DEAL, TEXAS. Deal, in northwestern Carson County, was established during the oil boom of the late 1920s as a flag stop on the Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf Railway. The name of the community was adapted from that of George Washington Deahl, who owned the ranchland near Antelope Peak on which the town was founded. A post office was established in 1926 but was discontinued two years later. A district school was opened in 1936. Although the population swelled to 200 soon after its inception, Deal failed to survive, as oil and gas development moved on north and east. Eventually the site returned to prairie land. By 1949 trains no longer stopped at Deal, and the school was closed.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Jo Stewart Randel, ed., A Time to Purpose: A Chronicle of Carson County (4 vols., Hereford, Texas: Pioneer, 1966-72). Fred Tarpley, 1001 Texas Place Names (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980).

H. Allen Anderson