The story
The town takes its name from the Medicine Mounds — four dolomite hills the Comanche and Kiowa considered the home of powerful, benevolent spirits, where they gathered medicinal herbs and held ceremonies. The community itself moved to its present spot in 1908 when the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway came through, and by 1911 it was a proper farm town of 22 businesses, a newspaper, and about 500 people.
Two blows ended it. A fire in the early 1930s destroyed most of the business district, and few owners rebuilt into the teeth of the Great Depression. The town shrank to a few stores and a couple hundred people by 1940, and the last business closed in 1966. A small museum in an old store now keeps the history, and the sacred mounds still rise on the ranchland to the south.
What remains today
A few buildings and the Downtown Medicine Mound Museum in an old mercantile; the four Medicine Mounds themselves stand on private ranchland nearby.
Questions from the field
- Why is the town called Medicine Mound?
- It's named for the Medicine Mounds, four dolomite hills the Comanche and Kiowa held sacred as the home of benevolent spirits and a place to gather healing herbs. The town (singular 'Mound') sits near the hills (plural 'Mounds').
From the field
The most valuable part of this record is the part only visitors can write.
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Primary sources for this record
- — USGS GNIS feature 1362566
- — Texas State Historical Association — Handbook of Texas, 'Medicine Mound, TX'
- — Texas Almanac — Medicine Mound