City of Lufkin

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. The year is 1882, and out here in the Piney Woods of East Texas, a town is coming to life. It starts the way a lot of Texas towns start, with a railroad pushing through the timber, a survey crew cutting the line, and one man holding the instruments steady enough to leave his name on the map.

That man was E. P. Lufkin, chief of the crew that surveyed the railroad right through what would become the town itself.

And the town took his name. Just like that. Lufkin, Texas.

It has a ring to it. Once the railroad was through, it didn't take long for the sawmills to follow. The timber was dense, the demand was real, and Lufkin became a thriving sawmill community before the decade was hardly done.

Then in 1892, something else happened that cemented the town's place in the region. Lufkin became the county seat of Angelina County, and it has held that distinction ever since. Now, a county seat is not a title you stumble into.

It means the town has weight, permanence, a reason for folks to show up and stay. And show up they did. Because Lufkin kept growing, kept building, kept adding to the list of what it makes and what it moves.

Today it's a regional manufacturing and commerce center. The things coming out of Lufkin now read like a working man's catalog: paper and wood products still in the mix, yes, but also oilfield pumps, trailers, and foundry castings. From a survey crew chief's name on a map in 1882 to all of that.

Some towns just have a way of holding on and growing bigger than the moment that made them.

What the marker says

Founded 1882. Soon became a thriving sawmill community. Named for E. P. Lufkin, chief of crew that surveyed railroad through town. Has been county seat of Angelina County since 1892. Now a regional manufacturing and commerce center. Products include paper and wood products, oilfield pumps, trailers, and foundry castings. (1970)