Bend, Texas

Bend is an unincorporated community in Lampasas and San Saba Counties in Western Central Texas. The population was 1,678 as of the 2010 census. It is located on Farm to Market Road 580 on the western leg of a horseshoe-shaped bend in the Colorado River. The Lampasas County portion of Bend is part of the Killeen–Temple–Fort Hood Metropolitan Statistical Area.HistorySettlement of the area began in the mid-19th century. In 1854, the community took the name Schleicher's Bend, after an early settler Gustav Schleicher. By 1856, it was called McAnelly's Bend after Robert Daugherty McAnelly, a landowner on the Lampasas side of the river. The community exists on both sides of the Colorado River, the Lampasas (west) side of the river is known locally as "Little Bend".When the application for a post office on the San Saba side of the river was made in the late 1870s, the names Little Breeches and Bend were submitted; the Bend Post Office opened in 1879 and has continuously operated ever since. Bend had a population of approximately 400 in 1890. For most of the 20th century, however, the community recorded 100 to 125 residents.Sulphur SpringsThree miles south of Bend, on the Colorado River, was the Victorian resort and spa of Sulphur Springs. It fell into disuse during the Great Depression, but was revived in the 1980s as a fishing resort.