A general store and post office was established in Groom, Texas in 1902, a mercantile store in 1903, and by 1906 the town boasted a barbershop, a bank, a hotel, a lumberyard, a school, and several more new businesses. When the town was incorporated in 1911, it had more than 250 residents. While benefiting from the oil boom of the twenties and the traffic along Route 66, it never grew beyond much more than 800 people. Photo by Kathy Weiser-Alexander.