Lowake is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in northwestern Concho County,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, United States. According to the

Handbook of Texas The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) is an American nonprofit educational and research organization dedicated to documenting the history of Texas. It was founded in Austin, Texas, United States, on March 2, 1897. In November 2008, the ...

, the community had a population of 40 in 2000.

History

When the Concho, San Saba, and Llano Valley line laid track from

Miles The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of length; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 English f ...

to Paint Rock, creating Lowake at the halfway point, the community was founded as a speculative endeavor in 1909. Two farmers, Lowe and Schlake, who gave land for the townsite, are the community's namesakes. In 1909, Lowake was granted a post office. There were reports of ten people living there in 1925, 50 in 1927, and returned to 10 in 1933. The town featured multiple dispersed buildings, a seasonal industry, and another business in 1936. Lowake had 120 residents at its peak in 1961. Two years later, Lowake featured a community center, five establishments (one a well-known steakhouse that was known for miles), and a post office. Its population was 40 from 1970 through 2000. Although Lowake is unincorporated, it has a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

, with the ZIP code of 76855. On May 14, 1995, an F0 tornado struck Lowake. On May 18, 2019, an F3 tornado struck Lowake. In and around the community, this large and intense multiple-vortex tornado destroyed numerous outbuildings and an RV camper and tossed a large metal storage tank. Farther along the path, a home lost its roof and exterior walls.

Geography

Lowake is located at the intersection of Farm to Market Roads 381 and

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

on the

Concho River The Concho River is a river in the U.S. state of Texas. ''Concho'' is Spanish for "shell"; the river was so named due to its abundance of freshwater mussels, such as the Tampico pearly mussel ('' Cyrtonaias tampicoensis''). Geography The Conc ...

, northwest of Paint Rock in extreme northwestern Concho County.

Education

Lowake had its own school in 1936 that taught 1st grade through high school juniors in 1940. It had 44 students enrolled and employed three instructors. In 1955, it joined the

Paint Rock Independent School District Paint Rock Independent School District is a public school district based in Paint Rock, Texas (USA). Academic achievement In 2009, the school district was rated " recognized" by the Texas Education Agency. Schools The district has one school ...

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Concho County, Texas Unincorporated communities in Texas