Sand Lake

Two records of Sand Lake do not agree. The plaque describes about forty houses, two schools, a store, a post office, an icehouse and a cemetery, and says the community had over 200 residents by 1940. The Handbook of Texas lists a general store and post office only from 1923 to 1931, a school and closely settled dwellings in the 1930s, and 25 residents in 1947, and then no census figures at all. The plaque attributes the end to levee breaches in 1942 and 1946 and later gravel mining; the Handbook gives no cause.

What the plaque says

Sand Lake For Daniel Buckley's sacrifice in the 1836 Battle of Goliad, the Republic of Texas granted his heirs some 2,200 acres on the west bank of the Trinity River, in what became Ellis County. In 1871, his widow sold Alsdorf Faulkner (1838-1901) some of her land. In 1882, Faulkner deeded a 150-foot strip of land for the construction of the Texas Midland Railroad. The railroad added a stop at Sand Lake, and it soon became a popular destination for camping, fishing and hunting. Subsequent owners sold land to the U.S. Government next to the Trinity River and to the Ellis County Levee District. Landowner Homer Newton Chapman (1891-1931) installed a water system for the growing town of Sand Lake in the early twentieth century. The town had a blacksmith's shop, grocery store and post office, icehouse, some forty houses and a cemetery. The town's two schools, one for white students and one for black students, also held occasional church services. The community remained rural in nature. By 1938, Miles Durham Glaspy (1871-1955) and his son J. Roy (1900-1980) had acquired Sand Lake Farm plus additional land amassing 3,300 acres. The land produced cotton, wheat and maize crops, but was home to a large cattle operation as well. By 1940, the community had over 200 residents. The community suffered levee breaches in 1942 and 1946, the latter of which washed out the railroad tracks. The community of Sand Lake did not recover, and most of the population moved to other areas. Later uses of the land have included extensive sand and gravel mining. (2023)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ellis County Courthouse — 12 mi
  J. Riely Gordon's courthouse of 1897 in Pecos red sandstone and pink granite, with twenty-one carved stone faces and two cornerstones left by a quarrel over its building.
• Petroleum Industry Park — 19 mi
  The pipes and drilling tower mark where a city water well struck oil on June 9, 1894, the start of the first Texas field to produce oil and gas in important quantities.
• Hill County Courthouse — 28 mi
  Wesley C. Dodson's limestone Second Empire courthouse of 1890 on the Hillsboro square, gutted by fire on New Year's Day 1993 and rededicated in 1999 after a rebuilding that two Willie Nelson concerts helped pay for.

More markers nearby

• Old Bardwell — 1.7 mi
• Avalon Missionary Baptist Church — 4.5 mi
• Boren Cemetery — 4.6 mi
• Nash Public School — 4.9 mi