Post Office of Loretta - Texhoma

The sparsely populated panhandle of Oklahoma, also known as No Man's Land, opened for settlement in 1889. Many towns were founded in the following years, including the town formerly known as Loretta, Oklahoma. When the railroad was built through the town, the post office moved out of the way and the town changed its name to Texhoma, referencing its location on the state Texas-Oklahoma state line.

Before No Man's Land opened for settlement, the area was mostly populated by ranchers, but some squatters had also settled in the area. In the next decade, the town had grown in response to the expansion of the Rock Island Railroad tracks from Liberal, Kansas to Santa Rosa, New Mexico. The tracks running through the area allowed businesses to grow there. On May 7, 1898, the post office of Loretta was founded, meaning the settlement had grown enough by that point to warrant one being built.

However, as other railways were built further south in order to connect Kansas and Texas, the Loretta Post office moved in 1901 in order to get out of the way. The town now known as Texhoma grew over the state line into Texas, and the railroad depot was built right on the state line so that shipping could take place on either side depending on which state would charge less.

While other people migrated away from their towns in response to the Dust Bowl in the 1930s, the people of Texhoma did not. The town continued to grow and today it has just over 900 people living there. Today the town's economy is mostly farming and ranching, and truckers often stop in the area.

O'Dell, Larry. Texhoma, The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Accessed August 24th, 2022. https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=TE026.

Post Office of Loretta, The Historical Marker Database. October 13th, 2014. Accessed August 24th, 2022. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=78864.