Woodlake (Texas)

Trinity County

48-80068

Woodlake is an inhabited unincorporated community in Trinity County in the U.S. state of Texas with 98 inhabitants.

History

The area was first settled during the time of the American Civil War. However, a community evolved only after a lumberjack company was founded as the early 1880s. In 1896 the place was known as Willard, Willard Old or Jason, about 250 inhabitants. When most of the wood like in the 1910s in the area and the sawmill had been closed, moved on many settlers. 1925, the town was renamed in Woodlake. The name refers to a water reservoir, which had supplied the sawmill.

In the 1920s the failure of a private aid project, which was acquired in 1934 by the federal government and also failed. Finally, in the late 1930s attracted many residents away. Most of the buildings and equipment were sold in 1945 to the Baptist Church of East Texas, who built a youth camp.