Indian Rock

Indian Rock, a farming community near the junction of Farm roads 154 and 1650 and six miles east of Gilmer in eastern Upshur County, was established in the late 1880s. The community was named after a large rock, roughly thirty feet in diameter, in which the Cherokee Indians had worn depressions by grinding corn. An Indian Rock post office was opened in 1888, and by 1890 the community had a gristmill and cotton gin, a shoemaker, two carpenters, a tannery, and an estimated population of 150. Two schools were operating just after 1900, and in 1907 they had a combined enrollment of 133. In the mid-1930s the community consisted of a school, a church, and a number of houses. After World War II many of the residents moved away, and the school was consolidated with the Gilmer district. By the mid-1960s all that remained of Indian Rock was a few scattered houses. In 1990 no recent population estimates were available, but by 2000 the population was reported as forty-five for the dispersed rural community.