Notrees, on State Highway 302 twenty-one miles northwest of Odessa in west central Ector County, had one native tree before construction of a large Shell gas plant forced its removal. Grocer Charlie Brown started his store in 1946, became the first postmaster later that year, and provided the town's name. Notrees served the TXL oilfield of the Permian Basin. By 1956 the town had ten oil company camps and a population of more than 500, served by a school, a recreation hall, a liquor store, two grocery stores, and several other businesses. Later the camps closed and many oil workers moved away, but in the 1980s the community still existed, amidst recent growths of mesquite and other trees. The population of Notrees was reported as 338 in 1980 through 2000.