In 1887, before any settlement at this location, a spur track was laid from the Texas and Pacific RR main line to the coal mines two miles south. This junction was first called Coal Mine Junction and later Thurber Junction as Thurber and its coal mines flourished. In 1895, the land around the junction was platted, and the area north of the main T&P tracks was called Mingus after an early settler. All homes and businesses in Mingus were owned by Americans, while south of the main tracks remained Thurber Junction, where many businesses and homes were owned by European and Middle Eastern immigrants. One track curved eastward to merge with the RR main line and a second curved westward to join it, and two hundred yards south of the main line these tracks converged to form a Y that enabled trains to turn around. Thurber Junction and Mingus became the shipping point for 13,000,000 tons of Thurber coal and the site of the busiest and most attractive depot west of Fort Worth. East of the depot stood a coal chute and water tower. During the Depression years, when freight trains stopped to refuel, hoboes spread through town seeking handouts, and a Hobo Jungle stood on the creek north of the coal chute. The railroad facilities also included a section gang, a scale for weighing coal cars, and, a quarter mile south of the main line, a sand car, storage tracks for 240 RR cars, an engine and wrecker spur, and a RR car repair facility. When Thurber began shutting down mining operations in 1921, railroad activity at Thurber Junction also faded. During Prohibition from 1921 to 1933, Thurber Junction was also known as Grappa Junction for the potent Italian bootleg whisky made there.