Wink was an oil town formed in the 1920s with a criminal underworld so extensive that in 1928 a District Judge declared its incorporation election void. It wouldn't be legally reincorporated until 1933 by which time the local government had been reorganized and the railroad passed through it. The oil boom passed and the town entered a slow decline throughout the 1930s to the 1950s until the railroad discontinued service to Wink in 1958. Late in the 20th century sinkholes began forming in the outskirts of the town which were off limits to the general public but of great interest to local geologists.