BELLE PLAIN, TEXAS (Moore County). Belle Plain was east of Dumas in eastern Moore County. The site was settled in 1927, when certain of the lawless element, who had been driven out of Borger by the Texas Rangersqv, fled Hutchinson County and set up shop just across the county line. The development consisted mostly of crude, hastily built shacks and quickly became a booming, bawdy settlement that specialized in bootleg beer and whiskey, gambling dens, and brothels. Almost as quickly as it had grown, the town shrank, as its temporary residents moved away to escape the law again. By 1929 only the school, a store, and a filling station remained. The post office was closed and mail routed to Stinnett in 1930. Many buildings were either torn down or allowed to fall apart, while others were moved to Altman (now Sunray). By the time prohibition was repealed in 1933, Belle Plain had ceased to exist.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Myrna Tryon Thomas, The Windswept Land: A History of Moore City (Dumas, Texas, 1967).
