Old Pakan School

The Slovak families arrived as Wheeler County was turning from ranches to farms. A rush for school lands began in 1898 and 1899, and in 1902 the Rock Island built across the county from Oklahoma toward Amarillo. The Handbook of Texas says Sam Pakan came from Illinois in 1904 and brought in thirteen more Slovak families that year. The county counted 119 farms and ranches in 1900 and 736 in 1910, when more than 43,000 acres were in corn and 4,000 in cotton, and its population rose from 636 to 5,258 over the decade.

What the plaque says

Old Pakan School Named for Sam Pakan, Sr., (1875-1929), Slovak emigrant. Success in Chicago enabled him to buy land here, 1904. Ten other Slovak families joined him and pooled funds to build first school, 1907. Some old settlers remaining include Linkeys, Mertels, Pakans, Macinas, Hrnciars, Smiths and Cadras. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Devil's Rope and Old Route 66 Museum — 10 mi
  Barbed wire and the Texas road in McLean's old brassiere factory: the fence that closed the open range, from the salesmen who sold it to the Panhandle ranches it divided.
• Phillips 66 Station, McLean — 10 mi
  A 1929 cottage-style Phillips 66 station on First Street in McLean, the town I-40 went around last and whose Route 66 business district stayed much as it was.
• Tower Station and U-Drop Inn — 11 mi
  Shamrock's 1936 Conoco station and cafe at the corner of Route 66 and US-83, sketched in the dirt with a nail, named by a schoolboy and saved by the town.
• Old Mobeetie Jail Museum — 16 mi
  The 1886 stone jail of the Panhandle's first county seat, the buffalo hunters' Hidetown on Sweetwater Creek that ran the courts for fifteen counties before losing its fort, railroad hopes and county seat.

More markers nearby

• Lela School — 6.2 mi
• McLean Methodist Church — 10 mi
• First Baptist Church of Shamrock — 11 mi
• Shamrock Methodist Church — 11 mi