Ponta
Ponta, Cherokee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1901, a new townsite was laid out on the Texas & New Orleans Railroad. Promoted by brothers Lee D. and William T. Guinn, it was named Hubb for county surveyor Hubbard S. Guinn. It was renamed Ponta (an adaptation of the Latin "Ponte," which means bridge) when the post office was established in 1903. Ponta was a shipping center for such local products as lumber, cotton, tomatoes and peaches. In time, the town boasted such businesses as general stores, restaurants, banks, blacksmiths, cotton gins and sawmills, as well as a hotel, a Masonic lodge, churches and schools. Large scale greenhouse cultivation began in the area in the 1950s. The railroad ceased operation after World War II and the post office closed in 1972. Ponta Plant Nurseries remain a major factor in the Cherokee County economy.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Ponta began in 1901 as a fresh townsite laid out along the Texas & New Orleans Railroad, first called Hubb for a county surveyor before taking the name Ponta—from the Latin for "bridge"—when its post office opened in 1903. As a shipping point for lumber, cotton, tomatoes, and peaches, it grew stores, banks, gins, and sawmills alongside a hotel, lodge, churches, and schools. The railroad's post-war decline and the post office's 1972 closing quieted the town, but large-scale greenhouse nurseries kept it economically alive.
Why it matters
Ponta is a classic railroad boomtown of the East Texas timber-and-truck-farming belt, its fortunes rising and falling with the rails that created it.
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Related people
- · Lee D. Guinn
- · William T. Guinn
- · Hubbard S. Guinn
Themes & tags
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