KALGARY, TEXAS. Kalgary is on Farm Road 261 fifty-five miles southeast of Lubbock in southeastern Crosby County. It began around 1905 as Spur, when E. P. Swenson started selling parcels of his vast 437,670-acre SMS Ranch. It then became known as Watson, for early settler Richard Watson Self. To accommodate the growing number of children in the area, the Watson school was constructed in 1907 with Rae Nichols as the teacher. A post office opened at the community in 1911, closed from 1913 to 1925, and was permanently discontinued in 1955. The name of the community was changed from Watson to Kalgary in 1927, when it was discovered that a second Texas community was named Watson. Kalgary had a population of ten in the early 1930s. The community reached a peak in 1940 with a population of 100, three stores, and a gin. The Kalgary school district, known as Self County Line, began consolidating with that of Crosbyton in 1949, and after the local school burned in October 1952, no further classes were held in the community. In 1980 and 1990 Kalgary reported a population of 140. The population dropped to seventy in 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Crosby County Pioneer Memorial Museum, A History of Crosby County, 1876-1977 (Dallas: Taylor, 1978). Nellie Witt Spikes and Temple Ann Ellis, Through the Years: A History of Crosby County (San Antonio: Naylor, 1952).

Edloe A. Jenkins