Chadwick

Chadwick was on Antelope Creek eight miles northwest of Lometa in western Lampasas County. In response to a growing need for a mill in the western part of the county, Henry A. Chadwick and his son, J. Milam, built a log dam on the Colorado River in 1879. They also built a sawmill, flour mill, and cotton gin at the site and later constructed a stone dam in front of the wooden one. The Chadwick Mills were soon in high demand, and wagons came from as far as San Angelo to use them. The settlement later became a freight station on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway, and the growing community took the name Chadwick. By 1900 the town had become a popular scenic resort, with a small hotel and an outdoor dance platform near the mills. Campers, fishermen, and other tourists were drawn to the area by the scenery and excellent hunting and fishing, and at one time Chadwick was one of the most famous inland fishing resorts in the state. Milam Chadwick was running a power plant at the mills by 1910. A post office, established in the community that same year, served about twenty-five people. At one time a school was located a quarter mile from the railway station. In the summer of 1915 the west bank of the Colorado River was washed out locally by heavy rains, and the river's course shifted so that it bypassed the dams at the Chadwick Mills. Attempts to restore operations failed, and eventually the mills were abandoned. The local post office was discontinued in 1918, and the railway station was closed in January 1941. All that is left of the once popular resort is a historical marker-placed at the former site of the mills in May 1971-and a cemetery.