Map of Powderly CDP, Texas

Powderly is a census-designated place (CDP) and unincorporated community in Lamar County, Texas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,178.

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Powderly location map. Where is Powderly CDP?

History

Powderly was settled around the time of the Civil War and was originally known as “Lenoir”. When the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway was built through the area in the 1880s, the community was renamed “Powderly” in honor of Terence V. Powderly, a labor leader and later a commissioner of immigration in the McKinley administration.

A post office was established in 1888, and by 1890 the town had a general store, two cotton gins, a gristmill, a sawmill, a blacksmith, and an estimated population of thirty. In 1914 the town’s population was 100. During the 1920s, however, the community declined; in the early 1930s Powderly had a church, a school, six rated businesses, and a reported 63 residents. Since that time the population has increased, reaching 120 in 1950 and 150 in 1965. In 1990 Powderly had a church, a school, a number of houses, and an estimated population of 185. The population remained the same in 2000. In 2010 the Powderly Census-Designated Place included land east of the traditional townsite and reported a much larger population, at 1,178. On November 4, 2022, Powderly was hit by a violent EF4 tornado.

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Geography

Powderly is located on U.S. Highway 271, 10 miles (16 km) north of Paris in north-central Lamar County. It is 5 miles (8 km) south of Highway 271’s crossing of the Red River at the Oklahoma border.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Powderly CDP has a total area of 7.5 square miles (19.3 km), of which 7.3 square miles (18.8 km) are land and 0.2 square miles (0.5 km), or 2.49%, are water. The center of town is on a low ridge, draining west to Pat Mayse Lake and east to Pine Creek, a tributary of the Red River.

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