Mauriceville

Mauriceville's second act was crawfish. As local timber declined, Wikipedia says, rice and dairy farming became the main focus, and crawfish farming grew later; Peter Applebome profiled it in The New York Times on August 4, 1982, under the headline Down in Texas, Farmers Raise Crawfish. In 1983 the Texas Legislature designated Mauriceville the Crawfish Capital of Texas, citing the State Library's list of official capital designations, and an annual Crawfish Festival is held each April. The town first appeared as a census-designated place in the 1990 census, when it counted 2,046 people.

What the plaque says

Mauriceville Mauriceville was established in the wake of construction of two railroads: the Texarkana and Fort Smith Railroad in 1898 and the Orange and Northwestern Railroad in 1902. The town was named for Maurice Miller, son of the first president of the Orange and Northwestern Railroad. J.P. Hilliard sparked the community's marketing and cultural center at the junction of the railroads by building the first general mercantile and feed store. When the post office was established on November 2, 1906, he was the first postmaster. The business district also included a two-story station house and a two-story hotel owned and operated by John D. And Mary Elizabeth Warrell that catered to railroad workers and teachers. The community continued to grow as several mills in the area prospered. The community's first school was organized in 1889 and in 1929, the Lemonville and Cherry Grove (Gist) schools became part of the Mauriceville District. The First Baptist Church of Mauriceville, originally known as Friendship Church, was organized during the summer of 1900 with Wiley Wilkinson and John (Savan) Frederick as charter deacons. Services were held in the Hobson School. Around the same time, a Baptist Church for African Americans was organized a few yards behind Hilliard's store. As local mills closed, the population wavered. In 1969, the Mauriceville District consolidated with Little Cypress. Mauriceville is a reminder of the early timber and transportation industry which spurred the town's growth and continuance. (2015)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center — 10 mi
  More than 250 acres on Adams Bayou, begun by H. J. Lutcher Stark in 1937, with garden rooms, a cypress-tupelo swamp, a heronry blind and free pontoon tours in season.
• Stark Museum of Art — 11 mi
  A white-marble museum in Orange built by the Stark Foundation and opened in 1978, holding Western art, American Indian art, Audubon's Birds of America and Steuben glass, free to enter.
• McFaddin-Ward House — 16 mi
  A Beaux-Arts Colonial Revival mansion finished in 1906 and lived in by one family for 75 years, with free guided tours of three furnished floors, the carriage house and gardens.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 17 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.

More markers nearby

• Peyton Bland — 4.8 mi
• Claiborne West — 5.6 mi
• Site of World War II P. O. W. Camp — 7.5 mi
• Orangefield — 8.6 mi