Gail

Gail, on U.S. Highway 180 in central Borden County, was named for Gail Borden, Jr., when it was selected county seat in 1891. It experienced a land boom in 1903 when five sections of state land were sold. The War of Ribbons, in which ranchers wore blue ribbons on their sleeves and new settlers wore red, followed in 1903 without bloodshed, and Gail and the county grew in population as farmers took up land. Despite being a county seat, the community remained small, and the county population sparse. The estimated population in Gail in 1910 was 700, and in 1912 it was 600. By 1936, because of the Great Depression and changes in agricultural patterns, Gail had declined to 250. In 1980 its population was only 189 in a total reported county population of 859. Gail during the 1980s had a county museum, a grade school, a high school, and a cafe. In the early 1990s Gail was still the county seat and reported a population of 202, served by eight businesses. In 2000 the population was 189.