UTICA

NAME: UTICA COUNTY: Smith ROADS: 2WD GRID: 4 CLIMATE: Hot Summers & Wet Winters-sometimes! BEST TIME TO VISIT: Fall

COMMENTS: Texas Ghost TownUTICA, TEXAS Smith County, East Texas SE of Red Springs 13 miles N of Tyler Take I-20 towads Tyler Texas, Get off at Exit 562, Go North on Hwy. 14 (Farm-to-market Road 14)for 4.8 miles North of the I-20 Exit. Look to the left and then to the right. REMAINS: Old Rock House & Tiger Refuge

A post office opened in Utica in 1890 when the population was an estimated 100 persons. The figure of 100 was still in effect when the post office closed in 1905. The map above was published in 1906 but still shows the town. Utica disappeared completely from maps and from Smith County records. I believe that the population for Utica is still here just South East of Red Springs 4-way Crossing, today part of Utica serves as home to the Werner's Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge (www.tigercreek.org) and several homesteads (About 15 home sites in all). The original post office was torn down and reconstructed into a Rock House (Iron Ore) now known as the Mullins House. - Brian Werner of Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge, March 02, 2005 See http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasGhostTowns/UticaTexas/UticaTexas.htm *Formally called Utica, RED SPRINGS, TEXAS* (Smith County). Red Springs is a small rural community in north central Smith County six miles northwest of Winona at the intersection of Farm roads 16, 14, and 2710. The springs for which the town was named are located just northwest of the crossroads. The settlement was originally a stop on the Dallas-Shreveport Road, a trade route developed by Tyler residents in the late 1840s. It was organized into a community in 1855 and soon became a center for logging and lumbering. In 1903 Red Springs had two one-teacher schools; one had sixty-seven white pupils, and the other had fifty-seven black students. During the 1910s a crude, unpainted, two-story schoolhouse and two teachers served an average of twenty-five white children. In 1911 area residents established the Red Springs Baptist Church. Maps for 1936 showed two businesses, a school, the Baptist church, and a small cluster of dwellings. Mount Olive School, a black elementary school, employed two teachers. During the 1940s the oil industry developed in northern Smith County, and by 1952 the Red Springs oilfield surrounded the community. The school had been consolidated into the Winona Independent School District. A new building for the Baptist church was constructed in 1957. In 1960 the community had scattered farms, a cemetery, and a water-pumping station. In 1973 Red Springs had four businesses and a cluster of dwellings. It still appeared on maps in 1981. *UTICA, TEXAS*. Utica was just southeast of Red Springs, south of the intersection of the Dallas-Shreveport road and a trade route that extended from Tyler, and thirteen miles north of Tyler in northern Smith County. A post office opened there in 1890, with Dayton Balfour as first postmaster. By 1892 Utica had a population of 100, three flour mills, three cotton gins, a wagonmaker, a druggist, and a lumber manufacturer. In 1904 its population was estimated at 100, but no businesses were reported there. Its post office closed in 1905, and thereafter the community disappeared from Smith County records and maps. Submitted by: Brian Werner

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