Homer-Alto Road

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Homer-Alto Road in Cherokee County. Now settle in, because this one starts the way a lot of good Texas stories start: with people moving, hauling, and trying to figure out where they're going. Back in the early days of Angelina and Cherokee counties, there wasn't much in the way of formal roads.

What you had were paths worn down by farmers carrying goods to market, pioneers heading toward new homes, the same way it worked all across Texas. The roads didn't get drawn on any map first. They just sort of happened, one wagon at a time.

But as the population started growing through the 1860s, that informal arrangement wasn't going to cut it anymore. A real system was needed. So in 1860, construction began on a road running from Homer, which at that time was the Angelina County seat, all the way to Alto.

Now here's the part I love. When the survey crew went out to find the best route, they didn't start from scratch. They followed buffalo trails and Indian trails, paths that had already been tested by creatures and people who knew this land long before any county seat existed.

Once that road was open, it became the official mail route, carrying correspondence from Homer to Alto and then on further to Rusk, the Cherokee County seat. Along the way it passed through a community known as Denman Springs. Then came 1882, and something changed.

Lufkin was created right there where Denman Springs had been, and that stretch of the old road took on a new identity as Denman Avenue. The rest of the road kept on serving travelers and commerce, and by the 1930s the main part of the Homer-Alto Road had been designated State Highway 40. Later still, it was folded into U.S.

Highway 69. Buffalo trails to a mail route to a state highway to a U.S. highway. That old road just kept on becoming something more, every single time Texas needed it to.

What the marker says

As the population increased in Angelina and Cherokee counties in the 1860s, a formal system of roads began to take shape. Until that time, roads were usually forged by farmers and other pioneers carrying goods to market or traveling to new homes, as in other areas of Texas. Construction of a road from Homer (at that time Angelina County seat) to Alto began in 1860. The survey crew followed buffalo and Indian trails to determine the best route for the new road. Once open, it was the official mail route from Homer to Alto, and then on to Rusk, the Cherokee County seat. It led through a community known as Denman Springs until 1882 when Lufkin was created there and the road became Denman Avenue. The main part of the Homer-Alto Road became State Highway 40 in the 1930s and later U. S. Highway 69. (1999)