Damsite

DAMSITE, TEXAS . Damsite was four miles east of what is now Lake Pauline and just north of Wanderers Creek on a north-south road that connected with what became Farm Road 2006 in east central Hardeman County. The community was part of a project to build a dam across Wanderers Creek to impound a reservoir that would irrigate 10,000 acres. Cecil A. Lyon , J. L. Elbert, and the Rice brothers of Houston bought several thousand acres of surrounding land in 1906, set up the Hardeman County Irrigation Company, and platted the town of Damsite in the middle of their holdings. Eventually a 6,000-foot dam was completed there at a cost of $75,000. The project proved successful until company general manager Cecil Lyon died in 1916. Later West Texas Utilities purchased the site and built a huge power plant there. The lake was known as Damsite until it was leased to Arlie Berry, who established a resort and renamed the reservoir after his daughter Pauline. By 1949 most of the irrigation company's land had been sold. The town was not shown on the 1980 county highway map.