30°53′23″N 97°55′30″W / 30.889626°N 97.92502°W
Briggs is an unincorporated community in eastern Burnet County, Texas, United States. It lies along U.S. Route 183 and FM 2657, northeast of Burnet.[1] Its elevation is 1,102 feet (336 m), and it is located at 30°53′23″N 97°55′30″W / 30.88972°N 97.92500°W (30.8896255, -97.9250199).[2] Although Briggs is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 78608;[3] the ZCTA for ZIP Code 78608 had a population of 101 at the 2020 census.[4]
Founded as Springs, the community was soon renamed Gum Springs. The first settler in the area, a Missourian named W. T. Gann, arrived in the area in 1855, but the community was established along the Berry Creek in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. A post office was established under the name of Taylor's Gin (named for leading settler Stephen Taylor) on 27 March 1888; it did not assume its current name until 21 June 1898, when local doctor William Hazelwood was able to have the community renamed for his mother-in-law. The community prospered in the early 1900s; although major fires and the early effects of the Great Depression seriously impacted the community, it reached its zenith in population of just over five hundred in 1936, from which it has since declined to its present level of an estimated ninety residents.[5]
Firefly Aerospace operates a test and production facility in the community.
