Steepcreek

Steepcreek is on a country road and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe line some six miles southeast of San Augustine in eastern San Augustine County. The settlement started in the early 1900s as a station on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway. The community was granted a post office in 1903 and named for nearby Steep Creek. During the early 1900s the town prospered as the site of the Steepcreek Lumber Company. The community reached an estimated population of 250 in 1925. Its post office closed in 1931, and two businesses were reported there through the 1930s. In 1932 the Steepcreek school had twenty-three pupils and two teachers. By 1945 the community's population had dropped to 100, and by the 1980s only a few widely scattered dwellings remained.