Nestled out in East Texas’ Limestone County lies Tehuacana, a tiny Texas town where just 228 residents called it home as of the 2020 Census. Now regarded as a Texas ghost town, it’s a far cry from its standing 177 years ago, when it was nominated to helm Texas’ state capital.
But what was its origin story — and how did it lose out on the chance to be the epicenter of the Lone Star State?
What is the backstory behind Tehuacana, Texas?
Approximately 141 miles and a little over two hours away from Austin is Tehuacana, a former competitor in the race for the state capital. The community’s name pays homage to the Tehuacana Native Americans, a tribe related to the Wichitas that first called the area home and relied on it as a farming resource, per archival records from the Tehuacana Heritage Society. Conflicts between the Tehuacana tribe and the Cherokee tribe ultimately led to their decimation in the 1830s.
Come 1835, John Boyd — a member of the First Congress of the Republic of Texas — received the region on July 13, 1835, as part of a land grant between the Mexican state of Coahuila and Texas, according to records from the Preservation Texas Institute…