Tarzan 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 Martin County,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. In 1990 Tarzan had about six occupied homes, a post office, cotton gin and a crossroads store to serve the local farming area. The Grady Independent School District serves area students. The community was named after

Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best-known for creating the characters Tarzan and John Carter, ...

' fictional character

Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...

. It has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names.

Origin of name

In 1926 Tant and Viola Lindsay moved to the community, which was then called South Plains. They opened a general store and wanted to add a post office, but the U.S. Postal Service informed them there was already a South Plains post office in Texas, so they had to apply under a different community name. Tant Lindsay wrote several possible names on the application, and because he liked reading Tarzan books his wife told him to add that name to his list. Two weeks later the Lindsays received approval of the Tarzan post office which, in 1983, was serving 500 customers.Tarzan doesn’t swing very often these days, ''Longview News-Journal'', (Longview, Texas), September 2, 1983, page 48
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References

External links

* Unincorporated communities in Texas Unincorporated communities in Martin County, Texas Tarzan {{MartinCountyTX-geo-stub