Lyons, TX

Lyons is a Burleson County census-designated place two miles from Lake Somerville, with 236 residents in the 2020 census. State Highway 36 runs through the community, and the lake gives the old railroad town a nearby recreation and water landmark. The roads lead through pasture, cotton country, and the small communities of south-central Texas. A post office still marks the center, while Somerville and Caldwell provide larger services.

Lyons began as Camp Pennington, a construction camp created when the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway built through the county in 1880. W. A. Lyon gave the railroad fifty acres for its right-of-way and opened the first general store; the place first became Lyon’s Station. Cattle, cotton, and cottonseed moved through the town, which once had warehouses, gins, shops, hotels, a newspaper, and a school. Lyons is a Texas community where a railroad camp became a trading center, Lake Somerville sits close by, and an 1886 post office keeps the old town name on the map.