Landowner Charles E. Graham (1872-1937) granted the Wichita Falls and Southern Railroad a route across his property in 1908 and platted a town at this site. Anarene was named for his wife Annie Lawrence Graham, daughter of pioneer cattleman J. Marion Keen. Graham built a hotel and obtained a post office, cattle pens, dipping vat, and other facilities, and the town schoolhouse was used for religious services. Oil was discovered nearby in 1921, and a refinery was built in 1938. When oil production ceased and the trains stopped running in 1954, Anarene quickly declined.