Lyons

Lyons began as Pennington, a camp for the Santa Fe's track crews, and took its name from W. A. Lyon, who gave the railroad its right-of-way. It was Lyon's Station first, then Lyons. In the late nineteenth century, according to Texas Escapes, the town of about 150 people supported a hotel, four stores, livery stables and a newspaper. With county seats about fifteen miles away in either direction, it never grew large, and the Handbook of Texas names it among the only towns in the county above 150 people in 1990.

What the plaque says

Lyons An 1878 railway work camp; in 1880 became town of Lyon's Station, named for site donor, W. A. Lyon. Soon had 3 cotton gins, an oil mill, many businesses. In 1894 hosted first auto ever seen in this county, with rides for the daring. Now gateway to Lake Somerville Recreation Area. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 12 mi
  Two park units on an 11,000-acre lake between Austin and College Station, joined by a thirteen-mile trailway for hikers, cyclists and riders with primitive camps along the way.
• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 13 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum — 19 mi
  The library of the forty-first president on the Texas A&M campus, opened in 1997, where George and Barbara Bush and their daughter Robin are buried in a family plot on the grounds.
• Round Top and Festival Hill — 24 mi
  A German village on the old La Bahía Road, named for a house tower, with an 1867 stone church, a Fourth of July kept since 1851 and a concert hall a pianist built without blueprints.

More markers nearby

• Somerville — 3.5 mi
• 1906 Reunion of Hood's Texas Brigade — 3.5 mi
• Site of the Somerville Harvey House — 3.5 mi
• Thomas J. Gary — 3.5 mi