(Full disclosure, the big featured image above is not of Electric City. It's just real pretty and I wanted to use it--it does resemble the actual Electric City if you squint and tilt your head ever so slightly, though)

While the name might suggest bright lights illuminating the Texas panhandle; the truth is less "Vegas nights" and more oil boom camp. Let's shed some light on the Texas ghost town named, Electric City.

Panhandle Oil Boom And Growing Communities

Oil booms are responsible for a lot of little towns in our neck of the woods. The promise of steady work making large amounts of money draw people from all over the world.

As people show up, and the rigs go up, camps emerge. Some of those camps become bustling communities.

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Electric City was one such community. It's located a few miles north of Borger.

It started as a camp during an oil boom, and eventually grew into a community. Unfortunately, it dwindled and became a ghost town thanks to highway improvements and growth of nearby communities.

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Looking at you, Borger.

The Ghost Town That Kept The Lights On

Electric City was the name for a camp that popped up around the Riverview Power Plant. The plant was built to supply electricity to the oilfield during the Hutchinson County boom in the mid-late 1920s.

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The plant was built in 1926. Eventually a camp was settled near it, and before long there was a community starting to emerge.

They had dirt streets. Most of the residents worked at the plant or in the oilfield.

Progress And The End Of Electric City

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As improvements were made on highways, workers found themselves not needing to live right next to where they worked. The population dwindled, and by 1948 there were only five people still calling Electric City their home.

Check Out These Photos Of Ghost Towns On The High Plains

Ghost towns dot the landscape of the Texas panhandle, Western Oklahoma, and the Oklahoma panhandle. The best part? They're all within driving distance. Go take a look for yourself.

Teeny Tiny Towns of the Texas Panhandle

Don't blink! You just might miss these TINY towns that are dotted around the Texas Panhandle.

Some of these are unincorporated communities and some of these are just plain ol' small!

Either way, these teensy weensy tiny towns and their populations will make you say "wow" (and maybe even squint and say "that's all!?"). Check them out:

Can You Guess These Towns From Their Satellite Photos?

I'm always down for a good brain challenge. This one however got the best of me.
It's always a fun time looking up address or cities and seeing them from a satellite point of view. You start pointing out landmarks and things you recognize.

One thing you don't account for however is something looking bigger or smaller than you seemed to think it was. So we started grabbing a bunch of these satellite pictures of cities and towns around Amarillo.

As we looked at them, we thought to ourselves, "how fun would this be to actually have to GUESS what these places are?". So away we went.

Go ahead and try to see how many you can guess correctly!

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