Texon, Texas

Texon is a small unincorporated town in Reagan County, Texas, United States, in the western part of the state. The town is noted for its boom as an oil town and subsequent near abandonment.

Population and location

The population in 1996 was estimated at less than 10. At its peak in 1933, the town had approximately 1,200 inhabitants. cite web
url=http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/TT/hnt15.html
title=Handbook of Texas Online - TEXON, TX
author=Jane Spraggins Wilson
publisher=Texas State Historical Association
accessdaymonth=22 January
accessyear=2008] The town is located in Reagan County. It is 3 /10 mile (0.5 km) south of Highway 67 on FM 1657 (farm to market road).cite web
url=http://www.texasescapes.com/TOWNS/Texas_ghost_towns/Texon_Texas/Texon_Texas.htm
title=Texon, a West Texas Ghost Town.
author=John Troesser
accessdaymonth=22 January
accessyear=2008
publisher=Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC] It is 85 miles west of San Angelo, Texas.

History

The town originates from May 23, 1923 when oil was discovered.cite web
url=http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/tx/texon.html
title=Texon - Texas Ghost Town
accessmonthday=January 22
accessyear=2008
author=Henry Chenoweth
publisher=Atjeu LLC] The town was named the Texon Oil and Land Company, which drilled the first successful oil well. Texon’s leases were subsequently purchased by M. L. Benedum and Joe Trees of Pittsburgh, who formed the Big Lake Oil Company.

Texon was considered a model oil community. A grade school, a church, a hospital, a theater, a golf course, tennis courts, and a swimming pool were built by the Big Lake Oil Company. The Texon Oilers, a semiprofessional baseball team was started. Privately owned businesses began including a drug store, a cafe, a boarding house, a tailor-shop, dry-goods and grocery stores, barber and beauty shops, a service station, a dairy, an ice house, and a bowling alley.

Ownership passed on to successive oil companies including Plymouth Oil Company (in 1956) and Ohio Oil (now Marathon Oil) in 1962 which chose not to maintain the town, which had, at that time 100 residents. In 1986, the post office was closed.

Limited redevelopment

There are historical markers in the town. There are new reflective type street signs and new mailboxes. There is also some activity in some of the oil wells.

References