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History
on a PinheadA
community? Just barely. It was hardly more than a spur on the San Antonio and
Aransas Pass Railroad where farmers supplemented their income by providing firewood
for Houston and San
Antonio markets.
A single store operated on the site from 1919 to
the late 1920s but it did business in a tent and no permanent structure was built.
After
1929 bentonite clay was extracted from deposits here and
processed in a plant
built for the purpose. The Texas Company provided housing for the plant’s employees.
It was estimated that 20 families lived and worked here until the mid 1960s.
Mail came through nearby West Point and the employee’s children attended classes
in Muldoon or Rocky Ridge.*
The company eventually suspended excavations and the spur was closed. According
to the Handbook of Texas, the 80 foot smokestack of the company fell in 1989 –
depriving the “town” of a landmark / tombstone.
* The Handbook of Texas has no listing for Rocky Ridge and there are no direction
available. There is a sign on FM 154 directing people to the Rocky Ridge “arena.” |
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1930s
Fayette County map showing Lena W of La
Grange
Courtesy Texas General Land Office | |
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