Before Wednesday night’s fire and explosion, West, population 2,674 in the 2010 census, was perhaps best known to Texans as a popular stop on Interstate 35 for kolaches and Czech pastries roughly midway between Austin and the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
The McLennan County town traces its roots to an 1850s settlement near a springs. By 1860, the census recorded a population of 311.
The present townsite was established in 1881 and was named for the town’s first postmaster, Thomas M. West.
Its early growth was spurred by construction of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad in the 1880s, according to the Handbook of Texas Online. The area’s economy grew with cotton and grain production, and cattle ranching. By 1900, West boasted a fire department, weekly newspaper, bank, cotton mill, several cotton gins, a hotel, schools and several churches.
In the early 20th century, the railroad brought large numbers of Czech and German immigrants to the community.
Today the annual Westfest, held on Labor Day weekend, draws tens of thousands in a celebration of the town’s Czech and German heritage, not to mention its sausages, with events such as a kolache-eating contest.
The famed Czech Stop gas station and bakery was reported undamaged in the explosion.
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