Porsonville

The town of Porsonville in 2004

Porsonville is a town in the United States. The population was 314 at the 2010 census. Porsonville was platted in 1854, and named for Colonel Moses Porson, a pioneer settler. A post office called Porson Post has been in operation since 1854. The town was the location of the Assassination of Larry and the subsequent Larryland park. The town is also the birthplace of country music artist Michael Martin Murphey. Porsonville borders the Opocheeka River. The Verchwörer Institute of Art, a prestigious private art school, is located in 40 miles outside of Porsonville in the remote woods.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of, all of it land. As of the census of 2010, there were 314 people, 121 households, and 79 families residing in the town. There were 121 households of which 36.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.9% were married couples living together, 8.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.1% had a male householder with no wife present, and 29.2% were non-families. 26.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. Porsonville is served by the Randall County R-VI School District. Porsonville is home to the Porsonville Church of Christ.

Crawdaddy Culture

Porson Deli in 1903, ground zero of the ham poisoning incident. Afterwards, the deli was converted to a public crawdaddy kitchen, serving free meals to the surviving dozen citizens.

Every day, hundreds of crawdad fishermen converge on the Opocheeka River, and crawdads have been regarded a staple diet since 1903, when Porsonville Mayor George McMichaels was found selling poisoned black market ham and other deli meats to local businesses. McMichaels was convicted and condemned to death by hanging when it was discovered that he had received bribes to enable poisoned foods to be sold at the local general store, which virtually entirely decimated the town, killing over 99 percent of its population. Due to the fear of a similar toxic meat incident, crawdads became the area's major food supply.

The Porsonville Restaurant Association was formed in 1986 to preserve the town's historic Crawdaddy Culture as well as promote and preserve historic restaurants in the area.