Name: West, Texas
Address: West, TX

West, TX RoadyGoat

West, Texas, isn’t just another dot on the I-35 map, though that interstate is undeniably key to its story. The town sits on a slight rise, a little bump in the Blackland Prairie, high enough that you notice the change from the pancake-flat fields surrounding it. That little bit of elevation made it a good spot for a railroad stop back in the late 19th century, and when the tracks went in, a town named for surveyor T.M. West sprang up around it. But what really makes West special is what the Czech immigrants brought with them. They came for the promise of fertile land, watered by aquifers like the Woodbine beneath their feet, and they built a community around agriculture. They also brought their traditions, and none is more famous than the kolache. It's more than just a pastry here; it's a symbol of heritage, a taste of home. You can find kolaches all over Texas now, but folks will tell you the ones in West are the real deal. People stop for the kolaches, sure, but they stay because West feels like a place where time moves a little slower, where community still matters, and where the past is always present, even in the face of tragedy like the fertilizer plant explosion a decade ago.

West, TX RoadyGoat

West, Texas, might look like a blur to folks speeding down I-35, but there's a lot more to this place than meets the eye. It's a town built on hard work, where agriculture feeds families and the Woodbine Aquifer keeps the taps flowing. We're proud of our Czech heritage, and you can't visit without trying a kolache – it’s practically a requirement. But beyond the fields and bakeries, West has also nurtured some real talent.

West, TX RoadyGoat

West, Texas, wasn't always here, you know. It sprang up almost overnight when the railroad came through in 1892, named for T.M. West, who surveyed the land. Before that, this was just rolling prairie, dotted with post oak and blackjack oak, a part of the Blackland Prairie where the soil is rich and dark. The slight rise in elevation, six hundred and seventy-three feet above sea level, gave it an advantage, a little bit of breathing room above the flatlands. The Woodbine Aquifer runs beneath it all, a life-giving source that made farming possible. For decades, West has been a crossroads, a place where Czech heritage meets classic Texas. You can taste it in the kolaches, a culinary tradition that runs deep. Interstate 35, that ribbon of concrete, now slices through, bringing travelers and commerce. But West is more than just a stop on the highway. The fertilizer plant explosion in 2013 was a tragedy that shook the town to its core, a scar that will never fully heal. Still, the community endures, rooted in the land and its history, a testament to the resilience of small-town Texas.

West, Texas - Czech Heritage and Resilience

1882

Czech heritage community on I-35 between Dallas and Austin, famous for kolaches. Devastated by a fertilizer plant explosion on April 17, 2013 that killed 15 and destroyed much of the town.

The Crash at Crush

1896

A head-on collision between two locomotives was staged on Sept. 15, 1896, as a publicity stunt for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railroad. Over 30,000 spectators gathered at the crash site, named "crush" for MKT passenger agent William G. Crush, who conceived the idea. About 4 p.m. the trains were sent speeding toward each other. Contrary to mechanics' predictions, the steam boilers exploded on impact, propelling pieces of metal into the crowd. Two persons were killed and many others injured, including Jarvis Deane of Waco, who was photographing the event. (1976)

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Pope, Lawrence Chalmous

1960

Lawrence Chalmous Pope, banker, robber, convict, and criminal-justice reformer, was born on July 5, 1918, at Trinity, Texas, the son of L. C. and Ellen Kenner (Jones) Pope. The family resided briefly in Alpine, Texas, after his birth, but his parents divorced, and when he was three his mother took him and his younger brother to Huntsville. There they lived with his grandfather, a local banker, and his grandmother. Pope, who attended the Methodist Church as a youth, was a member of the Boy Scouts of America and in 1934 gave a speech at a ceremony dedicating a new facility for Scouts in Huntsville. In an address heard by former governor William P. Hobby and other dignitaries, Pope praised prominent Huntsville citizens for their interest in the future of their community's young men. He graduated during that same year from a training and demonstration school located on the campus of the Sam Houston Normal Institute at Huntsville. Pope and his wife, Geraldine (Vaughan), whom he married on June 18, 1939, were the parents of a daughter. The couple divorced during the 1960s. After Pope's graduation, he moved to Dallas to live with an uncle who was a banker in that city. In 1935, through his uncle's assistance, he secured employment as a clerical worker with the First National Bank of Dallas. Except for an interval during World War II , Pope remained with the bank until 1948. From 1944 to 1946 he served with the United States Army at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and Fort Hood (now Fort Cavazos ), Texas; he attained the rank of staff sergeant. While employed by the Dallas bank he attended classes sponsored by Southern Methodist University, the American Institute of Banking, and the Graduate School of Banking at Rutgers University. From 1948 to 1951, Pope worked as an assistant national bank examiner for the Eleventh Federal Reserve District investigating banks in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Louisiana. He served as a cashier with the Farmers and Merchants National Bank in Abilene, Texas, from 1951 to 1953. From 1953 to 1958 he was executive vice president of the Security State Bank, which later became the Gulfgate State Bank in Houston. In 1958, supported by three other investors, he became part owner and president of the West National Bank in West, Texas, where he also served as president of the local chamber of commerce. Unknown to Pope, however, his partners sold their stock shares to a Dallas swindler and the West bank soon experienced serious financial difficulties. After bank examiners uncovered marginal loans and other questionable practices, the board fired Pope in 1960. After the scandal at West, he borrowed money to purchase the Star , a weekly newspaper in Giddings. Pope, who never prospered during his lengthy banking career, planned to use the newspaper's press equipment to print banking forms for sale to financial institutions. When his acquaintances in the banking business reneged upon what he had perceived as promises to purchase forms from him, Pope became enraged. Armed with a .38 caliber snub-nosed revolver, on successive Saturdays in October 1960 he robbed banks in Thornton and Schulenburg. During these robberies he read bank ledgers to ascertain the amount of cash on hand and forced female bank employees to disrobe while he photographed them posing in lewd positions. He locked the employees in the bank vaults and threatened to give the photographs to local newspapers if his victims identified him. The two robberies netted him slightly less than $7,000, but he later explained: "It was not so much a matter of me being desperate for money as it was just being real damn mad at banks and bankers." Disillusioned and angered at what he regarded as fraudulent and unethical practices, Pope argued that "bankers have stolen more than all criminals have stolen." Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrested him in San Antonio, Texas, in November 1960. After federal and state courts rejected his temporary insanity pleas in 1961, he

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Bold Springs Cemetery

1850

ISAAC BUTLER “DOC” CAUBLE (1820-1904) BUILT A CABIN IN 1850 NEAR ONE OF SEVERAL FLOWING SPRINGS THAT WAS HOME TO GENERATIONS OF NATIVE AMERICANS. CAUBLE’S YOUNG SON, JAMES, WAS A FRIEND TO A COMANCHE BOY WHO DIED AND WAS BURIED ON THE HILL NOW HOLDING THIS CEMETERY. OTHER EARLY SETTLERS INCLUDED THE FAMILIES OF CAREY BOULDS, JACOB CLOSNER, WALTER BENNETT, WILLIAM HURLOCK, AND THOMAS WEST. THE SPRING AND SURROUNDING COMMUNITY WAS KNOWN AS “BOULD SPRINGS” OR “BENNETT SPRINGS.” THE BOULD SPRINGS POST OFFICE OPENED IN BOULDS’ CABIN, WHICH SERVED AS A COMMUNITY GATHERING PLACE AND A PLACE FOR STAGECOACHES TO STOP AND CHANGE HORSES. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ESTABLISHED ROADS THROUGH BOLD SPRINGS LINKING WACO TO HILLSBORO, FROM HERE TO A LUMBER MILL ON AQUILLA CREEK AND ALSO TO A FAMILY GRAIN MILL ON THE BRAZOS RIVER. BOLD SPRINGS MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH, FOUNDED IN 1858, WAS THE FIRST CHURCH IN NORTHEASTERN McLENNAN COUNTY. THE POPULATION NUMBERED 311 IN THE 1860 CENSUS, MAKING BOLD SPRINGS THE SECOND LARGEST TOWN IN THE COUNTY. IN 1881, SETTLEMENT SHIFTED TO THE NEW TOWN OF WEST, ESTABLISHED ON THE MISSOURI-KANSAS-TEXAS RAILROAD. THE OLDEST KNOWN GRAVE MARKS MARY W. BAZE (JUL. 28, 1828 – JUN. 19, 1861). THE GENERAL LANDSCAPE IS TRADITIONAL, WITH GRAVES ORIENTED EAST-WEST AND THE OLDEST GRAVES IN THE CENTER SECTIONS. HERE ARE PIONEERS OF BOLD SPRINGS, MEMBERS OF FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS, AND EARLY BUSINESS AND CIVIC LEADERS OF WEST. VETERANS OF CONFLICTS FROM THE CIVIL WAR TO PRESENT ARE AMONG THE MORE THAN 2,400 INTERRED. GRAVE MARKERS ARE OF GRANITE, MARBLE, METAL, LIMESTONE AND SANDSTONE. VEGETATION INCLUDES OAK TREES, CREPE MYRTLES, IRISES AND BLUEBONNETS. THE BOLD SPRINGS CEMETERY ASSOCIATION FORMED IN 1892 AND CONTINUES TO CARE FOR THIS HISTORIC REMINDER OF THE ONCE THRIVING BOLD SPRINGS COMMUNITY.

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Urbanovsky, Elo John

1931

Elo John Urbanovsky, university professor and landscape architect, was born on December 20, 1907, at West, Texas, the son of Joseph Franklin and Hattie (Haidek) Urbanovsky. He attended parochial and public schools in West and graduated from West High School. He received a bachelor's degree with a major in architectural design from Texas A&M in 1931 and was an instructor in landscape architecture at that institution from 1931 to 1934. He married Olga Olson on September 4, 1936, in Dallas County. Urbanovsky taught landscaping in the San Antonio public schools from 1940 to 1944, when he joined the Navy. He served with the Seabees until the end of World War II , joined the faculty at Texas Tech University in 1949, and served as professor of park administration and landscape architecture until his retirement in 1975. Among the honors and awards he received were a Horn Professorship at Texas Tech University, a Distinguished Fellowship in the American Institute of Park Executives, the Cornelius Amory Pugsley Bronze Medal, and the papal Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice award. Urbanovsky was president of the Texas Turfgrass Association, director of the Southwest Park and Recreation Training Institute, a governor of the National Recreation and Park Association, and president and board member of the American Institute of Park Executives. He was a landscape architect for the United States Department of Agricultural regional office in Dallas and for Veterans Administration hospitals in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. He served as a consultant to several universities and state agencies and belonged to the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Texas Highway Beautification Committee, and Rotary International. Urbanovsky worked closely with Lady Bird Johnson on a number of beautification projects including those at the Lyndon B. Johnson Ranch. He died at Lubbock on July 13, 1988, and was buried at West.

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West, Texas

Music in West

Songs About West

Artists From West

Rivers & Roads in Song near West

History of West

West, TX RoadyGoat

West, TX RoadyGoat

West, TX RoadyGoat

West, Texas - Czech Heritage and Resilience

The Crash at Crush

Pope, Lawrence Chalmous

Bold Springs Cemetery

Urbanovsky, Elo John

Things to Do in West

Everything Near West