DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. You're rolling through Scurry County, and there's a name out here that oughta give you pause — or at least a slow grin. Light.
A whole town called Light. And friend, the story of Light is really the story of a town that almost made it. Almost.
Established in 1899 — that's when the post office was granted, on land owned by a man named D. C. McGregor.
Now before the town even had a name worth mailing a letter to, the surrounding area had already been settled back in the 1890s. There was a school out on what they called the Jumbo Ranch, and they picked it up and moved it right into Light. That's how a frontier town gets its legs — you bring the school, and the people follow.
By 1905, Light was growing enough to warrant a brand-new two-room school building. Two rooms. That might not sound like much, but out here on the Texas plains in 1905, that was a statement of intent.
That was a town saying: we're staying. And then came 1907. That's when surveyors laid out a new town called Fluvanna — right at the terminus of the Roscoe, Snyder and Pacific Railroad.
The railroad. You see where this is going. Soon, the citizens of Light did what practical Texans do — they moved their buildings and their belongings a mile west to be on the rails.
Not just themselves, mind you. Their buildings. The whole town picked itself up and walked.
And Light — well, Light went dark. The townsite is gone now. Vanished, just like the marker says.
But here's the thing that'll stay with you. The area around where Light once stood? It still supplies water to Fluvanna to this day.
The town didn't make it, but the land it sat on? Still doing the work. Some things outlast the names we give them.
What the marker says
Established in 1899, with the granting of a post office, on land owned by D. C. McGregor. The school on "Jumbo" Ranch (in area settled in 1890s) was relocated here and Light began to grow. In 1905 a new, two-room school building was constructed. A decline set in, however, when the town of Fluvanna was surveyed in 1907 at terminus of the Roscoe, Snyder & Pacific Railroad. Soon citizens moved their buildings and belongings a mile west to be on the rails. Although town of Light has vanished, area still supplies water to Fluvanna. (1972)