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History
in a Pecan ShellSettlement
was before 1840 when the Trinity River
was called the Trinidad River. A ferry crossing here was managed by one
O. M. Airhart and another ferry operated four miles N of present-day Trinidad.
By
the mid 1840s the site had a store and a saloon. In 1880 it became known as Trinity
Switch, for its station on the St. Louis Southwestern Railroad. That year
when the town applied for a post office the word switch was removed and the post
office opened under the name Trinidad. Other sources suggest that that it opened
in 1891.
In 1910 the community reported a population of 70 served by 5
businesses. The population underwent huge growth when a power plant and fertilizer
plant opened here.
From a population of 750 in 1930, it declined to 550
for the 1940 census. The 1990 population was reported as 1,056 residents, growing
slightly to 1,091 for 2000. |
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1940s
Henderson County map showing Trinity River and Trinidad
(Below "HE"
in "HENDERSON")
Courtesy Texas General Land Office |
Historical
Marker - In Trinidad - On Hwy 31, W of Hwy 274The
Trinity RiverThree
main tributaries-- the West, Elm, and East forks-- feed the Trinity from headwaters
in North Texas. Discovery
of prehistoric Malakoff Man carved stone heads near this site in the 20th century
revealed that humans inhabited the Trinity valley thousands of years ago. Indian
villages dotted the river banks when European exploration began. French explorer
Robert
Cavelier Sieur de La Salle called this waterway the River of Canoes in 1687.
Spaniard Alonso de Leon is credited with first using the name "Trinity" in 1690.
The fertile Trinity floodplain drew Anglo-American settlers to this area during
the Republic of Texas. Buffalo, first Henderson
County Seat, was founded a few miles upstream at a ferry crossing.
Navigation
of the Trinity has been proposed in a number of ambitious plans since the 1850s.
Steamboats plied the river carrying cotton,
cattle, and lumber to Galveston
and other Gulf of Mexico ports until the 1870s. Arrival of the railroad
ended the era of riverboat trade. Founded in 1881 on the St. Louis Southwestern
Railroad, also known as the Cotton Belt, the town of Trinidad had a pump station
to draw water for the boilers of steam locomotives. A ferry crossed the Trinity
here until a bridge was erected in 1900. |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories, and vintage/historic
photos of their town, please contact
us. | |
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