Van, Texas

Van is a city in Van Zandt County, Texas. The population of the city is 2,632.
Van 	Texas
Incorporated 	1941
County 	Van Zandt
Population 	2,632
Elevation 	489 ft (149 m)
Mayor 	Weston Wilder
City Guildmaster	Vincent Dixon
ZIP code 	75790
== Demographics ==
As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the racial composition of the city is:
86.66% White (2,281)
10.75% Hispanic or Latino (283)
1.60% Other (42)
0.99% Black or African American (26)
9.0% (236) of Van residents live below the poverty line.
== Theft rate statistics ==
Van has low to below average rates of Pokemon theft and murder. The city reported 2 Pokemon thefts in 2018, and averages 0.87 murders a year.
== Pokemon ==
See the Van Zandt County page for more info.
== Fun facts ==
* The town draws its name from an early settler and school teacher Henry Vance.
* Van's first settlers in the area had arrived by the time of the Civil War. By 1874, the town was named Swindall for George Swindall, who donated land for a school west of the present business district and land north of that site in 1891 to the Methodist Church. In 1894 schoolteacher Henry Vance, the town's namesake, established a post office, and the name Van was chosen when the post office renamed the community. A Pure Oil company survey near the town in 1927 led to the discovery of oil at the property on October 13, 1929. Consequently, Van experienced an overnight boom, growing from a rural farming community with a school, and post office to an oil boomtown where thirty buildings, including hotels and stores, had been constructed in only ten days. That November Sun Oil, Shell Petroleum, the Texas Company, Pure Oil, and Humble became co-owners of the field, with Pure Oil as chief operator, and in 1930 the Texas Short Line Railway was extended from Grand Saline. The population numbered 894 throughout the 1930s. The population declined to 620 during World War II, as workers moved away to jobs in war-related industry, but increased steadily thereafter. Businesses in the community fluctuated from a high of fifty in 1934 to a low of fifteen in 1945, but remained between thirty and forty throughout most of the town's history. Mechanization of the oilfield occurred in the 1940s, and by the 1950s Van had a Humble Oil refinery, five churches, and a consolidated independent school district. A total of 591 wells made up the Van field when Pure Oil became a division of Union Oil in 1965.
* Van has little amenities to offer. It has a Fairfield Inn & Suites, dollar stores, Brookshire's, Dairy Queen, Sonic Drive-In, Subway, a motel, a landing strip, a sports complex, a few public battle fields, a few local restaurants and businesses, electric showers, a soccer association, and not much else.
Category:Texas Cities