The city of Lockhart is named after
Byrd Lockhart, an assistant surveyor of
Green DeWitt and reportedly the first Anglo to set foot in Caldwell County. Lockhart was the site of a victory of the Texans over the
Comanche, at the
Battle of Plum Creek in 1840. Lockhart was originally called "Plum Creek." In 1848, Lockhart was named the county seat and was incorporated with a mayor-council government in 1852; by the end of the decade, the town had over 400 residents, with a newspaper, a school, a Masonic Hall, and five churches. Following the years of economic devastation after the
Civil War, the town's economic growth began with the arrival of the
Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad in 1887, when the town became a regional shipping center for local
cotton. Following the arrival of the railroad, the production, processing, and shipment of cattle, cotton, corn, wheat, and poultry became the center of Lockhart's economy, providing slow but study growth throughout the 20th century. Lockhart has several claims to fame. In 1999, the
Texas Legislature proclaimed Lockhart the "Barbecue Capital of Texas"; Lockhart has four major
barbecue restaurants. The Dr. Eugene Clark Library is the oldest operating
public library in Texas. Lockhart was also the subject of an article by the architectural historian and critic Colin Rowe and architect John Hejduk, first published in
Architectural Record in 1957 and republished in the collection of his writings
As I Was Saying (1996). Rowe and Hejduk see Lockhart as a "curiously eloquent" example of a Victorian post-frontier American town. Lockhart has played host to many film sets, as this quaint, small town is located just south of
Austin. The 1996
Christopher Guest comedy film
Waiting for Guffman and the 1993 drama ''
What's Eating Gilbert Grape'' were filmed partly in Lockhart, including the historic courthouse and the town square. The city's
Walmart store was featured in the 2000 film
Where the Heart Is. From 2014 to 2017, the city was the primary filming location for the second and third seasons of the acclaimed
HBO supernatural drama show
The Leftovers, with the town square and courthouse featured prominently in several pivotal scenes. On July 30, 2016, a hot air balloon
struck a power line and caught on fire, killing all 16 people on board when it crashed near the unincorporated community of
Maxwell, about 7 miles west of Lockhart. ==Geography==