Site of First Church in Upton County

The congregation's first town did not last long. Upland's post office opened in 1907, with Edward B. Coatwright as postmaster, and Henry M. Halff platted the townsite about 1908, building a hotel and a general store and selling lots to encourage settlers. Upland was proclaimed the county seat on May 7, 1910, and W. D. Riser began the county's first newspaper, the Upland Roundup, that year. Drought, poor soil and scarce water hurt the town, and when the Orient Railroad built to the south many residents left. Its post office closed in 1918.

What the plaque says

Site of First Church in Upton County After pioneers of Upland (12 miles N.) resettled here in 1912 on Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railway, they held religious services in the railroad depot, then acquired a non-denominational church site on this corner. Ira G. Yates, later an oil baron, headed building fund donors' list. George E. Blanton, a Baptist; Dr. J. H. Johnson, Church of Christ; and H. H. Russell, Methodist, were trustees. The "Rankin Union Church" building, finished in 1915, housed local school two years. It was county's only church until the late 1920s. This site was sold to the Methodists in 1939. (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Rankin Museum (Yates Hotel) — 0.3 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.
• Mendoza Trail Museum — 17 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.
• Alley Oop Park and Iraan Museum — 21 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.

More markers nearby

• First State Bank of Rankin — 0.3 mi
• Upland First Upton County Seat — 0.4 mi
• John C. Upton and His Brother, W. F. Upton — 0.4 mi
• Rankin Cemetery — 1.2 mi