Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Booker, TX

Booker is a town at the intersection of State Highways 15 and 23 in northwestern Lipscomb County, with a small portion of the town extending west into Ochiltree County.

Booker began in 1909 as La Kemp, Oklahoma, seven miles to the northwest, and in 1919 the entire town picked up and moved across the state line into Texas to sit on the new Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway line.

The new townsite was platted in 1917 by Thomas C. Spearman and named for B. F. Booker, a civil engineer with the railroad.

Booker is one of the northernmost communities in Texas, lying only about three miles south of the Oklahoma border at the top of the Panhandle.

The Great Depression and Dust Bowl cut Booker's population to 386 by 1940, but agricultural recovery and oil exploration pushed it back up to about 1,500 by 1949.

According to the 2020 census, Booker had a population of 1,437 people living in 496 households, and about 59% of residents were Hispanic or Latino.

Billboards on the edges of town along Highway 15 read 'Booker: Next 9 Exits,' a joke about the nine north-south streets that cross the highway in town.

Booker's streets south of the railroad tracks follow a tidy naming scheme: streets west of Main Street are named for flowers and trees, while those on the east side carry the names of Texas cities and historical figures.

Booker is served by the Booker Independent School District, whose Booker High School Kiowas compete in UIL Class 1A; the district even gives its Kirksey Elementary students swimming lessons in an indoor pool.

In an ironic twist, the railroad that created Booker was abandoned around 2007, leaving the town it once relocated without rail service.