Westway

Westway, on Farm Road 1058 in Deaf Smith County, was named by Judge Slaton of Hereford in 1923 for its location five miles west of the county seat. The first White settlement in the vicinity had been the Tierra Blanca camp of the XIT Ranch in 1898. A former XIT hand named Lewis Arnold traded his horse for a house and moved it to his section of land at the site of Westway. The eastern boundary line of the XIT practically halved the new settlement. In 1919 Tierra Blanca School was built, and in 1923 it was moved to another location at Westway on land given by Judge Slaton. This school was used as a community church until the building of a Baptist church in 1930. Four years later a Methodist church was built; it merged with the one at Hereford in 1961. In 1927 Phineas Short started a store, which later became a hamburger stand and cafe. The Westway school district was consolidated with the Hereford schools in 1947, and the former school building was converted into a community center. In 1984 the Baptist church and parsonage, the cafe, a fertilizer plant, an elevator, a roping arena, and about eight families made up the community. Westway was still listed as a community in 1990. The population was fifteen in 2000.