Southland

Southland is on the Santa Fe Railroad, U.S. Highway 84, and the Caprock two miles from its eastern escarpment and twenty miles northwest of Post in northwest Garza County. It was named by rancher Andrew Briggs (Sug) Robertson for its location on the south part of the V Ranch. The Curry Comb Ranch and several of John B. Slaughter's ranches were located in the area, and Southland became a trading center when the county was organized in 1907. Southland was a station on the Pecos and Northern Texas Railway in 1910 and opened a post office in 1911. A school district was formed in 1913. The community prospered for a time, thanks to Charles W. Post's colonizing of the region, but never really recovered from the setbacks of the Great Depression, which included the closing of its bank. In 1940 Southland had 280 residents and eleven businesses. With a decrease in the farm workforce, the population declined to 153 by 1960. It was 168 in 1980 and 1990. The population dropped to 157 in 2000.