New Deal, Texas

Everything New Deal is known for

6 songs mention this city 0 artists from here

Music in New Deal

Songs About New Deal

Amarillo Highway (For Dave Hickey)
Terry Allen
50%
"And a fresh deck in New Deal"
Amarillo Highway
Emily Nenni
50%
"And a fresh deck in New Deal"
I've Been Everywhere (In Texas)
Brian Burns
30%
"I've been everywhere in Texas"
amarillo highway
terry allen
29%
Amarillo Highway
Robert Earl Keen
2%
"And a fresh deck in New Deal"
I’ve Been Everywhere...In Texas
Brian Burns
1%
"New Deal"

Artists From New Deal

No artists from New Deal in the database yet.

History of New Deal

The Town That Rebranded to Survive the Depression RoadyGoat

You're driving through one of the few towns in America whose very name is a relic of the Great Depression. For years this was the Monroe community, named for Monroe G. Abernathy, a local landowner and railroad promoter who helped put the place on the map. Then, in 1935, four little rural schools out here — Caldwell, Center, Grovesville, and Monroe — decided to join together into a single school district. It was the height of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, and that era of federal hope and hard-times optimism was so much in the air that the folks running the new district simply named it 'New Deal.' The school got the name first. The town itself stayed Monroe for another fourteen years, until June of 1949, when it finally got its own post office. Because Texas already had a Monroe on the postal map, the postal service borrowed the school's name instead — and just like that, the town became New Deal too. So as you roll through, know that this little place quietly carries the name of a whole American era, handed down from a country schoolhouse to the town that grew up around it.

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The Invisible Ocean Fueling the Cotton Fields RoadyGoat

The vast cotton fields surrounding New Deal seem impossible in this semi-arid climate, which gets only about 20 inches of rain a year. The secret isn't in the sky; it's in the ground. Beneath this entire region lies the Ogallala Aquifer, a massive underground reservoir of 'fossil water' that fell as rain thousands of years ago. For decades, farming here was limited by rainfall. But after World War II, engineers developed powerful turbine pumps and, later, center-pivot irrigation systems—those long, wheeled arms you may see spraying water in giant circles. This technology allowed farmers to tap the Ogallala on a massive scale, transforming the High Plains into one of the world's most productive cotton regions. The challenge now is one of conservation. This water is a finite resource, being pumped out far faster than nature can replenish it, forcing a new wave of innovation in water-saving agricultural technology.

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New Deal, TX RoadyGoat

Originally known as Monroe, the town was named after a local landowner, Monroe G. Abernathy. It was developed as a train station loading site, and people began to settle there, building the town alongside the railroad tracks and highway. The town's name was changed to New Deal after Franklin D. Roosevelt's programs, to align with the consolidated school system's name. In 1970, the township was incorporated by the vote of its citizens to avoid annexation by the city of Lubbock. A local farmer, Billy Fortenberry, became the first mayor, and under Ray Edell West's mayoral direction, the town built a City Hall and a Volunteer Fire Department building.

New Deal

1909

The Pecos and Northern Texas Railway, part of the Santa Fe system, extended from Plainview to Lubbock in 1909 and established new settlements along the line. Invited to name two of the towns north of Lubbock, Mollie Abernathy suggested “Monroe” and “Abernathy” for her husband, a land agent and official liaison to the Santa Fe Railroad. The Monroe townsite developers held an auction for lots on December 22, 1909, and a store was built soon after. The town grew to the west and south of the original townsite and by the late 1920s had a general store, a blacksmith shop, cotton gins, a café, and a lumberyard. On May 28, 1917, the town’s school became Monroe Common School District #10 of the Lubbock county schools. Later that year, voters approved plans to construct a 2-story brick school building, which burned in 1938. In 1935, Monroe consolidated with Caldwell, Grovesville and Center Schools to form New Deal Rural High School District #3, named after the federal programs of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. By 1939, all of the schools were consolidated at New Deal. On June 1, 1949, Monroe was renamed New Deal with the establishment of a post office. The city of New Deal incorporated in 1970. The community benefited from its strategic location on the main transportation corridor between Lubbock and Plainview and leading to points beyond. In addition to the railroad, an automobile route was progressively designated as first the Puget Sound to Gulf Highway, then State Highway 9, then US Highway 87. Despite changes over the years, the city continues to thrive as a result of citizens’ service and pride in their community. (2018)

Historical Marker →

Lubbock County

-12000

Lubbock County is located in Northwest Texas on the Southern High Plains, within the larger Great Plains of the western United States. The center of the county lies at 33°35' north latitude and 101°52' west longitude. Lubbock, its largest city, is 327 miles northwest of Dallas and 122 miles south of Amarillo. The county measures 893 square miles of flat tableland sloping gently from northwest to southeast, with elevations ranging from 2,900 to 3,400 feet. Its soils are mainly brown to reddish-brown loams and sandy loams, with smaller areas of grayish-brown, silty clay loams. These overlie a clay subsoil and, beneath that, at from two to three feet from the surface, a hardpan of caliche made of calcium carbonate. This caliche forms the Caprock , which has generally prevented streams from cutting their way through the area. Beneath the caliche zone lie beds of water-filled sand of varying thickness but averaging about 300 feet; these make up a part of the great Ogallala Aquifer, formed some ten million years ago as great rivers deposited sand from the Rocky Mountains over an area extending several hundred miles east of the mountains, from what is now Canada to the South Plains of Texas. In 1968 there were 922 small, wind-scoured lakes called playas dotting the county and providing refuge for wildfowl. These are formed by runoff from rainwater and range in size from less than an acre to more than fifty acres. Grasses are predominantly buffalo and blue grama, and in summer there is a profusion of wildflowers, including daisies, buttercups, verbena, and Indian paintbrush, together with scattered yucca and catclaw. Before its settlement the county was treeless, except for cottonwoods and hackberries in the canyons. In later times Chinese elms, oaks, pines, cedars, and a few other trees were introduced, along with mesquite in the nineteenth century. The county is classed as semiarid; its average annual rainfall is 18.41 inches, most of which occurs during the growing season of 208 days. The average minimum temperature in January is 25° F, and the maximum in July averages 92°. Lubbock County is one of the oldest inhabited places in the state, if not the oldest. In the northern part of the city of Lubbock is the archeological site known as the Lubbock Lake Site, the first archeological site in Texas to be entered on the National Register of Historic Places ( see LUBBOCK LAKE NATIONAL HISTORIC AND STATE ARCHEOLOGICAL LANDMARK ). There, in Yellow House Canyon , preserved in the twenty-foot wall of a dry lakebed, lies one of the very few known records of human habitation in Texas reaching back uninterrupted for at least 12,000 years. There Paleo-Indians camped and hunted the elephant, camel, bison, giant bear, and prehistoric horse, all long since extinct. Although the evidence is not conclusive, some authorities believe Francisco Vásquez de Coronado was the first Spaniard to visit the lake, during his famous expedition of 1540. In 1629 Father Juan de Salas led an expedition that went down Black Water Draw to Yellow House Canyon on its way from Santa Fe to the South Concho River. In 1650 another expedition commanded by captains Hernán Martín and Diego del Castillo used the same route, as did Capt. Diego de Guadalajara four years later. Other Spanish expeditions traveled this same route and on their maps gave the name La Punta de Agua to the Lubbock Lake Site, which is now in Mackenzie Park . From 10,000 B.C. to about A.D. 1000 the plains were inhabited by bands of Indians who lived off the land. When the Spaniards reached the plains they found tribes they called Quecheros or Teyas, probably ancestors of the Apaches. About 1700 the Comanches (from a Ute word meaning "enemy") came onto the South Plains with their newly acquired horses. They quickly came to dominate an area stretching from north of the Red River south to the Edwards Plateau , westward to New Mexico, and as far east as the Brazos River. The area of West Texas

Tsha Handbook → · 8.5 mi away

The 1970 Lubbock Tornado

1970

The major tornado that struck Lubbock on May 11, 1970 was one of the most destructive in American history. That evening there was an outbreak of thunderstorms with strong winds and hail. An initial tornado touched down East of Mackenzie Park at 8:15 p.m., traveling northeast through a sparsely populated part of the city. A second tornado formed at 9:35 p.m., near Texas Tech University, tracking northeast with a path of destruction nearly two miles wide. The central business district, industrial areas and downtown residential areas, including the Guadalupe neighborhood, were the most heavily damaged. The funnel continued north-northeast to the Lubbock County Club and airport where it also caused damage before lifting back into the storm at approximately 10:10 p.m. 
 The twisters caused more than $250 million in damage (more than $1.6 billion in today’s dollars), affecting 25% of the city. It destroyed 1,100 homes and damaged 8,000 others. Hundreds of businesses were destroyed or severely damaged. Twenty-six people died and 1,755 people were injured. Cleanup and relief efforts commenced immediately. A state of emergency was declared, bottled water was shipped in, and the Lubbock Municipal Coliseum became a makeshift shelter. 
 Many important advancements resulted from the tragic event. The city was given $59 million in federal relief, and a $13.6 million bond package helped fund the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center, George and Helen Mahon Library, city parks and the beginnings of the Canyon Lakes system. Dr. T.T. Fujita compiled data used to develop the Fujita Scale, which measures tornadic intensity by wind speed and resulting damage. Shortly after, Texas Tech University founded the institute for disaster research (now the National Wind Institute). While the 1970 Lubbock tornado was devastating, the response demonstrated the resilience of the city and its people. (2020)


Historical Marker → · 9.9 mi away

South Plains Army Air Field

1942

During World War II, nine preliminary and advanced military glider pilot training fields operated in Texas; one of the most prominent sites was located here. The U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) leased Lubbock Municipal Airport, and with help from the City of Lubbock expanded it for glider training. Opened in October 1942, the site was initially named South Plains Army Flying School, and later renamed South Plains Army Air Field (SPAAF). The mission of SPAAF was ground and advanced flight training for glider pilots who flew the “Waco CG-4A” glider––the USAAF's primary glider during the war. During its tenure, SPAAF trained nearly 80% of America’s combat glider pilots who served in major operations, such as Market Garden (Invasion of the Netherlands), Varsity (Invasion of Germany) and overlord (the “D-day” Allied Invasion of Normandy, France). SPAAF closed on April 1, 1945, more than a month before victory in Europe was declared. Designated surplus, the site was transferred to the War Assets Administration in December 1947. In 1949 the airfield returned to the City of Lubbock for municipal use, and in 1950 the city built a modern air terminal. Regional combat glider training facilities –– located in the Texas panhandle and South Plains –– were vital components of U.S. Military force projection capability during the war. In addition, the creation and maintenance of these bases contributed significantly to local economies during the war. In 1971, former glider pilots formed the National World War II Glider Pilots Association, Inc., providing the framework for the preservation of the history of the U.S. Combat Glider Program. Today, a key element in telling this story is the Silent Wings Museum, moved to this site and opened in October 2002.

Historical Marker → · 5.2 mi away

Abernathy, Mollie D. Wylie

1901

Mollie D. Wylie Jarrott Abernathy, rancher and businesswoman, was born on April 27, 1866, in Hood County, Texas, the daughter of John N. M. and Elizabeth (Robertson) Wylie, both members of prominent ranch families. She grew up at Thorp Spring and was a member of the first class at Add-Ran College (forerunner of Texas Christian University). She spent the summers on her father's ranches in Erath and Runnels counties, where she acquired knowledge of the cattle industry. On September 26, 1886, she married James William Jarrott, who served that year in the Texas legislature. The next year the couple moved to a ranch near Phoenix, Arizona, where their first child was born. In 1889 the family returned to Thorp Spring and in 1890 moved to Stephenville. There Jarrott became county attorney for Erath County. The couple had three more children in Stephenville. In 1901 the Jarrotts filed for themselves and twenty-three other families under the Four-Section Act on a mile-wide strip of vacant land extending from the western boundary of Lubbock County to New Mexico. The tent that they pitched on their claim was the only human habitation within a thirty-mile radius; by 1902 they had settled all of the other families on the land. The influx of small landowners living in tents and dugouts aroused the hostility of the area ranchers, and on August 28, 1902, Jarrott was shot and killed. Mollie was in a hotel in town convalescing from an illness at the time of the murder, but she returned to the claim and operated the Swastika Ranch alone. She expanded it from four to sixteen sections and developed a prime herd of registered Hereford cattle. In 1905 she married Monroe G. Abernathy, a real estate developer, for whom the South Plains towns of Monroe (later New Deal) and Abernathy were named. Together they successfully promoted the construction of the Santa Fe Railroad into Lubbock. The ranch properties were sold in 1920, after the extension of the railroad caused a demand for farmland. During the same period, Mollie Abernathy was investing in business property in the fledgling city of Lubbock, and in 1916 she financed the construction of the J. C. Penney building, one of the largest downtown commercial structures. On the eastern and northeastern borders of town she and her husband acquired more than a thousand acres of undeveloped land. Portions of the properties were later developed into Mackenzie Park and a residential addition overlooking it. Her astute management of her ranch and business holdings led to Mrs. Abernathy's reputation as Lubbock's first businesswoman. She was a charter member of the Business and Professional Women's Club and served as president of both the League of Women Voters and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in Lubbock. She chaired the first Woman's Democratic League in Texas and actively promoted full citizenship responsibility for women. She was a member of the First Christian Church. She died in Lubbock on June 4, 1960, and was buried in the city cemetery.

Tsha Handbook → · 6.5 mi away

Things to Do in New Deal

historical 10.3 mi away
Buddy Holly Center

Lubbock was a dusty cotton town when a skinny kid named Charles Hardin Holley picked up a guitar in the nineteen fifties and figured out how to make rock and…
historical 10.5 mi away
Buddy Holly Center

Museum dedicated to Lubbock's most famous son. The day the music died.
quirky 16.5 mi away
Ozymandias On The Plains

A pair of giant legs — and nothing else — standing in a Lubbock field. Shelley's poem made real.

Sports in New Deal

🏆 STATE CHAMPIONS Class 2A · Baseball · 2021

New Deal — 2021 UIL 2A Baseball State Champions

Most recent: 2021 2A

The New Deal High School baseball program, competing in Class 2A, has established a notable presence in Texas high school sports. Their dedication on the diamond culminated in a significant achievement for the community.

The New Deal Lions secured a UIL State Championship in 2021. This accomplishment reflects the consistent effort and spirit present within the program, bringing pride to New Deal, Texas.

State titles
2021
Most recent
2021
Class
2A
The moment

The New Deal Lions baseball team captured the Class 2A State Championship in 2021.

Sources: UIL State Championship Archives · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)

Everything Near New Deal

206 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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