"Slab" Pitts was dragged to death and then hanged for living with his white wife, Eva Ruff.

[5][4] In September 1928, Amelia Earhart made an unscheduled five-day stop to adjust her carburetor.

She relates in her journal that she landed in a small town near Pecos, Texas, but according to a regional book, The Toyah Taproots, several local, unnamed youngsters were seen in pictures around her airplane were later identified as being from Toyah.

Several abandoned homes, a deserted volunteer fire department and forgotten cars sit on the empty streets.

[citation needed] According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.6 square miles (4.1 km2), all land.