Bainer

Bainer, also known as Yellow House Switch, is located seven miles southeast of Littlefield on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and U.S. Highway 84 in southeastern Lamb County. The site of the community was part of the Yellowhouse Division of the XIT Ranch in the late nineteenth century, then became the East Camp of the Yellow House Ranch in 1901. In 1912 George Washington Littlefield organized the Littlefield Land Company and began to sell off portions of the ranch to farmers. In 1913 the Pecos and Northern Texas Railway built through the area and put in a switch by the East Camp. The switch was known as Yellow House Switch until the 1920s, when it was redesignated Bainer. Extensive cattle pens were erected at the depot, which became a major shipping point for the Yellow House Ranch and the neighboring Spade Ranch. A number of businesses served the surrounding farming community. A cotton gin was built in the community in the 1920s, and at various times Bainer has had a grocery store, a filling station, a grain elevator and a blacksmith shop. In 1940 the community comprised three businesses and a number of scattered dwellings. It had a single business in 1990. In 2000 the population was ten.