Buffalo, TX

Buffalo sits at the intersection of U.S. 79, U.S. 75, and Interstate 45 in northern Leon County, a highway town whose first big connection was rail. The International-Great Northern Railroad reached the area in 1872, and the community took its name from the buffalo herds remembered in the surrounding country. Before tracks arrived, cotton and livestock moved toward river markets; afterward, a post office, stores, gins, churches, and schools gathered around the line. The town's first school later became a community center known as the Opera House and then a hotel.

Buffalo Independent School District still gives the city a local center, while the highway network ties it to Centerville, Corsicana, and the wider East Texas corridor. Passenger rail ended in 1970, but the railroad-era shape remains visible in the town's history and older buildings. Leon County's farm economy, community churches, school activities, and the roads through town keep Buffalo connected to the surrounding county. It is a place whose name comes from the open-country past, while its present map is organized by school, highway, and the long afterlife of a railroad town.