In this Texas county, ghost towns and ghost post offices came to outnumber living ones. La Plata, formerly Grenada, thrived as county seat and as a major stop on the New Mexico-Amarillo Road in the 1880s and 1890s, but its 28 houses and businesses were removed to Hereford with the county government in 1898. Ayr, which lost the county seat to La Plata in 1890, had an early post office and a few frame buildings. Other post offices that no longer exist included Escarbada on the XIT Ranch in 1889, Dean from 1892 to 1899, Mirage, possibly on the LS Ranch, from 1891 to 1894, and Kelso from 1907 to 1908.