Strawn Became a Town Name and a Rock-Layer Name

Strawn began as a railroad name. The Texas and Pacific Railway built through western Palo Pinto County in 1880 and named a stop for nearby landowner Bethel Strawn. By 1885, the settlement around the stop had grown into a town.

Then the name went underground. During twentieth-century oil development, Strawn came to identify petroleum-bearing rock formations beneath Palo Pinto County and other parts of Texas. Coal was mined near town too, so the energy story showed up both in drilling records and at the mine.

The boom left a civic landmark. A Texas Historical Commission marker at Strawn City Hall records a population of 5,000 in 1920 during the oil, gas, and coal boom. Voters approved bonds the next year, and the city hall was completed in 1923. One local name now works at two scales: a town on the highway and a rock layer far beyond its limits.