Origin Of The Name For West Mount Houston Road

[dbigtex56]

While it's possible that these locations were named 'in jest', it also seem possible that it was a way to give some distinction to an otherwise undistinguished area as a marketing tool.

Think of the streets and subdivisions in Houston that incorporate words like Glen, Brae, Woods, Valley, etc. into their names, when such a topographical feature is patently absent.

[mkultra25]

8 minutes ago, dbigtex56 said:

While it's possible that these locations were named 'in jest', it also seem possible that it was a way to give some distinction to an otherwise undistinguished area as a marketing tool.

Think of the streets and subdivisions in Houston that incorporate words like Glen, Brae, Woods, Valley, etc. into their names, when such a topographical feature is patently absent.

 

Who wouldn't want to live in the crisp mountain air, in the shadow of the majestic peak of Mount Houston? Why, it's practically "Colorado on the Bayou".

 

After all, it's not like it was the first time a little creative marketing was employed in Houston.

[FilioScotia]

There is something in this that nobody has seen fit to mention. Everything we know about this area known as Mt. Houston says it was generally a sawmill town with a lumber company. Those of us old enough to remember sawmill towns also remember the gigantic mountains of sawdust waste alongside the mill. Every little town on the highways through east and southeast Texas had a mill and a sawdust mountain. Many were nearly a hundred feet high. This is just a guess, but I think over time the community around the one in northeast Harris County acquired the nickname Mt. Houston because it had a big sawdust mountain. The road leading to it was named Mt. Houston Road, which makes me think the community  was named after the road. 

 

                                                                                                             

We don't see those giant mounds anymore because European timber mills came up with a productive and profitable use for the sawdust. They combined it with wood chips and using adhesive resins they created particle board. It didn't take long for American mills to catch on and start producing particle board. That's when the sawdust mountains disappeared.