White Deer took its name from a nearby creek, itself named for an Indian legend of a white deer feeding there. The site of the county's first water well was drilled at N Bar N Ranch in 1887. It was also the headquarters of White Deer Land Co., formerly Francklyn Land and Cattle Co., a British syndicate with 630,000 acres of Panhandle land, which in 1902 sold its acreage for small farms and ranches. Located 0.5 mile east on the railroad in 1906, White Deer became a supply town for settlers. The present townsite was founded in 1908. An oil boom came in the 1920s, and White Deer is a shipping point for grain and cattle.