Surveyed and platted in 1912 as “Hockley City” by cereal magnate C.W. Post, the barren townsite won the race for county seat in 1921. The first meeting of county officers was held at the future courthouse site in a Cadillac automobile. Soon the city square had a temporary courthouse measuring 16 by 32 feet, a well, and a community black-eyed pea patch. When a post office opened in 1922, the city was renamed Levelland for its topography. Prosperity arrived with the coming of the railroad in 1925 and the discovery of oil in the county in 1937.