The First Bank in Big Lake

The Coates family settled on the west side of the lake in 1905 and the Taylors on the east, and in 1911 T. H. Taylor sold the railroad 320 acres for a townsite. A boxcar served as the depot, the Nairn family opened a grocery near the tracks and the Andersons a general store, and W. W. Coates and A. H. Garner strung a telephone line from Stiles. A school started with fifteen students. The tracks and a post office came in 1912, and by the fall of 1915 forty to fifty people lived in Big Lake.

What the plaque says

The First Bank in Big Lake On this site the first bank in Reagan County was founded, with capital stock of $15,000.00. The initial stockholders meeting was held on March 29, 1913. The title of the institution was the First State Bank of Big Lake. On the original board of directors were James Belcher, P. H. Coates, Henry Japson, C. C. Sanders, W. M. Schneemann, Jr., J. M. Shannon, and J. H. Wilson. That bank began its operations in one room of this structure now used exclusively to house the Reagan State Bank, a successor institution, which was opened for business on September 2, 1969. (1974)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Alley Oop Park and Iraan Museum — 32 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

• John H. Reagan — steps away
• Martin-Castillo Expedition — steps away
• John H. Reagan — steps away
• City of Big Lake — 1.0 mi