Some of the forgotten towns of East Texas

• Caddoan Mounds, home of a state historic site in Cherokee County, was the home of the prehistoric Caddo Indians, who settled on the Neches River plains west of Alto sometime in the eighth century, AD. 
   

• New Israel, in Polk County near Livingston, was settled in 1895 when farmer Joe Peebles gave some of his land to a religious  colony from Canada, The colony built a church where it promised that Christ would return to earth.
   

• Old Hardin, once the first county seat of Hardin County, lost its prestige and population when a railroad came to the county, and a new town, Kountze, became the county seat. All that’s left of Old Hardin is a cemetery.
   

• Yallo Busha, often called Yellow Bush, grew up in rural Camp County. Much of the town’s life revolved around a school and church. The only reminder of the town is a cemetery with sixteen graves.
   

• Dalby Springs, located in Bowie County, was founded by Warren Dalby around a group of springs that made the town a popular resort in the 1850s. Archeologists have estimated that the springs have been flowing for centuries.
   

• Drew’s Landing, once a steamboat port with landings on both sides of the Trinity River in Polk and San Jacinto countiess, was the home of Alexander Hamilton Washington, a cousin of George Washington.
   

• New Birmingham, often called “the Iron Queen” because of its iron furnaces, once stood south of Rusk in Cherokee County. The Panic of 1893 and destruction of one of the furnaces, killed the town.

(Excerpted from Bob Bowman’s book, ‘The Forgotten Towns of East Texas, Volume I.”)