The J. A. Baker Store

The town Baker started grew into a farm center once irrigation spread. By the end of the 1940s irrigation had made cotton the principal crop around Lockney, and the town was also a grain-shipping point; in 1940 it had eighty-five businesses and 1,231 people. A large elementary school was built in 1964, along with a hospital, churches, a city hall and a fire station. Lockney's plants later included a birdhouse maker, farm implement and oilfield equipment companies, and the only factory for wooden sucker rods in Texas.

What the plaque says

The J. A. Baker Store Opened 1894; one of the Texas South Plains' oldest mercantile houses still owned by founding family. James Artemas Baker (1859-1917), founder of this store and town of Lockney, was born near Dallas and lived in Hamilton from 1879 to July 1890, when he moved here. Acting postmaster in 1893, and serving by appointment 1894-1901, he freighted and, with help of his wife Alice, ran this store, selling hardware, sundries, dry goods, groceries. Town also relied on Baker's store safe for banking in the early days. After frame building burned, this structure was erected 1914. (1971)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caprock Canyons State Park & Trailway — 30 mi
  Red canyons below the Caprock escarpment where the Texas State Bison Herd, descended from calves Mary Ann Goodnight saved in 1878, has right of way on the park roads.

More markers nearby

• First Methodist Church of Lockney — steps away
• John Ellison Burns — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Lockney — steps away
• Della Plain — 7.8 mi