Rankin

Rankin owes its place to a railroad's choice. The Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway was routed south instead of along Centralia Draw, the old Butterfield route to the north, and missed Upland, the first county seat. Rankin, founded in 1911, got a post office in 1912, and most of Upland's homes and businesses moved to it. After 1913 its school system served the whole county. Rankin counted 1,121 residents in 1970 and 1,278 in 1980, with pecan orchards and irrigated farms around it, though oil, sheep and cattle remained the economy's base.

What the plaque says

Rankin Made Upton County Seat in 1921. Named for F. E. Rankin, who gave site for railway station-- the center of community life over and above its business dealings; was scene of cowboy dances on Saturday nights, church services on Sundays. Home of Rankin Museum and of world champion rodeo stars Toots Mansfield and Allen Holder. Erected by Upton County Historical Survey Committee. (1964)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Rankin Museum (Yates Hotel) — 5.8 mi
  The fireproof hotel Ira Yates built beside the Orient railway depot months after oil came in on his ranch in 1926, kept as it was down to the wicker lobby furniture.
• Alley Oop Park and Iraan Museum — 22 mi
  An oil-boom town named for Ira and Ann Yates, where the creator of the caveman comic Alley Oop once worked, and a park of giant cartoon figures beside the town museum.
• Mendoza Trail Museum — 23 mi
  A 1966 museum in a 1925 oil town, named for the Spanish officer who crossed this country in 1683 at the invitation of the Jumano, with a 1915 bungalow beside it.

More markers nearby

• Rankin Cemetery — 5.0 mi
• John C. Upton and His Brother, W. F. Upton — 5.6 mi
• Upland First Upton County Seat — 5.6 mi
• First State Bank of Rankin — 5.7 mi