Megargel, Texas

Texas

A whole downtown went up in three months because buyers got a discount for opening a business fast.

historical

Megargel came together in a hurry, and the hurry was written into the deal. When the town was laid out in nineteen ten, anyone who bought a lot and got a business running within sixty days paid less for the land. Inside three months the place had a row of businesses and a post office. It was named for Roy Megargel, who ran the railroad that pushed a line through toward Jacksboro and Seymour and made the town possible in the first place. By nineteen fourteen about three hundred and fifty people lived here. Then came oil, struck four miles east in nineteen twenty five. Within a year the population had reached a thousand. A year after that, twelve hundred. That was the top. The railroad shut down operations in nineteen forty three, and the count has been sliding ever since. The post office that opened in those first three months is still open today.

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
The community developed multiple businesses within three months because the purchasers of land who established businesses 60 days after acquiring their lots received discounts as an incentive to do so.

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

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