LOCO, TEXAS. Loco, at the junction of Farm roads 1438 and 1035, in north central Childress County, was named for the locoweed that grew in the area. Early settlers arrived in the 1880s and included the families of Walter Campbell, Bobby Payne, and Dick Brown. The community's post office was established in November 1892 and located six miles south of the present site. This post office was moved to several farmsteads before it was discontinued in 1908, and mail was sent to the nearby community of Arlie. In 1901 Loco grew slightly, when the Buck Creek (later Loco) school district was organized in Childress County; it was moved to its present site in 1910. By 1925 Loco had three stores, two churches, a blacksmith shop, and a cotton gin. In 1930 the Arlie post office, established in 1888, was renamed and moved to Loco, where it remained in operation until 1964. In 1946 the community had a dozen families as permanent residents, but improved transportation has since caused the businesses to close. Only farms and the Loco and Arlie community cemeteries remain.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Michael G. Ehrle, ed., The Childress County Story (Childress, Texas: Ox Bow Printing, 1971). Arthur Hecht, comp., Postal History in the Texas Panhandle (Canyon, Texas: Panhandle-Plains Historical Society, 1960). Fred Tarpley, 1001 Texas Place Names (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980). A History of Collingsworth County and Other Stories (Wellington, Texas: Leader Printing, 1925).

H. Allen Anderson

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