Oakhurst Was a Sawmill Town Before the Mill Went Quiet

Oakhurst sits at U.S. 190 and FM 946, and its name fits the ground: a wooded hill, or hurst, in a grove of oaks. Around 1899 or 1900, the Columbia Lumber Company put a sawmill there. The town soon had a commissary, a drugstore, a barbershop, office buildings, and a post office.

The old tram connection to the International-Great Northern line in Walker County became the Trinity Valley Railway, a common carrier based around the timber trade. Palmetto Lumber later bought the mill, and Oakhurst grew to about 600 people after consolidation. A bank opened there to handle Liberty bonds bought by lumber workers from 1916 to 1919.

The mill closed in 1930, and the railway followed in 1936. Between those losses, a Civilian Conservation Corps camp opened in Oakhurst in 1933 and gave about 250 youths work and education during the Great Depression.

That rise-and-drop pattern is why Oakhurst reads differently from a simple crossroads. It was once a company-town kind of place with rail, payroll, social centers, and a bank. Natural gas discoveries and Lake Livingston later brought new changes, and residents voted for incorporation in 1980.