Ghost Towns of Deaf Smith County

The two rivals were born the same year. Ayr began in January 1890 as a camp of railway surveyors, named for the Scottish city, and settlers filed on land there by spring. Grenada, the XIT's town, soon renamed La Plata, won the county-seat vote on October 3, 1890, by ninety-seven to seven, despite rumors that XIT cowboys voted twice, and the rail spur meant for Ayr was never built. In 1899 voters chose Blue Water, now Hereford, and nine houses, the courthouse and the jail went there on wagons. La Plata's portable jail survives at the museum.

What the plaque says

Ghost Towns of Deaf Smith County Here as in many Texas counties, ghost towns and ghost post offices outnumber living ones. La Plata (formerly Grenada) thrived as county seat and was a major stop on New Mexico-Amarillo Road, 1880s and 90s. Its 28 houses and businesses were removed to Hereford with the county government in 1898. Ayr, which lost county seat to La Plata, 1890, had an early post office and a few frame buildings. Other nonexistent post offices include Escarbada (on XIT Ranch), 1889; Dean, 1892-99; Mirage (probably on LS Ranch), 1891-94; Kelso, 1907-1908. (1969)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Deaf Smith County Historical Museum — steps away
  Hereford's county museum in an early Catholic school: the Windmill City's pioneers, a half-dugout and caboose outside, and work by the Italian prisoners held south of town in the war.
• Buffalo Lake National Wildlife Refuge — 18 mi
  A 1938 Depression-era lake on Tierra Blanca Creek that has gone dry, now 7,664 acres of shortgrass, cottonwood canyon and a prairie dog town on the High Plains south of Umbarger.

More markers nearby

• Two-Wheel Fire Hose Reel — steps away
• Former Site of Saint Anthony's Catholic School — steps away
• Deaf Smith County — steps away
• Pioneer Windmill — 0.3 mi