Lometa
Lometa, Lampasas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1885, the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway (GC&SF) extended its tracks northwest from Temple. For its first station west of Lampasas, a site in open ranch land was chosen. Frank Longfield conveyed right-of-way in June 1885. The GC&SF bought another 200 acres the following month and built a small depot. This was the beginning of Lometa. The new town was platted in May 1886 and named Montvale for the area’s hills and valleys. Because Texas already had a Montvale Post Office, the name was changed to Lometa, a variation of lomita, Spanish for little mountain. Because of business opportunities near the railroad, many residents of Senterfitt (2.5 mi. w) moved to the new town, and Lometa became a thriving trade center. An 1892 directory lists a cotton gin and grist mill, three churches, a school, and telegraph service in a town of 200 people. Development of GC&SF’s Eden Branch and the Scholten Railroad brought prosperity and increased trade in the 1910s. Lometa incorporated in July 1919 with a municipal government led by a mayor and five aldermen. In 1939, the Lower Colorado River Authority provided efficient electrical service. Lometa became a major shipping point for cattle, wool and mohair, and livestock and agriculture dominated the economy for decades. The town’s location on state and federal highways has continued the steady stream of trade and travel established by earlier roads and rail lines. Lometa is still an active town hosting the annual Diamondback Jubilee. The school system, churches, civic organizations and a regional park continue to enrich community life.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Lometa owes its existence to the railroad: in 1885 the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe pushed northwest from Temple and planted a depot in open ranch country. Platted in 1886 and renamed Lometa, from the Spanish for 'little mountain,' the town drew residents away from nearby Senterfitt and became a thriving trade center for cotton, cattle, wool, and mohair. Rail branches and, later, state and federal highways kept goods and travelers flowing through the town for generations.
Why it matters
Lometa is a textbook example of the railroad town, communities conjured from empty ranch land by a depot, that reshaped the map of the American West.
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Related people
- · Frank Longfield
Related events
- · Arrival of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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When the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe reached Lampasas in 1882, the town became a rail terminus and a fashionable spa destination famed for its healing sulphur springs. Houston and Galveston businessmen built the Park Hotel, opened in 1883: a 300-foot frame resort with 200 rooms, ballrooms, a bandstand, and a mule-drawn trolley to the depot, host in 1885 to the first Texas Bankers Association convention. Its glory was brief — as the rails pushed west and medicine outgrew mineral cures, the hotel declined and burned in 1895.
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