Lena, Texas, Fayette County. (original) (raw)

History on a Pinhead

A community? Just barely. It was hardly more than a spur on the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad where farmers supplemented their income by providing firewood for Houston and San Antonio markets.

A single store operated on the site from 1919 to the late 1920s but it did business in a tent and no permanent structure was built.

After 1929 bentonite clay was extracted from deposits here and
processed in a plant built for the purpose. The Texas Company provided housing for the plant�s employees. It was estimated that 20 families lived and worked here until the mid 1960s.

Mail came through nearby West Point and the employee�s children attended classes in Muldoon or Rocky Ridge.* The company eventually suspended excavations and the spur was closed. According to the Handbook of Texas, the 80 foot smokestack of the company fell in 1989 � depriving the �town� of a landmark / tombstone.

* The Handbook of Texas has no listing for Rocky Ridge and there are no direction available. There is a sign on FM 154 directing people to the Rocky Ridge �arena.�

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