Sour Lake, Texas

Everything Sour Lake is known for

4 songs mention this city 1 artist from here

Music in Sour Lake

Songs About Sour Lake

sour lake, texas
jeremy castle
79%
Sour Lake; Texas
Jeremy Castle
70%
Take Me Lake Charles
Shinyribs
50%
"I was stuck in Sour Lake, just a nickel to my name"
I’ve Been Everywhere...In Texas
Brian Burns
5%
"Sour Lake"

Artists From Sour Lake

C
Chip Darby & Vintage Soul
country Pop: 1

Rivers & Roads in Song near Sour Lake

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Sour Lake.

US Route 90 8 songs Interstate 10 32 songs Trinity River 10 songs Sabine River 13 songs U.S. Route 59 7 songs

History of Sour Lake

Sour Lake, TX RoadyGoat

Sour Lake isn't just another dot on the map along Highway 105. It’s a place shaped by what's both above and below ground. The "sour" in Sour Lake isn't just a quirky name; it speaks to the mineral-rich waters bubbling up from the earth. Folks used to come from miles around, believing those waters had healing properties, a draw that put the town on the map in the first place. Then came the oil boom. While other towns in the region also struck black gold, Sour Lake seemed to hold onto it a little tighter, the industry becoming deeply woven into the fabric of the community. Even though the landscape is fairly flat, typical of the Gulf Coast, and a fire took a big chunk out of the business district long ago, there’s a resilience here. Oil and gas are still a major part of the local economy, sure, but what keeps Sour Lake going is something deeper. It’s that Friday night feeling when Hardin-Jefferson High plays Hamshire-Fannett, a rivalry that sparks the whole town. It’s the kind of place where everyone knows your name, and people look out for each other. Some might come for the job opportunities, but they stay for the community. And maybe, just maybe, they develop a taste for that slightly sour water, a reminder of the unique place they call home.

Sour Lake, TX RoadyGoat

Sour Lake, Texas – it’s a name that always raises an eyebrow, and rightly so. That unusual moniker comes from the lake itself, rumored to have a distinctly sour taste thanks to the sulfur and other minerals bubbling up from below. But beyond the quirky name and the flat landscape, typical of the Gulf Coast, lies a history richer than you might expect. Most folks know it as a quiet place, the kind of town where everyone knows everyone, especially on Friday nights when Hardin-Jefferson High faces off against Hamshire-Fannett. That rivalry is serious business.

The Springs That Couldn't Save Sam Houston RoadyGoat

1863

Sour Lake, in Hardin County near Beaumont, was a mineral-springs health resort long before it was an oil town. In June 1863, a 70-year-old and ailing Sam Houston — his shoulder shattered by a Creek musket ball at Horseshoe Bend in 1814 and his ankle wrecked at San Jacinto in 1836 — came here at his wife Margaret's urging to bathe in the warm mineral muds. He found no relief, returned home to Huntsville on July 8, and died there on July 26, 1863. Forty years later that very ground gave up a fortune: on January 8, 1903, the Texas Company's Fee No. 3 well came in flowing 5,000 barrels of oil a day — a gusher that helped launch what we know today as Texaco. The sulfur in those healing muds was petroleum seeping up from a salt dome below.

Sour Lake, C.S.A.

1861

Early-day health resort, with baths that attracted such Texans as Gen. Sam Houston. The healing waters had been used for years by the Indians. One spring's water, with high sulphuric acid content, primed telegraph batteries during the Civil War. This was of vital importance, for at best telegraph service was limited. Started in 1854, the 1861-65 system went only from Shreveport to Marshall to Houston, and Houston to Galveston to Orange. A 20-word telegram sent from Shreveport to Houston in February 1865 cost $36. (1965)

Historical Marker →

Stephen Jackson

1831

(1803-1860) Born in South Carolina, Stephen Jackson moved to Lorenzo de Zavala's colony in Texas in 1831. He received a labor of land (177 acres) to establish a farm. In 1835 Jackson was granted a league of land (4,428 acres), which included the later community of Sour Lake. In 1836 Jackson served in Captain Logan's company of the Texas army and awarded 320 acres of land in Milam County as bounty. He married Susan Choate (1807-1873) in 1838 and established their home near here. They are buried along with their children-- Ambrose, Sarah, James A., Minerva, Stephen, and W. J.-- in the family cemetery. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

Historical Marker →

Jackson Family Cemetery

1835

Stephen Jackson (1803-1860), a settler in the Lorenzo de Zavala colony, was granted one league (4,428 acres) of land in this area in 1835. Jackson built his home near this site and cleared pastures for cattle and horses on most of the land. The grant also included palmetto thickets shielding numerous mineral springs and lakes of sulphurous water. Settlers frequented the lakes seeking cures, and a small community grew near Jackson's home. In 1851 he sold this land but in 1856 acquired a controlling interest in the spa that had developed nearby (then located about 5 mi. NW). As late as 1878, Jackson's daughter Minerva (1838-1911) and her husband James A. Merchant (1836-1886) were operating the spa's hotel. Jackson died in 1860 and was buried near his home. In 1871 his widow Susan Choate Jackson (1807-1873) designated four acres of her homestead as a cemetery, including her husband's grave. She was subsequently buried here, along with five of their children. Other members of the Sour Lake community have been buried here, as well as numerous descendants of Stephen Jackson. Surnames of Jackson family descendants represented here include Frazier, Guedry, Herring, Merchant, Mowbray, Moye and Pietzcker. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

Historical Marker →

Nome, TX

1900

Nome is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 90, State Highway 326, and Farm Road 365, twenty miles west of Beaumont in northwestern Jefferson County. Early settlers knew the locale as Wolf Point, Tiger Point, Petry Woods, or Carter's Woods. When the Texas and New Orleans Railroad was built in 1860–61, the stop at this site was called Congreve Station, in recognition of one of the line's New York financiers. A post office called Sour Lake, for the Sour Lake springs seven miles north in Hardin County, operated from 1866 to 1880, and a townsite by that name was platted and filed in 1887. In 1880 Sour Lake Station had thirty-three inhabitants. A branch line was eventually built to the springs in Hardin County. In an attempt to avoid confusing passengers a new stop, called Buttfield, was established on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad. Although a post office operated under that name from 1894 to 1903, residents and travelers began to refer to the junction as Nome after oil was discovered at Sour Lake (Hardin County) around 1900. The newer name probably referred to the gold strikes, which produced a similar population influx and economic boom at Nome, Alaska, at roughly the same time. In any event, the post office name was changed to Nome in 1903. Nome is a center for local agriculture, particularly rice growing. It had a population of 400 by the mid-1920s. The area was also found to be rich in oil and natural gas with the discovery of the Nome oilfield in 1936. The number of residents, after falling slightly to about 350 by the 1950s, had increased to 550 by the mid-1980s. In October 1971 Nome was incorporated. In 1990 the population was 448. The population grew to 515 by 2000.

Tsha Handbook → · 7.5 mi away

China, TX

1860

China is on U.S. Highway 90 ten miles west of Beaumont in northwestern Jefferson County. The Texas and New Orleans Railroad was completed through the area in 1860, and a water stop was established amidst a grove of chinaberry trees near the community's present location; the stop was dubbed China Grove. A post office by that name was authorized in March 1887 but was discontinued within two months. Another office, using the shorter name China, was established in 1893. Two miles east of China, Charlie Nash and Howell Land organized a separate community called Nashland, which had 174 residents in 1900. The new townsite plat was belatedly filed on October 30, 1902. When fire destroyed the older China depot to the west in 1906, the people of Nashland convinced railroad officials to move operations to the more populated community center. The railroad, however, stipulated that the new depot retain the name of China. The Nashland post office, established in 1900, was therefore renamed China. Agriculture provided the community with its economic lifeblood, and rice warehouses made it a center for the area's rice farmers. The South China oilfield, discovered in 1939, provided further growth. Although the community's population fell from an estimated 350 during the mid-1920s to 200 by the early 1950s, new discoveries of oil and natural gas at nearby oilfields in 1960, 1975, and 1980 brought new growth. In 1971 residents voted 118 to 88 in favor of incorporation. By the mid-1980s China had a population of 1,351 and eighteen businesses. In 1990 the population was 1,144, and in 2000 it was 1,112.

Tsha Handbook → · 8.1 mi away

Things to Do in Sour Lake

historical 19.8 mi away
Spindletop

On January 10 1901 a well south of Beaumont blew its crown block clean off the derrick and started gushing oil a hundred and fifty feet in the air at nine…
spooky 11.3 mi away
The Light of Saratoga (Bragg Road)

A decapitated railroad worker's ghostly lantern floats along this abandoned rail bed in the Big Thicket every night. The Saratoga Light has been reported since…
nature 21.9 mi away
Big Thicket National Preserve

The Big Thicket is the place where four different ecosystems collide on a single patch of ground. Southern swamp from the Louisiana lowlands, eastern hardwood…

Everything Near Sour Lake

263 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Explore Sour Lake on the Map
All music from Texas → · Browse more cities