New London, TX

New London is a Rusk County city in East Texas, set along Texas Highway 42 between Henderson and Overton. The 2020 census counted 1,181 residents. West Rusk County Consolidated Independent School District serves most of the city, with Holt Stadium and the high school campus keeping school, youth sports, and civic memory at the center of town. A small portion falls in Overton ISD. The New London School Explosion Museum sits across from the present high school, so a short stretch of Highway 42 carries the town's clearest landmarks.

The settlement was first called London, then added New when the post office name was already in use elsewhere in Texas. On March 18, 1937, a natural-gas explosion destroyed the London School and killed hundreds of students and teachers. The disaster led Texas to require odorants in natural gas so leaks could be detected. New London still lives with that history through the museum, annual remembrance, the cemetery, and the school grounds. The oil boom that helped make the old school district wealthy also shaped the town's early map; today's city is a school community and an East Texas road stop where that history stays close to everyday life.