On February 1, 1960, a petition was presented to incorporate 47 acres north of Abilene into what would become the town of Impact. The judge set an election for February 13, but revoked it after the Abilene City Council tried to annex part of the land, worried that Impact would legalize alcohol sales in a dry county.
The election went ahead anyway, passing by a 24–0 vote, but the judge refused to canvass the results, according to the Taylor County Historical Commission. The City of Abilene, local churches, and even state legislators fought to block the incorporation.
That battle lasted more than three years. On April 17, 1963, the Texas Supreme Court finally ruled the town’s incorporation legal.
Impact was named after Dallas Perkins’ Impact Advertising agency, which owned much of the flood-prone land that would become the town.
On September 19, 1961, Impact residents voted to approve alcohol sales, though debates lingered over who could sell and where. Sales officially began on December 22, 1962, with Mayor Perkins himself buying the first bottle of whiskey.
According to the Taylor County Historical Commission, a Metroplex television station reported $25,000 in alcohol sales on that first day alone, as Abilene residents no longer had to drive 45 miles to Stamford to purchase liquor.
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