Colmesneil is a quaint little town located in East Texas about 35 miles south of Lufkin on US 69 in Tyler County. The town, sometimes referred to as Colmesneil Junction, was named for one of the first conductor's on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad, W. T. Colmesneil.
Colmesneil became a railroad center for Tyler County. It had the only turntable in the county at the end of the Waco, Beaumont, Trinity and Sabine lines.
Colmesneil shipped cotton and other products from Jasper, Newton, Sabine, San Augustine, and Angelina counties. Since the land around the town is too hilly for cultivation, local products were confined to timber and some cattle. The Yellow Pine Lumber Company operated a sawmill in Colmesneil in the 1880s. At one time Colmesneil was larger than Beaumont.
Nearby Lake Tejas, fed by cool springs, provides water sports for a large East Texas area. Our town has a bank, post office, hardware store, sawmill, restaurant, several small grocery stores, and a good high school with an excellent sports record.
The population was at its height around 1890 at 1,016. By 1900 it was down to 632, and in 1931 it was 370, but by 1939 it was back to 1,000. In the late 1980's it was 600. Today the population is 598.
My XYL and I decided to build our retirement home in a small town in East Texas. We wanted a home "in the woods"! Colmesneil fit the bill. It's a good place to live after working in Houston for 23 years.
We designed and physically built the home ourselves. It took about 3 years. We moved from Beaumont to Colmesneil, Texas the first week of August, 2012, just two weeks before my retirement!
I have two shack's. The photo's above show my current working conditions. This is my shack located in the house. I am building a 12 x 16 shack that is under construction and located in the shop. The tower and beam's will be next. It's nice designing and building a shack from the ground up.