friends.

�I�m going back to Earth for the holidays.�

Even if you stayed behind, when you�re ready to go someplace else, telling your friends, �I�m leaving Earth for a few days� could net a few snickers.

Obviously, simply asking someone if they have ever visited Earth can cause misunderstanding.

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 caf�, 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"

April 10, 2008 column

| Related Stories: Texas| Online Magazine | Texas Towns | Features | ColumnsAnnouncement Mike Cox's "The Texas Rangers: Wearing the Cinco Peso, 1821-1900," the first of a two-volume, 250,000-word definitive history of the Rangers, was released by Forge Books in New York on March 18, 2008 Kirkus Review, the American Library Association's Book List and the San Antonio Express-News have all written rave reviews about this book, the first mainstream, popular history of the Rangers since 1935. | | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |

| Books by Mike Cox - Order Here | | | | ---------------------------------- | | | | | | | | | | | |