Oak Hill 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
Bastrop County, Texas
Bastrop County is located in the U.S. state of Texas. It is in Central Texas and its county seat is Bastrop.
As of the 2020 census, the population was 97,216. Bastrop County is included in the Austin–Round Rock, Texas, metropolitan ...
, United States. It is located four miles southwest of
McDade, 12 miles southeast of
Elgin, 13 miles northeast of
Bastrop, and 37 miles southeast of
Austin
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
on the old Bastrop-McDade Road (
Farm to Market Road 2336).
Early history
Built on land along Piney Creek initially granted to Martin Walker, Oak Hill began as a small farming community in the late 1840s.
Residents grew corn and cotton as
cash crops
A cash crop or profit crop is an agricultural crop which is grown to sell for profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm. The term is used to differentiate marketed crops from staple crop (or "subsistence crop") in subsist ...
, and vegetables and livestock for
subsistence
A subsistence economy is an economy directed to basic subsistence (the provision of food, clothing, shelter) rather than to the market. Henceforth, "subsistence" is understood as supporting oneself at a minimum level. Often, the subsistence econo ...
.
In 1879, Walker sold the town 40 acres on which to construct a school and church. The church building was shared by the
Methodist Episcopal
The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...
,
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
, and Christian denominations. Beginning in 1882,
Baptist
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...
services were offered.
Oak Hill also built a
general store to serve a population of about 50 families.
In 1905, the Oak Hill school had one teacher and 39 students. In 1907, when the county initiated a district system, the town became the hub of a common school district.
Camp Swift
In the early 1940s, the town underwent a dramatic change. One month after the attack on
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...
, the U. S. government chose Oak Hill and the surrounding region as the site for
Camp Swift
Camp Swift is a census-designated place (CDP) in Bastrop County, Texas, United States. The population was 7,943 at the 2020 census. Camp Swift began as a United States Army training base built in 1942. It is named after Major General Eben Swift.
H ...
, a massive
Army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
training camp and German
prisoner-of-war camp
A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war.
There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. P ...
.
Residents and business owners were paid a lump sum for their land, and moved to neighboring towns such as Bastrop and Elgin. Some buildings were torn down; some were sold and moved, or sold for materials. Others were used as training targets.
At the time, Camp Swift was Texas' largest army training and
transshipment
Transshipment, trans-shipment or transhipment is the shipment of goods or containers to an intermediate destination, then to another destination.
One possible reason for transshipment is to change the means of transport during the journey (e.g. ...
camp. It covered nearly 56,000 acres and had 2,750 buildings designed to hold 44,000 troops and about 4,000 prisoners of war. At its peak during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the camp housed 90,000 troops simultaneously. Camp Swift also brought civilian jobs in transportation, defense, and manufacturing.
Following the war, Camp Swift was downsized, with barracks and buildings sold as scrap for $5 a truckload. The government had promised former residents they could buy back their property at war's end. Some land was returned to the original owners, but the community was not rebuilt. Because the land's value had skyrocketed, many could not afford to return.
The town name disappeared from county highway maps in the 1980s.
Today
Camp Swift is still in existence, but much diminished in size at only 11,700 acres. The site houses part of the
Texas National Guard
The Texas Military Forces (TXMF) are the principal instrument through which the Texas Military Department (TMD) executes security policy for Texas, which has the second-largest population and border in the United States, and the 9th-largest econ ...
, a medium-security
federal prison
A federal prison is operated under the jurisdiction of a federal government as opposed to a state or provincial body. Federal prisons are used for convicts who violated federal law (U.S., Mexico), inmates considered dangerous (Brazil), or those s ...
, and a
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
cancer research
Cancer research is research into cancer to identify causes and develop strategies for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure.
Cancer research ranges from epidemiology, molecular bioscience to the performance of clinical trials to evaluate and ...
center. Foundations of homes and
barracks
Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...
can still be seen on the west side of FM 2336.
The old Oak Hill Cemetery can be found down an unpaved road. The earliest marked graves date back to 1868; several unmarked graves are believed to be much older. Former residents have a cemetery association to repair and maintain the graveyard.
See also
*
List of ghost towns in Texas
Images
File:Clairemont Texas Abandoned Jail.jpg, Abandoned jail in Clairemont (Kent County)
File:Benton City Institute.jpg, Abandoned school in Benton City (Atascosa County)
File:Close City Texas abandoned school.jpg, Abandoned school in C ...
References
{{coord, 29, 59, 05, N, 97, 09, 56, W, type:city_region:US-TX_source:GNIS-enwiki, display=title
Ghost towns in Texas