Kerrick is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Dallam County Dallam County is the north-westernmost county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 Census, its population was 7,115. Its county seat is Dalhart. The county was founded in 1876 and later organized in 1891. It is named for James Wilmer ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, United States. According to the ''

Handbook of Texas The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) is an American nonprofit educational and research organization dedicated to documenting the history of Texas. It was founded in Austin, Texas, United States, on March 2, 1897. In November 2008, the ...

'', the community had a population of 60 in 2000.

History

Kerrick is located on the

Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway The Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway (P&SF) was an American rail transport company that was a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF), operating primarily in the Texas Panhandle. History Chartered November 2, 1886 as The S ...

. It was first settled in 1906 by William Murdock and his family, but was first platted in 1931. The town is named for Harrison S. Kerrick, a railroad official and

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

colonel, who owned some land in the community. Its first business was a

grain elevator A grain elevator or grain terminal is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In the grain trade, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or a pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up grain from a lowe ...

built by Dan T. Wadley. The post office was established in 1933 and remained in operation until 2002. It was designated a contract post office in 1976. In 1949, there were five businesses and 100 residents. The population lowered to 60 by the 2000s. The main sources of entertainment and relaxation were community bands and sporting activities. In 2002, the community church took over a structure that had previously been a

café A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargi ...

, and the grain elevator continued to function. Numerous programs took place at the community center. On June 13, 2023, storm chasers and trained storm spotters observed an EFU tornado over an open field southwest of Kerrick. No damage was reported.

Geography

Kerrick is located at the intersection of

U.S. Route 287 U.S. Route 287 (US 287) is a north–south (physically northwest–southeast) United States highway. At long, it is the second longest three-digit U.S. Route, behind US 281. The highway is broken into two segments by Yellowstone Natio ...

and Farm to Market Road 807 south of the Oklahoma Panhandle, northeast of Dalhart, north of Stratford, north of Conlen, and north of Amarillo in northeastern Dallam County.

Education

William Murdock and his family opened the first school here. The former Kerrick school building was converted into a community center in 1950 following the consolidation of its schools with the Stratford Independent School District.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Texas Unincorporated communities in Dallam County, Texas