City of George West

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some towns just sort of happen. A crossroads here, a creek there, somebody sets up a store and before long you've got yourself a place.

But George West, Texas, that town was built on purpose, by a man with a name big enough to fill the county. George Washington West. Rancher.

Civic leader. The kind of man who, when he decided something needed doing, went ahead and did it. He founded this town in 1913, and he didn't just pick a spot and hope for the best.

He secured the railroad route through Live Oak County. You understand what that means out here? The railroad was the difference between a town that mattered and a wide patch of nothing.

West made sure the iron ran where he needed it to run. And then, as if that weren't enough, he went ahead and provided several of the municipal buildings himself, along with plots for others to build on. The man wasn't just starting a town, he was furnishing it.

Now, a town needs more than buildings and rails to really stick. It needs standing. And in 1919, George West got that too, when it became the county seat of Live Oak County.

From there it grew into something the whole region depended on, a market and shipping point for cattle and cotton. Two of the most Texas things there are, moving through a town that one man willed into existence. George Washington West put his name on this place, and then he gave the place everything it needed to earn it.

What the marker says

Founded 1913 by George Washington West, rancher and civic leader, who secured railroad route through Live Oak County and provided several municipal buildings and plots for others. Became county seat in 1919. Market and shipping point for cattle and cotton. (1967)