Turnertown, Texas

Turnertown is an unincorporated community in Rusk County, located in the U.S. state of Texas. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had a population of 76 in 2000. It is located within the Longview, Texas metropolitan area.

History
Turnertown developed from another community further east, when it moved here after the roads were built. The East Texas Oil Field caused it to become a boomtown in 1930. Horace and Boger Turner, Sr., were given land grants to plat it. Its population was 1,500 with 25 businesses in 1936, a number which plummeted to 350 in the early 1940s, and up to the 1950s, it had three churches and a wide array of stores, oilfield supply houses, and machine shops. The population further declined to 150 in the mid-1960s, and by the end of that decade, it further declined to 76, where it remained through 2000. Turnertown has received mail from Selman City since the late 1960s or early 1970s.

On April 26, 1991, an F2 tornado struck Turnertown, uprooting several trees.

Geography
Turnertown is located at the intersection of Texas State Highway 42 and Texas State Highway 64, 10 mi west of Henderson and 21 mi south of Longview in western Rusk County.

Education
Today, the community is served by the West Rusk County Consolidated Independent School District.