The Brightest Ghost Town In The Texas Panhandle; Electric City
(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.
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.
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.
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
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.