Contrary to popular belief, the town is not named after or related to the Justin Boot Company. In January 1887 the community petitioned postal authorities for a post office to be named Justin, in honor of Justin Sherman, a chief engineer with the Santa Fe Railroad.

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Justin once was a center of salvage companies, which buy property involved in fires and tornadoes and sell it for discounted prices. In the late 1970s Western wear became very popular, and the Wallace family's salvage operations began to focus on Western wear. The other two major salvage businesses closed, and the salvage industry disappeared.