Odessa Land & Townsite Company

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Back in 1886, the Texas and Pacific Railroad had land to move. Six hundred and forty acres of it, right here, transferred over to a man named John Hoge out of Zanesville, Ohio.

Now, John Hoge did not sit on that land. He formed the Odessa Land and Townsite Company, and he had one mission: sell town lots. Prime house lots went for a hundred and fifty dollars.

Business lots, a touch more prestigious, ran you two hundred. But here's where the story gets its real flavor. Hoge and his company weren't just waiting for buyers to wander in off the plains.

No, they went after them. Literature went out to the eastern states, and that literature painted quite a picture. Rich soil.

Pure water. A healthful climate. If you read those pamphlets back East, you might have thought West Texas was something close to paradise.

And to sweeten the deal, they arranged railroad-sponsored excursion trains, with free sleeping cars, running prospective buyers out here from 1886 all the way through 1889. Free sleeping cars. They wanted you comfortable enough to say yes before you stepped off the train.

Right here on this very site stood a small frame building that served as the land office for all of it. That little building wore a few hats over the years, later doing duty as a school and as a church, before it was finally razed in 1911. One modest frame building, the seed of a town, turned to rubble a quarter century after it all began.

That's the thing about origins. They rarely look like much at the time.

What the marker says

The Texas & Pacific Railroad transferred 640 acres of its land grants here in 1886 to John Hoge of Zanesville, Ohio. He formed the Odessa land & townsite company to promote sale of town lots. Prime house lots sold for $150 and business lots for $200. Literature was distributed in eastern states citing rich soil, pure water, healthful climate, and railroad sponsored excursion trains with free sleeping cars for prospective Byers form 1886 to 1889. A small frame building on this site, razed in 1911, served as the land office, and later as a school and church.