Vigo Park

Vigo Park, on Farm Road 146 between Palo Duro and Tule canyons near the eastern border of Swisher County, was the result of a real estate venture in the early 1900s. In 1906 the Indiana-Texas Land Company, with headquarters in Terre Haute, Indiana, purchased 4,420 acres of land belonging to the JA Ranch and laid out a townsite. Company ads soon attracted many prospective homesteaders, who named the settlement after Vigo and Parke counties in Indiana. A post office, originally named Vio, was established in 1907. Its name was changed to Vigo Park in 1908, when the settlement had a combination general store and hotel, a blacksmith shop, and a church. A school opened in 1918. For a time the community also had a resident doctor. Irrigation wells and other farming innovations enabled Vigo Park residents to wrest a successful living from the soil. Livestock raising in the vicinity increased with the establishment of a feedlot in 1925. In 1940 the community recorded a population of forty. Though Vigo Park was never on a railroad as its founders had hoped, it remained an active rural community with two churches, a community center, a brick schoolhouse, and five businesses. The school closed in 1947. By the 1980s brick houses had replaced most of the earlier wooden ones. In 1984 through 2000 Vigo Park reported a population of thirty-one. Residents restored the old Vigo Park school building, and it served as a community center.

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H. Allen Anderson | © TSHA

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Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.

Belongs to

Vigo Park is part of or belongs to the following places:

Currently Exists

Yes

Place type

Vigo Park is classified as a Town

Associated Names

  • [Vigo]
  • [Vio]

Location

Latitude: 34.65255910
Longitude: -101.49600560

Has Post Office

No

Is Incorporated

No

Population Count, 2009

36