Bland is a
ghost town
Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to:
* Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned
Film and television
* Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser
* Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...
in
Bell County, in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...
of
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
.
It is located within the
Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood metropolitan area.
History
John Atkerson founded the community when he opened a store here in the 1880s. He originally named it Pokerville because of how much he loved playing
poker
Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...
with his customers. A post office was established at Bland in 1894 and was named for local settler D.T. Bland. Its population was 20 in 1896. It grew to 63 in 1925 and returned to 20 in 1949 with only one operating business. It was then submerged into
Lake Belton in the mid-1950s.
Geography
Bland was located on Owl Creek and Farm to Market Road 184, northwest of
Belton in northwestern Bell County.
Education
Bland is located within the
Belton Independent School District
Belton Independent School District is a public school district based in Belton, Texas (USA).
Finances
As of the 2010–2011 school year, the appraised valuation of property in the district was $1,975,956,000. The maintenance tax rate was $0.11 ...
.
References
Ghost towns in Texas
Submerged settlements in the United States
{{BellCountyTX-geo-stub