WEST SANDY CREEK (Walker County). West Sandy Creek rises fifteen miles southwest of Huntsville in far southwestern Walker County (at 30°39' N, 95°50' W) and runs southeast fifteen miles to its mouth on the West Fork of the San Jacinto River, near Lake Conroe (at 30°35' N, 95°39' W). It crosses gently rolling to gently sloping terrain, surfaced by sandy loam that supports loblolly pine-sweetgum, loblolly pine-shortleaf pine, water oak-elm, pecan-elm, post oak-black hickory, and willow oak-blackgum woods along the banks of the creek. The lower course of the creek traces the northwestern boundary of the Sam Houston National Forest. Anglo-American settlement in the vicinity began in the early 1830s. The Farris community was established on the south bank of the middle creek in the early 1840s. In the early twentieth century the Wesley Grove School for blacks was located near the creek's headwaters.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: D'Anne McAdams Crews, ed., Huntsville and Walker County, Texas: A Bicentennial History (Huntsville, Texas: Sam Houston State University, 1976 Walker County Genealogical Society and Walker County Historical Commission, Walker County (Dallas, 1986).