ROCK CREEK, TEXAS (Parker County). Rock Creek was once a successful coal-mining town in northwestern Parker County. Settlement began in the late 1870s. Originally the village served as a church community for nearby farmers and ranchers. Later it adopted the name Rock Creek after the railroad that reached the area in the 1880s. In 1891 a post office branch opened to serve the estimated seventy-five residents. By the mid-1890s Rock Creek had been transformed into a thriving mining community; the population reached 400 in 1896 and was estimated at 1,500 during the first decade of the twentieth century. Mining and coal shipment peaked between 1900 and 1910; after 1910 the cost of recovering the coal became prohibitive and the mines closed. Over the next few years more and more residents left, until all that remained was the town's cemetery. During World War II Camp Wolters was extended to cover the original townsite of Rock Creek.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Henry Smythe, Historical Sketch of Parker County and Weatherford (St. Louis: Lavat, 1877; rpt., Waco: Morrison, 1973).
