Tarzan 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 ...

in Martin County,

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. In 1990, Tarzan had approximately 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 writer, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best known for creating the characters Tarzan (who appeared in ...

' fictional character

Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, a 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 adventurer. Creat ...

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

Etymology

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 The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the federal governmen ...

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