KLBK caught up with the chair of the Dawson County Historical Commission to learn more about the beginnings of Lamesa.
According to Wayne Smith, the chair of the commission, there was a meeting in 1903 to discuss the name of the town. Smith said one man at the meeting, A.L. Wasson, suggested La Mesa for the name.
“And then as [Wasson] thought about it, it wasn’t unique,” Smith said about the man at the meeting. “There were other places called La Mesa.”
And that’s when the name’s pronunciation was changed.
“We constantly get people who like to remind us that you’re pronouncing it wrong, when people come to a place, they get in the middle of harsh land and they decide to start a town, I feel like they can call it anything they’d like to,” Smith said.
Smith said two years later, Lamesa won the election to become the Dawson County seat.
