Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Monahans

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
DHistory
History · Monahans

Monahans’ post office opened in 1891

More historic than 14% of U.S. towns · #407 of 642 in Texas. What drives it

Most of Monahans was built recently: 0.2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1973. Below: maps from 1969 on and the census since 1930.

1891first post office
0on the National Register
0.2%homes built before 1940
8famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Shane.torgerson · CC BY-SA 3.0
Quick answers

How Monahans began

When was Monahans founded?

1891

The Monahans post office opened in 1891, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Monahan (1883), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

First census: 816 in 19302020 census: 7,836135 years

How historic is Monahans?

D

More historic than 14% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Monahans post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Monahans’ History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Monahans is more historic than 14% of U.S. towns, #407 of 642 in Texas. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.

D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Monahans’ overall grade.
Founding era1891, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 19400.2% of homes (±0.4) · typical TX town 1.6% · U.S. 8.4%DNational RegisterNo listings counted · typical TX town 0.0 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 14%
NewerOlder
Texas towns of 2,500+ (642)Ahead of 37%

Few Texas towns list much on the Register (a typical Texas town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Monahans’ 0.0 sits below most of its state (34% of Texas towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C. The pre-1940 share (±0.4 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.

Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →

What stands out about Monahans’ past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Monahans are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Famous sons and daughtersGuy Clark, Deanna Dunagan and 6 more were born here.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Monahans’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Monahans’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Famous people

8 famous people were born in Monahans

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
Guy ClarkAmerican folk and country singer-songwriter · b. 1941
D
Deanna DunaganAmerican actress · b. 1940
K
Kathy WhitworthAmerican professional golfer · b. 1939
E
Eileen WilksAmerica writer · b. 1952
J
Jim ColvinAmerican football player · b. 1937
D
Donald BrattonAmerican politician · b. 1947
The story

How Monahans came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Monahans.

Read it all →

The Permian Basin, home to Monahans and Midland-Odessa combined statistical area, is 250 miles (400 km) wide and 300 miles (480 km) long; Monahans is "The Center of the Permian Basin". The basin was formed during the Permian period, the final portion of the Paleozoic era. At the time, it was an ocean filled with abundant aquatic life.

In 1583, Spanish explorer Antonio de Espejo crossed this area on his way through present-day New Mexico. The Indians in the Monahans region were called vaqueros by these Spanish explorers because they hunted the "hump-backed cattle" or bison. Records of Spanish exploring the Los Medanos (the sand dunes) outside Monahans can be traced to the early 1770s.

ChaptersMonahans Sandhills State Park

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Monahans, 1883 to 1969

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1883Post officeThe Monahan post office opens
  3. 1887Post officeThe Monahan post office closes
  4. 1891Post officeThe Monahans post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1939Born hereKathy Whitworth is born here
  7. 1940Born hereDeanna Dunagan is born here
  8. 1941Born hereGuy Clark is born here
  9. 1952Born hereEileen Wilks is born here
  10. 1969On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Monahans, decade by decade

Today12 recent
Detail of mural depicting local history, including the era of an oil boom in which the Shell Oil Company created a gian…2014Detail of mural depicting local history, including th…Abandoned motel, and possibly one furnishing from it2014Abandoned motel, and possibly one furnishing from itSign for an abandoned motel2014Sign for an abandoned motelSign for an abandoned motel2014Sign for an abandoned motelThe one and only exhibit at the "Million-Barrel Museum"2014The one and only exhibit at the "Million-Barrel Museu…The flag of Texas, painted on the side of a bank building2014The flag of Texas, painted on the side of a bank buil…Willow Springs, Monahans, Texas Historical Marker2014Willow Springs, Monahans, Texas Historical MarkerThe one and only exhibit at the "Million-Barrel Museum" in2014The one and only exhibit at the "Million-Barrel Museu…Detail of mural depicting local history, including the era of an oil boom in which the Shell Oil Company created a gian…2014Detail of mural depicting local history, including th…Monahanstx2012MonahanstxMonahans texas airphoto2011Monahans texas airphotoWard county courthouse 20092009Ward county courthouse 2009
On the map

Monahans on the map, 1969 to 1986

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Monahans. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Monahans on the 1969 USGS mapMonahans on the 1979 USGS mapMonahans on the 1986 USGS map1969Monahans sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Monahans.

People over time

Monahans, census by census

02,0004,0006,0008,00019401960198020002020Peak: 8,567

Between 816 and 8,567 people in every census since 1930.

10 censuses, 1930–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Monahans’ Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices and burying grounds

Monahans’s post office has been open since 1891. Another post office, Monahan, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Monahan
1883–1887
Monahans
1891–today
18801950today
1cemetery inside Monahans
Monahans Memorial

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Southwest SandhillIts storyC−ThorntonvilleIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Monahans’ history

What year was Monahans founded?

The Monahans post office opened in 1891, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Monahans rank for history?

Monahans is more historic than 14% of U.S. towns, #407 of 642 in Texas. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

How old are the homes in Monahans?

0.2% of Monahans’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 1973.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

From Wikimedia Commons (6), the Library of Congress (6), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.