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Denton, Texas

Everything Denton is known for

22 songs mention this city 109 artists from here

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Denton, Texas, located on the northern edge of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, is recognized for its vibrant music scene. With 120 artists calling it home, Denton has fostered a diverse range of talent, including the jazz collective Snarky Puppy and indie artist Sarah Jaffe. The city's musical presence is also noted in songs like "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton" by The Mountain Goats.

Denton's rich musical identity is supported by its college town atmosphere, largely influenced by the University of North Texas College of Music, which boasts the nation's first jazz studies program. This environment has contributed to Denton being a hub where various genres, from metal to electronic, thrive.

Music in Denton

Songs About Denton

Internet Going Nutz
Paul Wall
95%
"These sexy {hoes} at UNT, I'm sendin e-notes talkin fly"
Probably Corsicana Intro
Max Stalling
94%
"You know we don't always get to play nice places like Dan's Silver Leaf in Denton, Texas"
Ohio (Come Back to Texas)
Bowling for Soup
85%
"You know Denton County will be right here waiting for you"
The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton
The Mountain Goats
83%
"The best ever death metal band out of Denton"
Denton, TX
Damien Jurado
81%
"Denton, TX"
Denton
Threaded
80%
"Song about Denton"
Our Escape
Fishboy
55%
"If you were a city would you be Denton, TX"
The Denton Polka
Brave Combo
55%
Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt
HappyHappy
55%
"And Denton just off campus"
Denton, Texas
Brave Combo
55%
"I wanna buy that motel on 380, the Holiday Lodge, across the street from Mazatlan"
Denton, TX.
Damien Jurado
52%
"(title) "Denton, TX." — title is the place signal"
Red Light
Deep Blue Something
50%
Hometown Badboy
Casey Daniels Band
49%
"At the rockin rodeo down in Denton"
Valium Waltz
Old 97's
40%
"In Denton town doing the Valium waltz"
Locust St. (feat. Kat Hasty)
Kody West
21%
"Locust St."
940
Race Ricketts
16%
"TITLE: 940"
the interstate 35 waltz
garret t. capps & justin boyd
10%
Beautiful Lies (Live at The Panhandle House)
Tanner Usrey
7%
"Live at The Panhandle House"
Hey Dallas
Hudson Westbrook
7%
"she’s in the 76202"
Small Town Kid
Eli Young Band
4%
"I'm a small town kid"

Showing top 20 of 22 songs · Hear more in the free iPhone app

Artists From Denton

M
Memphis May Fire
metal
E
Eli Young Band
country
S
Sarah Jaffe
indie
D
Deep Blue Something
rock
S
Snarky Puppy
jazz
S
Sly Stone
rock
N
Neon Indian
electronic
E
El Gato
latin
C
Creeping Death
metal
J
Jessie Frye
electronic
M
Midlake
indie
R
Riverboat Gamblers
rock
R
Ray Peterson
rock
B
Bog
metal
B
Bad Sports
other
T
The Holophonics
other
T
The Marked Men
other
C
CURL
other
I
I Promised The World
indie
B
Bosque Brown
americana

Showing top 20 of 109 artists · Hear more in the free iPhone app

Rivers & Roads in Song near Denton

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

Interstate 35 45 songs Trinity River 11 songs Texas State Highway 199 8 songs Red River 88 songs Interstate 45 8 songs Interstate 20 13 songs

History of Denton

Funk's Architect Was Born on Prairie Street RoadyGoat

Long before he reinvented American music, Sylvester Stewart was a Denton baby. Born here on March 15, 1943, the boy the world would know as Sly Stone spent his earliest years in a deeply religious family tied to the Church of God in Christ, who encouraged their kids to play and sing. Around 1950 the family pulled up and moved to Vallejo, California, near San Francisco, where his father ran a janitorial business. Sly later wrote that Denton went into the past and the future went into Vallejo. But the foundation was laid in Texas: a prodigy who was working the keyboard by age seven and adding guitar, bass, and drums by eleven. As the frontman of Sly and the Family Stone, he fused soul, rock, gospel, and psychedelia into the blueprint for funk, with an integrated, mixed-gender band that itself made a statement in the late 1960s. He died in 2025 at age 82, a giant whose first cries were heard in Denton. (Source: Denton Record-Chronicle; Wikipedia.)

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The Man Buried Three Times on His Own Courthouse Lawn RoadyGoat

On the southeast corner of the Denton County Courthouse lawn sits a small grave that took sixty years and three burials to fill. When John B. Denton was killed at Village Creek in 1841, the retreating militia buried him in a hurry under a tree beside the creek. Years later boys hunting along Oliver Creek turned up a set of bones, and rancher John Chisum took charge of them. Survivors of the old raid said they recognized the remains by the blanket they were wrapped in, an arm that had been broken in life, and a few gold teeth. Chisum reburied the bones in the corner of his own yard, where they stayed for decades. In 1900 the Old Settlers Association decided the county's namesake ought to rest in the town that bore his name. So on November 21, 1901, more than 600 mourners in their Sunday best gathered on the courthouse square to lower him into the ground a third and final time, beside the building that runs his county. (Source: Denton County; Portal to Texas History.)

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Where College Jazz Was Invented RoadyGoat

Denton can claim something no other town can: the place where jazz first became a college major. In 1947, the school now called the University of North Texas launched the world's first degree program in jazz studies, an idea seeded by a graduate student named Gene Hall, whose 1940s thesis on a dance-band degree became the blueprint. To give students playing credit, the program built rehearsal ensembles named for the hour they met, and the flagship became the One O'Clock Lab Band. The One O'Clock turned into a launchpad, racking up Grammy nominations from a deep catalog of recordings and feeding waves of professional players into big bands and studios worldwide. The College of Music brings well over a thousand music majors to Denton, which is a big reason this small Texas town punches so far above its weight musically. Among the students who passed through the jazz program was a young pianist named Norah Jones, who studied here in the late 1990s before leaving for New York. (Source: Handbook of Texas; University of North Texas.)

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University of North Texas College of Music

1947

The University of North Texas College of Music in Denton is one of the nation's premier institutions for musical training and education. Prominent alumni include Harry Babasin , Gene Roland , Jimmy Giuffre , Bob Belden, Lou Marini, Conrad Herwig, Jim Snidero, and Norah Jones. In 1947 North Texas State Teachers College (as the current University of North Texas was then named) became the first university in the world to offer a degree in jazz , and over the years the university has solidified its reputation as one of the preeminent institutions for the study of that genre. From the beginning, music was a part of the UNT curriculum. A "Conservatory Music Course" was offered as part of the university's initial "Nine Full Courses" in 1890. The complete course in music, lasting forty-four weeks, required private lessons that had to be paid for, in addition to regular school tuition. These classes ran at a rate of $200 for the complete course, while regular tuition for a forty-week school year was only $48. President Joshua C. Chilton himself taught the first classes in the history of music and the theory of sound. John M. Moore, a Dallas Methodist bishop and teacher of mathematics and engineering courses, taught the classes in voice culture and harmony. Mrs. E. J. McKissack was also a teacher of music and may have served as the director of the music conservatory. Between 1917 and 1919 the school purchased land for the construction of expanded campus facilities. Included in the purchase was the former residence of past president Joel S. Kendall. This two-story frame house, known as Kendall Hall, became the Music Hall and served the department in various capacities until 1940. Music-oriented activities played an important role in the extracurricular life of early North Texas students. As early as 1897, an Orchestra Club and a Mandolin and Guitar Club were organized. By 1920 extracurricular activities, including choral clubs, had become so distracting to many students that a point system was instituted in order to limit participation in them. In 1925, when motion pictures first came to the campus, a student pit orchestra was formed in order to provide music for the films. Faculty member Floyd Graham, who organized the orchestra, saw it as a means of providing income to the students who participated. Extracurricular musical clubs of the day also included the College Choral Club, Girls' Glee Club, Men's Glee Club, College Band, and College Orchestra. The year 1938 was one of the most important in the development of the North Texas music program. Under the auspices of President W. J. McConnell, the music department was greatly expanded. Dr. Wilfred C. Bain was appointed to head the department, and under his leadership, several new initiatives were taken, including an enhanced degree program. The school began offering five degrees in music: bachelor of science in music education, bachelor of music in music education, bachelor of arts in applied music, bachelor of arts with a theory major, and a band master's certificate. At this time, an a cappella choir, which appeared on WFAA radio, was formed, and the college had a marching band, a symphony orchestra, a college band, and a stage band called "Fessor Floyd Graham and His Aces of Collegeland." McConnell and Bain's plans for an improved music school immediately paid off. On December 17, 1939, the National Association of Schools of Music admitted North Texas as an associate member, the first such accreditation for the college in a discipline other than teacher training. In 1940 the association granted North Texas institutional membership, with Bain serving as the association's national vice president. In 1940 the music program's success was rewarded with funds for expanded facilities. The board of regents voted in May to provide $70,000 for the construction of a combination male dormitory and music hall. Revenue from the fees charged the dorm residents was used to repay bonds sold to generat

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Edna Westrbook Trigg in Denton County

1915

Edna Westbrook Trigg (1868-1946) was the first county home demonstration agent appointed in Texas in 1915, serving in Denton County from February 1916 through December 1937. She was named Denton County home demonstration emeritus from January 1, 1938, until her retirement on July 31, 1945. Previously in Milam County, she served as rural high school principal and "collaborator" for the United States Department of Agriculture as supervisor of Girls Tomato Clubs. Trigg traveled throughout Denton County teaching and advising farm women on vegetable gardening, canning, sewing, cooking, household management and other aspects of daily life. She had to overcome prejudices against government's interference in farming and a woman's interference in a man's work and home life. During World War I, she helped make the county agriculturally self-sufficient by working with farmers to grow more vegetables, attended patriotic meetings three nights a week urging people to purchase Liberty Bonds and held Saturday canning schools to show rural residents how to properly preserve and protect the food they grew. She convinced county commissioners to loan her $350 to purchase twenty community steam canners for use in the precincts. The Hawkeye Demonstration Club, organized in 1919 in the now extinct community of Hawkeye, owned the first community canner. Trigg served on the staff of the College of Industrial Arts (Texas Woman's University) overseeing courses in the methods of home demonstration and was honored in 1971 by the Texas Extension Education Association, Inc. 4-H with a scholarship in her name. On October 18, 1991, Edna Westbrook Trigg was entered into the National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame. (2015)

Historical Marker →

Beulah A. Harris

1914

Beulah A. Harriss (1889-1977) moved to Denton in 1914 from Nebraska to become the first women’s physical education teacher at North Texas State Normal College, now University of North Texas (UNT). With a degree from the University of Nebraska in physical education, Harriss coached the university’s first women’s athletic teams and instructed every sport except football. She organized the physical education department in 1918, which grew under her direction, and the green jackets club, whose purpose was to support all activities of the college. Harriss was a founder in 1923 of the Texas State Physical Education Association (now Texas Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance), serving as president in 1933. She was also a founder of the Texas Woman’s Athletic Association in 1924. Established in 1928 at UNT, Harriss was one of twelve charter members of the RHO Chapter of Delta Psi Kappa, a national fraternity for the promotion of interests in the field of physical education. She was named honorary national president in 1960. The first recognized Girl Scout in Texas, Harriss started the first troop at the College in Denton in 1917. She helped build the scout lodge at hills and hollows in South Denton in 1923. Harriss and 12 other professors from the college were charter members of the Denton County Teachers Federal Credit Union in 1936, now DATCU. After 46 years at UNT as a teacher and women’s athletics activist, Harriss retired in 1960. She was inducted into the North Texas Athletic Hall of Fame in 1987, 10 years after her death. Harriss devoted her life to the youth and citizens of Denton and is remembered each February 27th on Beulah Harriss day. The Girl Scout little house stood near this site.

Historical Marker →

Quakertown

1880

In the early 1880s, Quakertown emerged as a thriving African American community in the heart of Denton. Quakertown flourished through 1920, its growth due in part to its location near the city square and the opportunities it provided African Americans. The community was bounded by Withers Street on the north, Oakland Avenue on the west, Bell Avenue on the east, and by Cottonwood and Pecan Creeks on the south. Although many residents worked for businesses on the nearby city square, at the College of Industrial Arts (now Texas Woman’s University), and as servants for white households, Quakertown prospered as a self-supporting community. Several churches, a physician’s office, lodges, restaurants, and small businesses joined homes to line the streets of the community. The neighborhood school, the Fred Douglass School, burned in Sep. 1913 and was rebuilt along Wye Street in southeast Denton in 1916, foreshadowing events to come. By 1920, the proximity of Quakertown to the growing College of Industrial Arts and civic-minded interests of Denton’s white residents threatened the future of Quakertown. Many believed that it was in the best interest of the college and the Denton community to transform Quakertown into a city park. In Apr. 1921, with little input from its residents, the city voted 367 to 240 in favor of a bond to purchase Quakertown. More than 60 families lost their homes. The majority of the displaced residents relocated to southeast Denton on 21 acres of land, platted as Solomon Hill, sold to them by rancher Albert L. Miles. Others, including many Quakertown community leaders, chose to leave Denton altogether. By Feb. 1923, Quakertown had disappeared in the midst of the new park’s construction. 											(2010)

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Atkins, Joseph Louis

1955

Joseph Louis Atkins, African-American civil rights activist, educator, and businessman, was born in Jefferson, Texas, on March 6, 1936. He was the son of Willie and Mable Atkins. His family moved to Dallas in 1950, and he graduated from Lincoln High School in 1954, the year the United States Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. Atkins had a keen interest in the decision because his parents, the owners of a plumbing business, belonged to the Dallas branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and he had joined the NAACP Youth Council of Dallas in 1952 at the age of sixteen. Juanita Craft , one of the city's leading civil rights activists, also became a major influence on Atkins while he attended high school. Atkins enrolled at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas, on an academic scholarship in the fall of 1954, but after one year decided to transfer to North Texas State College (now the University of North Texas) in Denton. He had visited the college on a field trip with Juanita Craft and knew that it had a strong reputation in the field of teacher education, which he hoped to enter. Moreover, Denton was near his home in Dallas. Atkins, accompanied by his mother and Craft, sought to enroll at North Texas in June 1955, but school officials rejected his application on the grounds of race. Rather than give in, Atkins and his father went to U. Simpson Tate , the NAACP regional attorney in Dallas, and on Tate's advice brought a legal action against North Texas. (Atkins was not yet twenty-one, so his father had to file the case.) In December 1955 United States District Court Judge Joe Sheehy ruled in favor of Atkins, primarily on the basis of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and issued a permanent injunction against North Texas's denying admission to Atkins or other African Americans on the basis of race. Victory for Atkins brought an end to segregation at North Texas, but rather than wait for the decision, he had enrolled at Texas Western College (now the University of Texas at El Paso) where he earned bachelor's degrees in English and Journalism. He served in the U.S. Army from 1959 to 1962 and then became a high school teacher in Dallas. In 1963 he began graduate work in the College of Education at North Texas, where he earned a master's degree in 1966. Atkins continued to teach high school in Dallas until 1974, when he became a field representative for the Texas State Teachers Association . He worked in that capacity until 1997 and promoted the interests of the state's teachers. In 1975 and 1977 he served as campaign manager for Juanita Craft in her successful campaigns for a seat on the Dallas city council. In 1997 Atkins became a realtor with Blair White Real Estate, a position that he held until March 2015, when he joined Joe Atkins Realty, a firm headed by his son. During his career, Atkins served an impressive list of civic groups, including the board of the Dallas African American Museum , the Dallas Police Chief Advisory Committee, and chairman of the Good Street Baptist Church Federal Credit Union. His numerous honors included the "Outstanding Texas Award" by the Texas Legislative Black Caucus (2001), a doctor of humane letters degree from the University of North Texas (2004), and the Texas NAACP 2005 Heroes Award for his service in the cause of civil rights, liberty, and justice. Joseph Atkins was married twice. His first marriage, to Sylvia D. Boyd in 1967, ended after a year. He married Marjorie C. Manney in 1971, and they had one son. Atkins died of heart failure on July 7, 2015, and was buried in Dallas.

Tsha Handbook →

Breeden, Leon

1959

Leon Breeden, musician, arranger, educator, and band director, was born on October 3, 1921, in Guthrie Oklahoma. He was the son of Alvin and Marie (Sanders) Breeden. When he was about three years old, his family moved to Wichita Falls, Texas, where his parents operated a service station. Breeden recalled that, as a young boy, he sold a Coke to a young couple at the station; he later found out that the pair was Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow . Breeden learned the clarinet at an early age and later took up the saxophone. After graduating from high school, he briefly attended Texas Wesleyan College in Fort Worth. During World War II , he served as music librarian in the Unites States Army's Sixty-ninth Infantry Division Band at Fort Bliss. He then attended Texas Christian University, where he studied composition and arranging, and earned a B.A. degree in 1945 and a master's in music education in 1948. He was a band director at Texas Christian University from 1944 to 1949. In the early 1950s Breeden lived in New York, where he worked as an arranging assistant to Don Gillis, producer of the NBC Symphony, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Breeden also wrote arrangements for Boston Pops conductor Arthur Fiedler, who offered him a permanent position as the orchestra's staff writer and arranger. Breeden, however, declined the offer and returned to Texas to be with his ailing father. Back in Texas, he became a band director at Grand Prairie High School from 1953 to 1959. In 1959 Breeden was recommended, by outgoing director M. E. "Gene" Hall , to head the Jazz Studies program at the school of music at North Texas State College (now University of North Texas). Breeden served as director of the program from 1959 until 1981. During his tenure, he dedicated his work to elevating the profile of the jazz program from an understated study in "dance-band" music (the term " jazz " had carried a disreputable connotation) to a highly-respected and recognized music curriculum that served as a model for other educators and institutions throughout the United States. As head of the program, Breeden personally directed the music department's popular Lab Band. Originally performing every afternoon at two o'clock, he changed the band's rehearsal schedule to one o'clock and subsequently changed its name to the now famous One O'Clock Lab Band. Under his leadership, the band garnered international distinction and numerous awards. In 1967 the One O'Clock Lab Band performed for Lyndon Johnson at the White House along with jazz legends Stan Getz and Duke Ellington. The band performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland in 1970. Breeden initiated the tradition of the band recording an album annually, and the ensemble received its first Grammy nomination in 1976. When the group accompanied Ella Fitzgerald at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, in the late 1970s, the singer was so impressed that she requested the band to tour with her, but Breeden had to decline because of class schedules. The ensemble toured the United States, Mexico, Europe, and the Soviet Union and also performed for presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. In the process, Breeden and the band raised the overall stature of the music department and the university. Breeden was named Outstanding Professor by the University of North Texas in 1976. The Texas legislature proclaimed May 3, 1981, to be "Leon Breeden Day." Other honors included induction into the International Association for Jazz Education Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Texas Bandmasters Hall of Fame in 1995. He received an honorary doctorate from TCU in 2001 and from the University of North Texas in 2009. Breeden married Bonna Joyce McKee in 1945, and they had three children. After his wife's death in 1988, he married Bennye Wayne Reid on June 18, 1990. Leon Breeden died at St. Paul Hospital in Dallas on August 11, 2010. He was survived by a daughter; two sons and his second wife had preceded him in death. H

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Things to Do in Denton

quirky 1.4 mi away
Goatman's Bridge

A 1884 iron bridge outside Denton haunted by the ghost of a murdered goat farmer.
day trip
Day Trip to Denton 🏁🏎 (FULL EPISODE) S4 E4

Featured on The Daytripper — a full-episode local travel guide.

Sports in Denton

🏆 STATE CHAMPIONS Class 5A · Football · 2020

Ryan — 2020 UIL 5A Division 1 Football State Champions

Most recent: 59-14 over Cedar Park · 2020 5A Division 1 final

Denton, Texas, is a community that rallies around its high school sports, and Ryan High School's football program stands as a point of pride. Competing in Class 5A, the Raiders have demonstrated a consistent pursuit of excellence on the gridiron, reflecting the dedication found throughout the local athletic scene.

The Raiders' commitment to the game has culminated in significant achievements at the state level. The team's hard work and strategic play have brought the ultimate prize back to Denton, marking a memorable period in Ryan High School's athletic history.

State titles
2020
Most recent
2020, 59-14
Class
5A
The moment

In 2020, Ryan High School secured the 5A Division 1 state championship by defeating Cedar Park with a final score of 59-14.

Sources: UIL State Championship Archives · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)
🏆 STATE CHAMPIONS Class 5A · Girls Basketball · 2025–2026

Ryan — UIL 5A Girls Basketball State Champions — 2 titles

Most recent: 2026 5A Division 1

Denton, Texas, is a community that rallies behind its high school athletes, and the girls' basketball program at Ryan High School has certainly given fans something to cheer about. Competing in Class 5A, the Lady Raiders have established a recent tradition of excellence on the court, bringing state championships home to Denton.

The team secured the UIL Class 5A Division 1 State Championship in 2025, followed by another impressive run to claim the Class 5A Division 1 State Championship in 2026. These back-to-back titles highlight a period of significant achievement for Ryan High School girls' basketball, reflecting dedication within the program and pride across the community.

State titles
2 (2025–2026)
Most recent
2026
Class
5A
The moment

The 2026 UIL Class 5A Division 1 State Championship marked a significant achievement for Ryan High School.

Sources: UIL State Championship Archives · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)

Everything Near Denton

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

  • Funk's Architect Was Born on Prairie Street

    Long before he reinvented American music, Sylvester Stewart was a Denton baby. Born here on March 15, 1943, the boy the world would know as Sly Stone spent his earliest years in a deeply religious family tied to the…

  • David Von Erich, the Pride of Denton

    Before the world knew him as a Von Erich, he was David Adkisson, a kid from the Denton area who hunted and fished on the family ranch with his brothers. He starred in basketball and football at Lake Dallas High, earned…

  • The Man Buried Three Times on His Own Courthouse Lawn

    On the southeast corner of the Denton County Courthouse lawn sits a small grave that took sixty years and three burials to fill. When John B. Denton was killed at Village Creek in 1841, the retreating militia buried him…

  • Where College Jazz Was Invented

    Denton can claim something no other town can: the place where jazz first became a college major. In 1947, the school now called the University of North Texas launched the world's first degree program in jazz studies, an…

  • A Courthouse Built From Four Corners of Texas

    The pink-and-tan castle anchoring the Denton town square is the 1896 Denton County Courthouse, and it's stitched together from stone hauled in from across the state. Architect W.C. Dodson, who designed a string of Texas…

  • Edna Westrbook Trigg in Denton County · Historical Marker

    Edna Westbrook Trigg (1868-1946) was the first county home demonstration agent appointed in Texas in 1915, serving in Denton County from February 1916 through December 1937. She was named Denton County home…

  • Named for a Preacher Killed in a Creek-Bed Ambush

    The town and county you're in carry the name of a man who never lived to see either. John B. Denton was born in Tennessee in 1806, orphaned young, and became a self-taught Methodist circuit preacher before he took up…

  • The Cowboy in the Courthouse Window

    After dark, the 1896 courthouse on the square stops being a museum and starts being a ghost story. The building's basement once held jail cells, and people who've been down there describe odd noises and the unshakable…

  • Denton County Courthouse · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Denton County Courthouse, a grand structure built between 1896 and 1897. This is the fifth courthouse for the county, with earlier ones located in Alton and Pinckneyville. The third courthouse,…

  • Denton, John B. · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the namesake of Denton, Texas! John B. Denton arrived here in January of 1836, a Methodist circuit rider. He served as a preacher, a lawyer, and a soldier. Tragically, Denton was killed in the…

  • Denton, City of · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Denton, a city named for John B. Denton, a minister who died defending frontier settlers. The area was first settled in the 1840s, and by 1856, this spot was chosen as the county seat. Imagine…

  • The Soda Fountain That Helped Revive the Square

    On the Denton square at 117 West Hickory Street, Beth Marie's Old Fashioned Ice Cream has been scooping since 1999, back when the square wasn't the busy destination it is now. Beth Marie and Randy Cox opened the shop…

Show all 200 nearby places
  • Denton County · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Denton County, carved out of Fannin County way back in 1846. It was organized with Denton as its seat, named for John B. Denton, a preacher, lawyer, and Indian fighter who died in 1841. The first…

  • Texas Normal College · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Denton, and right here, way back in 1890, a brand new college kicked off classes on the second floor of a hardware store. Imagine that! Texas Normal College and Teacher Training Institute opened…

  • Site of Lacy Hotel · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Denton, and right here is the site of the Lacy Hotel. Charles Christian Lacy, who helped plat this town back in 1855, opened what's believed to be Denton's first hotel on this spot. It stood from…

  • 1927 Denton City Hall · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Denton's 1927 City Hall. Designed in the popular Spanish Renaissance style, this white brick building featured arched windows and a tiled roof. It even housed the fire station in its…

  • First Methodist Church of Denton · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Denton, and right here is the site of the First Methodist Church, organized way back in 1857. That's the same year the town of Denton itself was formed! Services started in the log courthouse,…

  • The Vote That Erased Quakertown · 0.3 mi

    27 formerly enslaved families walked in from the White Rock area of Dallas in 1875 and settled two miles south of the town square, building their own log cabins from timber they cut themselves. They called it Freedman…

  • Beulah A. Harris · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker

    Beulah A. Harriss (1889-1977) moved to Denton in 1914 from Nebraska to become the first women’s physical education teacher at North Texas State Normal College, now University of North Texas (UNT). With a degree…

  • Quakertown · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker

    In the early 1880s, Quakertown emerged as a thriving African American community in the heart of Denton. Quakertown flourished through 1920, its growth due in part to its location near the city square and the…

  • Ford, O'Neil · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Ford, O'Neil. (December 3, 1905 – July 20, 1982) 	In the mid-20th century, a North Texas native became a leading architect of the American Southwest. O’Neil Ford was born in Pink…

  • Simmons-Maxwell House · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Denton, and just ahead is the Simmons-Maxwell House, built in 1915. It's a beautiful example of Arts and Crafts Mission Style architecture, designed with an open floor plan, stucco walls, and…

  • Mounts House · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Mounts House, built in 1898 by Robert Noble Mounts and his wife Nannie. Robert's family was instrumental in Denton's early development, with his mother establishing the first Sunday School and…

  • Christal House · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Denton, passing the historic Christal House. Born in 1859, Jim Christal overcame his father's mysterious death and a cowboy career cut short by injury. He then built a fortune in farming, milling,…

  • University of North Texas College of Music · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    The University of North Texas College of Music in Denton is one of the nation's premier institutions for musical training and education. Prominent alumni include Harry Babasin , Gene Roland , Jimmy Giuffre , Bob Belden,…

  • Atkins, Joseph Louis · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Joseph Louis Atkins, African-American civil rights activist, educator, and businessman, was born in Jefferson, Texas, on March 6, 1936. He was the son of Willie and Mable Atkins. His family moved to Dallas in 1950, and…

  • Breeden, Leon · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Leon Breeden, musician, arranger, educator, and band director, was born on October 3, 1921, in Guthrie Oklahoma. He was the son of Alvin and Marie (Sanders) Breeden. When he was about three years old, his family moved…

  • Sheridan, Clara Lou [Ann] · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, Texas, the hometown of Ann Sheridan, the "Oomph Girl" of the 1940s. Born Clara Lou Sheridan in 1915, she got her start right here, attending North Texas State Teachers College. Her sister…

  • Berry, Kearie Lee · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, Texas, the hometown of Kearie Lee Berry, a man whose life spanned incredible military service and athletic achievement. Born in 1893, Berry was a star athlete at the University of Texas,…

  • Corpron, Carlotta · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, Texas, a place that became home to a pioneering photographer, Carlotta Corpron. Arriving in 1935 to teach at Texas State College for Women, she began experimenting with her camera, not…

  • Denton Arts and Jazz Festival · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, and right here in Quakertown Park, a massive celebration of music and art unfolds every spring. It started in 1980 as the 'Spring Fling,' and by 1985, jazz had its own dedicated festival.…

  • Eberle, Edward Walter · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, Texas, the birthplace of Edward Walter Eberle, a man who shaped the modern U.S. Navy. Born in 1864, Eberle graduated from the Naval Academy in 1885 and spent nearly fifty years innovating…

  • Evans, Herschel · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, Texas, the birthplace of Herschel Evans, a jazz saxophone legend. Born in 1909, Evans learned his craft in the legendary jam sessions of Kansas City, eventually switching to tenor sax at…

  • Ford, O'Neil · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, maybe near Denton, where architect O'Neil Ford got his start. He never finished college, but that didn't stop him. He learned by doing, working with Dallas architect David R. Williams…

  • Francis, Charles Inge · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Texas, maybe near Houston, and you're passing by the legacy of Charles Inge Francis. Born in Denton in 1893, Francis wasn't just a lawyer; he was a player in Texas's booming oil and gas industry.…

  • Little Chapel in the Woods · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, Texas, home to the stunning Little Chapel in the Woods. This architectural masterpiece wasn't built by professionals alone. Students, faculty, and even members of the National Youth…

  • Moore, Frederick Douglas · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, Texas, a town that owes much of its African American community's development to Frederick Douglas Moore. Born right here in 1875, Moore was a self-taught scholar, a talented musician who…

  • Morrison Milling Company · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, home of a flour mill that put Texas on the map! It started in 1886 as a farmers' cooperative, the Farmers' Alliance Milling Company. They hoped to be like successful co-ops in the Midwest.…

  • Texas Woman's University · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, home to Texas Woman's University. Did you know this school started because of a huge push from women's groups like the Grange and the WCTU? They wanted a place where young women could get…

  • Welch, Otis G. · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, Texas, a town that owes a lot to Otis G. Welch. He arrived here in 1852, a lawyer from Maine who'd graduated from Yale. Welch wasn't just any lawyer; he helped lay out this very city and…

  • Quakertown, TX · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, Texas, and right here, in what is now the heart of the city, you're passing through the former site of Quakertown. This vibrant African-American community began forming in the mid-1870s,…

  • Hubbard, Louis Herman · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Louis Herman Hubbard, teacher and college president, the son of Gorham Eustis and Louise (Mansanto) Hubbard, was born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, on February 10, 1882. His father, who was United States consul to Puerto…

  • I.O.O.F. Cemetery · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the I.O.O.F. Cemetery in Denton, a resting place with roots stretching back to 1859. That's the year Denton Lodge No. 82 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows was chartered, including John S.…

  • Scripture - Deavenport House · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Denton, and right here is a house that tells a story of changing tastes in Texas architecture. Built in 1885 by grocer Robert Scripture, the original section was pure Victorian. But look at it…

  • Blount, James P. · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, a town that owes much of its early development to men like Dr. James P. Blount. Born in Mississippi in 1849, Blount moved to Denton as a boy and became a pillar of the community. He wasn't…

  • Carroll, Joseph Alexander · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, Texas, a place that owes its very layout to Joseph Alexander Carroll. Born in Missouri in 1832, Carroll arrived in Denton County in 1853. He wasn't just a lawyer and judge; he was also a…

  • Denton Blues Festival · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, Texas, home to a vibrant celebration of music! Right here, the Denton Blues Festival transforms Quakertown Park every September into a hub for blues lovers and aspiring musicians. It…

  • Denton Field · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Denton, and right here, Denton Field played a crucial role in training pilots for World War II. From 1940 to 1945, this was the North Texas base for the Civilian Aeronautics Authority's…

  • Denton Record-Chronicle · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, and right here is where a newspaper shaped the town's identity for over a century. Back in 1882, the Denton Chronicle started, and by 1899, it merged with another paper to become the…

  • Edwards, William Cunningham · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, where William Cunningham Edwards made his mark on local history. In 1899, he took two struggling newspapers, the Chronicle and the County Record, and merged them into the weekly Record and…

  • Ellis, Merrill · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, a city that became a hub for experimental music thanks to Merrill Ellis. Born in Cleburne in 1916, Ellis came to North Texas State University in 1962 and immediately started pushing…

  • Geers, Charles W. · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, a town that became the heart of North Texas journalism thanks to Charles W. Geers. After fighting in the Civil War and traveling the South, Geers landed here in 1868. He partnered up and…

  • Hill, Fitzhugh Francisco · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, the hometown of Fitzhugh Francisco Hill, a lawyer and state representative who served twelve years in the Texas House. Hill was known for his fiery oratory and his tenacity, once described…

  • Hopkins, George Milton, Sr. · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, Texas, the hometown of George Milton Hopkins, Sr. He wasn't just any local lawyer; Hopkins served Denton County and surrounding areas in the Texas Legislature for years. Back in 1915, he…

  • Kearby, Jerome Claiborne · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, a town that was home to Jerome Claiborne Kearby, a man who lived a truly Texas life. He enlisted as a fifteen-year-old "boy soldier" in the Civil War, rising to the rank of major by the…

  • Owsley, Alvin Clark · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, a city that owes a lot to Alvin Clark Owsley. He arrived here in 1873, starting as a public school teacher. But Owsley wasn't just a teacher; he was a driving force behind education and…

  • Owsley, Alvin Mansfield · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, a town that was once home to Alvin Mansfield Owsley. Born here in 1888, Owsley was a lawyer, a decorated WWI veteran, and even served as the national commander of the American Legion. But…

  • Schmitz, John B. · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, a town that owes a lot to John B. Schmitz. He arrived here in 1878, a young businessman from Illinois. Schmitz didn't just settle in; he dove headfirst into building this community. He…

  • University of North Texas · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, a town that owes its start to education. Back in 1890, this was a quiet farming community. Joshua Chilton opened Texas Normal College and Teachers' Training Institute, hoping to train…

  • Woman's Collection, Texas Woman's University · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, home to a remarkable archive: The Woman's Collection at Texas Woman's University. Established back in 1932, it's one of the largest and oldest collections dedicated to women's history in…

  • Martin-Russell House · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Martin-Russell House, a grand Georgian Revival home built between 1925 and 1927. It cost thirty thousand dollars back then for Dr. M.L. Martin and his wife Ailsey, who inherited part of a famous…

  • Mounts-Wright House · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Denton, passing the site of the Mounts-Wright House. The Mounts family were early settlers here in the 1850s, contributing to Denton's growth through farming and land ownership. Though the…

  • Lipscomb-Doggett House · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Lipscomb-Doggett House. The Lipscomb-Doggett House was built by Dr. Priestly Lipscomb (1869-1942) and wife, Molly Binyon (1871-1942). The couple contracted the one-story frame house from J.C.…

  • Denton, TX (Denton County) · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, a city that owes its very existence to a desire for a central county seat. Back in 1857, residents wanted a courthouse right in the middle of Denton County. So, three men donated 100…

  • Bell, Charles C. · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, a city that owes a bit of its educational history to Charles C. Bell. Bell, a farmer and businessman, served two terms in the Texas House of Representatives, representing this very county…

  • Denton State School · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Denton, Texas, home to a state school for the intellectually disabled. Back in 1957, the city really wanted this facility. The Denton Chamber of Commerce led a massive campaign, and in just 34 days,…

  • Minor, Fred Hawthorne · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, Texas, home of Fred Minor, a lawyer who reached the pinnacle of Texas politics. After graduating first in his class from the University of Texas law school in 1916, Minor practiced law…

  • Selwyn School · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton, and right here is the site of the former Selwyn School. It started back in 1955 as the Denton Civic Boys Choir School. By 1957, it was reorganized and renamed Denton Preparatory School.…

  • Baker, Doris Elva Whiteside · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, maybe near Dallas, and right here, Doris Whiteside Baker was making her mark. She grew up in Denton, graduated from North Texas State Teachers College, and by World War II, she was…

  • Rayzor-Graham House · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Rayzor-Graham House in Denton. Built in 1912 by local builder M.T. Goodwin for business leader J. Fred Rayzor, this home showcases classic American Foursquare architecture with charming bungalow…

  • St. Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Denton, and we're passing the site of a community that no longer exists. Quakertown was a vibrant African American neighborhood, founded in the mid-1880s. But in 1922, the city decided to buy up…

  • Evers House · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Evers House, a grand Neoclassical home built in 1903 for Robert and Mary Evers. It was designed by Austin architects C.H. Page, Jr. & Bro. and built by local builder Frank Craft. Originally…

  • The Denton Trooper Who Started the Same Day as Jerry Davis · 0.6 mi

    The Trooper Hollis S. Lacy Memorial Highway covers U.S. Highway Three Seventy Seven inside the Denton city limits. Hollis Stephen Lacy began his career with the Texas Department of Public Safety on January tenth,…

  • James Newton and Eva Tabor Rayzor House · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the home of James Newton and Eva Tabor Rayzor, built in 1909. James Rayzor was a prominent Denton businessman, involved in ventures like the Alliance Mill and the ice company. He also helped found…

  • Pioneer Woman · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the marker for the Pioneer Woman, a tribute to the women who settled this land. Imagine them, forging ahead into a pathless wilderness, their courage unswerving. They met every new challenge with…

  • Oakwood Cemetery · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Oakwood Cemetery in Denton, established way back in 1857, not long after this town became the county seat. The land was donated by Hiram Cisco, who also helped lay out the town. The very first burial…

  • First Building of Texas Woman's University · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the first building of what is now Texas Woman's University in Denton. Created in 1901, this school was the only university in the United States founded expressly for women. Denton won the bid to host…

  • Historical Building · 0.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the oldest building on the North Texas campus, built way back in 1912. It started life as a library and gym, but by 1925, it was home to a fascinating museum. History professor Joseph Lyman Kingsbury…

  • Saint James African Methodist Episcopal Church · 0.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Denton's first African Methodist Episcopal Church, Saint James AME. In 1875, Black pioneers from Dallas settled here, calling their new home Freedman Town. They started with prayer…

  • First University Building · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the birthplace of a major Texas university! Back in 1890, Joshua Chilton opened his Texas Normal College and Teacher Training Institute in downtown Denton. The very next year, the city built this…

  • The Lost Neighborhood of Quakertown · 1.0 mi

    The green space you see just southeast of Denton's downtown square, now called Quakertown Park, holds the ghost of a neighborhood. From the 1870s until the early 1920s, this was a prosperous African American community…

  • The University That Taught America Jazz · 1.0 mi

    A huge part of Denton's identity comes from the University of North Texas, and specifically, its College of Music. In 1947, this school did something revolutionary: it approved Gene Hall's proposal for a degree in…

  • Little D's Independent Music Scene · 1.0 mi

    While the university provides the musicians, the city itself provides the stage. Denton, often called 'Little D,' is famous for its fiercely independent and creative music scene. It’s a culture built around small,…

  • The Town That Took on Fracking · 1.0 mi

    Deep beneath Denton lies the Barnett Shale, a geological formation rich with natural gas. In the early 2000s, a technology called hydraulic fracturing, or 'fracking,' unlocked this gas, leading to a drilling boom.…

  • Denton, TX · 1.0 mi

    Denton's history is deeply rooted in Texas' early days. The city and county were both named after John B. Denton, a pioneer and militia captain who was killed in a skirmish with the Kichai people in 1841. Denton County…

  • Lewisville Site · 1.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton County, and right here, beneath the waters of Lake Lewisville, lies a site that sparked a national controversy. Back in 1951, during construction for the lake, scientists found something…

  • The Nation's Largest University Built for Women · 1.0 mi

    On the north side of Denton sits a campus founded on a then-radical idea: a state college built specifically to educate women. The Texas legislature authorized it in 1901, a commission chose Denton as the site in 1902,…

  • Denton, John Bunyan · 1.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton County, the namesake of a man who lived a wild life. John Bunyan Denton started as an orphan, then a river deckhand, and even an itinerant preacher. But in Texas, he found his calling in…

  • Harmonson, Peter · 1.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, a land Peter Harmonson helped settle. He came here in 1850, part of Peters Colony, accepting a land grant in what is now Denton County. As one of the first settlers, Harmonson helped…

  • Elizabethtown, TX · 1.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Elizabethtown was on the north side of Elizabeth Creek, from which the town derived its name, in the southwest corner of the Shamblen survey, fifteen miles southwest of Denton in Denton County. The first settlers there,…

  • Hanna, Ebenezer · 1.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Ebenezer (Abe) Hanna, historian in Sibley's Brigade during the Civil War , was born in Washington County, Arkansas, on December 13, 1844, the son of Jesse Pearce (Pierce) and Elizabeth (Williams) Hanna. The family moved…

  • University Gardens, Texas Woman's University · 1.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Denton, and right here, you're passing a beautiful piece of Texas history. Back in the 1930s, a committee of sharp women at Texas State College for Women – that’s Texas Woman’s University today –…

  • Bolivar, TX (Denton County) · 1.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what used to be Bolivar, a Texas community founded in 1859. Originally called New Prospect by a Methodist minister and doctor, it was renamed Bolivar in 1861. A local farmer, who'd moved from…

  • Donald, Robert H. · 1.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, an area that saw action during the Civil War. Right here, Robert H. Donald served as a sergeant in Colonel James G. Bourland's Border Regiment. He saw action along the northern Texas…

  • First Christian Church of Denton · 1.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Denton, and right here is the site of the First Christian Church. This congregation got its start way back in 1868, led by Elder Terrell Jasper. They met in the Masonic Hall at first, then put up…

  • Denton County · 1.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Denton County covers 911 square miles in north central Texas. Its center point is at 33°12' north latitude and 97°13' west longitude. It borders Dallas and Tarrant counties on the south and Cooke and Grayson counties on…

  • Good Hope, TX (Denton County) · 1.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Good Hope was on Doe Branch at the intersection of Good Hope Road and Prosper Road, between Farm Road 1385 and the Collin county line fifteen miles east of Denton in eastern Denton County. The original settlers, from…

  • Green Valley, TX (Denton County) · 1.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Green Valley is north of Farm Road 428 about eight miles from Denton in northeastern Denton County. The townsite is in a valley between the Elm Fork of the Trinity River to the east and Clear Creek to the southwest.…

  • The Rock Legend Who Came to Denton to Study Rocks · 1.1 mi

    In the fall of 1954, a shy kid from Wink, Texas, enrolled at North Texas State College in Denton to major in geology. His name was Roy Orbison, and the rocks didn't take. His stay was brief enough that he never made the…

  • An Eagle Got His Start Drumming in Denton · 1.1 mi

    Before he was keeping time and singing lead for the Eagles, Don Henley was a college kid in Denton. A native of Linden in far East Texas, Henley came west to attend what was then North Texas State University around…

  • First Baptist Church of Denton · 1.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Denton, and right here is the site of the First Baptist Church. It started way back in 1858, organized by just twelve people in the old log courthouse. For its first decade, the congregation…

  • North Texas State Fair and Rodeo · 1.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Denton, and right here is the home of the North Texas State Fair and Rodeo! It all kicked off way back on October 15th, 1885, as the Denton County Blooded Stock and Fair. For decades, it…

  • Goatman's Bridge · 1.4 mi · Things to Do

    A 1884 iron bridge outside Denton haunted by the ghost of a murdered goat farmer.

  • Woodrum-Boyd House · 1.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Woodrum-Boyd House, a beautiful Tudor Revival home built in 1932 for E.N. and Comette Woodrum. It was later owned by Judge Benjamin Wade Boyd and his wife Ila Mae, who called it 'Boyd's Nest.'…

  • Where Texas Builds Its Big Rigs · 1.8 mi

    The sprawling factory at 1700 Woodbrook Street is where a lot of America's eighteen-wheelers are born. Peterbilt, founded in California back in 1939, opened a Denton plant in August 1980 with about 80 workers building a…

  • Immaculate Conception Catholic Church · 2.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Denton's Immaculate Conception Catholic Church. This mission started around 1890, with services held in a local barn! They finally built their first church in 1893, though it was replaced…

  • 2020 UIL 5A Division 1 Football State Champions · 3.3 mi

    Ryan High School (Denton, TX): Most recent: 59-14 over Cedar Park · 2020 5A Division 1 final.

  • Cooper Creek Cemetery · 3.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Cooper Creek Cemetery, a final resting place that's kept a unique history alive for over a century. Settlers arrived here in the 1860s, and by 1878, this land was formally established as a community…

  • Cooper Creek School · 3.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the old Cooper Creek School. While families settled this area even before the Civil War, this community school officially organized in 1876, serving 39 students in a one-room building.…

  • Cooper Creek Baptist Church · 3.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Cooper Creek Baptist Church, a spiritual home for this community for over a hundred years. Baptists first met here as early as 1872, and a new sanctuary was built in 1917. Today's members include…

  • Texas Agricultural Experiment Station No. 6 · 4.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Denton, and right here is the site of a place that changed North Texas farming forever: Agricultural Experiment Station Number 6. Established in 1910, this station wasn't just about growing crops;…

  • Corinth Shiloh Cemetery · 5.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Corinth Shiloh Cemetery, a chronicle of area settlers. It started in 1865 when physician Thomas Ball and his wife Nancy settled here after the Civil War. They donated land for a graveyard to the…

  • 1848 Denton County Seat · 5.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Corinth, and you're passing the site of a county seat that didn't quite make it. Denton County was formed in 1846, and the first county seat, Pinckneyville, lasted less than two years. In 1848,…

  • Old Alton Cemetery · 5.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Old Alton Cemetery, a graveyard that's watched Denton County grow for over 170 years. The first burial here was Rebecca Daugherty in 1852, on her family's land. Over time, neighbors joined her, and…

  • Argyle United Methodist Church · 5.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Argyle, Texas, where this United Methodist Church has been a cornerstone for over a century. It was chartered way back in 1894 with just twenty-seven members. Can you imagine? Their first pastor, a…

  • The Railroad's Second Act · 5.8 mi

    If you look for the railroad tracks that cut through Corinth, you're looking at the city's past and its future both. The community got its name from the Dallas and Wichita Railway, which built through the townsite in…

  • A Town That Said 'No' · 5.8 mi

    You’re driving through a city that exists because its residents decided to draw a line in the sand. By the late 1950s, the city of Denton, just to the north, was growing fast. It began annexing land, and the small,…

  • Corinth, TX (Van Zandt County) · 6.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Van Zandt County, and right here is the site of Corinth, Texas. Originally settled as Hatton, this spot was a crucial stage stop between Marshall and Dallas for over twenty years. But Corinth is…

  • The unverified 1938 lynching story · 6.2 mi

    Old Alton Bridge, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, is locally known as Goatman's Bridge. The folklore holds that crossing at night without headlights summons a half-man, half-goat figure;…

  • A 145-foot Pratt truss bridge · 6.2 mi

    Old Alton Bridge stands on Copper Canyon Road over Hickory Creek in Denton County. Built in 1884 by the King Iron Bridge Manufacturing Company of Cleveland, Ohio, the 145-foot Pratt through truss carried the route…

  • The Goatman of Old Alton Bridge · 6.2 mi

    Denton County, Texas is home to Old Alton Bridge, an 1884 iron Pratt through truss over Hickory Creek that is the county's oldest surviving bridge of its type. It is far better known by its nickname, Goatman's Bridge,…

  • Krum, TX · 6.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Krum is on Farm Road 1173 seven miles northwest of Denton in west central Denton County. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway ran a line through western Denton County in the mid-1880s. At that time the company bought…

  • City of Krum · 6.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Krum, a town that started as the Jackson community back in 1876. But Krum really took off in 1886 when the railroad came through. They named the town after Charles K. Krum, a railroad official. Soon,…

  • Graham-Argyle Cemetery · 6.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Graham-Argyle Cemetery, a quiet reminder of a community that once thrived right here. After the Civil War, settlers built the town of Graham around a school and a Baptist church. The first known…

  • Gribble Springs Baptist Church · 6.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Gribble Springs Baptist Church, established in 1871 by 23 members from the Pond Creek community. The Rev. W.C. West was its first pastor. The congregation met in a schoolhouse before building their…

  • The Engineered Shoreline · 6.9 mi

    The peaceful shoreline you see in Shady Shores isn't a purely natural feature; it’s the result of a massive 20th-century engineering project. The town sits on the shore of Lewisville Lake, a reservoir created and…

  • A Town by Choice · 6.9 mi

    Every road you’re driving on in Shady Shores exists within a town that willed itself into being. In the late 1950s, this wasn’t a town at all, just a collection of homes and fishing cabins. But the residents saw the…

  • Shady Shores, TX · 6.9 mi

    In the mid-1920s, John William Franck, a Dallas contractor, built a fishing camp with about ten wood-shingle cabins on the northern shores of Lake Dallas, envisioning it as a weekend retreat for Dallas residents. In the…

  • Annie Webb Blanton · 6.9 mi · Historical Marker

    Annie Webb Blanton started her teaching career at just 17, and by the time she reached North Texas State Normal College, she was a force. For 17 years, she taught there, promoting unity and publishing grammar books used…

  • When the Lake Came Calling · 6.9 mi

    For a town defined by a lake, the spring of 2015 was a reminder about who's actually in charge. North Texas came out of a drought straight into relentless, historic rain, and Lewisville Lake - the whole reason Shady…

  • Argyle · 7.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Argyle, a town that owes its existence to the railroad and a Galveston developer. Back in the 1850s, pioneers began settling this area as part of the Peters Colony. But it wasn't until 1881, when…

  • The Outlaw's Lookout and the Gold Nobody Found · 7.3 mi

    That hill the town was first named for, Pilot Knob, has a wilder story attached to it. In the late 1870s the Texas outlaw Sam Bass, who ran his robberies out of nearby Denton, is said to have used Pilot Knob as a…

  • A Name From France, or From Scotland? · 7.4 mi

    Before the railroad, this spot went by Pilot Knob, named for the hill that rose over it, and for a while by the odd name Waintown. The first post office, back in 1878, was run by a postmistress out of her own log cabin…

  • A Barbecue Destination on FM 407 · 7.5 mi

    For a small horse-country town, Argyle punches far above its weight on barbecue. Out on FM 407 sits a joint called 407 BBQ, run by a pitmaster who turned it into one of the most respected smokehouses in the region. It…

  • Why the Horses Came to Argyle · 7.5 mi

    Argyle sits in the heart of north Texas horse country, ringed by white-fenced estates and breeding ranches, and the reason is literally in the dirt. The town lies on the Eastern Cross Timbers, a narrow belt of sandy,…

  • The Town That Legislates to Stay Rural · 7.5 mi

    Argyle has an unusual civic obsession: staying rural on purpose. The town's identity is built on big lots and open pasture, and it defends that with zoning. Much of Argyle is set at a minimum of two and a half acres per…

  • The Town That Fought to Stay Small · 7.7 mi

    Argyle's modern identity was forged in a fight for survival. By 1960 the Dallas-Fort Worth area was booming, and surrounding cities like Denton were rapidly expanding their boundaries through annexation. The residents…

  • The Engineering of a Railroad Town · 7.7 mi

    The town of Argyle is a direct result of a massive 19th-century engineering project. In 1880, the Texas and Pacific Railway began its ambitious push to connect Fort Worth with Sherman. Surveyors, the civil engineers of…

  • Life in the 380 Corridor · 7.7 mi

    The road you're driving on, U.S. Highway 380, is more than just a road in Cross Roads—it's the town's main character. Once a quiet, two-lane highway connecting Denton to McKinney, it has become one of the most dynamic…

  • The Dam That Made a Suburb · 7.7 mi

    If you look to the south, you're looking toward the single biggest reason Cross Roads is what it is today: Lake Lewisville. But this massive body of water isn't a natural lake; it's a colossal work of civil engineering.…

  • The Outlaw's Hideout · 7.7 mi

    Just before Argyle existed, this area was part of the wild frontier, and its dense woods offered a perfect refuge for outlaws. In the late 1870s, the notorious train robber Sam Bass and his gang terrorized North Texas.…

  • The Town That Drew a Line · 7.7 mi

    In the early 1970s, the growing city of Denton was steadily expanding eastward, annexing unincorporated land in its path. The small, rural community at this crossroads faced a critical choice: be absorbed into Denton,…

  • The Mugging of the Argyle State Bank · 7.7 mi

    Imagine Argyle in the small hours of a Wednesday morning in February 1912. The Argyle State Bank stood right here in the little downtown, and sometime around half past one, two or three men let themselves in and went to…

  • Argyle, TX · 7.7 mi

    The town of Argyle was named in 1881, and its origins are shrouded in mystery. Some believe a railroad surveyor named the town after a garden in France, while others think it was named after the region of Argyll in…

  • Taylor Family Cemetery · 7.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Taylor Family Cemetery, a resting place for some of the earliest settlers in the Oak Point area. Samuel and Martha Taylor arrived here from North Carolina in 1859, bringing their sons and…

  • Roark-Griffith Pottery Site · 7.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Roark-Griffith Pottery Site, a vital part of 19th-century Denton County industry. Master potter James Roark started this works in 1871, eventually selling it to M.B. and J.F. Griffith in 1884.…

  • Green Valley Schools · 7.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through what used to be Toll Town, named for the two roads that crossed here. But a schoolteacher, Henry Clay Wilmoth, thought it needed a better name, so he suggested Green Valley. The post office opened…

  • Cross Roads, TX (Henderson County) · 7.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through southwestern Henderson County, and right here is the community of Cross Roads. Its name comes from a brush-arbor camp meeting held in the early 1890s where two important roads met. Before it was…

  • Johns' Well and Campgrounds · 8.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of a vital Texas gathering spot. Back in 1884, this was designated a religious campground by the Prairie Mound Methodist Church. The key feature? Johns' Well, named for former owner Hardin…

  • Argyle, TX · 8.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Argyle, Texas, a town with roots stretching back to the mid-1800s. But what gives this place its name? It wasn't settlers who named it, but a railroad surveyor. In 1881, as the Texas and Pacific…

  • Swisher Cemetery · 8.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Swisher Cemetery, a final resting place for folks who settled this part of North Texas. It started on land granted to H. H. Swisher for fighting in the Texas War for Independence. The oldest…

  • Swisher Cemetery · 8.1 mi · Historical Marker

    Reflecting the earliest years of Anglo settlement in this part of north central Texas, the Swisher Cemetery began on land granted to H. H. Swisher for his service in the Texas War for Independence from Mexico. The…

  • Elm Fork Bridge · 8.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Elm Fork Bridge, a relic from the Roaring Twenties. Built in 1922, it was the longest bridge in Denton County at 250 feet, a marvel of iron and steel designed for two-way automobile traffic.…

  • The Engineering That Made a Peninsula · 8.4 mi

    The very ground Oak Point is built on is a direct result of one of the largest civil engineering projects in North Texas history. Before 1954, this wasn't a peninsula. It was just a rise of land between the Elm Fork of…

  • A City Built for Horses · 8.4 mi

    Oak Point tells you what it wants to be right on the sign: 'A Country Place.' This is east-central Denton County, a peninsula pushing out into Lewisville Lake, and the city has spent its entire existence trying not to…

  • Oak Point, TX · 8.4 mi

    In 1976, Oak Point was incorporated as a general law municipality, marking a significant milestone in its history. The city later adopted the Council-Manager form of government in May 2001, a common practice in Texas.…

  • The Ghosts of the Pioneers at Chinn Chapel · 8.5 mi

    If you want to find the true heart of old Copper Canyon, head toward Chinn Chapel. The chapel and its cemetery are one of the few remaining links to the area's pioneer past. The Chinn family arrived here in 1852, and in…

  • The Town That Was Born to Be Left Alone · 8.5 mi

    Copper Canyon isn't a town that grew organically over time; it's a town that was willed into existence for one specific reason: to be left alone. In the early 1970s the DFW suburbs were exploding, and the residents of…

  • A Town Built for Horses · 8.5 mi

    As you drive around Copper Canyon, you’ll notice something different about the properties here. You'll see white fences, barns, and horses grazing in spacious pastures. This isn't an accident; it's a core part of the…

  • Copper Canyon, TX · 8.5 mi

    In the 1840s, the first European settlers arrived in what would become Copper Canyon, Texas, with the Chinn family playing a pivotal role in the area's early development. They established the first church, a log-cabin…

  • Lantana, TX · 8.6 mi · Local history

    Development began in 1999 on land known as Rayzor Ranch. Republic Property Group broke ground in March 2000, with Larkspur and Sandlin being the first neighborhoods. The first residents moved in on July 31, 2001. This…

  • Lake Dallas, TX · 8.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Lake Dallas, a community with a name change story as unique as its location. Originally settled in 1852 and known as French Settlement, it later became Garza. The real transformation came in the…

  • Hall, William Tip, Jr. · 8.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Denton County, and right here is Lake Dallas, where William Tip Hall, Jr. served as minister for the Church of Christ for the rest of his life. But Hall wore many hats. He was a math teacher, a…

  • Engineering the Lake, Drowning the Past · 9.0 mi

    The massive lake you see today is a monumental feat of civil engineering, built in two major phases. The first began in the 1920s. The city of Dallas, growing fast and desperate for a steady water supply, passed a bond…

  • Lake Dallas, TX · 9.0 mi

    In August 2009, the North Texas Tollway Authority completed a bridge linking Lake Dallas with Little Elm, Texas. This bridge connects Swisher Road in Lake Dallas with Eldorado Parkway in Little Elm, providing a…

  • The Railroad Moves a Town · 9.0 mi

    The tracks running through Lake Dallas are the reason this town has a name at all — but not the way you'd guess. People settled here in 1852 and called it French Settlement, after the family. Then in 1881 the Dallas and…

  • The Hollywood Bank Robbery · 9.1 mi

    In 1966, Hollywood came to Ponder. Director Arthur Penn was looking for authentic, dusty Texas towns for his movie Bonnie and Clyde, and Ponder fit the bill perfectly. The film's first bank robbery scene was shot right…

  • The Iron Compass: How the Railroad Placed Ponder · 9.1 mi

    As you cross the tracks in Ponder, consider that they are the single reason this town is here at all. There was no settlement sitting here waiting for a railroad. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe bought the land out of…

  • Ponder, TX · 9.1 mi

    In the annals of Ponder's history, a local legend stands out. It's said that the infamous duo Bonnie and Clyde either robbed the Ponder State Bank or attempted to, only to find it had gone broke the week before. This…

  • The Doctor Who Anchored a Town · 9.1 mi

    Every town needs a champion, and this one took its name from a banker. In 1886 a man named W. S. Herndon sold land in western Denton County to the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway — first the right-of-way, then a…

  • Bates, William Edmunds · 9.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Aubrey, Denton County, near where William Edmunds Bates lived and worked. Born in Virginia in 1812, Bates was licensed as a Methodist minister in Kentucky in 1843. He arrived in Texas in 1851,…

  • Oak Grove Methodist Church · 9.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Aubrey, and right here is the site of Oak Grove Methodist Church, serving this community since 1880. Imagine worship services and Sunday school held under trees and a brush arbor! The first…

  • Prairie Mound Cemetery · 9.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Prairie Mound Cemetery, a resting place for many pioneer settlers in the Argyle-Justin area. The earliest marked grave belongs to Edgar Myers, who died in 1878. The original church sanctuary was…

  • Lake Dallas, TX · 9.1 mi

    Lake Dallas is a city in Denton County, Texas, situated in North Texas, northwest of Dallas. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 7,708. The city is located on the shores of Lewisville Lake, and its name…

  • Steaks and a Movie Bank Robbery on Bailey Street · 9.2 mi

    One short block of West Bailey Street holds two Texas legends. On Thanksgiving Day 1948, Grace "Pete" Jackson opened Ranchman's Cafe, a plain storefront that grew into a steakhouse drawing diners from across North Texas…

  • Ponder · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Ponder, a town born from the dreams of settlers seeking rich farmland back in the 1850s. Silas Christal and his twelve children were among the first, arriving in 1855. He even built a mill to…

  • From Gerald to Ponder: A Town the Railroad Renamed · 9.3 mi

    Settlers reached this stretch of western Denton County by the 1850s, drawing corn and cotton from the blackland. The town itself was born of steel rails. In 1886 the Santa Fe railroad bought a right-of-way straight…

  • Chinn's Chapel Cemetery · 9.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising past Chinn's Chapel Cemetery, a place that started with a land donation back in 1853. Elisha and Mary Stowe Chinn gave up ten acres for this hilltop resting place. Early settlers held services in a log…

  • The Engineered Lake Next Door · 9.4 mi

    Just north of Krugerville lies a massive feat of engineering that reshaped this entire region: Lake Ray Roberts. Before the 1980s, the land there was just the floodplain of the Trinity River's Elm Fork. But to control…

  • The 1973 Vote to Exist · 9.4 mi

    Krugerville is a young town with an old-fashioned reason for existing. In 1964 a developer named L. H. Kruger bought three hundred twenty-eight acres of mostly wooded land along U.S. Highway 377, just south of Aubrey,…

  • The Secretary of State's Cutting-Horse Ranch · 9.5 mi

    Tucked into Bartonville's horse country is a ranch with a remarkable resume. In 2009 Rex Tillerson, then the head of one of the largest oil companies on earth and later the United States Secretary of State, bought an…

  • Born on a Wheat Crossroads · 9.5 mi

    Long before the estates and the horse ranches, Bartonville was wheat country. The settlement grew up in the late 1870s where two old wagon roads crossed, and it was first known as Barton's Mills, because the Barton…

  • Why the Lots Have to Be Big · 9.5 mi

    Bartonville's famous big lots, with minimums running from one acre up to ten, are not only a matter of taste. They are partly a matter of plumbing. A town this spread out does not run dense city water and sewer lines to…

  • The Ox That Ran the Mill: Animal Horsepower Before Engines · 9.6 mi

    Just west of the future townsite, early settler Silas Christal built an oxen-powered gristmill to grind corn in the 1850s, decades before steam or electricity reached this prairie. The engineering was clever. An ox was…

  • The Town That Incorporated Twice · 9.6 mi

    Bartonville has the unusual distinction of becoming a town not once but twice. It first incorporated back in 1960, when residents feared a growing neighbor might annex them. Once that threat passed, they actually voted…

  • Chinn's Chapel Methodist Church · 9.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past a piece of Texas history right here in Copper Canyon. This place started way back in 1846 as a nondenominational church for Peters Colony settlers. They met in a log building, and services were held…

  • Bartonville · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Bartonville, a town that owes its existence to a general store and a couple of brothers. Back in 1881, Bentley and James Barton bought land right along an old wagon trail. They set up shop,…

  • The Corridor of Commerce · 9.8 mi

    The highway you’re driving on, Interstate 35W, is more than just a road; it’s the spine of a massive logistics machine that defines Northlake. This stretch of highway is the heart of the AllianceTexas project, a…

  • The Town That Incorporated Out of Spite · 9.8 mi

    The only reason Bartonville exists as a town today is because its residents wanted to be left alone. For a century it was just a loose community of farms in south Denton County. But by 1960, the city of Irving, some…

  • The Ranchers' Republic · 9.8 mi

    The town of Northlake is essentially a small republic founded by ranchers. At the end of the 1950s this southwest corner of Denton County was nothing but ranchland, and the families who had held it for generations could…

  • Bartonville, TX · 9.8 mi

    A notable event in Bartonville's history was its incorporation in 1960. Faced with the threat of annexation by expanding cities like Irving, local residents decided to incorporate the town for the first time. This move…

  • Welcome to Horse Country · 9.8 mi

    As you drive through Bartonville, you can't miss the white fences, the sprawling barns and the horses out in the pasture. That land use is not an accident — it is the town's whole zoning philosophy. But it started…

  • The Man-Made Lake That Shaped a Town · 9.8 mi

    Just a few miles from here lies a massive work of civil engineering that changed everything: Lake Grapevine. Before the 1950s, Denton Creek was a wild, unreliable stream, prone to destructive flooding. To control the…

  • The Town Square Reimagined · 9.8 mi

    If you drive through the development called Pecan Square, you might feel like you've stumbled onto a classic Texas town that's been here a century. It's all brand new. Hillwood Communities broke ground here in the late…

  • Horse Country, USA · 9.9 mi

    As you explore the roads branching off the main highway, you’ll enter the heart of Aubrey’s identity: 'Horse Country, USA.' This isn't just a nickname; it's a massive, world-renowned industry. The area is home to…

  • The Town Under the Lake · 9.9 mi

    As you look out over the waters of Lewisville Lake, imagine this: part of old Little Elm is down there. The town goes back to 1844, but its original downtown sat lower, on the fertile bottomland along the Little Elm…

  • The Billion-Dollar Dirt · 9.9 mi

    The main reason Aubrey answers to 'Horse Country, U.S.A.' isn't just culture — it's soil science. The town sits near a geological seam. Much of North Texas is Blackland Prairie, heavy dense clay that bakes hard as rock…

  • Engineering a Lake, Creating a City · 9.9 mi

    The massive body of water that defines Highland Village, Lewisville Lake, is not a natural feature. It's a monumental piece of civil engineering. The story starts with a smaller reservoir, Lake Dallas, built in 1927.…

  • The Lake That Moved a Town · 9.9 mi

    The Little Elm you see today was shaped by a monumental engineering project: the Lewisville Dam. Before it, the Little Elm Fork was just one more stream feeding the Trinity. But downstream, Dallas was growing, and it…

  • Aubrey, TX · 9.9 mi

    Aubrey was officially founded in 1867 by Civil War veteran Lemuel Noah Edwards, who built the second frame house in the area and eventually gave each of his 10 children a lot to build homes on. Edwards and his family…

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