Lake Victor

Lake Victor is on Farm Road 2340 ten miles north of Burnet in north central Burnet County. It began as a railroad camp in 1901 or 1902, when the tracks for the Burnet-Lampasas section of the Houston and Texas Central Railway were laid. The community was named for a nearby intermittent artificial lake that was formed by the removal of dirt for the railroad; the lake was named for Victor Kellogg, who served as foreman of the railroad crew. In 1903 the townsite was surveyed, lots were offered for sale, a school was established, and a post office was opened with Frank A. Ramsey as postmaster. For the next twenty-five years or so Lake Victor was a prosperous community and shipping point for area farmers and ranchers. It had three churches, several businesses, and a population reported at 200 in 1914. The population was 250 in 1925. Growth did not resume after the Great Depression and World War II. Although the number of residents remained stable through the mid-1960s, several key elements of the community's economic and social focus disappeared. The school at Lake Victor was consolidated with the Burnet Independent School District in 1947. The Texas and New Orleans Railroad abandoned the section of track between Burnet and Lampasas in 1951, thereby depriving Lake Victor of rail service. The Lake Victor post office was discontinued in 1957, and mail for the community was sent to Lampasas. The population was reported at 350 in 1966, but estimates fell to 300 in 1968 and to 200 in 1972. Lake Victor reported a population of 215 in the 1980s through 2000.