Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Hawkins, TX

Hawkins is a city in Wood County, Texas, on U.S. Route 80 between Mineola and Big Sandy, about 20 miles north of Tyler in the East Texas Piney Woods.

Hawkins traces its roots to 1873, when its first post office was established and the Texas and Pacific Railway built through the area, and the community celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2023.

By 1884, just a decade after its founding, Hawkins was already shipping lumber and other products out by rail.

In October 1940, the discovery of oil three and a half miles from Hawkins turned it into a boomtown almost overnight - its population expanded sixfold within a single year, and Humble Oil, later part of ExxonMobil, produced from the Hawkins Field for decades.

Hawkins was officially designated the 'Pancake Capital of Texas' in 1995 by Senate Resolution 73, because it was the home of Lillian Richard, the African-American actress who portrayed Aunt Jemima for the Quaker Oats Company from 1925 to 1947.

Hawkins keeps its pancake crown with the Hawkins Pancake Festival held each April, and it celebrates its other claim to fame with the Hawkins Oil Festival each October.

Just east of Hawkins stands Jarvis Christian University, a historically Black university that has anchored higher education in this part of Wood County for generations.

Lake Hawkins and the Little Sandy National Wildlife Refuge give this small city two notable natural attractions at its doorstep.

The 2020 census counted 1,274 people and 496 households in Hawkins, with a median age of 37.5 years, and the Census Bureau classifies the city as 100 percent rural.

Hawkins covers just 2.2 square miles of land, and its students attend schools in the Hawkins Independent School District.