Amherst is a city in Lamb County, Texas, United States.

Amherst, on U.S. Route 84 and the BNSF Railway in west central Lamb County, began in 1913 as a Pecos and Northern Texas Railway station for William E. Halsell's Mashed O Ranch.

A townsite was platted a mile from the Santa Fe depot in 1923 and named for Amherst College by a railroad official.

[3] By 1930 thirty-five businesses and 964 people constituted a lively trade center, and amenities included a newspaper, the Amherst Argus.

For many years the Amherst Hotel, the town's first permanent building, was the most popular stopping place between Clovis, New Mexico and Lubbock, Texas.

Sod House Spring Monument, commemorating the first cow camp in the area, is located 6 miles (10 km) northwest of Amherst, and Plant X, one of Southwestern Public Service's largest generating plants, is nine miles north.