La Plata is a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

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 orga ...

, United States. It was originally named Grenada and was established in 1890 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 ...

as a means of consolidating political power after Deaf Smith County was established. The town engaged in a controversial battle with neighboring

Ayr Ayr ( ; ; , meaning "confluence of the River Àir"), is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. A former royal burgh, today it is the administrative centre of South Ayrshire Council, and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With ...

over the county seat election, which was mired in corruption. After Grenada won the election, county judge J. R. Dean changed the town's name to La Plata due to a request from postal officials. A courthouse was built and the town soon added a post office, a school, a county jail, and a Presbyterian church. Businesses included a

general store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...

, a pharmacy, a saloon, a hotel, an implement house, a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

shop, a

livery stable A livery yard, livery stable or boarding stable, is a stable where horse owners pay a weekly or monthly fee to keep their horses. A livery or boarding yard is not usually a riding school and the horses are not normally for hire (unless on wor ...

, and the offices which housed the county's first newspaper, ''La Plata Star''. Poor weather played a role in the town's slow population growth; from 1891 to 1894, the area suffered a drought, which caused considerable problems for farmers and ranchers. A major blizzard occurred in February 1897, and below-freezing temperatures settled in for 21 consecutive days at the same time. More than half of the town's population abandoned the town during this time. In 1899, the Pecos and Northern Texas Railway was built through the southern part of Deaf Smith County and into

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

, bypassing La Plata. On November 8 of that year, a new county-seat election was held and the new town of

Blue Water Maritime geography is a collection of terms used by naval military units to loosely define three maritime regions: brown water, green water, and blue water. Definitions The elements of maritime geography are loosely defined and their meanings hav ...

(later renamed Hereford) won because it was served by the railroad. Nine houses, the courthouse, and the jail were disassembled and moved to Blue Water by wagon. Nothing remains of La Plata today except some graves in the cemetery, which is located on private land that has since been reclaimed for farming. La Plata's original portable jail is on display at the Deaf Smith County Museum in Hereford. The town was the focal point of the fictional short story ''The End of the Whole Mess''. by

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...

References

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