Leaday Townsite, Near Highway 2134 & Colorado River, Voss, Coleman County, TX

Significance: Located near the site of Trap Crossing, an old and much-traveled crossing of the Colorado River on the road from Coleman to Fort Concho, the Leaday townsite was laid out in 1904 by local rancher Mabel Doss Day Lea on her great Day Ranch lands in a period when she was planning a subdivision of the ranch into tenant farms. The town was intended to accommodate prospective homesteaders and to serve them once they settled in the vicinity. It satisfied these functions for a number of years until the failure of cotton markets and the impact of the Depression disintegrated the tenant policy. The townsite continued in the ownership of Mabel Day Lea's descendants and the descendants of the Miller family, purchasers of a portion of the Day Ranch. The town was never completed to the extent of its ambitious first plan, and it began to shrink after the first ten years of its life. It was much depleted by the 1950s and abandoned by the late 1980s. Nevertheless, the little town had a strong cultural impact on the surrounding countryside for two generations of farmers and ranchers.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N89
Survey number: HABS TX-3362