Reklaw

Reklaw is a rural community at the junction of U.S. Highway 84 and State Highway 204 ten miles northeast of Rusk on the Cherokee-Rusk county line. The area was first settled during the period of the Republic of Texas. Nearby Iron Mountain attracted miners, prospectors, and settlers in a brief iron rush in the 1860s and later in 1891. Several sawmills had been built in the vicinity prior to the Civil War, but a village did not begin to grow up until 1902, when the Texas and New Orleans Railroad was built through the area, and a townsite was laid out on land owned by Margaret L. Walker. Local citizens wanted to name the new town after Walker, so when the name was already in use in Texas, they spelled it backwards. By 1914 Reklaw had two general stores, a sawmill, a blacksmith, and a population of fifty. It continued to prosper during the 1920s and by the mid-1930s had grown to five stores and 250 inhabitants. In 1990 Reklaw had 266 residents and four rated businesses. The population reached 327 in 2000.