VALLEY VIEW, TEXAS (Wichita County). Valley View is on Farm Road 2226 eight miles southwest of Wichita Falls in southwestern Wichita County. It was established in 1889 and quickly became a community center for area farmers; the area was noted throughout the 1890s for producing good crops. A new elementary school was constructed at the community in 1927 to serve 300 students. The next year residents voted to establish an independent school district in Valley View, and by 1931 this school district, which registered 555 students and employed thirteen teachers, had become the largest such educational unit-in a community without a post office-in the state. Later in the 1900s the population declined. In 1970 the Valley View school district was consolidated with that of Iowa Park, keeping only grades one through six in operation locally. By 1979 only grades five and six remained active, and after the completion of the 1980 term the Valley View school closed permanently. In 1990 Valley View reported 200 residents and no businesses. The population remained unchanged in 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Louise Kelly, Wichita County Beginnings (Burnet, Texas: Eakin Press, 1982).

Brian Hart