Dawn is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in eastern

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 lies along FM 809 northeast of the city of

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

of Deaf Smith County. Its elevation is 3,802 feet (1,159 m). Although Dawn is unincorporated, it has a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

, with the ZIP code of 79025; the

ZCTA ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) are statistical entities developed by the United States Census Bureau for tabulating summary statistics. These were introduced with the Census 2000 and continued with the 2010 Census and 5 year American Community ...

for ZIP Code 79025 had a population of 138 at the 2000 census. Dawn was founded by local rancher Jim Moore in 1887; it was named by a shopkeeper who bought the land two years later, but the reason for calling it "Dawn" is disputed. The community flourished in the 1890s, when it received its first schools and railroad line. The community's schools were consolidated with the

district in 1963.Dawn, Texas

Handbook of Texas Online The ''Handbook of Texas'' is a comprehensive encyclopedia An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular ...

, 2008-01-17. Accessed 2008-08-13. Bluegrass

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

s Smokey Mayfield (1924-2008) and Thomas Edd Mayfield (1926-1958) were born in Dawn. A third Mayfield brother, Herbert Mayfield (1920-2008), lived in Dawn as a young boy until his family moved to Dimmitt, the seat of Castro County, in 1931.

References

External links

Profile of Dawn
from the

Unincorporated communities in Deaf Smith County, Texas Unincorporated communities in Texas {{DeafSmith-geo-stub