Howard County, Texas, Landmarks & Vanished Communities
The USGS no longer maintains its GNIS database so I've removed the links to it. You can copy and paste the Lat/Long into Google to get a map of the location. If you can fill in missing GPS coordinates or if you know of a location or vanished community not listed here, please let someone know. TXGenWeb is not responsible for incorrect GPS Coordinates.| Feature Name | Type | Latitude, Longitude | Description | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC Park | park | 32.246389, -101.489167 | USGS | |
| Arrington Tank | reservoir | 32.183611, -101.232500 | USGS | |
| Barnett Spring | spring | 32.184444, -101.345278 | USGS | |
| Baur School | school | 32.262222, -101.481944 | USGS | |
| Big Sandy Draw | valley | 32.267222, -101.436111 | USGS | |
| Big Spring | pop place | 32.250278, -101.478333 | These grade schools were in Big Spring, Texas - Southward, Eastward, Northward, Centralward, and College Heights. | USGS & Utah Carroll Rogers urogers@worldnet.att.net |
| Big Spring | spring | 32.219167, -101.475000 | USGS | |
| Big Spring Draw | valley | 32.257222, -101.418333 | USGS | |
| Big Spring McMahon-Wrinkle Airport | airport | 32.212500, -101.521389 | USGS | |
| Big Spring Oil Field | oilfield | 32.341389, -101.414167 | USGS | |
| Big Spring State Hospital | hospital | 32.270000, -101.496667 | USGS | |
| Big Spring State Park | park | 32.228889, -101.489167 | USGS | |
| Boyd Tank | reservoir | 32.175278, -101.214444 | USGS | |
| Boydstun School | school | 32.251667, -101.468333 | USGS | |
| Buzzard Draw | valley | 32.221389, -101.634167 | USGS | |
| Calf Tank | reservoir | 32.208056, -101.682222 | USGS | |
| Cedar Crest School | school | 32.245000, -101.479167 | USGS | |
| Chimney Creek | stream | 32.225000, -101.272222 | USGS | |
| Coahoma | pop place | 32.296389, -101.305833 | USGS | |
| Coahoma Draw | valley | 32.323889, -101.283056 | USGS | |
| College Heights School | school | 32.238333, -101.463889 | USGS | |
| Comanche Trail City Park | park | 32.212222, -101.476389 | USGS | |
| Cosden Lake | reservoir | 32.224722, -101.470278 | USGS | |
| Devils Creek | stream | 32.210000, -101.232778 | USGS | |
| Dobson Creek | stream | 32.212500, -101.210556 | USGS | |
| Dorward Draw | valley | 32.562500, -101.510278 | USGS | |
| Dugout Creek | stream | 32.219444, -101.150000 | USGS | |
| East Gunsight Mountain | summit | 32.512778, -101.435556 | USGS | |
| East Howard County Oil Field | oilfield | 32.278333, -101.202500 | USGS | |
| East Tank | reservoir | 32.186111, -101.189444 | USGS | |
| East Vealmoor Oil Field | oilfield | 32.509167, -101.345833 | USGS | |
| Elbow | pop place | 32.160278, -101.511667 | USGS | |
| Elbow Creek | stream | 32.166944, -101.602500 | USGS | |
| Fairview | pop place | 32.355833, -101.518611 | USGS | |
| Flattop Mountain | summit | 32.445000, -101.265000 | USGS | |
| Forsan | pop place | 32.109722, -101.365833 | USGS | |
| Fourmile Lake | lake | 32.245833, -101.540556 | USGS | |
| Gay Hill School | school | 32.470278, -101.464722 | USGS | |
| Gold Hill | summit | 32.270556, -101.447222 | USGS | |
| Goliad Junior High School | school | 32.236944, -101.463056 | USGS | |
| Guthrie Draw | valley | 32.257222, -101.293611 | USGS | |
| Hartwell School | school | 32.264722, -101.648611 | USGS | |
| Hayrick Tank | reservoir | 32.165833, -101.219167 | USGS | |
| Hillside Tank | reservoir | 32.522500, -101.361667 | USGS | |
| House Tanks | reservoir | 32.508333, -101.381111 | USGS | |
| Howard County | civil | 32.300000, -101.450000 | USGS | |
| Howard County Junior College | school | 32.250833, -101.450278 | USGS | |
| Howard Glasscock Oil Field | oilfield | 32.096111, -101.316667 | USGS | |
| Hyman Scott Oil Field | oilfield | 32.149444, -101.194722 | USGS | |
| Iatan Flats | flat | 32.339167, -101.181944 | USGS | |
| Iatan Lake | reservoir | 32.307222, -101.245833 | USGS | |
| KBST-AM (Big Spring) | tower | 32.262222, -101.460278 | USGS | |
| KBST-FM (Big Spring) | tower | 32.222222, -101.459722 | USGS | |
| KBYG-AM (Big Spring) | tower | 32.222778, -101.476389 | USGS | |
| Kenwood School | school | 32.230556, -101.436111 | USGS | |
| Knott | pop place | 32.402500, -101.640833 | USGS | |
| KWAB-TV (Big Spring) | tower | 32.253889, -101.445556 | USGS | |
| KWKI-AM (Big Spring) | tower | 32.263333, -101.431389 | USGS | |
| Lakeview School | school | 32.255833, -101.493889 | USGS | |
| Little Sandy Draw | valley | 32.270000, -101.455000 | USGS | |
| Lomax | pop place | 32.116389, -101.639722 | USGS | |
| Luther | pop place | 32.443611, -101.456389 | USGS | |
| Luther Oil Field | oilfield | 32.437778, -101.477222 | USGS | |
| Magnolia Tank | reservoir | 32.158611, -101.229444 | USGS | |
| Marcy School | school | 32.215556, -101.489444 | USGS | |
| Midway | pop place | 32.274444, -101.370000 | USGS | |
| Moore Oil Field | oilfield | 32.187778, -101.551389 | USGS | |
| Morgan Creek Pumping Station | locale | 32.447222, -101.320000 | USGS | |
| Morita | pop place | 32.184444, -101.633333 | USGS | |
| Morrison School | school | 32.258056, -101.486667 | USGS | |
| Moss Creek | stream | 32.252222, -101.290556 | USGS | |
| Moss Creek Lake | reservoir | 32.242500, -101.309167 | USGS | |
| Moss School | school | 32.256667, -101.441944 | USGS | |
| Moss Spring | spring | 32.224444, -101.331667 | USGS | |
| Mount Olive Cemetery | cemetery | 32.270278, -101.478333 | USGS | |
| Mustang Draw | valley | 32.202778, -101.598889 | USGS | |
| Natural Dam Lake | lake | 32.219722, -101.651944 | USGS | |
| Onemile Lake | lake | 32.252500, -101.497778 | USGS | |
| Otis Chalk | locale | 32.125278, -101.260833 | USGS | |
| Park Hill School | school | 32.235000, -101.483333 | USGS | |
| Plum Draw | valley | 32.243611, -101.390278 | USGS | |
| Powell Creek | stream | 32.215000, -101.260000 | USGS | |
| Powell Lake | reservoir | 32.208889, -101.266667 | USGS | |
| Prairie View Church | church | 32.351944, -101.535000 | USGS | |
| Rattlesnake Gap | gap | 32.319722, -101.203611 | USGS | |
| Red Draw | valley | 32.245556, -101.373889 | USGS | |
| Red Salt Lake | lake | 32.174167, -101.684167 | USGS | |
| Roberts Lake | lake | 32.137500, -101.621944 | USGS | |
| Round Tank | reservoir | 32.520556, -101.307500 | USGS | |
| Runnels Junior High School | school | 32.245833, -101.470833 | USGS | |
| Saint Paul Church | church | 32.250833, -101.451667 | USGS | |
| Salem Church | church | 32.331944, -101.352778 | USGS | |
| Salt Lake | lake | 32.205833, -101.589167 | USGS | |
| Salt Lake | lake | 32.166944, -101.673056 | USGS | |
| Sand Springs | pop place | 32.282500, -101.350556 | USGS | |
| Sandy Hollow | valley | 32.258056, -101.325833 | USGS | |
| Scenic Mountain | summit | 32.230833, -101.484167 | USGS | |
| Scout Tank | reservoir | 32.183056, -101.198889 | USGS | |
| Signal Mountains | summit | 32.181389, -101.335278 | USGS | |
| Signal Peak | summit | 32.201111, -101.311667 | USGS | |
| Snyder Oil Field | oilfield | 32.228333, -101.218611 | USGS | |
| Soash | vanished community | 0.000000, -000.000000 | Was located 21 miles northwest of Big Spring, Texas, near the Borden County line on Christopher Columbus Slaughter's Long S Ranch in northern Howard County. The town began after William Pulver Soash, a native of Iowa, contracted with Slaughter in January 1909 to promote several thousands acres of his ranch as mild-climate farms to Midwestern farmers. Soash was a serious promoter and had successfully developed land in the past. He organized Soash Development Company and advertised in Ohio and Iowa newspapers that the climate of the area allowed two crops per year and that the land was cheaply priced with easy terms. Laying out a new town that he named for himself, W. P. Soash graded the streets, planted trees, and built the Lorna Hotel, named for his daughter. He sponsored excursion trains to bring prospective buyers to Big Spring and a fleet of 30 new Buicks to drive them to the new town. He built a school, a plant to generate electricity, and a water system. He built at a cost of $10,000 a two-story building that held his office and the Bank of Soash. A post office opened at Soash in 1909. After moving his own residence to the new town in 1909 and beginning to build a large home for his family, W. P. Soash worked to have the Gulf, Soash and Pacific railroad, a proposed link to the Santa Fe railroad that ran from Lubbock to San Angelo, lay it tracks through his town. On Independence Day 1909 the town hosted 2,500 people to a West Texas barbecue, a rodeo, a baseball game between Soash and Lamesa teams, a vaudeville show, and a street dance with live music under electric lights. The town had a hardware store, a machine shop, and a barbershop before 1911. Both Rufe Slaughter and J. M. Heffernan opened general mercantile stores and Bill Horn operated a café in the town. However, the town of Soash was destined to a short life. Although the promotional literature had claimed that the area received from 25 to 30 inches of rain per year, a drought began in 1909 and lasted through 1911. In 1910 the railroad bypassed the town. W. P. Soash declared bankruptcy in the summer of 1912 and the unsold land went back to Slaughter. New settlers stopped coming and established settlers - like W. M. Peterson from Ohio who had paid $250 per acre - began to leave. The post office closed in 1917 and the town died. The ruins of the reinforced concrete bank building still stood in the summer of 1998. Reportedly, a cemetery existed at Soash, but Bob and Mamie Merrick, who had lived across the road from the old bank building since 1943, never found a burial site. Sources: T. Lindsay Baker, Ghost Towns of Texas (Norman: Univ. of Okla., 1986), 149-150; Midland Reporter-Telegram, 03 Sep 1998; Charles Deaton, Texas Postal History Handbook (Houston: by author, 1980), 142. | Julia Cauble Smith cauble@apex2000.net |
| South Haven | pop place | 32.184167, -101.481389 | USGS | |
| South Mountain | summit | 32.222778, -101.458611 | USGS | |
| South Pasture Tanks | reservoir | 32.518056, -101.370833 | USGS | |
| South Prong Moss Creek | stream | 32.193889, -101.377778 | USGS | |
| Sulphur Springs Draw | valley | 32.205000, -101.596667 | USGS | |
| Sulphur Springs Draw | valley | 32.205556, -101.598889 | USGS | |
| Threemile Lake | lake | 32.249167, -101.530000 | USGS | |
| Trinity Memorial Park | cemetery | 32.157500, -101.460833 | USGS | |
| Varel Oil Field | oilfield | 32.312500, -101.610556 | USGS | |
| Vealmoor | pop place | 32.520556, -101.570000 | USGS | |
| Vealmoor Cemetery | cemetery | 32.500556, -101.562778 | USGS | |
| Vealmoor Oil Field | oilfield | 32.515000, -101.544722 | USGS | |
| Vincent | pop place | 32.481667, -101.225278 | USGS | |
| Vincent Cemetery | cemetery | 32.492778, -101.242778 | USGS | |
| Washington School | school | 32.248056, -101.448889 | USGS | |
| Webb Village | pop place | 32.219444, -101.497500 | USGS | |
| West Gunsight Mountain | summit | 32.513611, -101.447778 | USGS | |
| Wildhorse Creek | stream | 32.403611, -101.234722 | USGS | |
| Wildhorse Mountain | summit | 32.356944, -101.255833 | USGS | |
| Ziler | pop place | 32.273611, -101.404444 | USGS |