Springlake's Name Leads Back to an Old Watering Place

Springlake's name begins about five miles west of Earth, where a 1936 state marker stands beside U.S. 70. It identifies Spring Lake as an Indigenous camp and watering place used during buffalo hunts. The gray granite marker belongs to the Texas Centennial series.

In 1882, Tom Lynch drove cattle there from New Mexico. After the Capitol Syndicate acquired the land, Spring Lake became headquarters for a major division of the XIT Ranch. The nearby community later took its name from that Spring Lake division.

So Springlake carries more than a pleasant-sounding name. It holds a watering place, a cattle route, and one of the XIT Ranch's organizing points in a single word.