Linking to Lipan

Pasture land

Where in the world is Lipan, Texas? It’s actually a little town just northwest of Granbury (see Getting Grub in Granbury) in Hood County. The day we were in that area was a non-traditional one for a summer in Texas. It has rained substantially, and even at the height of the summer the fields are filled with green grass. With a bright blue sky as a back drop it’s easy to see why someone would want to move here to raise horses and cattle.



Although a settlement wasn’t officially established until 1873, people began moving here during the early 1850s. At about that time T. A. Burns

Bank in downtown Lipan

began laying out the town site at the juncture of the roads connecting Granbury to Palo Pinto and Stephenville to Weatherford (see Way Back in Weatherford). He named this little town after the Lipan Apaches who had used the area as a hunting area in the years before the coming of the ‘white man’. The post office was instituted in in 1875 followed within the next 20 years by a school, blacksmith shops and two cotton gins. The land was so fertile that the community was eventually able to support 300 residents and 18 businesses. The Great Depressing and World War II had little effect on the community which finally peaked in the late 1980s with 512 residents. It continues to rock along as an agricultural community with easy access to larger cities for folks who are willing to commute for their careers.

It’s a scenic little area that’s pleasant to travel through. Maybe someday there will be a place to eat that is not fast food.

Homestead

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