DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the ghost towns of Deaf Smith County. Now, most places, you measure a county's history by what's still standing. In Deaf Smith County, you might do better measuring it by what isn't.
Because out here, the ghost towns and the ghost post offices — the ones that existed only long enough to get a name and then quietly vanished — they outnumber the living ones. Let that sink in for a moment while the prairie wind blows past. The biggest ghost of them all is La Plata.
Before it was La Plata, it went by Grenada. And under either name, it was the real deal — county seat, major stop on the New Mexico-to-Amarillo Road, a genuine hub of life out on the High Plains through the eighteen-eighties and nineties. Twenty-eight houses and businesses.
People coming and going. The kind of place that felt permanent. And then, in 1898, the county government packed up and moved to Hereford.
And when the government went, so did those twenty-eight houses and businesses — physically removed, hauled away to Hereford along with everything else. La Plata didn't fade. It was dismantled.
Before La Plata rose to prominence, there was Ayr. Ayr had its own shot at glory — it held the county seat before La Plata took it away in 1890. Had a post office, had a few frame buildings.
Then it lost the seat and, well, frame buildings without a reason to stand tend not to stand for long. And then there are the post offices that existed almost as if someone weren't entirely sure they should. Escarbada, out on the XIT Ranch, opened in 1889.
Mirage — and yes, that name should give you pause — probably sat out on the LS Ranch, operating from 1891 to 1894. Dean ran from 1892 to 1899. Kelso made it all the way to 1907 before disappearing by 1908.
Mirage. Gone. Dean.
Gone. Kelso. Gone.
La Plata. Gone. In Deaf Smith County, the ghosts don't just haunt the land — they outnumber the living.
And that right there tells you something about what it took just to try.
What the marker says
Here as in many Texas counties, ghost towns and ghost post offices outnumber living ones. La Plata (formerly Grenada) thrived as county seat and was a major stop on New Mexico-Amarillo Road, 1880s and 90s. Its 28 houses and businesses were removed to Hereford with the county government in 1898. Ayr, which lost county seat to La Plata, 1890, had an early post office and a few frame buildings. Other nonexistent post offices include Escarbada (on XIT Ranch), 1889; Dean, 1892-99; Mirage (probably on LS Ranch), 1891-94; Kelso, 1907-1908. (1969)