In 1928 the town became the northern terminus of the Fort Worth and Denver South Plains Railway from Lubbock. Silverton was subsequently incorporated, and it grew. Natural gas was introduced in 1929 by the West Texas Gas Company. By 1940 Silverton had thirty-five businesses and a population of 684. Throughout its history Silverton has suffered from prairie fires, grasshoppers, dust storms, and cyclones. Its worst disaster occurred on the night of May 15, 1957, when a tornado killed twenty-one people and did over $1 million worth of damage.