Texas A&M Forest Service

About forestry service, 78626, Georgetown, TX, US, Texas

Temple is a city in Bell County, Texas, United States. As of 2020, the city has a population of 82,073 according to the U.S. census. Temple lies in the region referred to as Central Texas and is a principal city in the Killeen–Temple–Fort Hood metropolitan area, (Fort Hood was redesignated "Fort Cavazos" in 2023) which as of the 2020 Census had a population of 475,367. Located off Interstate 35, Temple is 65 miles north of Austin, 34 miles south of Waco and 27 miles east of Killeen. == History == Temple was founded as a railroad town by the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad (GC&SF). The settlement began in 1880 as a GC&SF construction camp called Temple Junction. In January 1881, a post office was established, and the settlement was officially named Temple, after Bernard Moore Temple, the chief civil engineer of the GC&SF. The town was incorporated in 1882. Also in 1882, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway built through the town, and soon after, the GC&SF made Temple a division point. In its early years, Temple was a town of shacks and tents with a large number of saloons and tough characters found in the early West. Locally, it was nicknamed "Tanglefoot" because some residents found that the combination of muddy streets and liquor made walking through the town challenging.