Hereford, Texas

Texas

The water here has so much natural fluoride that the town called itself The Town Without a Toothache.

historicalpeoplenatural

The water under Hereford comes up loaded with fluoride. Not added by anyone. It is simply in the ground, in the Ogallala Aquifer and the saltier Santa Rosa Aquifer beneath it. Fluoride protects against tooth decay, so the town took a title: The Town Without a Toothache. Hereford has another nickname that pulls in a different direction. Beef Capital of the World, earned by the sheer number of cattle feedlots around it. The city is named for the Hereford breed, and it is the only incorporated place called Hereford in the United States. That name came second. The town was founded in 1899 as Blue Water, after the railway linked Amarillo to Farwell. Then somebody discovered there was already a Blue Water. Residents picked the cattle instead, with a nod to the city of Hereford in the United Kingdom. Before all that, it went by Windmill City, for the windmills pulling water up out of the aquifer.

This is the first of 2 parts. The rest runs about 2 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.

What this was written from
Hereford's local water supply contains an unusually high level of naturally occurring fluoride. Because fluoride is used to protect against tooth decay, Hereford earned the title "The Town Without a Toothache".

Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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