Ayr is a

ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...

Deaf Smith County, Texas Deaf Smith County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 18,583. The county seat is Hereford, which is known as the "Beef Capital of the World". The county was created in 1876 and later organi ...

, United States. It was established in the spring of 1890 as an intended spur of the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway to create a shipping point for

Roswell, New Mexico Roswell () is a city in, and the County seat, seat of, Chaves County, New Mexico, Chaves County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Chaves County forms the entirety of the List of micropolitan areas in New Mexico, Roswell micropolitan area. As of ...

, ranches. It was named for the Scottish town of

Ayr Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire council area and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With a population ...

. Settlers began arriving quickly that spring, and a store and post office were established. As was common at the time, a battle to obtain county seat status ensued between Ayr and another town named Grenada (later renamed

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. According to the , it has a population of 654,324 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 787,294 inhabitants. It is located 9 kilometers (6 miles) inland from th ...

), which had been established by the

XIT Ranch The XIT Ranch was a cattle ranch in the Texas Panhandle which operated from 1885 to 1912. Comprising over 3,000,000 acres (12,000 km²) of land, it ran for 200 miles (300 km) along the border with New Mexico, varying in width from 20 to ...

. In a contested election, La Plata won the election by a wide margin, and as a result, the rail spur was never built. The town site was abandoned by 1895.

References

Deaf Smith County, Texas Ghost towns in Texas {{DeafSmithCountyTX-geo-stub