This Week in Odessa History

One hundred and ten years ago this week, there were great expectations about a new town in southwestern Lincoln county – Irby.

It had been reported that the Great Northern Railway was about to put in a siding about midway between Odessa and Krupp, and that a flour mill, store and a bank were in the works.

In the 1903 issue of The Odessa Record, the following dispatch from the Spokane Spokesman-Review appeared:

The Irby Ranch, one of the oldest and best known properties in Lincoln County, has just been acquired by the Babcock-Cornish Company from V.A. Johnson.

The company also has purchased the...