Lyons

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, the way only Duane can. Way out in Burleson County, there's a little place called Lyons, and its story starts the way a lot of good Texas stories do: with railroad iron and hard men working in the heat. Back in 1878, this spot was nothing but a railway work camp.

Just tents and tools and the sound of hammers. But give it two years, and things had a way of changin out here. By 1880, that rough camp had grown into a proper town.

They called it Lyon's Station, named for the man who donated the very ground it stood on, W. A. Lyon.

A town needs a name, and this one got one with a story attached right from the start. And once it had a name, it didn't waste any time. Three cotton gins went up.

An oil mill. Many businesses putting down roots and stretching toward the sky. Lyon's Station was humming.

But here is the part of this story worth leaning in for. The year is 1894. Now, most folks in Burleson County had never seen an automobile.

Not even once. And then one rolled into Lyons. The first auto ever seen in this county, right there on the streets of this little town that had started as a tent camp by the railroad tracks.

And they weren't just showing it off from a distance. They were giving rides. Rides for the daring, the marker says.

You can picture the crowd, the wide eyes, the few brave souls who stepped forward and the many more who did not. That moment, in that town, in 1894, was the future arriving in Burleson County for the very first time. Today, Lyons serves as the gateway to the Lake Somerville Recreation Area.

From a railway work camp, to Lyon's Station, to a front-row seat at the dawn of the automobile age. Not bad for a spot that started with nothing but a rail line and a man named Lyon willing to give up some land.

What the marker says

An 1878 railway work camp; in 1880 became town of Lyon's Station, named for site donor, W. A. Lyon. Soon had 3 cotton gins, an oil mill, many businesses. In 1894 hosted first auto ever seen in this county, with rides for the daring. Now gateway to Lake Somerville Recreation Area. (1968)