Texas Ghost Towns #1 - Chalk Mountain Traditional Cache

1st in a new series of caches we're hiding in Texas Ghost Towns. This is Chalk Mountain. All that remains of this community is a cemetery and chapel, and a Masonic Lodge.

The J. H. F. Skipper ranch occupied this portion of Erath county and is said to have been used as an antebellum trading post. The community of Chalk Mountain came into being in the 1870s and grew around the post office (granted in 1876) although the building was technically in Somervell County. It relocated on the Erath side of the county line in 1902.
Chalk Mountain had two churches in the 1890s as well as a school and a cotton gin. The 1900 census showed 81 residents. The landmark Masonic Lodge building dates from 1904.
The community’s growth was stunted by its proximity to larger towns like Glen Rose and Stephenville and the 1910 census showed a decline to just 50 residents. By 1927 the post office had closed and Chalk Mountain never broke a population of 100.
The 1940 census showed two businesses at Chalk Mountain supported by 69 residents. Improved roads after WWII helped deplete the remaining population and by 1980 only 25 people called Chalk Mountain home, although the Masonic Lodge remained active.
The number of residents has remained at 25 for both the 1990 and 2000 census and it no longer appears on the official Texas highway map. It is generally considered a ghost town despite the fact that it never grew to any substantial size.