Hawkins, TX

Hawkins is a Wood County city between Mineola and Big Sandy, with U.S. 80 and FM 14 crossing its road map. The 2020 census counted 1,274 residents. A post office has been here since 1873, and the city’s most unexpected title arrived in 1995, when the Texas Legislature named Hawkins the Pancake Capital of Texas. That claim gives the town a breakfast-sized bit of fame far beyond its road sign.

East of town, Jarvis Christian University adds a major historic institution to the local landscape. Founded in 1912 to educate Black students in the rural South, the university grew alongside Hawkins even though its campus sits outside the city. Lillian Richard, a Hawkins resident who portrayed Aunt Jemima for thirty-seven years, adds another piece of the town’s cultural history. Hawkins ISD keeps the everyday school connection local. Put it all together and Hawkins is a small East Texas city with an old post office, a college next door, a famous pancake label, and a surprising number of stories attached to one short stretch of road.