Sour Lake, Texas
Gateway to the Big Thicket"
Hardin County, East Texas
Highways 105 and 326
15 miles SW of Hardin
18 miles NW of Beaumont
Population 1,667 (2000)
Sour Lake is known as the home of Texaco. Formed in 1903, the Texas Company was one of the three major oil companies that can trace their birth to the oil fields around SE Texas.
History in a Pecan Shell
The oldest surviving town in Hardin County, Sour Lake was settled around 1835. First known as Sour Lake Springs after the medicinal waters, the healing properties were long known to the Indians long before the arrival of white settlers. By 1850 Sour Lake had become a full-fledged health resort. After a visit in the early 1860s, the town got a testimonial from none other than Sam Houston himself. Like many medicinal springs, the water was bottled and sold.
The population in 1885 was 150 which declined to only 50 by 1896. When oil was discovered in 1902, Sour Lake became one of the earliest Texas boom-towns with a population that was estimated as high as 10,000. It was reported that fifty-two saloons were in operation during the first year of the boom. By 1903 half of the wells were coming up dry due to over drilling.
In 1914 two railroads serviced the 2,800 residents of Sour Lake. As late as 1948, Sour Lake was still producing 3,500 barrels of crude oil daily.
Texas Towns We All Know and Love
EVERGREEN, TEXAS
Lee County, Central Texas South
FM 1624
8 miles NE of Giddings
62 miles E of Austin via US 290
117 miles W of Houston via US 290
Population: 50
Named after the Live Oak they used for hanging.
This is really hilarious, what a fun idea!!!.
Texas does have its own unique brands of justice...
=)
About Galveston, I always thought this hurricane was very tragic but interesting:
http://www.qsl.net/w5www/hurricane.html
Yes, it was terrible pray it never happens again.
NEW BRAUNFELS, TEXAS
Comal County Seat, Texas Hill Country
I-35 and State Hwy 46
46 miles S of Austin
16 miles S of San Marcos
30 miles N of San Antonio
13 miles NW of Seguin
Population 36,494(2000) 27,334(1990)
New Braunfels History
The Story of our Texas' German Pilgrims: or Death March to Comal County by W. T. Block Jr.
"...Of the first German Pilgrims to Texas in 1845... only one in four survived the walk from Indianola to New Braunfels..."
New Braunfels, TX: Pearl of the Comal-Guadalupe Valley by W. T. Block Jr.
"Perhaps New Braunfels was to play a role in frontier Texas history only because of the reactionary conditions that existed in post-Napoleonic Europe... In the late winter of 1845, the story of the first 6,000 immigrants to land at Carlshafen, which was still a prairie, makes the first year's History of the Plymouth Pilgrims mild by comparison..."
History in a Pecan Shell
Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels and other semi-nobles from Germany had contracted to settle the "western lands" of the New Republic of Texas. The land grants were to be between the Upper Colorado and the Llano Rivers. New Braunfels and Fredericksburg were originally meant only to be way stations.
Carl only spent a short time in the town that continues to wear his name. He returned to Europe in 1845 to marry and never returned. Meanwhile, the society that was to aid the immigrants went broke. By the time the bulk of the immigrants arrived they were stranded (in the truest sense of the word) at Indianola.
Hundreds died on the beach and many attempted to walk across a land very different from Germany. Recent arrivals infected the settled Germans with Yellow Fever and hundreds more died. About the only benefit to come from the trek was the settlement of many towns in Victoria, DeWitt and Lavaca Counties.
SHAMROCK , TEXAS
On "Route" 66
Wheeler County, Texas Panhandle
I-40 and Hwy 83
83 miles E of Amarillo
16 miles S of Wheeler
14 miles West of the Oklahoma Line
Population: 2,183 (2000)
n immigrant shepherd applied for a post office in 1890, requesting the name Shamrock for his post office/ dugout home. Settlement began with the arrival of The Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf Railway in 1902. The town lost the name for a brief period when a new post office was opened, but the railroad had named the stop Shamrock and the old name went back into use. Maybe it was Irish luck.
KNICKERBOCKER, TEXAS
Tom Green County
FM 2335 and FM 584
6 miles E of the Irion county line
18 miles W of San Angelo
6 miles S of Tankersley
Population: 50 est. (2000)
History in a Pecan Shell
The town was once second only to San Angelo in size and political influence in the county after Ben Ficklin was washed away in the great flood of the Concho River.
The name comes from two of the town's early settlers who were related to Washington Irving, the American writer who was at the peak of his popularity at that time.
Diedrich Knickerbocker was the fictitious narrator of Irving's History of New York.
The town had twenty-five residents in 1884, fifty in 1890 but by the late 1890s the population had swollen to 250.
During its boom times, Knickerbocker seemed to have two of everything. The town had two gins, two saloons, two blacksmiths, two hotels and two stores. It also had an undertaker - just one.
Kinckerbocker also had an early sanitarium since doctors all across the country were sending people to dryer climates. Later, nearby Carlsbad became a huge facility for tuberculosis patients.
RICE, TEXAS
The home town that all the lurking Yankees just wish they had!
Navarro County, North Central Texas
I-45
10 miles N of Corsicana
43 miles S of Dallas
Population 798 (2000) 564 (1990)
The town's namesake is the same William Marsh Rice that the university in Houston was named after. He was later murdered in New York City (the Valet did it). Rice came to Houston in 1837 nearly penniless and by 1860 was the second richest man in Texas. One of his major interests was railroading and when the Houston and Texas Central ran a line to Dallas, he gave the land for the town's church and cemetery.
Being this close to Dallas doesn't help Rice's economy at all. People en route to Houston don't need to stop this soon, and travelers from Houston figure they can wait. If they can't, then they'll more than likely stop at Corsicana or Ennis.
So there sits Rice, Texas. Now doncha just wish it was your hometown ?!?
This message was edited Jan 24, 2008 7:38 PM
EDINBURG, TEXAS
Hidalgo County Seat, South Texas
US 281 and Hwy 107
8 miles N of McAllen
31 miles W of Harlingen
Population: 48,465 (2000) 31,091(1990)
History in a Pecan Shell
Edinburg's original name had been Chapin, but Mr. Chapin was tried for murdering a man in San Antonio's Buckhorn Saloon. Propriety demanded a name change, and so John Young, prominent businessman, named it after his birthplace of Edinburgh, Scotland in 1911. Somewhere along the way, the "h" was dropped.
GUN BARREL CITY, TEXAS
Town Slogan: "We Shoot Straight with You"
Henderson County, East Texas
FM 85 (off US175)
58 miles SE of Dallas
20 miles NW of Athens
Population: (est) 4,000
Gun Barrel City, despite the frontier-sounding name, has only been around since the 1960s when the Cedar Creek Reservoir was built. The population was only 60 in 1970, and the people voted on incorporation so that the town could sell beer.
The name originated from Gun Barrel Lane, which has become State Highway 198. It was a shortcut connecting Mabank and Seven Points and we think it's safe to assume the reference was to the relatively straight nature of the road.
Remember their motto is "We shoot straight WITH you." Not "We shoot straight AT you." (Houston's unofficial motto).
YARRELLTON, TEXAS
AKA Yaralton, or Yarrelton
Milam County, Central Texas S
FM 1915
9 miles NW of Cameron
SE of Temple
Not on the Texas Official Travel Map
Population: 35
History in a Pecan Shell
AKA Yaralton, or Yarrelton, the town was formed in the late 1860s by settlers from Alabama. The town was named to honor Storekeeper / Judge Tom Yarrell.
The first classes of the school were held under a brush-arbor in 1876. A post office opened in 1886. In 1890 the population was 50 and the town had a gin and two stores.
Yarrellton was once famous for its huge Fourth of July picnics, which sometimes drew crowds over a thousand people. In 1941 the population was reported as fifty-eight and its been in a slow decline ever since.
Finding Nemo, Texas
NEMO, TEXAS
Somervell County, North Central Texas
Intersection of FM 199 & FM 200
5 miles E of Glen Rose
36 miles SE of Stephenville
79 miles SW of Dallas
Population: 56 (1990)
The unusual name comes from one of the numerous post office application rejections of the 1800s. A local hero named Jimmie Johnson had had the railroad honor him with the designation of Johnson Station. The townsfolk wanted it continued with the post office designation. The postal authorities in Washington (on-the-Potomac) wanted a shorter name and the consensus of the town was: "If it can't be named after a fine man like Johnson - it shouldn't be named after any man. One of the Latin-speaking citizens suggested Nemo for "no man" and this was accepted by the post office department.
Nemo's population never exceeded 60 persons and it was only 56 in 1990.
So now everyone can find Nemo
Orange
The name reportedly comes from a local orange grove owned by a man named George Patillo
EAST MOUNTAIN, TEXAS
Upshur County, East Texas
FM 1845
11 miles SE of Gilmer
6 miles NE of Gladewater
3 miles from Longview
Population: 762 (1990) 580 (2000)
History in a Pecan Shell
Settled in the 1870s and named after a geographic feature, East Mountain was known as Savannah when a post office opened under that name in 1902. It closed within three years and the name East Mountain became official.
The town experienced an oil boom in the 1930s, and the town's school and churches all had producing wells on their property.
The population in 1940 was an estimated 75 persons. The town is now a bedroom community of Longview, just across the line in Gregg County.
what a neat thread!
NOODLE, TEXAS
Jones County, Panhandle / West Texas
Farm Road 1812
11 miles N of Merkel
30 miles NW of Abilene
Population: 40 (1990)
History in a Pecan shell
The town took its name from Noodle Creek. According to folk tradition the name meant "nothing" or signified a dry creek bed. Settlement in the region began in 1882 with the arrival of Anderson Criswell, a shepherd. Later settlers came for the land that was priced at a mere $5 per acre.
In 1898 Noodle had a store and in 1900 a post office opened which operated until 1924.
In 1883 the first school, Willow Creek, was established at Criswell's ranch. Local residents built a school building in Noodle six years later and named it Cross Roads.
By 1920 the town had added a gin, a blacksmith shop, and a garage.
In 1929, after consolidating with the Horn school district, Noodle used bonds to build another school, the Noodle-Horn school. The first church services in Noodle were held in the original schoolhouse.
In the mid-1980s Noodle had one store, a gin, and two churches.
Noodle's population did not exceed forty between 1950 and 1986. It was still reported as forty in 1990.
We've run out of Y towns, unless they just didn't make the texasexcapes.com list . . .
That's o.k. if we get a name ending with a y we could use the first letter of the name on that one only. What do you think?
There are other Y towns in Texas.
Yantis is in Wood county near Mineola, east Texas.
The same as we do with X . . . that works. But, if anyone does find an X or Y that is not on the texasescapes.com website, don't hesitate to put it!
SCHULENBURG, TEXAS
Home of the Painted Churches Tour
Fayette County, Central Texas S
Off I-10
15 miles S of La Grange
7 miles W of Weimar
22 miles W Columbus
95 miles W of Houston
105 miles E of San Antonio
Population: 2,699 (2000)
The Painted Churches Tour
This is what brings most visitors to Schulenburg.
Schulenburg, Praha, High Hill, Dubina and Ammannsville comprise the tour, which can be conveniently attached to a visit to Monument Hill (14 miles North on 77).
Hey! Shouldn't that one have started with an E?
It could have, but since DdeTex pointed out another Y town - Yantis - my brain went with that one instead.
But, if you want, I'll go and change it . . .
OH! My mistake, it's fine. (~;
I'll run with it as it is...but you are right bronc
GLADEWATER, TEXAS
"Antique Capital of East Texas"
Gregg County/ Upshur County, East Texas
US 80
13 miles W of Longview
115 miles E of Dallas
Population: 6,078 (2000)
Near the epicenter of the 30's oil boom, Gladewater didn't feel the effects of the depression. Although Gregg County has produced more oil than any other county, the slump of the early eighties was felt severely. The downtown section of Gladewater was full of empty buildings with economic prospects dim. This is when Beth Bishop came up with the idea for the Antique Capital of East Texas.
Now with approx. 200 dealers in 16 malls, Gladewater has a revitalized downtown with a weekend tranquility even during the week.
Helen Lee Estate Daffodil Gardens: Open daily 10 to 4 during the blooming season, mid-February through March. Contact the chamber.
(there's your gardening info)
RICE, TEXAS
The Home Town You Never Had
Navarro County, North Central Texas
I-45
10 miles N of Corsicana
43 miles S of Dallas
Population 798 (2000) 564 (1990)
The town's namesake is the same William Marsh Rice that the university in Houston was named after. He was later murdered in New York City (the Valet did it). Rice came to Houston in 1837 nearly penniless and by 1860 was the second richest man in Texas. One of his major interests was railroading and when the Houston and Texas Central ran a line to Dallas, he gave the land for the town's church and cemetery.
bronc, look up
=)
I'll run with it anyway.
EL PASO, TEXAS
El Paso County, West Texas
Interstate 10, Hwy 62 / 180
573 miles from Austin
617 miles from Dallas
730 miles from Houston
548 miles from San Antonio
795 miles from Texarkana
835 miles from Orange
On the state-line to New Mexico
Across the border from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
Population: 563,662 (2000)
El Paso Landmarks
Architecturally, El Paso has many (but not all) of West Texas' crown jewels. Included are the Bassett Tower (c.1930), The Hotel Cortez (1926), The Kress Building (1937) The Alhambra Theater (1914), The Merrick Building (1887), the Railroad Station and El Paso High.
El Paso as Movie Location
El Paso also has a film commission. Recent films in and around El Paso have been scenes from Dead Man's Walk (Salt Flat), Courage Under Fire, Blue Sky (an appropriate title) and the recent Traffic.
Ooopsy Daisy! Apparently I'm still asleep or my brain is.
OZONA, TEXAS
"The Many Layers of Ozona"
Crockett County Seat, West Texas
I-10 and Hwy 163
37 miles West of Sonora
204 miles from San Antonio
344 miles from El Paso
Population: 3436 (2000)
Ozona is unincorporated. It was once called Powell's Well after the surveyor who donated land to built the Courthouse, school and municipal buildings. The town of Emerald had been considered for the county seat.
The town dates from 1891 and has withstood a fire in the 20s and a flood in 1954 that washed away half of the houses in the city.
Wow!! Makes me want to visit El Paso, I have never been there.
This one was not on that list either so I got it from Wikipedia
Arlington, Texas
City of Arlington
Location of Arlington in Tarrant County, Texas
Country United States
State Texas
Elevation 604 ft (184 m)
Population (2004)
City 359,467
Arlington is a city in Tarrant County, Texas (USA) within the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area. According to a U.S Census Bureau release, as of July 1, 2006 Arlington has an estimated population of 367,197. Arlington is the 7th largest city in Texas and the 49th largest city in the United States.[1]
Located approximately 12 miles (19 km) east of downtown Fort Worth and 20 miles (32 km) west of downtown Dallas, Arlington is home to the Texas Rangers' Ballpark in Arlington and the theme parks Six Flags Over Texas, which is the original Six Flags, and Hurricane Harbor. The Dallas Cowboys' new stadium will also be located in Arlington. The city borders Kennedale, Grand Prairie, Mansfield and Fort Worth, and surrounds the smaller communities of Dalworthington Gardens and Pantego.
History
White settlement in the Arlington area dates back at least to the 1840s. After the May 24, 1841 battle between General Edward H. Tarrant (Tarrant County is named for him) and Native Americans of the Village Creek settlement, a trading post was established at Marrow Bone Spring in present-day Arlington. The rich soil of the area attracted farmers, and several agriculture-related businesses were well established by the late nineteenth century.
Arlington was founded in 1876 along the Texas and Pacific Railroad.[2] The city was named after General Robert E. Lee's Arlington House (in present-day Arlington County, Virginia). Arlington grew as a cotton-ginning and farming center, and incorporated in 1884. The city could boast of water, electricity, natural gas, and telephone services by 1910, along with a public school system. By 1925 the population was estimated at 3,031, and it grew to over four thousand before World War II.
Large-scale industrialization began in 1954 with the arrival of a General Motors assembly plant. Automotive and aerospace development gave the city one of the nation's greatest population growth rates between 1950 and 1990. Arlington became one of the "boomburbs," the extremely fast-growing suburbs of the post-World War II era. U.S. Census Bureau population figures for the city tell the story: 7,692 (1950), 90,229 (1970), 261,721 (1990), and 359,467 (2004 estimate). Tom Vandergriff served as mayor from 1951 to 1977 during this period of explosive development. Six Flags Over Texas opened in Arlington in 1961, and in 1972 the Washington Senators baseball team relocated to Arlington and began play as the Texas Rangers.
I wouldn't mind visiting Schulenburg . . . painted churches are very interesting . . .
NORSE, TEXAS
Texas Ghost Town
Bosque County, North Central Texas
FM 182, South of Meridian
40 miles West of Waco
10 miles West of Clifton via FM 219
Population : 110 (est. 2000)
History in a Pecan Shell
Cleng Peerson, the man who is known as the "Father of Norwegian Immigration" is buried in the churchyard at Norse. The church, Our Savior 's Lutheran Church (dedicated in 1878), is the last remaining public building.
At one time Norse was the largest and most successful Norwegian settlement in Texas.
An elaborate marker at the Norse Cemetery has images of the first Norwegian families.
ELECTRIC CITY, TEXAS
Texas Ghost Towns
Hutchinson County, Texas Panhandle
3 miles N of Borger
On the southern bank of the Canadian River
History in an Oil Can
The town was built in 1926 during the Hutchinson County oil boom. The name is a reference to the Riverview Power Plant, constructed by the Panhandle Power and Light Company to furnish electricity to the oil fields - allowing them to drill at night. Following a 24 hour, seven day schedule, the plant produced its first lights in November of '26.
A camp grew around the facility as the boom continued, and it started evolving into an actual community. It might have remained if not for the improvement of the highway and its proximity to Borger. A few residents stayed and even as late as 1948 five people called Electric City home.
YANCEY, TEXAS
Medina County, Texas Hill Country
FM 462 and FM 2200
14 Miles S of Hondo
19 Miles SE of D'Hanis
46 Mile SW of San Antonio
Population 202 (2000)
Once known as Tehuacana and also as Moss, Texas, it was named for not one, but two youngs men with the first name of Yancey. Yancey Strait and Yancey Kilgore were sons of prominent land owners. A post office was granted in 1897 and the town consisted of little more than school store, cotton gin and post office.
The area had three separate schools (Community School, Styles, and Tehuacana) before they merged in 1912. The mostly German-American population was 350 in 1914 and the town was once noted for it's watermelons, peaches and plums.
In the mid-1920s Yancy was primarily comprised of the school, residences and two churches. The population remained at 275 in the early 1960s but declined to just over 202 in the late 1980s. The population on the state map in 2007 shows 202.
O.K. guys, those of you who put in Alma, Austin, San Antonio and Dime Box need to go back and edit your posts with the proper info, now that we have it.
Thank you.
Where are you getting the details?
I added what I could find on Alma, more then a stop on I45 I have no idea about the town.