It may have slipped a little in population since then (5,731 in 2000), but continues to be a thriving town. It was incorporated as Yoakum in 1888, and by 1917 it was a bustling metropolis of more than 7,500 souls when the Yoakum Hide and Leather Co.
The little settlement was big as a gathering spot for herds to be pushed up the Chisholm Trail, but went from tending cattle to tending steam engines when the railroad arrived in 1887 and created lots of jobs. Yoakum sits square on the boundary line between DeWitt and Lavaca counties and has since 1835, before Texas separated itself from Mexico via the Alamo and San Jacinto.
