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Cameron, Texas

Everything Cameron is known for

2 songs mention this city 1 artist from here

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Music in Cameron

Songs About Cameron

Cameron, TX. Usa
Kenny Harrell
80%
"Cameron, TX. Usa"
Memories of Cameron Waltz
The Czechaholics
35%

Artists From Cameron

J
Joe Frausto and The Broke Musicians
rock

Rivers & Roads in Song near Cameron

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Cameron.

Brazos River 43 songs Interstate 35 45 songs

Musical Heritage

Johnny Horton's Last Ride RoadyGoat

In the early morning hours of the fifth of November, nineteen sixty, country star Johnny Horton, the voice of The Battle of New Orleans, was driving east through Milano, headed home to Shreveport after a show at the Skyline Club in Austin. On the narrow, two lane railroad overpass on the west side of town, a pickup coming the other way, driven by a nineteen year old college student who had been drinking, scraped both guard rails and hit Horton's Cadillac head on. Horton was still alive when the ambulance left, but he was dead on arrival at the hospital in Cameron. He was thirty five. His brother Frank later said Johnny had a premonition, a certainty, that he would be killed by a train. After riding one to his last Ed Sullivan Show appearance, he never rode another. He also believed he would be killed by a drunk. He died on a railroad overpass, hit by a drunk driver. And one more twist: Horton's wife, Billie Jean, was already the widow of Hank Williams.

RoadyGoat → · 12.3 mi away

Two Last Shows at the Skyline RoadyGoat

Johnny Horton's death on the highway through Milano closed a strange circle that started at one Austin honky tonk. The Skyline Club sat on the old Dallas Highway, the road Austin now calls North Lamar Boulevard. On December nineteenth, nineteen fifty two, Hank Williams made his last public appearance there. On New Year's Day, nineteen fifty three, Hank died in the back seat of his Cadillac on the way to a show in Canton, Ohio. He was twenty nine. Horton knew Hank from the Louisiana Hayride, and in September nineteen fifty three he married Hank's widow, Billie Jean. On November fourth, nineteen sixty, Horton played his own last show at that same Skyline Club. A few hours later his Cadillac was hit head on in Milano, and he did not survive. Billie Jean was twenty eight, and a widow for the second time. One account adds one more turn: on New Year's Day, nineteen fifty three, Horton was driving through Milano when he heard on the radio that Hank was gone.

RoadyGoat → · 13.0 mi away

The Gig He Tried to Skip RoadyGoat

Johnny Horton did not want to play the show that put him on the road through Milano. It was November fourth, nineteen sixty, at the Skyline Club in Austin, and he tried to get out of it and could not. By one account, his manager, Tillman Franks, had booked the date with the club's owner only four days earlier, and promised Horton, who hated playing rooms that served beer and whiskey, that it would be the last time. That same account says Horton had other invitations, to the premiere of the John Wayne movie North to Alaska and to a disc jockey convention in Nashville. Horton had long believed a drunk would kill him, so between sets he stayed in the dressing room, away from the bar. He played to a sellout crowd. Then he loaded his equipment into the trunk of his Cadillac and took the wheel himself, headed east on Highway seventy nine toward Shreveport, where he planned to go duck hunting with his friend Claude King in the morning. The drive ended here, in Milano.

RoadyGoat → · 13.0 mi away

History of Cameron

Making Aluminum from Brown Coal RoadyGoat

For fifty years, the road you're on, US-77, was a commuter route for thousands of people from Cameron heading to one of the biggest industrial sites in Texas: the Alcoa aluminum smelter and its dedicated power plant at Rockdale. This was a massive STEM undertaking. The entire operation was fueled by lignite, a soft, brown coal strip-mined from the surrounding land. That coal was fed into the Sandow Power Plant, which burned it to generate over 1,000 megawatts of electricity—enough to power a small city. But all that power wasn't for a city; it was for the smelter. Making aluminum is incredibly energy-intensive. The plant used that electricity to run a high-amperage current through alumina powder, breaking the chemical bonds to 'smelt' pure, liquid aluminum. It was a marvel of 20th-century engineering, energy production, and metallurgy, turning soft local dirt into strong, lightweight metal that went into airplanes and cars around the world.

RoadyGoat →

The Case of the Burning Courthouse RoadyGoat

You're looking at the fourth Milam County courthouse to serve from Cameron, and the county's records still carry the scar of the one that didn't make it. On April 9th, 1874, the courthouse here burned to the ground, and nearly every archive the county owned went with it - everything but a few case papers and a single volume of surveyor's records. In a young county, that's a catastrophe: land titles, indictments, tax rolls, gone in a night. A replacement went up in 1876, and the courthouse standing today, stone and Renaissance Revival, was accepted in April of 1892. Just off the square is the other survivor of that era, the 1895 county jail, built by the Pauly Jail Building Company of St. Louis. Three stories of red brick bristling with little turrets, and topped by a hanging tower which, for the record, was never used. Today it's the county museum.

RoadyGoat →

Cameron, TX RoadyGoat

Cameron was founded in 1846 when a seven-member commission authorized by the Texas Legislature purchased a 60-acre tract of Daniel Monroe's headright on the Little River. The new community was named after Ewen Cameron, a Scottish highlander who played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution and the Mier Expedition during the war with Mexico. The courthouse was completed later that year, and county records were transferred from Nashville, which had served as the Milam County seat during Texas' period as an independent republic.

Trigg, Edna Westbrook

1911

Edna Westbrook Trigg, teacher and home demonstration agent, the daughter of Ervin and Rachel (Walker) Westbrook, was born on December 30, 1868, between Milano and Cameron in Milam County, Texas. She attended a community school in Liberty, Milam County, and earned her teaching certificate by attending summer normal schools in Cameron. She married Charles Letman Trigg in 1892; they had a son and a daughter. Late in 1911 the United States Department of Agriculture asked her to help introduce home demonstration work in Milam County by serving as county collaborator for girls' tomato clubs. She reluctantly agreed, after receiving assurance that the work would not interfere with her duties as principal and teacher at a rural school in Liberty. During the summer of 1912 she organized community girls between the ages of ten and eighteen into tomato clubs; each member was responsible for cultivating one-tenth of an acre of tomatoes, selling part of the harvest, and saving the rest for canning. The joint exhibit that the tomato clubs held with the boys' corn clubs at Milano that August marked the first exhibition of girls' agricultural products in the state. The girls exhibited at the Rockdale fair in 1913 and at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas the following year. The exhibits were sent on to the Waco Cotton Palace from the Dallas fair and won over $100 in prize money. Trigg encouraged the club members to establish college funds and compete for scholarships, while she herself learned more about canning methods through trial and error. Lack of county funding for her salary forced her to discontinue the work with young people in 1915, but she continued to work for the rural community. She organized community councils for farm women and responded to invitations to conduct canning demonstrations; in the summer of 1915 she went as far as Childress to conduct a two-month canning clinic. Though she was largely self-taught in home demonstration methods, she gradually became so absorbed in the work that it supplanted her long-standing career in the public schools. When she was offered the position of home demonstration agent for Denton County in February 1916, she resigned immediately as principal of the Liberty school and moved to Denton, where her daughter was a scholarship student in home economics at the College of Industrial Arts (now Texas Woman's University). Edna Trigg was the first home demonstration agent appointed in the state. In Denton she faced the double disadvantage of being a stranger and a "government woman." Traveling around the county in a horse and buggy and staying overnight with farm families, she gradually overcame prejudices with unpretentious friendliness and energetic demonstrations of her expertise. She converted the City Federation of Denton to the home demonstration cause by getting permission for her girls' clubs to show their products at the federation's fall exhibit; the girls' entries were so superior to those of the town women that a purse was made up for prize money. Trigg borrowed $350 to buy steam canners, placed them in twenty communities to encourage canning, and after a number of successful demonstrations sold the cookers to community members. During World War I the national campaign to grow and conserve food led her to launch a drive to make Denton County self-sufficient in foodstuffs. She persuaded farm families to plant less cotton and more vegetables and induced landlords to grant tenant farmers garden plots and cow pastures. At the same time, she held regular canning schools and served on the staff of the College of Industrial Arts. In the postwar years Denton County remained one of the top Texas counties in the amount of vegetables, fruit, and beef canned annually. Driving over a thousand miles a month, Trigg gave demonstrations to rural women and introduced the protective diet card, a food and nutrient consumption schedule that each woman drew up for her own family to guard against pellagra, rick

Tsha Handbook →

Milam, Ben

1812

Benjamin Rush Milam, born in Kentucky 1788. Soldier in the War of 1812. Trader with the Texas Comanche Indians, 1818. Colonel in the Long Expedition in 1820. Empresario from 1826 to 1835. Benjamin Rush Milam participated in the capture of Goliad, October 9, 1835; was killed in San Antonio December 7, 1835 while commanding the Texas forces which later captured the town. Who will follow Old Ben Milam into San Antonio? Erected by the State of Texas 1936 with funds appropriated by the Federal government to commemorate one hundred years of Texas Independence.

Historical Marker →

Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria Mission

1749

Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, the third of three San Xavier missions , which also included San Ildefonso and San Francisco Xavier de Horcasitas , was founded by the College of Santa Cruz de Querétaro under the leadership of Father Mariano Francisco de los Dolores y Viana . It was on the south bank of the San Gabriel River (then known as the San Xavier River) about five miles from the site of present Rockdale in Milam County. This mission, originally designed to serve the Tonkawa Indians, was founded in July 1749 to congregate Coco Indians and their allies, including the Tops and Karankawas. The Cocos had been waiting at Mission San Ildefonso for the establishment of Mission Candelaria, but they fled in March 1749 because of harassment from soldiers stationed in the area. The missionaries succeeded in recongregating the Cocos at the mission. By the time of Capt. José Joaquín de Ecay Múzquiz 's inspection tour to select a presidio site in the summer of 1750, the mission had ninety residents and had recorded fifty baptisms. Although there was constant squabbling between the San Xavier missions and the military force sent to protect them, Mission Candelaria had a particularly unfortunate association with the soldiers. When San Francisco Xavier de Gigedo Presidio was established near the mission in 1751, Father Miguel de Pinilla of Mission Candelaria became the chaplain for the garrison of fifty men. The commander of the presidio, Capt. Felipe de Rábago y Terán , decided upon his arrival that the missions should be moved, and he constantly undermined their work. He also became involved with the wife of one of his soldiers. In the ensuing scandal, the aggrieved husband, Juan José Ceballos, fled to Mission Candelaria. Rábago y Terán violated the sanctuary of the mission to return Ceballos to the presidio and released him to the mission only after strong protests from Father Pinilla. Relations between the captain and the chaplain continued to deteriorate as reports of lewd behavior among the Spanish troops spread to the mission community. Finally, after consulting with other missionaries, Pinilla excommunicated the garrison. The order was lifted after each soldier requested penance. A new crisis emerged when the garrison severely beat a Coco Indian when he entered the presidio with his weapons. As a result of the beating, the Cocos fled Mission Candelaria. Several days after they left, Father Juan José de Ganzabal and Ceballos were dining with Father Pinilla at the mission when they were attacked by unknown assailants. Ceballos died from a gunshot wound, while Father Ganzabal took an arrow through the heart. Rábago y Terán blamed the murders on the missing Coco Indians, but subsequent events suggested that the captain himself was behind the murders. The entire incident raised questions about moving the missions closer to San Antonio. During the next four years, Mission Candelaria was occupied intermittently by Bidais, Orocoquisas, and Cocos. The San Gabriel River location was finally abandoned without official sanction in 1755 after a severe drought and epidemic. In 1756 all mission property was transferred to the new Santa Cruz de San Sabá Mission , which was established to serve the Lipan Apaches. The Coco Indian neophytes from Mission Candelaria were moved to San Antonio de Valero Mission in San Antonio. A historical marker in Milam County commemorates Candelaria Mission.

Tsha Handbook → · 4.8 mi away

Washington, Lewis Miles Hobbs

1835

Lewis M. H. Washington, writer and participant in the Texas Revolution , was born on December 3, 1813, in Wilkes County, Georgia, the son of Robert and Elizabeth (Hammond) Washington. He moved to Texas in the mid-1830s and soon became active in local affairs. He participated in the siege of Bexar in December 1835, as a member of James W. Fannin 's staff. In 1838 he delivered the eulogy on Charles Edward Hawkins , late commander of the Independence in the Texas Navy . Before April 1840 Washington and Edwin Ward Moore purchased the vessel Merchant for the Texas Navy. Washington married Rebecca Landis Davidson, a widow with five children, in Milam County in 1839, and they had four more children. While his family lived in Nashville, Texas, part of Robertson's Colony , on the Brazos River, Washington spent most of his time in Austin writing sentimental, political, and philosophical articles for several newspapers and taking part in various skirmishes with Mexico. He was awarded bounty land for his war services. He moved his family to Austin about 1846. Washington went to Costa Rica, probably in 1856, as a correspondent of the New Orleans Picayune , and from there went to Nicaragua on the William Walker filibustering expedition. He was wounded in the foot at Castillo Viego on February 19, 1857, and was left on the battlefield. He was captured by Costa Rican forces and later shot under the orders of General Moro. His body was not recovered for burial in the United States.

Tsha Handbook → · 4.8 mi away

Green-Batte House

1847

Now enclosed, original cabin on site was built of logs and bricks both made nearby, 1847. Owner was George Green (1813-1885), prominent early surveyor and soldier in Battle of San Jacinto. Home was among Cameron's first. Boards were added in 1850s. About 1900, R. L. Batte, Sr., an oil mill owner, law officer, and capitalist, purchased home. Over years, both owners added rooms. Batte reared his children and many orphans in this house. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1969

Historical Marker →

First Home in Cameron

1841

Boyhood home of L. S. "Sul" Ross (1838-1898), Texas Governor from 1887 to 1891. His father Shapley P. Ross, Indian agent and Ranger, built house after moving here about 1841; he chose this site because it had a good spring. L. S. Ross, who was a Confederate general, served as president of Texas A & M College after holding office as governor. In 1890 this pavilion was erected to accommodate band concerts, meetings and rallies. It was the scene in 1892 of a landmark debate between two gubernatorial candidates: Gov. James S. Hogg and George Clark.

Historical Marker →

Things to Do in Cameron

historical 19.9 mi away
The Yellow Fever Train

On September 3 1873 a young man named W.F. Hughes stepped off a train from Shreveport and checked into a Calvert hotel. Two days later he fell ill. Within a…
quirky 19.6 mi away
A Victorian Museum That Nobody Planned

Calvert is now the fourth largest historic district in Texas and nobody planned it that way. When the cotton money dried up and the population drained away the…
historical 19.8 mi away
Reconstruction on the Brazos

During Reconstruction Calvert became a flashpoint for racial politics in Texas. African Americans supported by White Republican allies briefly exercised real…
historical 19.8 mi away
When Calvert Was Fourth in Texas

It is hard to believe today but Calvert was once the fourth-largest city in Texas with 10000 residents. Cotton money railroad connections and a strategic…
historical 20.0 mi away
The Largest Cotton Gin in the World

In 1871 tiny Calvert Texas claimed to have the largest cotton gin on the entire planet. The town had exploded after the Houston and Texas Central Railway…
quirky 23.6 mi away
Texas Chain Saw Massacre Gas Station

The original 1974 filming location is now a BBQ restaurant. Life imitates art.
food 16.2 mi away
Hwy 77 Cafe

A small-town local favorite on US Highway 77 in Rosebud, about 36 miles south of Waco. Texas country cooking — chicken fried steak, pork chops, liver and…
historical 19.7 mi away
Fire and Flood

Calvert took a one-two punch at the turn of the century that would have killed most towns. In 1899 devastating floods swept through the Brazos River valley…

Everything Near Cameron

290 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

  • Trigg, Edna Westbrook · Tsha Handbook

    Edna Westbrook Trigg, teacher and home demonstration agent, the daughter of Ervin and Rachel (Walker) Westbrook, was born on December 30, 1868, between Milano and Cameron in Milam County, Texas. She attended a community…

  • Green, George · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Milam County, and right here near Cameron is where George Green lived out his days. He arrived in Texas in 1835, just in time to join the fight for independence. Green fought at the Battle of San…

  • Johnson, Virgil Lewis · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Milam County, and right here in Cameron, Virgil Lewis Johnson was born in 1935. He'd go on to front the doo-wop group, The Velvets. Inspired by local singers and groups he heard growing up,…

  • Macune, Charles William · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Milam County, and right here is where Charles William Macune, a doctor and a farmer, became a major player in a national movement. In 1886, Macune helped form the Texas Farmers' Alliance. By 1887,…

  • Cameron, TX (Milam County) · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Cameron, the county seat of Milam County. This town owes its existence to a legislative act back in 1846, when Texas lawmakers decided it was time for a permanent home for county records. A…

  • Burney, George E. · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once the Milam and Williamson district, near Cameron, Texas, where George E. Burney settled in 1847. Burney wasn't just any settler; he was a key player in shaping early Texas. In 1849,…

  • Campbell, Lee Lewis · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Milam County, the birthplace of Lee Lewis Campbell. Born in the mid-1860s, Campbell rose from these rural roots to become a towering figure in the Black Baptist community. After studying at Bishop…

  • Herring, Marcus de Lafayette · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through East Texas, maybe near Shelby County, and you might be passing the very spot where a promising lawyer had a life-altering accident. Marcus de Lafayette Herring, a man who had already practiced law…

  • Milam County · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Milam County, a place that was once the heart of a massive Spanish land grant and later a huge chunk of early Texas. Imagine this: back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1716</say-as>,…

  • Oxsheer, William Wilson · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Milam County, not far from Cameron. This area is home to William Wilson Oxsheer, a man who wore many hats. He came to Texas in 1839, eventually settling here in 1842. Oxsheer became a prominent…

  • Rogers, Jefferson Carroll · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Milam County, Texas, where Jefferson Carroll Rogers led men into the thick of the Civil War. Right here, in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1863</say-as>, Rogers commanded the Fifth Texas…

  • Bickett, John Hamilton, Jr. · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Central Texas, maybe near Cameron, where John Hamilton Bickett, Jr. was born in 1892. He was a man of many hats: lawyer, World War I sergeant major, chief justice of the Fourth Court of Civil…

Show all 200 nearby places
  • Henderson, Thomas Stalworth · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Milam County, and right here in Cameron, you're passing the town where Thomas Stalworth Henderson practiced law for an incredible fifty-eight years. He started his legal career here in 1879, but…

  • McLane, Sam Brooks · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Milam County, and right here in Cameron, Sam Brooks McLane was born in 1891. He didn't just stay put, though. Starting in 1914, he dedicated his life to the Texas Mexican Industrial Institute,…

  • Green-Batte House · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker

    Now enclosed, original cabin on site was built of logs and bricks both made nearby, 1847. Owner was George Green (1813-1885), prominent early surveyor and soldier in Battle of San Jacinto. Home was among Cameron's…

  • Dr. Nathan Cass House · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Dr. Nathan Cass House, built in 1895. This place was home to Dr. Cass, a prominent Cameron physician and community leader, who lived from 1849 to 1906. Take a look at the architecture – it's a…

  • The B. J. and Sue Dollar Baskin Home · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the B.J. and Sue Dollar Baskin Home in Cameron. Benajah Baskin arrived here way back in 1883 from Alabama, starting a mercantile business and venturing into farming and ranching. After his first wife…

  • Making Aluminum from Brown Coal · 0.6 mi

    For fifty years, the road you're on, US-77, was a commuter route for thousands of people from Cameron heading to one of the biggest industrial sites in Texas: the Alcoa aluminum smelter and its dedicated power plant at…

  • The Case of the Burning Courthouse · 0.6 mi

    You're looking at the fourth Milam County courthouse to serve from Cameron, and the county's records still carry the scar of the one that didn't make it. On April 9th, 1874, the courthouse here burned to the ground, and…

  • Cameron, TX · 0.6 mi

    Cameron was founded in 1846 when a seven-member commission authorized by the Texas Legislature purchased a 60-acre tract of Daniel Monroe's headright on the Little River. The new community was named after Ewen Cameron,…

  • First Home in Cameron · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker

    Boyhood home of L. S. "Sul" Ross (1838-1898), Texas Governor from 1887 to 1891. His father Shapley P. Ross, Indian agent and Ranger, built house after moving here about 1841; he chose this site because it had a good…

  • O.J. Thomas High School · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of O.J. Thomas High School here in Cameron. Before this school, African American students in the area learned at 'Little Rocky' Church. That all changed in 1923 when Oscar John Thomas…

  • All Saints Episcopal Church · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Cameron, and right here is All Saints Episcopal Church. Services started way back in 1860, but the church officially organized as a mission in 1901. The Diocese of Texas bought this land in 1906,…

  • First United Methodist Church of Cameron · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Cameron, and right here is the First United Methodist Church, a landmark that's been serving this community for over a century and a half. It all started way back in <say-as interpret-as="date"…

  • Milam, Ben · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker

    Benjamin Rush Milam, born in Kentucky 1788. Soldier in the War of 1812. Trader with the Texas Comanche Indians, 1818. Colonel in the Long Expedition in 1820. Empresario from 1826 to 1835. Benjamin Rush Milam…

  • R. F. and Minta Pool House · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the R.F. and Minta Pool House in Cameron. This Queen Anne beauty was built in 1902 by developer Jefferson Hefley, but the Pools bought it the same year. R.F. Pool arrived in Cameron in 1881 and…

  • Milam County Courthouse · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Milam County Courthouse in Cameron. This is the fourth courthouse for the county, with its cornerstone laid by the local Masons way back on July 4th, 1891. <break time="400ms"/> Designed by…

  • First National Bank of Cameron · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Cameron, the heart of Milam County. Look around – you're passing the site of the First National Bank, which opened its doors way back in 1889. It started with $50,000 capital, weathering economic…

  • First Baptist Church of Cameron · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Cameron, and right here is the site of the First Baptist Church, organized way back in 1853. It started with just itinerant ministers, but by 1867, Reverend T. M. Anderson became its first…

  • Girl's Tomato Club · 0.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past where Texas history was canned and cultivated! Back in 1912, right here in Milam County, the very first Girl's Tomato Clubs in the state got their start. Local principal Edna Westbrook Trigg…

  • Mrs. Edna Westbrook Trigg · 0.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Milam County, passing the birthplace of a true pioneer in Texas women's history. Edna Westbrook Trigg, born right here, became a leader in rural club work. In 1911, she was tapped by the U.S.…

  • Milam County Jail of 1895 · 0.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Milam County Jail, built in 1895 by the Pauly Jail Building and Manufacturing Company. This Romanesque Revival structure featured a unique 'hanging tower' that was never used for executions, as…

  • St. Monica's Catholic Church · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Cameron, and right here is the site of St. Monica's Catholic Church. This congregation started way back in 1883. But lightning struck – literally – and a fire wiped out their first church. So,…

  • Wied Hardware Store · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of a Cameron institution that served this community for nearly a century! Albert Matocha, who came to Texas from Austria-Hungary as a boy, opened his hardware store right here in 1898. It…

  • George Green · 1.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Cameron, and right here is the marker for George Green. He fought in the Battle of San Jacinto, the fight that won Texas its independence! But Green wasn't done with Texas. He served as a Ranger,…

  • Dr. Nathan and Lula Cass House · 1.1 mi · Scraped Hmdb

    Ever seen a house shaped like a stop sign? Well, get ready to feast your eyes on one of Texas's rarest architectural gems! This unique octagon-shaped house stands as a testament to a prominent local doctor's vision. Dr.…

  • Massillon Farley · 1.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Massillon Farley, a soldier who served in the Texas army during the decisive Battle of San Jacinto in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1836</say-as>. But his service didn't end…

  • Milam County · 1.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Milam County, a place that's been on the map since 1834, when it was part of Robertson's Colony. Two years later, it was named for Benjamin Rush Milam, the hero who fell at San Antonio. The county…

  • Wilson-Ledbetter Park · 1.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Wilson-Ledbetter Park, a gift to Cameron from Lizzie Batey Ledbetter Wilson in 1914. She wanted to provide a playground for Milam County, fueled by love and affection. Her generosity, coupled with…

  • Steamboat Washington · 2.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the spot where the Steamboat Washington made history on the Little River. It was the winter of 1850-1851 when Captain Basil M. Hatfield steered this vessel right here, bringing a shipment of goods…

  • John Hobson · 4.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the resting place of John Hobson, a man who arrived in Texas in 1835 and immediately jumped into the fight for independence. He fought with Captain Jesse Billingsley at the Battle of San Jacinto, the…

  • Walkers Creek Cemetery · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Walkers Creek Cemetery, established in 1884 by the Cage family. The burial ground was already in use by 1880, and today, an association still cares for this active cemetery.

  • Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria Mission · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, the third of three San Xavier missions , which also included San Ildefonso and San Francisco Xavier de Horcasitas , was founded by the College of Santa Cruz de Querétaro under the…

  • Washington, Lewis Miles Hobbs · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Lewis M. H. Washington, writer and participant in the Texas Revolution , was born on December 3, 1813, in Wilkes County, Georgia, the son of Robert and Elizabeth (Hammond) Washington. He moved to Texas in the mid-1830s…

  • Boales, Calvin · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what was once the wild frontier of Texas, near the Brazos River, not far from the Nashville settlement. Right here, in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1835</say-as>, Calvin Boales and his…

  • Cayce, Henry Petty · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Milam County, and right here near Davilla is where Henry Petty Cayce, a man who fought in FIVE wars over THIRTY years, met his end. Born in Tennessee, he came to Texas as a boy and was fighting…

  • Fifth Texas Infantry · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Texas, but the story of the Fifth Texas Infantry actually begins hundreds of miles away in Richmond, Virginia, back in October of 1861. These soldiers, recruited from towns across Texas like…

  • San Francisco Xavier de Gigedo Presidio · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Milam County, near Rockdale, where a Spanish military outpost once stood. San Francisco Xavier de Gigedo Presidio was founded in 1751, not just to protect missions, but to deal with a host of…

  • San Francisco Xavier de Horcasitas Mission · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Milam County, not far from Rockdale. Right here, in the mid-1700s, was the site of San Francisco Xavier de Horcasitas Mission. It was one of three Spanish missions established in the area, founded…

  • San Gabriel River · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Central Texas, and right here is the San Gabriel River. It’s a place with a history stretching back centuries. Spanish explorers first charted it in <say-as interpret-as="date"…

  • San Ildefonso Mission · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Rockdale, deep in Milam County, where one of the first Spanish missions in this part of Texas was established. This was San Ildefonso Mission, founded back in 1748. It was part of a chain of three…

  • San Xavier Missions · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Milam County, near Rockdale, where back in the mid-1700s, three Spanish missions tried to serve the Native Americans of Central Texas. These missions – San Francisco Xavier de Horcasitas, San…

  • Thomson, William Dowsing · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Milam County, maybe near Old Nashville, and right here is where William Dowsing Thomson helped pioneer this land. He first came to Texas with his father in the early 1830s, surveying for Sterling…

  • Port Sullivan, TX · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Port Sullivan was on a low bluff just downstream from a shoal of giant limestone boulders in the Brazos River, one mile northeast of Farm Road 485 in eastern Milam County. A stone marker erected at the site in 1936,…

  • Sandow, TX · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Sandow is a mining community on Farm Road 1786 eight miles southwest of Rockdale in southern Milam County. At one time the site was a stop for mule drivers hauling freight from Matagorda. Freezeout, as the drivers named…

  • Home Demonstration · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Texas, and right here in Milam County, back in 1912, a new kind of education began for rural girls. It was called Home Demonstration work, and it started with Edna Westbrook Trigg teaching tomato…

  • McKay, Daniel · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Milam County, and right here, in what is now this area, Daniel McKay was fighting for Texas independence. Born in Maine in 1814, he came to Texas in 1834. Just two years later, in March of 1836,…

  • Pamaya Indians · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Milam County, Texas, but way back in 1716, this was home to about 2,000 Pamaya Indians. They were part of a larger group displaced from their homelands, living in a rancheria and…

  • Walker, William Henry · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Milam County, where William Henry Walker settled in the early 1830s. Life on the Texas frontier was tough, and for Walker, it meant facing down an Indian attack in 1836. He and three other…

  • San Gabriel, TX · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    San Gabriel is on Farm Road 486 seventeen miles southwest of Cameron in western Milam County. In the 1730s and 1740s several Spanish missions were established near the site in an effort to Christianize the Indian tribes…

  • Lesuer, Charles Marion · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Milam County, not far from where Charles Marion Lesuer raised a company of Confederate cavalry. He called them the 'San Andres Light Horse Company,' named after the town where he lived. Lesuer, a…

  • Mesquite Indians · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Milam County, Texas, an area that was once home to the Mesquite Indians. The Spanish gave this name to several different groups across Texas, but the ones in this region were part of…

  • Pastia Indians · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through South Texas, maybe near the Nueces River, and you might be passing through the ancient territory of the Pastia Indians. These weren't a famous tribe, and their name even caused confusion for early…

  • Rancheria Grande · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the heart of Texas, perhaps near Milam County, and you're passing through a place that once held a name that meant 'great settlement' to Spanish explorers. Ranchería Grande wasn't one specific…

  • Sijame Indians · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Central Texas, perhaps near the future Milam County. Right here, in 1716, the Sijame people were encamped with both Tonkawan and Coahuiltecan bands at a place called Ranchería Grande. Their name…

  • Davilla, TX · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Davilla is on Farm Road 487 eighteen miles west of Cameron in western Milam County. It was settled in the 1860s and named for Miguel Davila, who had received the original grant for the land in 1833. A surveyor named…

  • Maysfield, TX · 4.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Maysfield is on Farm Road 485 eight miles northeast of Cameron in northeastern Milam County. It was originally called Old Graball, but its name was later changed to Maysfield in honor of Thomas Newton Mayes, who moved…

  • New Providence Primitive Baptist Church · 5.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Milam County, passing the site of New Providence Primitive Baptist Church. Constituted in 1866 with just eight charter members, this church has served this rural community for over a century.…

  • S. S. Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church · 6.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Milam County, heading past the site of the S. S. Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church. Back in the 1880s, Czech immigrants were settling this area, and their faith was strong. The very first…

  • North Elm Cemetery · 6.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Milam County, and right here is North Elm Cemetery. While many settlers arrived from Alabama starting in 1867, this resting place holds a unique military history. Look closely, and you'll find the…

  • The Lieutenant Who Stepped In Front of the Fire · 7.1 mi

    U S Highway Seventy Seven north of Cameron carries the name of Second Lieutenant Darryn Andrews. He was born in Ogden, Utah, in nineteen seventy five, but he grew up in Cameron. At C H Yoe High School he played…

  • Cameron's Master Sergeant · 7.8 mi

    From the northern city limits of Rockdale to southeast of Cameron, U S Highway Seventy Seven is the Army Master Sergeant Charles L Price the Third Memorial Highway. Charles Price was born in Cameron on April fourth,…

  • First Presbyterian Church of Maysfield · 7.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Maysfield, Texas, and right here is the site of the First Presbyterian Church, organized way back in August of 1873. It started with just nine members, including T.N. Mayes, who donated the land…

  • Maysfield United Methodist Church · 7.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Maysfield, where Methodists have been gathering for over a century and a half. They officially organized way back in 1854, meeting in a local schoolhouse. The first sanctuary was built in 1897, but…

  • Rev. Joseph P. Sneed · 7.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Maysfield area, home to Reverend Joseph P. Sneed. Born in 1804, Sneed was licensed as a Methodist minister in Tennessee way back in 1828. He first visited Texas in 1834, and by 1838, he was…

  • Williams-Atkinson Homestead · 8.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Williams-Atkinson Homestead, built in 1893. Thomas Williams planned this Folk Victorian home, but died before it was finished. His wife, Emma, completed the house and ran the farm, while their…

  • Buckholts SPJST Lodge Hall · 8.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Buckholts SPJST Lodge Hall, a place that's been the heart of Czech-Texan community life for over a century! Lodge No. 15, called Svornost Jihu or 'Southern Unity,' was founded right here in 1907.…

  • Little River Baptist Church and Cemetery · 8.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Little River Baptist Church, a community hub that started way back in 1849 with just eight members. They met in homes at first, then built a log cabin. Imagine this place buzzing in…

  • Hope Lutheran Church · 8.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Hope Lutheran Church, the oldest church still standing in Buckholts. It all started back in 1890 with just twelve members and a German missionary named Julius Schroeder. For a decade,…

  • Buckholts Brethren Church · 8.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Buckholts, where Czech immigrants founded a Brethren congregation. In 1894, they held their first services here, using the Czech language. The congregation built this sanctuary in 1913, later…

  • Surveyed by trigonometry across the Blackland Prairie · 8.9 mi

    The town of Buckholts is, fundamentally, a product of 19th-century engineering. Its existence was not organic; it was designed. When the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway planned its route from Galveston to the…

  • A Czech Heartbeat on the Prairie · 8.9 mi

    For many families in and around Buckholts, community life revolved around a set of initials: S-P-J-S-T. This stands for the Slovanská Podporující Jednota Státu Texas, or the Slavonic Benevolent Order of the State of…

  • The Town That Lost Its Police Department · 9.1 mi

    Buckholts has about four hundred people, and in twenty twenty-six it lost its police department. Not over a crime, but over state standards it couldn't prove it met. On February fourth, twenty twenty-six, an inspector…

  • The Judge Who Gave the Railroad a Town · 9.1 mi

    The name on this town belongs to a Mississippi lawyer who'd already moved away when the town was born. John Abel Buckholts enlisted in eighteen forty-six to fight in the Mexican War, in a rifle regiment led by Jefferson…

  • Buckholts, TX · 9.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Buckholts, Texas, a community that owes its existence to the railroad. <break time="400ms"/> Established in 1881 when the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway pushed through, it was named for John…

  • Mount Zion Baptist Church · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Mount Zion Baptist Church, a testament to faith and community that's been serving Rockdale for over a century. It all started in 1872 with Pleasant Grove Baptist, and then Fellowship Baptist formed a…

  • Hope Lutheran Memorial Park · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Hope Lutheran Memorial Park. The German Evangelical Lutheran Hoffnung Church bought this land in 1902 for a burial ground. Early graves here include Josef Neuman, who died in 1903, and J.C. Richter,…

  • Westbrook-Walker Cemetery · 9.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Westbrook-Walker Cemetery. (One-fourth miles southeast) Georgia native Ervin Westbrook and his wife Rachel McCorra Walker left their Mississippi farm for Texas in 1858. They were joined by Rachel's…

  • Lewis Family Cemetery · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Lewis Family Cemetery, a final resting place with deep roots in early Texas. This burial ground traces its origins back to Sterling C. Robertson's colonies in the 1830s. Thomas Curry, a South…

  • Daniel and Precilla Gilleland · 10.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Milam County, and right around here, Daniel and Precilla Gilleland settled down. They were part of Stephen F. Austin's legendary Old Three Hundred, arriving way back in December of 1821. Imagine…

  • Burlington, TX · 10.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving north of Cameron in Milam County, and you're passing through Burlington. This community started out as Irish Settlement, settled by the Jones brothers as early as 1867. But it got its current name,…

  • Murray Cemetery · 10.4 mi · Historical Marker

    As you drive through Rockdale, you're passing Murray Cemetery, the final resting place for generations of Milam County settlers. Its earliest marked grave dates back to 1856, belonging to Nancy Phillips. The cemetery…

  • Saint Michael's Catholic Church · 10.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Saint Michael's Catholic Church in Burlington. Irish settlers first arrived here in 1875, calling this place Irish Settlement. By 1885, eight families pooled their resources to build this…

  • St. Michael's Cemetery · 10.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past St. Michael's Cemetery, a final resting place for Burlington's early Irish Catholic settlers. The Jones brothers bought this land in 1876, and one was buried here just two years later. In 1897, the…

  • Burlington Cemetery · 10.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Burlington Cemetery, established in 1917 by the German Evangelical Lutheran Church. It served as a burial ground for non-Catholic residents, with the earliest interment dating to that same year.…

  • Wilson School, Site of · 12.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the old Wilson School near Rosebud. Its story starts in the 1890s, when William Anderson Barclay donated land for a simple clapboard schoolhouse. Inside, two rooms served as classrooms:…

  • Pin Oak Cemetery · 12.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving near the Pin Oak Cemetery, established in 1896 but with burials dating back to 1861. This ground served the Pin Oak Settlement and surrounding communities, many of whom were farmers who arrived by the…

  • Johnny Horton's Last Ride · 12.3 mi

    In the early morning hours of the fifth of November, nineteen sixty, country star Johnny Horton, the voice of The Battle of New Orleans, was driving east through Milano, headed home to Shreveport after a show at the…

  • Persky, William · 12.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Milam County, passing the final home of William Persky. Born in Germany in 1844, he came to America as a boy and later served the Confederacy in the Civil War, even surviving time as a prisoner of…

  • Sharp Cemetery · 12.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Sharp Cemetery, established around the grave of Susan Dilworth, who died in 1880. The land was deeded to Mt. Zion Presbyterian Church in 1882, and though the church later moved and fell into…

  • Bryant Station · 12.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Bryant Station, a frontier village established by Major Benjamin F. Bryant. He was a San Jacinto veteran and appointed Indian Agent in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1842</say-as>…

  • Bryant, Major · 12.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Major Bryant's home and trading post. He was a prominent figure in early Milam County, establishing a key hub for settlers and commerce. This wasn't just a home; it was a vital center of…

  • Bushdale Community · 12.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Milam County, passing the site of what was once a bustling German immigrant community called Bushdale. Founded in the 1870s, it quickly grew into a thriving farming area. Imagine this: a…

  • Milano, TX · 13.0 mi

    On November 5, 1960, country music singer Johnny Horton was killed by a drunk driver on Highway 79 near Milano on his way home from a performance at the Skyline Club in Austin.

  • The Town Sold to Seven Thousand People · 13.0 mi

    Somewhere along Highway Seventy-Nine east of Milano is a town that thousands of people owned, and almost nobody ever saw. In eighteen seventy seven, a Cincinnati outfit called the Texas Land and Colonization Company…

  • The Milano Diamond: An Engineering Crossroads · 13.0 mi

    The heart of Milano isn't a town square; it's a piece of railway engineering called a 'diamond.' If you could see the tracks from above, you'd watch the Union Pacific's east-west line — the old International-Great…

  • The Deputy Who Met Bill Longley · 13.0 mi

    On a Sunday morning in November eighteen seventy six, a Milam County deputy riding home to Milano offered to keep three strangers company. His name was Matt Shelton, and he was about sixty-two years old. He was coming…

  • The Day the Storm Found the Junction · 13.0 mi

    On an April afternoon in eighteen eighty three, the same storm system that had struck Belton dropped back down south of Cameron and headed for Milano Junction. It was about a quarter past four on April twenty-seventh.…

  • Texas Had a Treasurer Named Jesse James · 13.0 mi

    For almost thirty-six years, the man in charge of the Texas treasury was named Jesse James. He was born in nineteen oh four in the Sand Grove community, just south of Milano, and grew up in Thorndale. The name was not…

  • The Rock House That Isn't Haunted · 13.0 mi

    Two miles south of Milano, an old red sandstone house has collected more ghost stories than almost anything in Milam County, and nearly all of them are false. People have said it was a hotel and a stagecoach stop. That…

  • The Battle of Apache Pass · 13.0 mi

    Before the railroads came and created towns like Milano, this land was already a highway. A few miles from here the San Gabriel River runs over a gravel bar northwest of Rockdale that Spanish explorers named Apache…

  • Two Last Shows at the Skyline · 13.0 mi

    Johnny Horton's death on the highway through Milano closed a strange circle that started at one Austin honky tonk. The Skyline Club sat on the old Dallas Highway, the road Austin now calls North Lamar Boulevard. On…

  • The Gig He Tried to Skip · 13.0 mi

    Johnny Horton did not want to play the show that put him on the road through Milano. It was November fourth, nineteen sixty, at the Skyline Club in Austin, and he tried to get out of it and could not. By one account,…

  • The Tomato Girls of Milano · 13.0 mi

    In August nineteen twelve, a group of farm girls set out jars of canned tomatoes at Milano, and made Texas history doing it. The woman behind them was Edna Westbrook Trigg, born in eighteen sixty eight between Milano…

  • The Town Almost Called Temple · 13.0 mi

    Milano sits where two railroads cross, and for a little while, one of them called this place Temple. The International and Great Northern came through first, in eighteen seventy three, and the town was christened Milam…

  • The Wall That Stood · 13.0 mi

    Milano may be named for Milan, Italy. Nobody is sure, but it gives us an excuse for this one. In Milan, at the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, there is an old dining hall, and on one wall of it, Leonardo da Vinci…

  • The Two Men Who Lived · 13.0 mi

    Two other men were in Johnny Horton's Cadillac when it was hit in Milano in November nineteen sixty, and both of them lived. Up front was Tillman Franks, Horton's manager and bass player. Franks had played bass on the…

  • Five Days Before North to Alaska · 13.0 mi

    When Johnny Horton died near Milano in November nineteen sixty, a John Wayne movie was about to open with his voice. Horton had sung the title song for North to Alaska. He had done movie songs before, but this was the…

  • A Doctor's Note for Whiskey · 13.0 mi

    On a bright moonlit night in August nineteen twenty two, two officers hid beside a culvert a quarter mile outside Milano, and waited. This was Prohibition. A car came along the Milano to Hanover road with its lights…

  • Why a Hat Maker Is a Milliner · 13.0 mi

    Milano may be named for Milan, Italy, and Milan gave English a job title. A milliner, a maker of women's hats, was most likely first a Milaner, someone from Milan, or a dealer in the goods Milan was famous for: straw…

  • The Bread a Doctor Prescribed · 13.0 mi

    Milano shares its name with a cookie, though the town is definitely not named for it. The Milano cookie comes from Pepperidge Farm, and Pepperidge Farm started with a sick little boy. In nineteen thirty seven, Margaret…

  • Newton, James Oscar · 13.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Milam County, near Milano, where James Oscar Newton was born in 1875. He grew up to become the Texas Adjutant General, a brigadier general, in 1907. He organized rifle teams and established rifle…

  • Sharp General Store · 13.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the old Sharp General Store in San Gabriel. Built in two stages in 1895 and 1896 by Civil War veteran Daniel G. Davis, Sr., this was the area's largest mercantile facility for nearly a century. For…

  • New Colony School · 13.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Bell County, past the site of the New Colony School. In 1905, Czech families seeking a new start moved here, establishing the Nova Osada, or New Colony. By 1909, their children were learning in…

  • Sharp · 13.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Sharp, a community born right after the Civil War. Settlers were drawn here by the rich black soil, perfect for farming and ranching. The first business, a store, opened its doors in 1892,…

  • Moss Ragsdale Cemetery · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Moss Ragsdale Cemetery, a final resting place for some of Milam County's earliest settlers. The land was first used for burials in the 1850s, but wasn't officially deeded as a burying ground…

  • La Recluta and La Escuelita · 13.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Rockdale, where a story of coal, community, and survival unfolds. In 1833, Jose Leal got land here, but it wasn't until 1867 that coal was discovered. By 1874, the railroad arrived, and by 1890,…

  • Sharp Presbyterian Church · 13.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Sharp Presbyterian Church, built in 1902. Its history traces back to 1872 with the Mt. Herman Cumberland Presbyterian Church, which later split into two congregations. The Leachville church was…

  • Site of the Mission San Ildefonso · 13.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through San Gabriel, Milam County, where Spanish Franciscans planted a mission in 1749. Mission San Ildefonso was meant to bring Christianity to local tribes like the Coco and Karankawa. But things went…

  • Rainbow Tourist Camp and Courts · 13.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Rainbow Tourist Camp and Courts, a pioneer in Texas roadside lodging. Opened in 1918 by N.M. Bullock, it started as a campsite with amenities, evolving into cottage-style courts by…

  • From Aluminum to Bitcoin · 14.1 mi

    As you pass Rockdale, you're near the site of one of the most fascinating industrial pivots in America. For fifty years, this area was home to Alcoa's giant aluminum smelter, which consumed enormous amounts of…

  • The Town That Aluminum Built · 14.1 mi

    In 1952, Rockdale transformed almost overnight. The Aluminum Company of America, or Alcoa, began construction on a massive aluminum smelter just southwest of town. It was an engineering feat—the first smelter in the…

  • The Engineering of Lignite Power · 14.1 mi

    Rockdale’s biggest story is a marvel of energy engineering. How do you power one of the world's largest aluminum smelters? Alcoa’s solution was to use the low-grade lignite coal right under their feet. The process was…

  • An Author's Autumn · 14.1 mi

    Rockdale's landscape of tenant farms and river-bottom thickets found its voice in George Sessions Perry, born here in 1910. The town and the country around it furnished the setting for nearly all of his fiction, and in…

  • The Flood on the San Gabriel · 14.1 mi

    The railroad that gave Rockdale life could also bite. The San Antonio and Aransas Pass — everybody around here just called it the Sap — ran its north-south line through town from 1891, and on a Thursday evening in late…

  • First Baptist Church of Rockdale · 14.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Rockdale, a town that owes its start to the railroad back in 1873. Just a year later, in 1874, Reverend B. B. Baxter arrived and started the First Baptist Church with 18 members. Imagine services…

  • Matinee Musical Club · 14.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Rockdale, and right here is where the Matinee Musical Club got its start back in January 1909. Organized on a front porch, this club met to study and perform music, focusing on everything from…

  • The Tribe That Bought Its Mountain Back · 14.2 mi

    Up the road from Gause, a cone of red sandstone rises over the bottomland where the Little River meets the Brazos. Locals call it Sugarloaf Mountain. The Tonkawa call it Natan Samox, Red Mountain, and their Wolf Dance…

  • George Sessions Perry · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Rockdale, hometown of George Sessions Perry. Born here in 1910, Perry became a celebrated author. His novels and stories often drew from his childhood in this area. As a World War II correspondent,…

  • Sugarloaf Mountain · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Sugarloaf Mountain, a landmark capped with red sandstone. This was once home to the Ervipiame people, a dominant group within the Rancheria Grande. Later, settlers and Native American tribes alike…

  • The Kay Theater · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Kay Theater, a unique movie house built from a surplus World War II Quonset Hut. In 1947, local builders transformed the metal dome into a streamline moderne theater, complete with…

  • Friendship Methodist Church · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Davilla, and right here is Friendship Methodist Church. Methodist pioneers in this area gathered for services as early as the 1870s, meeting in a simple schoolhouse just a quarter mile west. In…

  • Urban Cemetery · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Milam County, and right here is the Urban Cemetery. It's named for Julius Paul Urban, a Wendish immigrant who deeded this land for burials back in the late 1890s. The oldest grave here is Madalena…

  • Friendship United Methodist Church Cemetery · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Friendship United Methodist Church Cemetery near Davilla. William T. Walker, an early settler, established a Methodist church here in 1872 and was the first to be buried in this cemetery. Today,…

  • The River That Stopped After the Murders · 14.3 mi

    After the murders at Mission Candelaria in May of seventeen fifty-two, things on this river got strange. A church historian later wrote that inscrutable things happened here. On June thirtieth, seventeen fifty-two, the…

  • Ganzabal, Juan José de · 14.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Rockdale, Texas, on land that was once the site of the San Xavier missions. Father Juan José de Ganzabal was a missionary priest here in the 1740s and 50s, dedicated to bringing the Orcoquiza Indians…

  • Rabago y Teran, Felipe de · 14.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Central Texas, near where the San Gabriel River once flowed. Back in the 1750s, this was the site of a Spanish presidio, San Francisco Xavier de Gigedo. Its commander, Felipe de Rábago y Terán,…

  • The Rock That Named Rockdale · 14.3 mi

    Rockdale owes its name to a rock. In 1873 landowners George Green, B. F. Ackerman, and Frank Smith sold 400 acres to the International-Great Northern Railroad, then laying track from Hearne toward Austin. A sale of town…

  • Site of Mission San Francisco Xavier de Los Dolores · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Mission San Francisco Xavier de Los Dolores, established back in 1749. Franciscan missionaries hoped to civilize and Christianize local Indian tribes, including the Coco and Karankawa.…

  • Site of Mundine Hotel · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Mundine Hotel, a place that stood here for less than a decade but left a lasting mark on Rockdale. Built in 1880 right near the railroad depot, it was designed to welcome travelers…

  • Christian, Benjamin Theodore [Ben] · 14.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the heart of Texas, and right here near Rockdale, a legendary fiddler named Ben Christian got his start. Born in 1885, Christian, known as 'Uncle Ben,' became a giant of Texas western swing music.…

  • Crayton, Connie Curtis [Pee Wee] · 14.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving past Rockdale, Texas, the birthplace of Connie Curtis "Pee Wee" Crayton. Born in 1914, this blues guitarist was a true shaper of the West Coast blues sound. He started young, building his own guitar from…

  • Rockdale, TX · 14.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Rockdale, Texas, a town born from a railroad and named for a rock. In 1873, the International-Great Northern Railroad was laying track, and a local rancher's wife, Mrs. B. F. Ackerman, named this…

  • Rockdale, TX · 14.3 mi

    Rockdale's story is deeply intertwined with the land itself, particularly its agricultural heritage. While the aluminum plant once dominated the landscape and the local economy, farming and ranching have always been the…

  • Railroads in Rockdale · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Rockdale, a town built by the railroad. Back in 1873, the International & Great Northern line laid out this town, giving local farmers a direct route to market. Then, in 1891, another railroad…

  • Boykins, Euwart Gladstone · 14.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Milam County, and right here is Rockdale, the birthplace of Euwart Gladstone Boykins. Born in 1898, Boykins became a prominent undertaker and philanthropist in Waco. He started in the funeral…

  • Rockdale, Sandow and Southern Railroad · 14.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Milam County, and right here is the story of a railroad that began as a six-mile industrial line, hauling lignite coal. Chartered in 1923, the Rockdale, Sandow, and Southern Railroad connected a…

  • Springfield Missionary Baptist Church · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Springfield Missionary Baptist Church, founded back in 1872 by Reverend Riley Williams. Though the buildings have changed over the years, this congregation still gathers on the same land…

  • City of Rockdale · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Rockdale, a town that sprung up in 1874 when the International & Great Northern railroad laid its tracks here. It boomed as a shipping point, quickly adding churches, schools, and businesses. The…

  • International & Great Northern Railroad Passenger Depot · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the former International & Great Northern Railroad Passenger Depot here in Rockdale. Opened in 1906, this building served passengers for over sixty years, with the last train departing in 1970. After…

  • Deadose Indians · 14.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what is now Milam County, near Rockdale. Back in the mid-1700s, this area was home to the Deadose Indians. They were part of the Atakapan language family, and for a short time, between 1749 and…

  • Owens, Claire Myers · 14.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Rockdale, Texas, the birthplace of Claire Myers Owens. Born in 1896, Owens was a writer and lecturer who broke from her traditional Southern upbringing to explore avant-garde ideas like free love…

  • First Christian Church of Rockdale · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're passing the First Christian Church of Rockdale, organized way back in 1887. Its first minister was Reverend A. J. Bush, Senior, a Civil War veteran who helped start Christian churches all over Texas. The original…

  • 2017 UIL 3A Division 1 Football State Champions · 14.5 mi

    Rockdale High School (Rockdale, TX): Most recent: 45-29 over Brock · 2017 3A Division 1 final.

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Rockdale (Rockdale) · 14.5 mi

    Rockdale (Rockdale, TX) placed on the 3A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Brody Willard (0.462 avg, 1 HR).

  • Jewish Cemetery · 14.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Jewish Cemetery in Rockdale, a testament to the town's diverse early settlers. When Arthur Lowenstein died in 1877, his family needed a place to bury him. This led to the Hebrew Benevolent…

  • Supper at Mission Candelaria · 14.7 mi

    On the night of May eleventh, seventeen fifty-two, two Franciscan friars sat down to supper at Mission Candelaria, on the river a few miles east of here. With them was Juan José Ceballos, a tailor from San Antonio who…

  • Site of the Mission Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria · 14.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Milam County, near the San Gabriel River. Look around – you're passing the site of Mission Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria. Franciscan missionaries founded this place way back in 1749, hoping to…

  • The Bad Boy from Rosebud · 14.8 mi

    The man Texas called the Broomstick Killer grew up right here in Rosebud. Kenneth McDuff was the youngest son of a hardworking family. His father was a cement finisher. His mother, Addie, ran a washateria across the…

  • The Night Rosebud Locked Its Doors · 14.8 mi

    In nineteen sixty six a jury in Fort Worth sentenced Kenneth McDuff to die in the electric chair. In nineteen seventy two the United States Supreme Court struck down the death penalty laws of the day, and his sentence…

  • The Knife in Downtown Rosebud · 14.8 mi

    There was a moment when Kenneth McDuff could have been kept in prison for good, and it happened in downtown Rosebud. In July nineteen ninety, nine months after his parole, McDuff shouted racial slurs at a group of Black…

  • Two Sheriffs Named Pamplin · 14.8 mi

    Kenneth McDuff was caught twice, and both times a Falls County sheriff named Pamplin was part of it. The first time was the night after the nineteen sixty six murders. Sheriff Brady Pamplin, a former Texas Ranger who…

  • Coffield House · 14.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Coffield House, a unique Rockdale rental property built in the 1930s. It's clad entirely in petrified wood, a construction material that became popular in Texas during that era, earning homes…

  • Conner, Arthur Benjamin · 14.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Central Texas, near Rosebud, where Arthur Benjamin Conner was born in 1881. While working for the USDA and later as the director of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station for over a decade,…

  • Rosebud, TX · 14.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Rosebud, a town with a name that smells as sweet as its origins. It wasn't always called Rosebud, though. The first post office here was named Mormon, after settlers in the area. But after a fire…

  • First Baptist Church of Rosebud · 14.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the First Baptist Church of Rosebud, a congregation that's been a cornerstone of this community for over a century. It all started just one year after Rosebud itself was laid out as a railroad town.…

  • Henslee House · 15.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Henslee House, a beautiful example of a modified Victorian home built right here in Rosebud. Constructed in 1907 for Sam G. and Estella Henslee, this house was a center of family life until 1944.…

  • Salem Lutheran Church · 15.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Barclay, and right here is the history of Salem Lutheran Church. It all started in November of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1901</say-as>, with just 17 members meeting in a schoolhouse.…

  • Apache Pass River Crossing · 15.2 mi

    You're driving past Apache Pass, a spot used as a river crossing for thousands of years. Here's what's easy to forget: a river only lets you cross where it lets you. A safe ford, shallow and firm-bottomed, was rare and…

  • Lilac · 15.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Milam County, passing the site of a community once known as Oak Point. That changed in 1883, when Dr. John H. Graves, who'd settled here with his family back in 1858, helped establish a post…

  • Lilac Cemetery · 15.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Lilac Cemetery, a resting place that's chronicled Milam County history for over a century. The earliest marked grave here belongs to Calvin McCormick, who died in 1870. The cemetery also honors…

  • First United Methodist Church of Rogers · 15.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the First United Methodist Church of Rogers. This congregation started way back in 1880, before the town of Rogers even existed, as Centennial Methodist Church in Gindale. It moved to Rogers in 1889,…

  • The Cotton Town That Gave Us Alvin Ailey and Joe Tex · 15.6 mi

    As you roll into Rogers, about twelve miles southeast of Temple, you're passing through one of those small Texas towns that's easy to breeze right by. But slow down, because this quiet place carries a much bigger story…

  • The Soul of Rogers: Joe Tex · 15.6 mi

    In 1935, a future music legend was born right here in Rogers: Joseph Arrington Jr., who the world would come to know as Joe Tex. Before he was topping the charts and sharing stages with the likes of James Brown, he was…

  • Halfway Up the Wall: Whitey Walker of Rogers · 15.6 mi

    A boy born in Rogers in eighteen ninety-seven left home at eighteen and became one of the most persistent outlaws in Texas. His name was Whitey Walker. He robbed banks, got caught, and kept getting out. Governor Miriam…

  • Engineering a Town into Existence · 15.6 mi

    The railroad tracks cutting through Rogers are more than a historical feature; they're the result of a big nineteenth-century engineering project. When the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway pushed this line north in…

  • A Penny a Firefly · 15.6 mi

    A boy born in Rogers in nineteen seventeen grew up to help explain how a firefly makes light. William McElroy was born here, finished high school down in McAllen, and played football at Stanford before becoming a…

  • The First Pick of the 1939 Draft Was Born in Rogers · 15.6 mi

    The very first name called in the nineteen thirty-nine NFL draft belonged to a man born in Rogers. Charles Aldrich, known to everybody as Ki, was born here on June first, nineteen sixteen. He played high school ball up…

  • Rogers, TX · 15.6 mi

    Rogers, Texas sits squarely in the Blackland Prairie, a place built on ancient seabed. Millions of years ago, this whole area was underwater, and the rich, dark soil we have today is the legacy of that time — layers of…

  • Alvin Ailey · 15.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Alvin Ailey. Revered as a pioneer in modern dance, Alvin Ailey was an internationally-recognized choreographer credited for incorporating African American movements into 20th century concert dance.…

  • Joseph "Joe Tex" Arrington, Jr. · 15.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Rogers, the birthplace of Joseph Arrington, Jr., better known as the funk and soul pioneer, Joe Tex. He started his career in the mid-1950s, but his innovative style, blending R&B with spoken verses…

  • Arrington, Joseph, Jr. [Joe Tex] · 15.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Rogers, Texas, the birthplace of Joe Tex, born Joseph Arrington Jr. on August 8, 1935. He was a soul singer who pioneered a unique style, slowing down tempos and 'rapping' spoken verses in the…

  • Ailey, Alvin · 15.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Bell County, Texas, near Rogers, the birthplace of Alvin Ailey. Born in 1931, Ailey would go on to become a world-renowned dancer, choreographer, and founder of the Alvin Ailey American Dance…

  • Rogers, TX (Bell County) · 15.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Rogers, a town that owes its existence to the railroad. Established on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway and named for railroad director John D. Rogers, this community quickly grew. By 1884,…

  • City of Rogers · 15.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Rogers, Texas, a town that exploded thanks to cotton! Founded in 1881 and named for a railroad official, Rogers became a boomtown fast. By 1884, this place had a post office and stores, and it…

  • Gause, TX · 15.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Gause, Texas, a town born from a handshake and a promise. Back in 1872, William J. Gause moved here and, a year later, donated land for the International-Great Northern Railroad. Right here, a…

  • Moving a Town for the Train · 16.0 mi

    As you see the railroad tracks that cut through Rosebud, consider this: those tracks pulled an entire town off a creek bank and out onto the open prairie. The original settlement here was called Pool's Crossing, or…

  • The Hometown of LT · 16.0 mi

    In the world of Texas football, some towns are legendary. And while LaDainian Tomlinson made his high school name in Waco, his story begins right here in Rosebud, where he was born in 1979. For a small community like…

  • The Iron Horse Defines the Town · 16.0 mi

    The railroad tracks you see in Rosebud are a monument to nineteenth-century engineering and economics both. Laying a line like the San Antonio and Aransas Pass was a serious undertaking. Surveyors had to plot a route…

  • Rosebud, TX · 16.0 mi

    In the heart of Rosebud stands a towering symbol of the city's spirit - the 170-foot-tall 'Rosebud Christmas tree'. Erected in the early 1960s by Bell Falls Milam Electric Co-op at 128 W. Main St, this artificial tree…

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