Canary

West Caney Creek, a perennial stream, rises one mile southwest of Normangee in southwestern Leon County (at 31°03' N, 96°08' W) and flows southwest eleven miles, through northwestern Madison County, to its mouth on the Navasota River on the Brazos county line (at 30°57' N, 96°12' W). It crosses gently sloping to nearly level terrain, surfaced by sandy loam that supports intermittent mesquite, pecan-elm, water oak-elm, elm-hackberry, and post oak-black hickory woods on the banks of the creek. The historic Old San Antonio Road, a thoroughfare for early Spanish and French explorers, crossed the headwaters of the stream. Anglo-American settlement in the vicinity of the creek began during the 1840s, when Burnsville was established on the west bank and the Old San Antonio Road. Normangee, one mile southeast of the stream's source, became a station on the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway in 1905. The Canary community is on the west bank of the middle creek.