Springlake Cemetery
Springlake, Lamb County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This burial ground served the original residents of Springdale community. The area was opened for settlement in 1908 by the George C. Wright Land Company. It was named for the nearby Springlake Ranch. D. B. Shiftlet donated the first two acres for the cemetery. The first burial took place in 1909. Of the 356 known graves, five are unmarked. The community of Springlake was relocated in 1935, 4.75 miles southeast. The town once had a hotel, supply store, school and post office, but only the cemetery remains at the original site. (1980)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When the George C. Wright Land Company opened this High Plains country to settlers in 1908, a small community gathered nearby and, in 1909, began burying its dead in ground donated by D. B. Shiftlet. The town of Springlake—once boasting a hotel, store, school, and post office—picked up and moved nearly five miles southeast in 1935, chasing better prospects. Only the cemetery, with its 356 known graves, still marks where the original settlement stood.
Why it matters
A surviving cemetery beside a vanished townsite captures the boom-and-relocation churn of early-twentieth-century Plains settlement, where whole communities could rise, move, and disappear within a generation.
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Related people
- · D. B. Shiftlet
- · George C. Wright
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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