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Eastland, Texas

Everything Eastland is known for

1 song mention this city

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Music in Eastland

Songs About Eastland

Those Feat’ll Steer Ya Wrong Sometimes
Little Feat
3%
"It takes a lifetime to drive from Eastland to Van Horn"

Artists From Eastland

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Rivers & Roads in Song near Eastland

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

Interstate 20 13 songs Brazos River 43 songs

History of Eastland

Old Rip, the Thirty-One-Year-Old Lizard RoadyGoat

The story that made Eastland famous sounds like a tall tale, but the town swears it's true. It centers on the magnificent courthouse in the middle of town. Back in 1897, when the cornerstone was laid for the *previous* courthouse, a boy supposedly placed his pet horned lizard inside the stone's time capsule. Thirty-one years later, in 1928, that courthouse was demolished to make way for the one you see today. When workers opened the cornerstone, they found a dust-covered, flat, but living horned lizard. Named 'Old Rip' after Rip Van Winkle, the lizard became a national celebrity. He toured the country and even met President Calvin Coolidge in the White House. He lived for another eleven months before dying of pneumonia. Today, you can see the preserved body of Old Rip himself, resting in a velvet-lined casket on display inside the Eastland County Courthouse.

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The Boom That Built the Town RoadyGoat

Imagine the streets around you not as paved roads, but as rivers of mud, choked with wagons, trucks, and thousands of people. That was Eastland in 1917. The discovery of oil in the next town over, Ranger, sparked one of Texas’s wildest oil booms, and Eastland was right in the middle of it. The town’s population swelled from about 900 to 10,000 almost overnight. Wooden derricks sprouted like weeds across the landscape. Money flowed like oil, and with it came chaos. Housing was so scarce that workers rented 'eight-hour beds,' sleeping in shifts. The boom was frantic and short-lived, but it permanently transformed Eastland from a small farm town into a city. The grand Art Deco courthouse and the other brick buildings you see downtown were all built with oil money, monuments to the incredible moment when Eastland was the epicenter of the oil universe.

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Engineering a Solution: Lake Eastland RoadyGoat

The 1917 oil boom brought incredible wealth to Eastland, but it also created a crisis: the town was running out of water. The population quadrupled in a decade, and at the 1919 peak there may have been ten thousand people here drawing on hand-dug wells, including a public well on the courthouse grounds. That was the whole system. The fix didn't come from city hall. In 1919 a private group led by H. P. Brelsford threw a dam across the north fork of the Leon River and made a small lake, Lake Brelsford, later renamed Lake Eastland, and then handed it over to the city. For a generation it watered Eastland, Olden and Ranger. But it was never big enough for a boomtown that kept booming, and by the fifties Eastland and Ranger had gone in together on something far larger, Lake Leon, southeast of town, finished in 1954. That's where your tap water comes from now. Lake Eastland was the stopgap that bought this city thirty years, and it's still sitting out there north of town.

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Eastland, TX

1875

Eastland, the county seat of Eastland County, is at the intersection of State highways 6 and 112, northwest of Interstate Highway 20 on the Missouri Pacific Railroad in the central part of the county. In 1875 Jacamiah S. Daugherty and Charles U. Connellee purchased land on the C. S. Betts survey and platted a townsite. County voters opted to move the county seat from Merriman to the newly platted site, as it was closer to the center of the county, and the new community was named Eastland. Connellee, Daugherty, J. B. Ammerman, and others built a stone courthouse, and the county commissioners court held its first session in the town in September of 1875. By January of 1876 the population was estimated at 250. The first public school was taught in the community in 1877, and Methodist, Baptist, and Christian churches were soon organized. The city's growth was assured when, in 1880, the Texas and Pacific Railway was given a number of town lots to build through the community. Eastland Independent School District was established in 1882, and a second courthouse of red stone was constructed in 1883. By 1884 Eastland had three churches, a school, a flouring mill, two cotton gins, and an estimated 500 inhabitants. Among the early newspapers in the town were the Anchor and the Chronicle . Eastland was incorporated for the first time on June 6, 1891, with W. Q. Connellee as the first mayor and for the second time on April 6, 1897, with June Kimble as mayor. The second courthouse was destroyed by fire in 1896, and a third courthouse was built the following year. A horned lizard , later to be become famous as "Old Rip," was supposedly placed in the cornerstone. When the third and final courthouse was erected in 1928, the cornerstone was opened, and the toad was found to have miraculously survived. Though many doubted the toad's authenticity, he (and eventually his remains) got quite a bit of state and even national publicity and became an important part of town and county lore. Eastland grew slowly in the first decades of the twentieth century, reaching 596 inhabitants in 1900 and 855 in 1910. By 1914 the community had two banks, telephone service, and a public library. The local economy was heavily dependent on cotton. Eastland County experienced a dramatic oil boom from 1917 to 1922, and the city of Eastland grew rapidly, though not as rapidly as other communities in the county, notably Ranger and Desdemona. Eastland population increased four-fold between 1910 and 1920, reaching 3,368 in 1920, though some estimates claim that there were as many as 10,000 people in the town during the height of the boom in 1919. The town's prosperity in the 1920s helped fund city improvements like the new courthouse, a new high school, and the paving of city streets. The community reached its peak census population in 1930 with 4,648 inhabitants. Thereafter the city began a slow decline, falling to 3,849 inhabitants in 1940, 3,606 in 1950, and 3,178 in 1970. The community experienced some small scale growth in the 1970s, as the number of businesses increased from 78 in 1972 to 154 in 1982, and the population increased to 3,747 in 1980. In 1990 Eastland had a population of 3,690. The local economy depended on county government, agribusiness, printing, and several manufacturing plants.

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Eastland County Courthouse

1873

The Texas Legislature created Eastland County in 1858, but sparse settlement delayed organization until 1873, when Merriman (8 mi. NE) became the first county seat. Charles Connellee and Jack Daugherty platted the new town of Eastland near the center of the county, and by a vote of 67 to 60 the county seat moved here in 1875. The commissioners met in a stone building across from the town square. The Texas & Pacific Railway arrived in October 1880 and spurred growth, but when the Texas Central Railway created the new town of Cisco, Eastland had to survive a county seat election in August 1881. An 1896 fire destroyed the 1883 courthouse, and Cisco again forced a county seat election, receiving a majority of votes but not the required two-thirds margin. In 1898, the county completed a new three-story courthouse and jail in Eastland.Following oil and natural gas booms in the 1910s and 1920s, voters approved $300,000 in bonds for a new buiding designed by the Dallas architectural firm of Otto H. Lang and Frank O. Witchell. The grand new building opened by December 1928 with space for county, district and appellate courts and offices. The Art Deco style courthouse exhibits stepped massing in its design, with prominent wings accenting a central tower. The building is clad in brick with ornate decorative terra cotta trim and ornamentation. Details include carved eagles, shields and medallions, pilasters, tripartite arched entryways, and stylized decorative banding. The Eastland County Courthouse gained widespread fame as the final resting place for "Old Rip," a celebrated horned toad reputedly liberated from the cornerstone of the prior courthouse.Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-2007

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Eastland

1917

County seat, Eastland County. Named for William M. Eastland--Texas War for Independence hero who was in Mier Expedition against Mexico, and was executed in "Black Bean" lottery at Rancho Salado in 1842. Most noted early local people were Comanches, who resisted occupation of area by white settlers. The last recorded Indian raid in county was in 1874. Eastland was named county seat in an election on Aug. 2, 1875. With 250 people it was incorporated on June 6, 1891, and W.Q. Connellee was elected as mayor. After a discovery in 1917, one of the fabled oil booms of Texas occurred nearby, with Eastland center for legal matters. With oil priced $2.60 a barrel, many wells flowed at 10,000 barrels a day. The city quickly grew to 25,000 people; 5 banks prospered. Coming here to seek "black gold" were celebrities, including evangelist Billy Sunday, circus owner John Ringling, sports figures Jess Willard, Tex Rickard. An international wonder-story happened here: the old courthouse cornerstone was opened (on this site) in 1928 to reveal survival of "Old Rip", a horned toad placed there with other mementoes on July 19, 1897. Continuing oil production, agricultural processing and clay products bolster the present economy. (1968)

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Connellee, Charles Ulrich

1875

Charles Ulrich Connellee, surveyor and state legislator, son of Sadosa T. and Lucy A. (Woods) Connellee, was born on August 21, 1851, in Scott County, Kentucky. After studying in the agricultural and mechanical department of the University of Lexington, he taught school in Scott County. In 1874 he was elected county surveyor, but in October of the same year he moved to Texas, where he established a real estate business in Dallas. In January 1875 he bought and staked out a public square on 320 acres centrally located in Eastland County. The tract had originally been surveyed by C. S. Betts. In May, Connellee and two partners, Jack S. Dougherty and J. B. Ammerman, surveyed the town of Eastland and were influential in getting the new community made county seat. During the early 1880s Connellee was a leader in efforts to eradicate Texas fever and improve cattle breeds for the area ranches. In 1887 he was elected as representative from the Forty-second District in the Twenty-first and Twenty-second legislatures. In 1911 he was a member of the board that located and established the state tuberculosis colony. He served as a regent of the College of Industrial Arts (now Texas Woman's University) from 1925 until his death. Connellee married Mattie E. Payne on April 22, 1875. They had four children. After her death he married Lulu Ostrom, on September 1, 1888. On June 14, 1894, he married Tully Hardeman. On March 15, 1924, he married Mrs. Bula B. Whittington. Connellee died in Fort Worth on December 2, 1930, and was buried in Eastland.

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Early Banking in Eastland

1880

The evolution of Eastland banks reflects local economic conditions and global influences. Soon after the Texas and Pacific Railway reached town in October 1880, a Mr. Berry of Stephenville opened the first bank in Eastland in Jacob Alexander's dry goods store. Eastland National Bank began in the fall of 1890 on the square, with Major W.H. Parvin as president and John T. Yeargin as cashier. Eastland County Bank ran from the late 1890s to 1904 in the same location. City National Bank opened in 1905, with G.H. Connell as the first bank president and T.E. Downtain as vice-president. First State Bank opened in 1909 as the first state-chartered bank in Eastland. The next surge in new banks followed discovery of the Ranger Oil Field in 1917. In two years, Eastland's population grew from 1,000 to 9,368, and banks in the county numbered eighteen. In 1919-21, First State Bank built a new headquarters on this site, designed by architect Henry T. Phelps. Oil production declined in the early 1920s, and First State absorbed smaller banks. City National Bank closed in 1921 after a brief incarnation as Security State Bank and Trust. First State Bank failed in January 1924, with Texas State Bank taking over the building and assets. A few months after the stock market crash of 1929, the county's banks had decreased to seven and Texas State was Eastland's only bank. After a run on deposits on October 1, 1931, Texas State Bank closed its doors for good. The town was without a bank until a new Eastland National Bank opened on this site in November 1934, as the city and nation slowly emerged from the Great Depression with strengthened banking regulations and a more diverse economy. (2006)

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Eastland County

1858

Eastland County is in Central Texas, bordered on the east by Erath County, on the north by Stephens and Palo Pinto counties, on the west by Callahan County, and on the south by Brown and Comanche counties. The county's center is at 32°20' north latitude and 98°50' west longitude. The county was named for Capt. William Mosby Eastland , a member of the Mier Expedition and a victim of the Black Bean Episode . Eastland County covers about 952 square miles of the West Cross Timbers region of Texas; its hilly, rolling terrain ranges from 1200 to 1800 feet above sea level. Eastland, the county seat, is located on Interstate Highway 20 in the north central part of the county, some ninety-five miles west of Fort Worth and fifty-five miles east of Abilene. Most of the county is drained by the Leon River and its tributaries, though other parts drain into Battle Creek and Sandy Creek in the northwest, Palo Pinto Creek in the northeast, the Sabana River in the south, and tributaries of the Colorado River in the southwest. Soils vary from sandy to loamy. Trees found in the county include post oak, shin oak, walnut, pecan, cedar, and ash. The average annual rainfall is 27.09 inches, and the average temperature ranges from 32° F in winter to 96° in summer. The growing season averages 229 days. Comanche, Kiowa, and other plains Indians visited the area now known as Eastland County in the years before White settlement, though the region was too heavily wooded for the extensive migration of buffalo into the area. The area was part of the Department of Bexar during Mexican Texas . In 1822, much of it became a part of Robertson's colony , and in 1831 the area was part of the empresarial grant from Mexico to Stephen F. Austin and Samuel May Williams . Part of the area was included in the Peters colony during the republic era. The first Anglo presence in the region cannot be positively documented, but in 1837 W. A. A. (Big Foot) Wallace might have entered what later became Eastland County with a surveying expedition. Among the first settlers in the county was Frank Sánchez, a Mexican American who arrived in the area in the 1850s. By 1858 residents included the families of John Flannegan (or Flannagan) from Kentucky, W. H. Mansker from Arkansas, W. C. McGough and James Ellison from Georgia, J. M. Ellison from Texas, and the Gilbert boys from Alabama. That year the Texas legislature formed Eastland County from land formerly assigned to Bosque, Coryell, and Travis counties; the county was attached to Palo Pinto County for judicial purposes. McGough Springs, the first community in the county, was established before the Civil War ; another, Mansker Lake (later named Alameda), was founded around 1859. Blair's Fort was built by C. C. Blair about 1860 and used for protection against Indian raids. In 1860, the census counted ninety-nine people living in the county, and the area's agricultural economy had only begun to develop. While the agricultural census enumerated 330 sheep, 1,075 milk cows, and almost 2,550 other cattle in the county that year, "improved" land comprised only 650 acres. Settlers were growing small plots of corn, beans, and sweet potatoes. Due in part to its isolation from other settled areas and frequent trouble from raiding Indians, the county remained sparsely settled until the 1870s. Conflict between settlers and Kiowa and Comanche Indians became serious enough during the 1860s that a company of minutemen was organized to guard the frontier; the largest fight occurred at Ellison Springs in August 1864. Due to the dangers of settlement in the area, the county's population actually declined during the 1860s; in 1870 the census found only seventy-seven people living in Eastland County. Agriculture had also declined since the beginning of the Civil War. There were only five farms in the county in 1870, all of them smaller than twenty acres in size; only sixteen acres of improved land existed in the entire county. When India

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Things to Do in Eastland

historical 24.5 mi away
Americas First Union Town

On Labor Day 1903 the miners of Thurber had had enough. More than 1600 men joined the United Mine Workers walked out of the mines and shut down production…
food 21.2 mi away
Mary's Cafe

Strawn's legendary chicken-fried steak and oversized burgers — Texans drive across the state for a plate. A roadside icon in tiny Palo Pinto County.
historical 24.4 mi away
The Largest Town Between Fort Worth and El Paso

At its peak around 1920 Thurber boasted a population somewhere between 8000 and 10000 people making it the largest town between Fort Worth and El Paso. It had…
quirky 24.4 mi away
The Town They Sold Piece by Piece

When Thurber died it didnt just fade away -- it was literally dismantled and sold. The company auctioned off buildings houses equipment and anything that wasnt…
historical 24.4 mi away
Twenty Nations Underground

At its peak Thurber was one of the most ethnically diverse places in all of West Texas. Nearly twenty different nationalities worked side by side in the mines…
historical 24.5 mi away
One of the First Electrified Cities in Texas

In 1895 while most of Texas still relied on kerosene lamps the coal mining town of Thurber had full electric power running 24 hours a day. The company built…
historical 24.5 mi away
The Bricks That Built Texas

When coal started declining in the early 1900s Thurber pivoted to bricks. The company fired up kilns running day and night producing millions of bricks from…
quirky 24.4 mi away
The Coal Miners Ball Club

Coal mining was brutal work so the company gave Thurber something to cheer about: baseball. The company sponsored semi-pro teams that traveled across Texas to…
day trip
Day Trip to Eastland 🦎 Cisco 🎅 FULL EPISODE (S15 E4)

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

Everything Near Eastland

113 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

  • Eastland, TX · Tsha Handbook

    Eastland, the county seat of Eastland County, is at the intersection of State highways 6 and 112, northwest of Interstate Highway 20 on the Missouri Pacific Railroad in the central part of the county. In 1875 Jacamiah…

  • Connellee, Charles Ulrich · Tsha Handbook

    Charles Ulrich Connellee, surveyor and state legislator, son of Sadosa T. and Lucy A. (Woods) Connellee, was born on August 21, 1851, in Scott County, Kentucky. After studying in the agricultural and mechanical…

  • Eastland County · Tsha Handbook

    Eastland County is in Central Texas, bordered on the east by Erath County, on the north by Stephens and Palo Pinto counties, on the west by Callahan County, and on the south by Brown and Comanche counties. The county's…

  • Eastland, Wichita Falls and Gulf Railroad · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Eastland, the former business office of a railroad built during the Texas oil boom. The Eastland, Wichita Falls and Gulf Railroad Company was chartered in 1918 to connect May in Brown County to…

  • Old Rip — The Horned Toad That Slept Thirty-One Years · 0.1 mi · Research

    In eighteen ninety-seven, when they laid the cornerstone of the old Eastland County courthouse, a man named Will Wood dropped his son's pet horned toad inside as a joke before they sealed it shut. Thirty-one years…

  • Eastland County Courthouse · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    The Texas Legislature created Eastland County in 1858, but sparse settlement delayed organization until 1873, when Merriman (8 mi. NE) became the first county seat. Charles Connellee and Jack Daugherty platted the new…

  • Eastland · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    County seat, Eastland County. Named for William M. Eastland--Texas War for Independence hero who was in Mier Expedition against Mexico, and was executed in "Black Bean" lottery at Rancho Salado in 1842. Most noted early…

  • Early Banking in Eastland · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    The evolution of Eastland banks reflects local economic conditions and global influences. Soon after the Texas and Pacific Railway reached town in October 1880, a Mr. Berry of Stephenville opened the first bank in…

  • Connellee-Majestic Theatre · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Connellee Theatre in Eastland, built in 1920 by the city's founder, C.U. Connellee. For years, it hosted touring shows, musicals, and plays. In 1946, it was bought, remodeled for movies, and…

  • Camp Salmon, C.S.A. · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Camp Salmon, C.S.A.. Guarding the frontier during the Civil War, this camp was located 17 mi. west, 6 mi. north. Established as part of a chain of posts a day's horseback ride apart stretching from…

  • Eastland County, Early Settlers of · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Eastland County, Early Settlers of. First known Eastland area inhabitant was Frank Sanchez (d. 1867), who grazed herds here in the 1850s. The United States in 1853 established Army posts at Fort…

  • First United Methodist Church of Eastland · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Eastland, where Methodists started meeting in a log house around 1875. A congregation was organized, and they built a 'Little White Church' in 1882. That building served them until a new sanctuary…

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  • First Christian Church · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the First Christian Church in Eastland, organized way back in 1878. Early members included some of the city's founders. The congregation moved into this building in 1907 and has since…

  • Connellee, Charles U. · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Eastland, and right here is the home of Charles U. Connellee. Coming from Kentucky in 1874, Connellee was a surveyor who helped open up much of West Texas to settlers. He personally platted this…

  • Old Rip, the Thirty-One-Year-Old Lizard · 0.6 mi

    The story that made Eastland famous sounds like a tall tale, but the town swears it's true. It centers on the magnificent courthouse in the middle of town. Back in 1897, when the cornerstone was laid for the *previous*…

  • The Boom That Built the Town · 0.6 mi

    Imagine the streets around you not as paved roads, but as rivers of mud, choked with wagons, trucks, and thousands of people. That was Eastland in 1917. The discovery of oil in the next town over, Ranger, sparked one of…

  • Engineering a Solution: Lake Eastland · 0.6 mi

    The 1917 oil boom brought incredible wealth to Eastland, but it also created a crisis: the town was running out of water. The population quadrupled in a decade, and at the 1919 peak there may have been ten thousand…

  • Eastland, TX · 0.6 mi

    In 1921, Eastland, Texas, experienced a recession that heightened racial tensions between Anglos and Mexicans. Unemployment rose, and Anglos attempted to oust Mexicans who had been hired during World War I. Masked men…

  • The Hometown Hero, Hayden Fry · 0.6 mi

    Every town has its heroes, and Eastland's got born right here. John Hayden Fry came into the world in Eastland on February 28, 1929, before his family pulled up stakes for Odessa when he was eight years old. It was out…

  • Prairie Oil and Gas Company Housing · 0.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of company housing built during Eastland's wild oil boom. In 1919, the Prairie Oil and Gas Company put up this two-story home for their officials, like superintendent W.I. Clark. It was one…

  • Burkett House · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Burkett House, built between 1919 and 1920 by Joe Burkett and his wife. Joe was a school teacher, county official, and state legislator, who, with his brother and father, discovered the original…

  • Hargus, Larry · 1.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Eastland County, passing the land that Larry Hargus and his wife Mary bought back in 1879. Originally from North Carolina, they settled here and purchased this farm in 1881. Their son, James,…

  • Forty Two Years Behind the Badge · 2.9 mi

    Farm to Market Road Five Seventy in Eastland County, from Interstate Twenty to Farm to Market Road Twenty Two Fourteen, is the Deputy Kenneth Maltby Memorial Highway. Kenneth Maltby was a United States Navy veteran of…

  • The Wartime Highway Name That Waited Sixty Years · 4.9 mi

    The World War Two Veterans Memorial Highway is a name with an odd history. On August first, nineteen forty four, a Texas highway minute order named U S Highway Eighty the Veterans of World War Two Highway, all the way…

  • Desdemona, TX · 5.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Desdemona, on State Highway 16 in the southeastern corner of Eastland County, is one of the oldest extant Texas settlements west of the Brazos River. Sometime around 1857 a group of settlers built a family fort for…

  • Ellison Springs Indian Fight · 5.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Eastland County, not far from Gorman, and right here is where a desperate fight happened back on August 9, 1864. It was the Civil War, but out here on the frontier, the battles were with Native…

  • Mangum, TX · 5.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Mangum was a farming and ranching community off State Highway 6 some five miles southwest of Eastland in central Eastland County. It was founded in the late 1890s at the junction of the Eastland, Wichita Falls and Gulf…

  • Long Branch, TX (Eastland County) · 5.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Eastland County, and right here is the site of Long Branch. It all started back in 1880 when a settler donated land for a church. By the early 1880s, there was a schoolhouse, and the Long Branch…

  • Mangum Baptist Church · 6.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the early Mangum Baptist Church. Local Baptists gathered for worship starting in 1901, formally organizing Bethany Baptist Church in 1904. They soon built a sanctuary, moving it into…

  • Merriman Baptist Church · 7.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Merriman Baptist Church, which organized in 1892. When an oil boom hit in 1917, the church leased drilling rights on its property. The resulting oil well earned hundreds of dollars a day,…

  • Merriman Cemetery · 7.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Merriman Cemetery, a place that almost became an oil field! Established around 1873, this burial ground was the final resting place for early Eastland County settlers. The earliest marked grave is…

  • Site of J.H. McCleskey No. 1, Discovery Well of the Ranger Oil Boom · 8.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Ranger, a town that hit it big in 1917. After earlier dry holes, local leaders convinced manager William Knox Gordon to drill deeper. On October 17th, 1917, McCleskey Well Number One hit oil at…

  • Ranger Municipal Airport · 8.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Ranger Municipal Airport, home to the third oldest operating airfield in Texas! The story here really takes off in November of 1911, when early aviator Robert G. Fowler landed his Wright biplane…

  • Sergeant Fenley Went Door to Door Into the Smoke · 9.1 mi

    Farm to Market Road Twenty Five Twenty Six in Eastland County, between State Highway Six and Farm to Market Road Twenty Six Eighty Nine, is the Sergeant Barbara Fenley Memorial Highway. Barbara Fenley served ten years…

  • Carbon City Jail · 9.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the old Carbon City Jail, a tough-as-nails lockup built in 1921 after the original jail burned down. This place was pure concrete and steel, with no lights or heat – just a temporary holding cell…

  • The Iron Compass: How a Railroad Drew a Town · 9.2 mi

    The existence of Carlos is a lesson in early-twentieth-century transportation engineering. When the Houston and Texas Central Railway pushed its line from Navasota toward Mexia, its engineers weren't guided by existing…

  • Carbon, TX · 9.2 mi

    In 1990, a significant event in Carbon's history occurred when the Eastland Independent School District absorbed the Carbon Independent School District. This led to the closure of Carbon High School due to a lack of…

  • The Eastland Complex Fire · 9.2 mi

    As you drive along Highway 6, look out at the ranchland and the scrubby hills. In March of 2022, this was the front line of the Eastland Complex Fire. Drought-cured grass, high wind, and more than forty-five thousand…

  • Carbon Methodist Church Building · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Carbon Methodist Church, organized way back in 1890. It met in various buildings before this sanctuary went up in 1914, and was rebuilt in the 1920s after a fire. The church itself…

  • First Baptist Church in Carbon · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Carbon's First Baptist Church. Organized under a brush arbor in 1885, soon after the town was founded, it began with twelve members and its first pastor, the Rev. W.B. Cobb. The church…

  • Ranger - The Oil Boomtown · 9.3 mi · Historical Marker

    In October 1917, the McCleskey No. 1 well erupted on the W.K. Gordon ranch outside Ranger, and within months the sleepy Eastland County town of a thousand people became a city of thirty thousand. There was no…

  • Ranger, Roaring · 9.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Ranger, Roaring. Boom of high excitement and strategic importance. When oil demand was high during World War I, Texas Pacific Coal Company general manager W.K. Gordon, a believer in deep drilling,…

  • First Oil Well Drilled in Eastland County · 9.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Ranger, the heart of Eastland County's oil boom! Look around, because this is where it all started. July of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1917</say-as>, the J.H. McCleskey No. 1 well,…

  • The Camp That Named the Town · 9.5 mi

    You're in Ranger, Texas, so here's the ranger tangent behind the name: Texas Rangers camped nearby during the eighteen seventies, and Ranger Camp Valley preserved their presence. When the railroad arrived a few miles…

  • One Riot, Many Rangers · 9.5 mi

    You're in Ranger, Texas, so here's the ranger tangent behind the name: One riot, one Ranger is a powerful slogan, not a reliable operating rule. It became linked to Ranger Bill McDonald and an illegal eighteen ninety…

  • The Oil Town That Arrived Overnight · 9.5 mi

    You're in Ranger, Texas, so here's the ranger tangent behind the name: Ranger was a drought-struck farming community when the McClesky Number One well came in during October nineteen seventeen. Oil transformed it into a…

  • Conrad Hilton's First Hotel · 9.5 mi

    As you roll into Ranger, it's hard to picture the chaos that once filled these streets. Today it's a quiet town in Eastland County, but a little over a hundred years ago folks called it 'Roaring Ranger.' In October of…

  • The Roaring Ranger Gusher · 9.5 mi

    Imagine the streets you're on now, but buried in knee-deep mud and crammed with 30,000 people. That was 'Roaring Ranger' in 1918. The change began on October 17, 1917, when the J.H. McCleskey No. 1 well, a speculative…

  • Ranger, Sheriff, or Marshal? · 9.5 mi

    You're in Ranger, Texas, so here's the ranger tangent behind the name: a Texas Ranger is a state law-enforcement investigator within the Department of Public Safety, often assisting local agencies with major crimes,…

  • Santa Claus Bank Robbery - Cisco · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker

    On December 23, 1927, a man in a Santa Claus suit walked into the First National Bank of Cisco. Children on the street waved at him. He waved back. Then he pulled a gun and announced a robbery. Marshall Ratliff had…

  • First National Bank · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Cisco, and right here is the site of one of Texas' most unusual robberies: the Santa Claus Bank Robbery of 1927. On December 23rd, amidst Christmas celebrations, a man dressed as Santa Claus and…

  • Tracking Before Databases · 9.5 mi

    You're in Ranger, Texas, so here's the ranger tangent behind the name: frontier tracking meant reading disturbed soil, hoofprints, broken plants, ash, discarded food, campsites, water use, and the direction or pace of…

  • The Baseball Name and the Fire Tower · 9.5 mi

    You're in Ranger, Texas, so here's the ranger tangent behind the name: the Washington Senators baseball club moved to Arlington in nineteen seventy two and adopted Texas Rangers, borrowing the state law-enforcement…

  • Engineering the Gusher · 9.5 mi

    The Ranger oil boom wasn't just luck; it was an engineering feat for its time. The crew of the J.H. McCleskey No. 1 well used a technology called a cable-tool rig. Imagine a heavy, sharpened chisel, the 'bit,' attached…

  • Ranger, TX · 9.5 mi

    During the 1920s, Ranger was a petroleum boomtown, much like nearby Cisco, Eastland, and Desdemona. The Texas Pacific Coal Company drilled a gas well north of Ranger in August 1917, and on October 11, 1917, the McClesky…

  • Ranger, Desdemona, and Breckenridge Oilfields · 9.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Eastland County, where back in 1917, the town of Ranger was just a thousand people. But then, the McClesky No. 1 well blew in, a gusher that kicked off the Ranger oil boom. Overnight, Ranger…

  • Old Mobley Hotel · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Cisco, and right here is the site of a true Texas legend's humble beginnings. This was the Old Mobley Hotel, the very first hotel ever owned by Conrad Hilton. He bought it back in 1916, a…

  • Ranger, TX · 9.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Ranger, a town that owes its very existence to a Texas Ranger camp. But Ranger's real boom came not from lawmen, but from oil! After a devastating drought in 1917, residents convinced a local…

  • Davenport, Overton Fletcher · 9.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Overton Fletcher Davenport, farmer, stock raiser, Confederate officer, county official, and state representative, was born in Oglethorpe County, Georgia, on February 10, 1820, the son of William and Elizabeth Sydnor…

  • The Main Street of America · 9.5 mi

    The old main road through Ranger — the business route that runs beside Interstate 20 now, and carried U.S. Highway 80 for most of the last century — was once part of a much grander vision. This was a key segment of the…

  • Hamon, Jake Louis · 9.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, and right here near Ranger is where Jake Louis Hamon got his start in the oil business. He came here in 1920 after his father was shot, working as a roustabout. By 1921, he was…

  • Williams, William · 9.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Eastland County, near Ranger, in an area that was once the wild frontier. This is the land where William Williams, a settler and soldier, spent much of his life. Born in Tennessee in 1803, his…

  • First Baptist Church of Cisco · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Cisco's First Baptist Church. Its story begins in 1878 as the Red Gap Baptist Church, organized by just 13 members who met in a log schoolhouse. The congregation moved to Cisco in 1881,…

  • Hilton Hotels Corporation · 9.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Right here in Cisco, Texas, you're driving past the very place where a hospitality empire began. In 1919, Conrad Hilton, the man who would build a global hotel chain, bought his first hotel – the Mobley Hotel. He turned…

  • Hilton, Conrad Nicholson · 9.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Cisco, Texas, a place that might seem quiet now, but it was the launching pad for a hospitality empire. Right here, in 1919, a man named Conrad Hilton, fresh from World War I, bought his very…

  • Cisco, TX · 9.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Cisco, at the intersection of U.S. Highway 183 and Interstate Highway 20, in northwestern Eastland County, traces its history back to 1878 or 1879, when Rev. C. G. Stevens arrived in the area, established a post office…

  • Kendrick, Robert [Bob Skyles] · 9.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Eastland County, not far from where Bob Skyles was born. He started out as Robert Kendrick in Cisco, Texas, learning music from his dad. By the 1920s, the Kendrick family was traveling the state…

  • Cisco Junior College · 9.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Cisco, and right here is the site of Cisco Junior College. It rose from the ashes of two earlier schools, Randolph College and Britton Training School. But its official founding came in 1939,…

  • Lieske, August · 9.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    August Lieske, immigrant of German ancestry, Polish birth, and Russian citizenship, son of Michael and Julia Anna (Hass) Lieske, was born at Gostyń, Poland, on July 9, 1855. The family was typical of the staunchly…

  • Richardson, Thomas Clarence · 9.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through North Texas, perhaps past places like Cisco or Wheeler, where Thomas Clarence Richardson got his start. Born in 1877, Richardson wasn't just a simple farmer; he was a prolific publisher and writer…

  • Brannin, Carl Philip · 9.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Carl Philip Brannin, social reformer and journalist, was born in Cisco, Texas, on September 22, 1888, the second son of seven children born to Lewis E. and Catherine (Bacon) Brannin. After graduating as valedictorian…

  • First United Methodist Church of Cisco · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Cisco, where a church built here in 1883 was destroyed by a devastating tornado in 1893. That storm killed 23 people and injured 93 others. The congregation rebuilt, adding electric lights, and by…

  • Kean, Edward Everett · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of a home that rose from the ashes of disaster. Construction on this house began soon after the devastating Cisco tornado of 1893 ripped through town. Originally built for the Langston…

  • Two Lawmen and the Santa Claus Bank Robbery · 9.8 mi

    Near Lake Cisco, the State Highway Six bridge over Sandy Creek is the Bedford Carmichael Bridge. In June twenty sixteen, flooding swept away a large part of the roadway and the bridge here. When the new bridge went up,…

  • Cisco College · 9.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Cisco, Texas, where higher education has a long and winding road. Back in 1909, O.C. Britton opened the city's first college on a sprawling 212-acre campus. But just as it got going, World War I…

  • First Presbyterian Church of Cisco · 9.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the First Presbyterian Church of Cisco. Local residents organized this fellowship in August 1881, shortly after the town of Cisco was platted. An 1893 tornado destroyed the first sanctuary, and a…

  • Conrad Hilton's First Hotel · 10.0 mi

    Right here in downtown Cisco stands the humble beginning of a global empire. In 1919, a man named Conrad Hilton arrived with plans to buy a bank. When that deal soured, he went to stay at the local hotel, the Mobley. He…

  • The Santa Claus Bank Robbery · 10.0 mi

    Imagine the scene. It's two days before Christmas, 1927. A man dressed as Santa Claus walks through downtown Cisco, delighting children. But when he enters the First National Bank, he's not there to spread cheer. He and…

  • Engineering a Lake to Save a City · 10.0 mi

    By the early 1920s, the oil boom had pushed Cisco's population to its limit, and the town was facing a critical problem: it was running out of water. The existing water sources couldn't support the thousands of new…

  • Cisco, TX · 10.0 mi

    Cisco, Texas, carries a certain West Texas twang, shaped by the land and the people who’ve called it home. While the town's named for John A. Cisco, a financier, the real character comes from the generations who worked…

  • Oakwood Cemetery · 10.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Oakwood Cemetery in Cisco. This historic burial ground began with a tragedy. In 1876, Dolphin William Bint, who had come from England just that year, was traveling to Fort Worth to buy lumber for his…

  • Gunsight Community · 10.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Gunsight, a town that started as a stop on a wagon road back in 1858. By the 1870s, it was a growing community with a post office, school, churches, and businesses, all fueled by cotton…

  • Kokomo School · 10.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the former community of Kokomo. The first building here, back in 1886, was a simple one-room log schoolhouse with just a stove and split-log benches. By 1899, they'd upgraded to a larger frame…

  • Redeemer Lutheran Cemetery · 10.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Redeemer Lutheran Cemetery, established in 1894. It was designated a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2012.

  • Pleasant Hill Baptist Church · 10.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the vicinity of Pleasant Hill, where this Baptist Church began in 1892. Eight charter members met in an old schoolhouse to organize the congregation. The church joined the Cisco Baptist Association…

  • Bullock Cemetery · 10.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Bullock Cemetery, which started in 1878 as a burial site on William Nolen's land, right next to a one-room schoolhouse. Nolen formally donated land for the school and cemetery in 1886, creating…

  • Alameda Cemetery · 11.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Eastland County, passing the Alameda Cemetery. It started as a community burial ground on land set aside by William Mansker in the mid-1800s. The first burial here is shrouded in mystery and…

  • Christ Lutheran Cemetery · 11.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Christ Lutheran Cemetery, established in 1904. It was designated a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2012.

  • Penn House · 12.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Penn House, a vernacular farmhouse built by Velzie W. Penn and his neighbors between 1898 and 1899. Penn and his wife Addie raised four sons in this home, living here for over fifty years.…

  • Long Branch Baptist Church · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Long Branch Baptist Church, formally organized here on July 16, 1885. Thirteen charter members were served by the first minister until 1886, and missionary pastors held monthly…

  • Wayland School · 14.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the old Wayland School. The Wayland Free School District was formed around 1883, and its brick building, built in 1920, served as a community hub through the 1930s. The school closed…

  • When the Peanut Was King · 14.6 mi

    Look for the towering concrete silos that rise above the town. They are monuments to Gorman's second great boom: peanuts. After the Eastland County oil boom of 1917 to 1922 faded, farmers found the area's sandy soil was…

  • The Science of the Peanut Capital · 14.6 mi

    Gorman's title as Peanut Capital wasn't an accident. It was a match between geology, biology and machinery. Start with the soil of the Cross Timbers, a loose sandy loam. Peanuts are strange plants: after flowering they…

  • Mount Zion Cemetery · 14.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Mount Zion Cemetery in Caddo. The land was owned by the McCleskeys back in 1879, and tradition says a relative named M.M. McCluskey was the first person buried here. It eventually became a community…

  • Romney Lutheran Cemetery · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Romney Lutheran Cemetery, established in 1901. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2012.

  • Site of Blackwell Hospital · 15.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Gorman, where the Blackwell brothers, George and Edward, left a huge mark on local medicine. After medical school and service in World War I, they opened a clinic, then built this Blackwell…

  • Gorman, TX · 15.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Gorman, a town that owes its existence to a railroad man. Back in 1889, Patrick Gorman, the roadmaster for the Texas Central Railroad, lent his name to this community when it got its post office,…

  • Deputy David Bosecker and Highway One Eighty Three · 15.7 mi

    U.S. Highway One Eighty Three in Eastland County, between Farm to Market Road Twenty Five Twenty Six and Farm to Market Road Twenty Seven Thirty One, is the Deputy Sheriff David Bosecker Memorial Highway. David Bosecker…

  • Ellison Family Graveyard · 15.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Eastland County, near Gorman. Look for the Ellison Family Graveyard. This spot marks the final resting place for James Madison Ellison, the first settler in this part of the county, who arrived in…

  • Ellison Springs · 15.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Eastland County, near Gorman. Look for Ellison Springs, a place that's seen centuries of history. For Native Americans, it was a vital water source. Then, in <say-as interpret-as="date"…

  • Old Shinoak Springs · 15.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Eastland County, near Gorman, where you'll find the site of Old Shinoak Springs. This spot got its name from the dwarf oaks that grew here. Before fences went up in the 1880s, these springs were a…

  • Bankhead Highway through Eastland County · 16.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Eastland County on a route that was once the Bankhead Highway, a transcontinental road that changed everything for early automobiles. This highway challenged drivers with steep hills like Thurber…

  • New Hope Baptist Church #3 · 16.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving near Caddo, where thirty former members of Macedonia Baptist Church organized New Hope Baptist Church #3 in 1893. They built their own sanctuary in 1899, which burned down and was rebuilt in 1902. The…

  • Dothan Cemetery · 17.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the area where the Texas and Pacific Railway built its Delmar Depot back in 1880. A new community called Dothan sprang up nearby, eventually gaining a post office in 1902. The Dunaway family,…

  • Fort Blair, C.S.A. · 18.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Eastland County, and just a few miles southwest of here was Fort Blair. This wasn't your typical military outpost; it was a 'family fort,' the largest of its kind in the far west, serving Texans…

  • Desdemona First Baptist Church · 18.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Desdemona, where the First Baptist Church was organized in 1872. Early settlers gathered for brush arbor meetings by Hog Creek, and later held services in a schoolhouse. The congregation built its…

  • Desdemona Cemetery · 18.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Desdemona, a frontier town that was already established back in the 1870s. This cemetery got its start in 1880, when an acre was deeded for a public graveyard. The earliest marked grave belongs to…

  • Parks Camp · 18.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Parks Camp, a boomtown that sprang up in 1918. Named for rancher J.W. Parks, this company town was built for employees of the Texas Company, later known as Texaco. At its peak, Parks Camp…

  • Scranton Academy · 18.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Scranton Academy, a private school that sprang up in this farming and ranching community back in 1903. Just 13 years after Scranton itself was founded, citizens pooled their resources to…

  • Scranton Cemetery · 18.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Scranton Cemetery, a final resting place for this community that settled in the 1870s. Joseph Jackson and Sarah Frances Ray donated land for the church and graveyard in 1896, though the earliest…

  • Hittson Ranch Headquarters on Battle Creek · 18.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Callahan County, not far from Battle Creek. This spot earned its name back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1840</say-as>, when a group searching for hostile Indians found themselves in a…

  • Oakland Cemetery · 19.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Oakland Cemetery, established in 1891 with the burial of Willey N. Burleson. This site grew from two acres, deeded by circuit-riding minister H. S. Anglin and his wife Sarah, to five acres by 1998.…

  • Burkett Pecan Tree · 20.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Putnam, and right here, we're talking about a tree that changed the Texas economy. This is the Burkett Pecan Tree, bred in 1900 by J. H. Burkett. He was a real leader in the Texas pecan industry, and…

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