Preston, TX

At the 2020 census, Preston was a Grayson County census-designated place of 2,101 people on the Red River, though much of the old town lies beneath Lake Texoma. The place began as Preston Bend, a crossing and trading point where the Texas Road and Shawnee cattle trail met the river. John Hart cleared land here before 1826; Holland Coffee later established a trading post and Glen Eden plantation with a ferry, orchards, and freight traffic. By the mid-19th century, the bend had become a town called Preston.

The railroad changed Preston's fortunes by passing east of town in 1871, sending travelers and cattle traffic toward other crossings. In the late 1930s the Army Corps bought the land for Denison Dam and Lake Texoma; the lake submerged the townsite, while the cemetery was moved to higher ground in 1944. The present community sits on the Preston Peninsula, among campgrounds and cabins, with the old town's roads and stores under the water. Preston is a place where the map has two layers: a living lake community above and a vanished Red River crossing below.