Site of Old Park Named for Comanche Chief Katemcy

The town of Katemcy, some sources say, was first called Cootsville, for settler Andy Coots, and legend has a man named Burnett driving hundreds of hogs here to fatten on acorns and pecans. Settlers built south along the creek from 1874. The Cowan brothers put up a sawmill, gristmill and gin, and when Alfred Cowan suggested Hammerville for the 1884 post office, officials said there were too many towns ending in ville, so the place took the chief's name. The town declined after 1925, as tractors replaced tenant farmers, and had ninety people in 2000.

What the plaque says

Site of Old Park Named for Comanche Chief Katemcy Helped make 1847 treaty with settlers. Katemcy and peace party said to have camped in present park. At first Old Settlers Reunion here (1925) Herman Lehmann, raised by Indians, showed ritual killing of animal with a longbow. Settlers gave the land to state for use as park. 1967

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Mason — 11 mi
  A reconstructed officers' quarters on Post Oak Hill above Mason, standing where the army's stone fort was taken apart by the town that grew up below it.
• Eckert James River Bat Cave Preserve — 24 mi
  A limestone cave on the James River where about four million Mexican free-tailed bats raise their young each summer, kept open to visitors by a family's gift.

More markers nearby

• Peter's Prairie School — 2.0 mi
• Site of Camp San Saba — 5.9 mi
• Wagram Cemetery — 7.4 mi
• Voca Waterwheel Mill — 8.0 mi