BUSHLAND, TEXAS. Bushland, on Interstate Highway 40 fourteen miles west of Amarillo in southwestern Potter County, was established as a station on the Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf Railway. It was named for William Henry Bush of Chicago, who gave land that he had bought from the Frying Pan Ranch for a townsite and a railroad right-of-way. On July 3, 1908, Bush and his associate, S. H. Smiser, dedicated the townsite. A school district was soon established there, with Zulema Clark as its first teacher. Charles B. Bush opened the post office in January 1909. The population grew from twenty in the 1920s to 175 in 1940. By that time Bushland had four businesses, an elementary school, and a Baptist church. By 1984 the town reported three rated businesses, including a grain elevator. Population estimates for the community remained at 130 from 1965 through 2000.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Della Tyler Key, In the Cattle Country: History of Potter County, 1887–1966 (Amarillo: Tyler-Berkley, 1961; 2d ed., Wichita Falls: Nortex, 1972). Fred Tarpley, 1001 Texas Place Names (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980).
