Love Bug-Spur Turquoise Chip Composite

Please drop this item in rural OR Premium Member Only caches.  Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event.  Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and prevents tangling with other items.  Otherwise, take the travel bug anywhere you wish.  No permission is needed to leave the U.S.

Travel bug photos in the logs are appreciated.  I will re-post them here, where they can be seen by other cachers.

This is one of a series of heart-shaped items obtained from different places and converted into travel bugs. They are named either for the places of their origin or for Texas Panhandle-South Plains towns with interesting names or histories.

Spur is 19 miles south of Dickens, southern Dickens County.  The name is from the Spur Ranch, which formerly included the townsite.  EP Swenson purchased the Spur Ranch in 1907 and began subdividing the land for sale to settlers.  CA Jones, then manager of the Spur interest, played the leading role in persuading Daniel Willard, head of the Burlington Railroad, to route a proposed railway line northwest from Stamford through the future site of Spur.  In 1909, the first train of the Stamford and Northwestern passed through the new depot at Spur as the town was opened.  Over 600 lots had been sold. The first business in town was the WS Campbell Mortuary and Furniture Store, which started operation ten days after the town opened.

The town was incorporated in 1911.  The Spur school district grew from a one-room schoolhouse, which started in 1909.  By the mid-1980s the school district comprised nearly half the county.  Despite the fact that Spur has been steadily losing businesses since reporting a high of 110 in 1940, the town remains the central shipping point in Dickens County for cotton, wheat, and cattle.  In 1980 Spur had forty-seven businesses, including a bank, a newspaper, and a library.  Spur had a population of 1,747 in 1970 but has steadily declined to 1,088 in 2000.  It remains the largest town in the county, despite not being the county seat.  There are some stately old, abandoned buildings in the downtown area