LARIAT, TEXAS. Lariat, on U.S. Highway 84 about eighty-four miles northwest of Lubbock in southwestern Parmer County, began in 1913 on former XIT Ranch land as a stop on the Pecos and Northern Texas Railway, a subsidiary of the Santa Fe. The community was named by W. A. Simpson, passenger agent for the railroad. Lariat remained essentially a railroad stop until 1921, when a German Lutheran congregation started meeting in the Paul Graf home there. In 1924 they erected a church, and in December 1925 a post office was established at the community. By 1927 the local Church of Christ congregation had constructed a building, and Transit Grain Company had built an elevator. Lariat also had a gin, a store, a blacksmith shop, and a resident doctor. It prided itself as the home of several talented musicians and often hosted regional gospel singing schools and workshops. In 1947 the community's population was reported as seventy-five. A second elevator was established in Lariat by the Sherley-Anderson firm about 1952. Lariat apparently never had its own school, and during the 1980s its students were bused to Farwell. In 1980 and 1990 the community reported five businesses and a population of 200. The population dropped to 100 in 2000.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Parmer County Historical Commission, Prairie Progress (Dallas: Taylor, 1981). S. G. Reed, A History of the Texas Railroads (Houston: St. Clair, 1941; rpt., New York: Arno, 1981). Kathleen E. and Clifton R. St. Clair, eds., Little Towns of Texas (Jacksonville, Texas: Jayroe Graphic Arts, 1982). Fred Tarpley, 1001 Texas Place Names (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980).
