Caney Creek (Walker County)

Caney Creek, a spring-fed perennial stream, rises five miles east of Huntsville in east central Walker County (at 30°42' N, 95°26' W) and flows north seventeen miles to its mouth on Harmon Creek, near the southwestern edge of Lake Livingston (at 30°51' N, 95°26' W). The upper creek lies within the boundary of Sam Houston National Forest. The stream traverses gently rolling to nearly level terrain surfaced by sandy and loamy soils. Along the banks of the creek grow pines, including loblolly and shortleaf, and hardwoods, including elm, hickory, oak, and sweet and black gum. Settlement near the upper creek began in the mid-1820s and on the lower creek in the mid-1830s. The Dodge community was established on the upper creek after the Civil War. In the early 1870s, Riverside was founded as a station on the Houston and Great Northern Railroad near the creek's mouth. For a number of years after World War II, Sam Houston State Teachers College (later Sam Houston State University) maintained a country campus on the west bank of the middle creek on the site of an abandoned German prisoner-of-war camp (see GERMAN PRISONERS OF WAR).