Mount Lucas

Mount Lucas was a community fourteen miles southeast of George West in eastern Live Oak County. It was named for Cyrus Lucas, whose daughter owned the land on which it was originally located. The community began in 1915 as a railroad depot on the San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf line. In the early 1920s the Houston Oil Company found natural gas on the nearby Cartwright Ranch; by about 1926 gas from the Mount Lucas gas field was being pumped to Houston. Oil was also found in the Mount Lucas field. In 1936 Mount Lucas had two groups of row houses, eight oil or gas tanks, and a pumping station. During the late 1950s its railroad depot was moved about four miles north of its original site; several years later the depot was sold and hauled away. A 1979 map showed no buildings standing at the site, but Mount Lucas was named on the county highway map as late as 1989.