Itasca, TX

Itasca is a Hill County city on the Blackland Prairie, at the head of Richland Creek and the watershed divide between the Brazos and Trinity basins. The town was laid out in 1881 after G. M. Dodge bought 100 acres for the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad; lots went on sale that October, and the name came from Lake Itasca in Minnesota. By 1906, Itasca had grocery and furniture stores, banks, hotels, cotton gins, and a bottling works. The 1895 railroad depot, now at the Itasca Museum, still carries the rail-era story. Itasca is a north-central Texas town whose map was drawn by water, cotton, and a railroad.