Granbury, Texas

Here is Granbury's most famous tall tale, and it really did start on this square. In the 1870s a quiet, well-spoken bartender named John St. Helen tended bar at a saloon on the south side of the square. Local tradition…

Standing dead center on the square is one of the finest 19th-century courthouses in Texas. Architect W. C. Dodson designed it in the French Second Empire style, and contractors Moodie and Ellis built it of locally…

Five miles east of Granbury in tiny Acton stands the smallest state historic site in Texas, just six-thousandths of an acre, and it marks a single grave. Buried here is Elizabeth Patton Crockett, the second wife of Davy…

On the evening of May 15, 2013, a violent EF4 tornado dropped onto the southeastern edge of Granbury and tore directly through the Rancho Brazos neighborhood. It carved a path about 2.75 miles long, with a width…

Born Kentucky. West Point graduate. Army service on Texas frontier led Hood to adopt the Lone Star State. Resigned U.S. Army 1861 to serve South. Commanded 4th Texas Infantry. Led "Hood's Texas," most renowned…

A Mississippian. Came to Texas early 1850s. Lawyer in Waco, recruited Waco Guards, Confederate Army, 1861. Elected Major 7th Texas Infantry. Beat back Federals some miles, Fort Donelson, Tenn., Feb. 1862. Captured…

You're driving past the site of a Granbury landmark built by remarkable brothers. Jesse and Jacob Nutt, both blind, were instrumental in establishing Granbury as the county seat. Their first store in 1866 was a humble…

You're driving through land that was once Davy Crockett's bounty. After his death at the Alamo in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1836</say-as>, his heirs were granted nearly 1,300 acres. In <say-as…

You're driving past Nellie Gray Robertson. Born in 1894 as the sixth and only daughter of William Jarrett Robertson and Arminda Barton Robertson, Nellie Gray Robertson grew up amid financial hardships in Hood County.…

On the south side of the square sits the Granbury Opera House, which opened in 1886 as Kerr's Hall, named for owner Henry Kerr. It was the showiest building on the square in its day, a two-story native-limestone…

After the audience clears out, the Granbury Opera House has a reputation for not being entirely empty. Staff and visitors have long described a figure dressed in black who appears on the stage reciting Shakespeare, and…

The Nutt House Hotel on the square carries one of Granbury's best origin stories, and yes, that really is the family name. The same Nutt brothers tied to the town's founding started a mercantile here in 1866 in a wooden…

The town square you're circling exists because two brothers gave it away. In 1866, J. and J. H. Nutt donated forty acres of riverfront land on the west bank of the Brazos to create a new townsite, the year Hood County…

The water that defines modern Granbury is engineered, not natural. The Brazos River Authority broke ground on De Cordova Bend Dam in December 1966 and began impounding water on September 15, 1969, creating Lake Granbury…

You're driving past the Aston-Landers Building in Granbury, a place that's seen more action than just commerce. Built in 1893 as a saloon, this native stone structure with its patented iron front was the site of a…

You're driving past the Granbury Opera House, a landmark that's been entertaining folks since 1886. For years, its top floor was known as Kerr's Opera House, hosting everything from vaudeville shows to dramatic plays…

You're driving past the Hood County Courthouse in Granbury, a building that's seen a lot of history. This handsome structure, built between 1890 and 1891, is a beautiful Texas example of the French Second Empire…

You're cruising through Granbury, and right here is the Baker-Doyle Building, a testament to Texas commerce. John D. Baker, a merchant and community leader, had this limestone beauty built in 1882 to house his dry goods…

You're cruising through Granbury, and right here is the Bush-Morgan Cherry Building, built way back in 1891. It's seen some of Granbury's biggest names and businesses. First, it was F.C. Bush's dry goods store, who also…

You're cruising past the Glenn Brothers Building in Granbury, a testament to Victorian-era commerce. <break time="400ms"/> Erected in 1885 by town builder James Farr, this structure quickly became a hub for the Glenn…

You're driving past the Granbury House, a place that tells the story of Martha Washington Stringfellow. Arriving in Hood County around 1871 as a widow with three children, Martha needed to make a living. She opened a…

You're driving through Granbury's historic town square, where buildings of local stone replaced cabins in the late 1800s. Look for the building constructed in 1882 by investor John D. Baker. After a fire in 1891, it was…

You're driving past the Harris Building in Granbury, a place that tells a fascinating story about early Texas business. Built in 1899 by stonemason I.W. Walley, its rock walls and decorative brickwork were constructed…

You're driving through Granbury, and right here is a native stone building with a long history of commerce. It started in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1872</say-as> as the Granbury post office, built by James…

You're driving past the site of a Granbury building that's been a hub of commerce for over a century. It started in 1888 as Andy Aston's harness and saddle shop. Imagine the craftsmanship! The building got an iron…

You're driving through Granbury, and right here is the Thrash-Landers-Hiner House. This home has seen quite a few prominent owners since it was built around 1880. The first was Patrick H. Thrash, a North Carolina native…

You're driving past the site of Granbury's First National Bank. The first part of this hand-hewn limestone building went up in 1883, opening as a private bank. It earned its national charter just four years later, in…

You're driving past the E. A. Hannaford Building, a piece of Granbury history right here in Hood County. E. A. Hannaford arrived in Granbury in 1871, starting his business from scratch in a tent! By 1886, he and partner…

You're driving past the site of Temple Hall United Methodist Church, one of Hood County's earliest institutions. Organized in 1854 as the Methodist Protestant Church, early services were sometimes cut short due to…

You're driving past the site of the David L. Nutt home in Granbury, built in 1879. Nutt, who arrived in Texas in 1857, constructed this two-story house plantation-style, using cypress lumber hauled all the way from East…

You're driving through Granbury, and right here is the Hood County Jailhouse, built in 1873. This wasn't just any jail; it replaced a log structure because lawlessness was rampant back then. It's a late Victorian…

If you want lunch with a little local history baked in, the Fillin' Station sits right on the Granbury square at 100 North Crockett Street, in a building that traces back to a Marathon Oil fueling station, which is…

You're driving past the Aston House in Granbury, a beautiful example of Queen Anne architecture. Built in 1905 by E.J. Holderness for Andy C. Aston, this home was a promise kept to his young wife, Dorothy. Mrs. Aston,…

You're driving past the historic Baker-Rylee Building in Granbury, a landmark on the town square. Built in 1895 as a hardware store for Baker and Rylee, it saw its partnership grow and eventually become Baker Hardware…

You're driving past the Gordon Home in Granbury, built in 1882. Alonzo Peyton Gordon arrived here from Georgia in 1871, first teaching school before launching a mercantile business. His store, housed in a massive stone…

As you cruise through Granbury, look for the site of the Schultz Blacksmith Shop. Carl Severin Schultz, born in Denmark in 1876, came to America and tried his hand at several businesses, even owning a soft drink…

You're driving past where James Hogan Doyle and Mary Kate Stringfellow Doyle built their lives in Granbury. Doyle, a Civil War veteran from South Carolina, arrived in Texas around 1870. He quickly established himself as…

You're driving past the Baker-Carmichael House, built in 1905 by Jess Baker, a prominent local businessman and state representative. After his death and his wife Alice's passing in the early 1920s, the house was bought…

You're driving past the site of Granbury Methodist Church. Organized in 1871 by Reverend John R. Hill and seven members, they first worshipped in a schoolhouse before completing their own sanctuary in 1883. The…

Walk the square and notice how much of it is solid limestone and brick rather than frontier clapboard. You can thank the railroad for that. When the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway reached Granbury in 1887, it…

You're cruising through Granbury, and just ahead is a reminder of the town's vital link to the outside world: the historic railroad depot. Built in 1914, this structure replaced the very first station that welcomed the…

Granbury businessmen pooled local materials in 1952 and put up a drive-in on what was then the edge of town to lure people in. It opened June 5 with Robert…

You're driving through Granbury, and if you look around, you might still see the old city power plant. Before 1923, private companies controlled Granbury's electricity. But the folks here decided they wanted to power…

You're driving past the Smith-Savage House, a beautiful example of Victorian architecture right here in Granbury. Samuel Hancock Smith, Hood County's tax assessor, had this residence built around 1883. Notice the…

Granbury collects famous-men-who-supposedly-didn't-die stories, and the second one rests in the Granbury Cemetery. In 1948 an ancient drifter named J. Frank Dalton began telling people he was the real Jesse James, the…

You're driving past Granbury Cemetery, a place that tells the story of this town's past. Look for the stone of John Edwards, who died way back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1853</say-as>. But the real…

You're driving past Hood County News. Successor to "Granbury Vidette" town's first newspaper, founded 1872 by Capt. W.L. Bond and later owned by an 1882 staff recruit, A. W.

You're driving past Granbury, and just up ahead is the site of the First Christian Church. Organized in the 1870s, this congregation has deep roots in Texas education. The Clark brothers, who helped establish this…

Hiram Bronson Granbury, Confederate general, was born in Copiah County, Mississippi, on March 1, 1831, the son of Nancy (McLaurin) and Norvell R. Granbury, a Baptist minister. He was educated at Oakland College. In the…

Nellie Gray Robertson, attorney, was born on February 28, 1894, in Granbury (Hood County), Texas. She was the daughter of William Jarrett Robertson and Arminda (Barton) Robertson. She attended the local public schools…

You're driving through Granbury, a town with roots stretching back to the Texas Revolution. It was officially founded in 1866 when brothers J. and J. H. Nutt donated land to create a new townsite. Named for Confederate…

You're driving through Granbury, Texas, and right here on Pearl Street, you can still see the stately home built by Alonzo Peyton Gordon. Gordon was a prominent citizen: a merchant who owned dry goods stores and cotton…

You're driving through Hood County, right near Granbury, the home of Confederate Captain John Alexander Formwalt. He enlisted as a private in the Tenth Texas Infantry in <say-as interpret-as="date"…

You're driving through Hood County, a place that was once the rugged frontier. Before settlers arrived, this land was home to the Comanche, who called Comanche Peak here their meeting place. As settlers moved in during…

You're driving through North Texas, not far from where Burrell Wilson Morris spent much of his life. Born in Red River County in 1846, Morris volunteered for the Confederacy at just fifteen, serving through the Civil…

Jess Alexander Baker, merchant and state representative, the son of Daniel Marlin and Angeline E. (Chism) Baker, was born near Georgetown, Texas, on October 11, 1856. In 1871 he moved with his father and younger brother…

You're driving through Hood County, and right here is where William Ballard Wohlford, a farmer and stockman, served in the Texas Legislature. He was elected to the Twenty-third Legislature in 1893, representing Hood,…

You're driving past the site of the First Baptist Church of Granbury. Early settlers worshiped outdoors, and in 1866, Pastor J.N. Chandler began serving this small group. The congregation organized a Sunday school in…

Granbury is home to one of American history's most persistent legends. It claims that John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln's assassin, wasn't killed in 1865 but escaped to live in Granbury under the alias John St. Helen. During…

If you're heading to the Granbury Square, you're visiting the heart of a major success story. By the 1960s, this downtown was dying. A new highway bypassed the city center, and the beautiful Victorian buildings fell…

The Granbury you see today was fundamentally reshaped by a massive engineering project that began in the 1960s. Before then, the Brazos River would periodically flood, causing widespread damage. To solve this, the…

You're driving through North Texas, maybe even near Fort Worth or Thorp Spring, and you're passing through history. Right here, Addison Clark and his brother Randolph, along with their father, founded Add-Ran College in…

Acton is on State Highway 4 five miles east of Granbury in Hood County. The site was cleared in 1866, when the area was in Johnson County. Acton is the oldest known settlement in Hood County. As early as 1845 there were…

You're driving through Hood County, and right here in Thorp Springs, you're passing the birthplace of Texas Christian University. In 1873, Randolph Clark and his brother Addison, both teachers and ministers, were…

You're driving through Central Texas, not far from Granbury, and you're passing through the final chapter of a remarkable woman's life. Elizabeth Patton Crockett, the second wife of the legendary Davy Crockett, made her…

Thorp Spring is on Farm Road 4 five miles northwest of Granbury in north central Hood County. Though Pleasant Thorp settled in the area near the banks of Strouds Creek in the 1850s, Indian attacks slowed community…

You're driving through Hood County, maybe near Acton, where Dr. John Newton Doyle set up shop in the late 1860s. He'd served as a Confederate surgeon during the Civil War, but Texas called him back to civilian life. He…

The remnants of the Fort Spunky community are on Farm roads 199 and 2174 and Lake Granbury in the southeastern corner of Hood County. The settlement was originally named Barnardville. In 1849 George Barnard built one of…

Paluxy is on State Highway 51 fifteen miles southwest of Granbury in Hood County. It was in Erath County until 1866, when Hood County was carved out of the region. The Paluxy post office was established in 1858 and was…

You're driving through Thorp Spring, named for Pleasant Thorp, a blacksmith who arrived in Texas in 1840. He settled here after traveling with the Morehouse Expedition, eventually setting aside land for this town and…

You're driving through Thorp Springs, and right here is where a college got its start. In 1873, J.A. Clark and his two sons, Addison and Randolph, opened a private school called Add-Ran Christian College. Think about it…

You're driving past the site where Elizabeth Crockett, wife of the legendary Alamo hero David Crockett, lived her final years. She passed away right here on March 2nd, 1860, at the age of 74. Imagine the stories this…

You're driving past the site of The Colony, a community founded by enslaved people who came to Hood County with their owners as early as the 1850s. After emancipation, they settled here, acquired land, and built a life.…

You're driving past Comanche Peak, a landmark that's more mesa than mountain, rising over 1200 feet above sea level. For Native Americans and early pioneers, this flat-topped giant was a key point. It might have been a…

Nestled in northern Hood County, Oak Trail Shores is situated on the southwestern side of Lake Granbury, a reservoir on the Brazos River. The community is just 5 miles northwest of Granbury, the county seat. With a…

You're driving past Friendship Cemetery, established in 1877. It was designated a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2012.

You're driving past the W.M. Miller Cemetery, established in 1894. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2008.

The very existence of DeCordova is a testament to a massive feat of civil engineering just down the road: the DeCordova Bend Dam. Built for the Brazos River Authority and finished in early 1969, its purpose was to…

As you passed through the security gates to enter DeCordova, you experienced the very reason this is a city at all. For its first 30 years, DeCordova was a private development, not a town. But in the late 1990s, the…

In the late 1960s, DeCordova Bend Estates began to take shape alongside the construction of the De Cordova Bend Dam on the Brazos River. This dam was a pivotal moment, as it controlled the river's flow downstream and…

The name 'DeCordova' belongs to a giant of Texas history who likely never saw the community that bears his name. Jacob De Cordova was a land speculator and one of Texas's greatest champions after it became a state. Born…

You're driving south of Granbury, and just three miles ahead lies the final resting place of Elizabeth Crockett. She was the wife of the legendary David Crockett, hero of the Alamo. Elizabeth passed away on March 2nd,…

You're driving past Elm Flat Cemetery, a resting place established in November 1877. It began when Thomas and Elizabeth Wells buried two young sons here, near their cabin. Later, Elizabeth Wells donated land for a…

You're driving near Granbury, heading into DeCordova. This community started in the late 1960s, born from the creation of Lake Granbury. It was the very first subdivision developed on the lake, envisioned as a weekend…

You're driving through Acton, the oldest community in Hood County. It started life as 'Comanche Peak' when a post office opened way back in 1856. Just a dozen years later, the town was renamed 'Acton.' This public…

You're driving past Acton, Texas, home to the smallest state park in Texas. But this tiny park holds a giant piece of Texas history: the grave of Elizabeth P. Crockett, widow of the legendary Alamo hero, David Crockett.…

You're driving past the final resting place of Elizabeth Crockett, the wife of the legendary David Crockett. Born in North Carolina in 1788, she married David in Tennessee in 1816. After a life that spanned the early…

You're driving through Acton, Texas, and you're passing a building that's worn a lot of hats. Built between 1866 and 1868 by the local Masons, this native stone structure was originally the Acton Lodge Hall. But look…

You're driving past Acton Methodist Church. Settlement here began in the early 1850s, with local congregations forming a union church. The Acton Methodist Church was established by 1873 and purchased land for its own…

You're driving past Acton, where a Baptist congregation was organized in 1855 by the Rev. Joseph Robinson. His successor was the Rev. James Halford, son-in-law of the famous frontiersman David Crockett. The congregation…

On a quiet patch of ground east of Granbury sits the smallest state park in Texas. It is only six thousandths of an acre, just enough room for a single family plot inside the old Acton Cemetery. The grave at its center…

The town of Glen Rose was originally named Barnard's Mill after the three-story stone gristmill constructed along the Paluxy River. The mill was sold to Tyler Calhoun Jordan of Dallas in 1871 for $65,000. Tradition…

You're driving past Long Creek Cemetery, also known as Temple Hall Cemetery. It's the last reminder of two early pioneer communities, Temple Hall and Center Mill, that thrived here in the late 1800s. The earliest…

In the fall of 2023, something special happened in Tolar. The town’s high school football team, the Rattlers, embarked on a historic playoff run that captivated the entire community. Week after week, the team defied…

In nineteen oh nine, a fire tore through Tolar. By the town's own account, when it was over, only four buildings were left. The town's own history calls it a great disaster. And when Tolar rebuilt, it rebuilt only in…

The town of Tolar exists because of a railroad that could not make up its mind. The Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway spent years pushing southwest out of Fort Worth, and its route was changed many times before…

You're driving through Hood County, maybe near Tolar or Granbury, where William L. McGaughey lived out his days. But this wasn't just any Texas rancher. McGaughey was a Confederate soldier who survived multiple…

Here is a word game for the road. Tolar, Texas, was named for a man, a friend of one of the town's leaders. But across the ocean, tolar was also money. From October eighth, nineteen ninety-one, until the euro arrived on…

You're driving through Tolar, and just off the road is Stroud Creek Cemetery. Settlers began using this land for burials back in 1883, a practice that continued for residents of Tolar. The cemetery holds community…

You're driving through Tolar, a community that owes its existence to the railroad. When the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway arrived around 1890, settlers followed. The town was named for Alf Tolar, a friend of the man…

You're driving through Tolar, and right here is the Tolar Tabernacle, built around 1897. Before air conditioning, these open-air structures were vital for hot Texas summers. Think revivals, weddings, family reunions,…

You're driving past Nubbin Ridge Cemetery, established way back in 1878. It's recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery, a quiet piece of local history.

You're driving past the site of the old Panter Branch School, which served Hood County students by 1898. This two-room schoolhouse, with two teachers for up to 42 pupils, often closed in the fall so kids could help with…

Pecan Plantation's history is rooted in aviation. The community began as a 2,200-acre development centered around a two-runway cropdusting airstrip. What's unique is that the development preserved the runways, creating…

Tolar (Tolar, TX) placed on the 3A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Noah Yanish (0.465 avg).

You're driving through Hood County, and right around here is Pecan Plantation. It wasn't always a sprawling residential community. Back in the late 1940s, this land was part of the Leonard Bend Farm. O.P. Leonard, a…

Comanche Peak's two reactors are pressurized water reactors, or PWRs, and the clever part is the plumbing: two completely separate water loops that never touch each other. The primary loop runs water through the…

Just north of Glen Rose sits the Comanche Peak nuclear power plant, and at its heart is one of the strangest facts in all of engineering. This enormous, complicated plant exists to do one humble thing: boil water into…

That big lake beside the Comanche Peak nuclear plant north of Glen Rose is there for a reason. A power plant like this needs somewhere to dump its leftover waste heat, so before the reactors ever ran, the utility dug an…

On the night of April nineteenth, two thousand twenty-five, the strongest tornado of a stormy North Texas evening came up this stretch between Bluff Dale and Tolar. It touched down along the Hood and Erath County line…

You're driving through Parker County, and right here is the heart of the Baker Community. It all started in 1854 when Josiah and Nancy Catherine 'Kate' Baker, along with their children and parents, settled this land.…

You're driving through western Hood County, near where the last Indian fight in the county went down. It was called the Battle of Lookout Point, and it happened right around here in September of <say-as…

In Texas, some towns are famous for football. Lipan is famous for basketball. The local high school, with an enrollment that barely numbers in the double digits per grade, has become a statewide basketball powerhouse.…

Here’s a fun fact about where you are right now. The town of Cresson is a geographical oddity. It sits directly on the spot where three Texas counties meet: Hood County to the west, Johnson County to the east, and…

The town of Cresson owes its existence to a 19th-century corporate showdown. In 1887, the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway laid its tracks right through here, heading for Granbury. That created a station, but not…

If you hear a high-pitched roar in the distance, it's not just the highway. Just on the edge of town is one of Cresson's most unique and modern landmarks: MotorSport Ranch. Ground broke in 1996 and the gates opened in…

Imagine Lipan on a cold January morning. Not 1932 — January eighth, 1926. Six men, not two, walked into the First National Bank of Lipan and took about three thousand dollars in cash and valuables. And they did not get…

Lipan's history as an agricultural hub is written in its soil. While cotton was its first cash crop, the town's 20th-century prosperity was built on peanuts, thanks to a specific geological advantage. You're in the…

The origin of the name Cresson is shrouded in mystery. Some speculate it might be named after John Cresson, a captain of a wagon train that once camped in the area before the Civil War. Another theory suggests it could…

You're driving past Mitchell Bend Cemetery, the final resting place for many early settlers of Hood County. The area is named for Nelson Cooney Mitchell, who was convicted of murder in 1874 during a feud with the Truett…

State Highway One Forty Four, between U.S. Highway Sixty Seven and Mitchell Bend Highway in Hood and Somervell Counties, is the Ed Shipman Memorial Highway. Ed Shipman took an old Somervell County hardscrabble farm and…

This limestone bluff was a landmark of the Comancheria, the vast empire of the Comanche Nation that stretched from Kansas to central Texas. For over 150 years, the Comanche were the dominant military power on the…

You're driving through the former Post Oak community, settled after the Civil War. It was a farming town, known for cotton and later peanuts, with churches and a school forming the heart of life. Though many left by the…

You're driving through Hood County, near Lipan. Look for the Martin Cemetery, a reminder of pioneer life. It may have begun as early as 1859 with the burial of Nathan Holt, killed in an Indian attack. The graveyard is…

You're driving through Somervell County, near Squaw Creek. It's early 1864, and a raiding party of twenty Native Americans has entered Texas. They lanced stockman Rigman Bryant to death and mortally wounded a young man…

The new relief route for U.S. Highway Three Seventy Seven around Cresson carries the name Bob Cornett Parkway. William Bob Cornett moved to Cresson in nineteen eighty three and joined the Cresson Volunteer Fire…

You're driving past the Parker-Davis House, built in 1890 by James T. Parker. Parker was a Confederate veteran who made a remarkable 42-day wagon journey from Tennessee to Texas in 1871. He farmed, taught, and served as…

You're driving past the site of the Cresson School, a building that's seen a lot of history. It started as a one-room schoolhouse west of here, then grew into a two-story frame building in 1890. That was replaced by a…

You're cruising past Walker Bend, a community named for W.J. Walker, who settled here in the 1860s. By 1884, the Walker Bend School opened its doors, serving students for over forty years until 1925. The nearby cemetery…

You're driving past the Bruce-Davis House in Cresson, a home with roots stretching back to 1889. That's when Madison Jones, a local landowner who also donated land for a school and church, platted this neighborhood. He…

You're driving past the site of the Shaw House in Weatherford. Thomas J. Shaw, a farmer, rancher, and carpenter from Tennessee, arrived here in 1854. Two years later, he built the first log room of this house. He and…

You're driving through Cresson, right where Highway 377 and 171 meet. This town owes its start to John Cresson, who led a wagon train here before the Civil War. He liked it so much, he built houses and a general store.…

In 1887 two railroads reached Cresson in the same year. The Fort Worth and Rio Grande ran from Fort Worth to Granbury, and the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe ran from Cleburne to Weatherford. The two lines crossed right…

Before the Civil War, a wagon-train captain named John Cresson camped where three future counties would meet. He liked the spot, put down roots, and built a cluster of houses and a general store that became the seed of…

Cresson holds a rare piece of geography: its city limits touch three counties at once. Hood, Johnson, and Parker counties meet almost on top of the town, a point surveyors call a tripoint. Each county line was drawn by…

You're driving through Hood County, near the old community of Bluff Dale. This is the site of Glenn Cemetery, established when Andrew Jackson Glenn donated land in 1897. The earliest grave here dates back to 1867, and…

One hundred and thirteen million years ago, this part of Texas was a shallow coastal mudflat at the edge of an ancient sea. A theropod, a meat-eating dinosaur walking upright on two legs, crossed the mud and left…

The Paluxy River cut down through the limestone here and exposed dinosaur tracks pressed into 113-million-year-old mud. You can wade out into the river in…

The dinosaur trackways preserved in the Paluxy River at Dinosaur Valley State Park can answer a question that sounds impossible: how fast was that dinosaur moving? You can actually estimate it, using nothing but the…

The dinosaur tracks that make Dinosaur Valley State Park famous are pressed into the bed of the Paluxy River, in rock that is about 113 million years old, a layer called the Glen Rose Formation, laid down in the Early…

Walk the trackways at Dinosaur Valley State Park and you will notice the tracks come in two completely different shapes, left by two completely different dinosaurs. The sharp, three-toed prints belong to a large…

Some of the tracks at Dinosaur Valley State Park come with a real lesson in ichnology, the science of reading tracks. Along the Paluxy, some long, narrow prints were once mistaken for giant human footprints walking…

You're driving past the site of Lanham Mill, a community that grew up around a grist mill and cotton gin. William Lanham settled here around 1870, and by 1877, his mill was operational. The community thrived with farms,…

You're driving past George's Creek Baptist Church. The history of the George's Creek community can be traced to two men who passed through the area on an 1841 expedition from the Republic of Texas to Santa Fe, New…

You're driving through what is now Somervell County, a place that was once the frontier home of Juana Cavasos Barnard. Born in Mexico, she was captured by Comanche Indians in 1844, near the Rio Grande. Accounts vary on…

You're driving through Somervell County, a place where history is literally etched in stone. Over 100 million years ago, dinosaurs roamed this land! Right here, along the Paluxy River, you can find some of the…

You're driving through Hood County, heading towards Glen Rose. Right here, this area was once the frontier, and Charles "Uncle Charley" Barnard was a key player. He came to Texas in the 1840s, joining his brother at a…

You're driving through Glen Rose, and right here is Oakdale Park, once known as the bluegrass capital of Texas! Back in 1972, park owners Alton and Geneva May, along with Thurman Winnett, kicked off the annual Bluegrass…

You're driving through Glen Rose, a town with roots stretching back to 1849. Charles Barnard set up a trading post near Comanche Peak, but it was his return in 1860 that really got things started. He built a mill, and…

You're driving past the Rock Church Cemetery, a burial ground for pioneers who settled this agricultural area in the 1850s. The community center was built on Jesse Caraway's land in the 1870s, and he deeded the property…

Andrew Jackson (A. J.) Hart, farmer, stock raiser, Confederate officer, and jurist, was born in Scott County, Arkansas, on May 14, 1832, the son of Meredith and Mary (Riley) Hart. The Hart family immigrated to Texas in…

You're driving past Houston Ranch. Frank R. Putnam was born on November 15, 1848 in Massachusetts. In 1879, Frank and his brother, Addison, purchased 25,000 acres on Upper Berry Creek. In 1883, the Putnams built a…

You're driving past the Denny Cemetery, a final resting place for a Texas Ranger who guarded the frontier. Alfred Denny arrived in Texas in 1853, eventually settling near here in 1867. During the Civil War, he served in…

You're driving past the site of what was once Parsons Station, a vital hub for over a century. It all started around 1854 when Amsley Parsons homesteaded here. But the real boom came in the 1880s when the railroad…

You're driving past Mineral Springs Primitive Baptist Church, founded in 1886 near Post Oak by Elder Wilson Hufner and W. L. Rogers. It was part of the massive Duffau Association, the largest Primitive Baptist group in…

Godley (Godley, TX) placed on the 4A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Tabor Anderson (0.485 avg).

You are now driving through the cradle of an entire genre of American music. This small community of Dennis was the boyhood home of Bob Wills, the undisputed 'King of Western Swing.' His family moved here when he was a…

You're driving through Dennis, a quiet little community tucked into Parker County, southwest of Weatherford. It got its start around eighteen ninety-two, when a lawyer and farmer named Judge N. M. Dennis laid out a…

If you cross the Brazos near Dennis today, you'll do it on the Farm to Market Road 1189 bridge — concrete and steel, easy to take for granted. But there has been a crossing at this bend of the river longer than there…

You're driving past the Holt House in Bluff Dale, a beautiful example of Folk Victorian architecture built around 1895. It was home to Dr. Hardy L. Holt, a Civil War veteran who later became a pioneer physician in this…

You're driving past the former home of Dennis Methodist Church, a building with a story stretching back to the late 1800s. N.M. Dennis himself moved here from Boston in the 1890s and founded the Dennis Community. This…

You're driving past the Paluxy River, where the ground beneath your feet holds a secret millions of years old. About 100 million years ago, this limestone was the mud of a prehistoric world, preserving the tracks of…

You're driving past the building that started life as a saloon back in 1896, built by A. P. Humphreys. The upstairs hosted dances and stage shows, but it became the First National Bank in 1902, serving customers like…

You're driving past the Campbell Building, constructed by T.B. Campbell and his wife Julia back in 1894 and 1895. These native limestone walls are eighteen inches thick, with hand-hewn pillars and window sills. Over the…

You're driving past the Somervell County Courthouse in Glen Rose, a beauty built in 1893 in the late Victorian style. It replaced the previous courthouse, which burned down in 1893 along with many county records.…

You're driving through Somervell County, named for Alexander Somervell, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto. He led the 1842 Somervell Expedition against Mexican invaders. This area was home to Native American tribes…

You're driving through Bluff Dale, and right here is a reminder of how vital water was to early Texas. Dug around 1887 by railroad crews building the Fort Worth and Rio Grande line, this was a crucial oasis. It started…

You're driving past Snyder Sanitarium. Hundreds of natural springs and artesian wells made Glen Rose a health resort at the turn of the century. George Paul Snyder (1878-1942), a native of California, opened a…

Glen Rose (Glen Rose, TX) placed on the 4A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Joe Randell (0.467 avg, 4 HR); Ethan Thomas (3 HR).

You're driving past Barnard's Mill, built in 1860. Charles and George Barnard constructed this grist mill like a fortress, complete with gun ports and three-foot thick walls, to defend against Indian attacks. For years,…

Bluff Dale is not where it started. Settlers from Ellijay, Georgia, and other Southern towns came to the Paluxy River in the late eighteen sixties and settled near artesian wells. They called the place Bluff Spring. A…

You're driving past the resting place of Colonel Alfred G. Cooper, a man who served Texas and the nation through multiple conflicts. Born in Tennessee in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1817</say-as>, Cooper…

You're driving through Hiner, Parker County, a community that owes much to James J. Barnett. He settled here way back in 1857, helping newcomers find their feet with transportation and shelter. Around 1870, Wade Chapel…

You're driving through the Spring Creek community, just west of Weatherford. Settlement here kicked off in 1854, when the T.J. Shaw family arrived from Tennessee. They built their home on the south branch of Spring…

You're driving past the Bluff Dale Tabernacle, built around 1906 on land donated by the founder of Bluff Dale itself, Andrew Jackson Glenn. This place was the heart of the community for decades. Imagine it packed for…

You're driving past Bluff Dale, and if you look closely, you might see the bones of a true Texas landmark. This is the Warnock Hardware store, built in 1915 by J.F. Warnock. He'd been serving the local farmers since…

You're driving past the Goforth Graves, the burial place for four people on land settled by J.L. and Elizabeth Goforth in 1857. Their two-year-old son, John L. Goforth, Jr., was buried here in 1863 while his father…

You're driving through Bluff Dale, home to the United Methodist Church. Its roots go back to the mid-1880s, with early meetings following a camp meeting in 1881. The congregation built its first church in 1894 and moved…

The story that put Glen Rose on the map began in 1909, when a schoolboy exploring the Paluxy River found massive, three-toed footprints hardened in the stone riverbed. Locals knew about them, calling them 'giant man…

Those twin domes you might see on the horizon near Glen Rose are the containment buildings for the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant, a marvel of 20th-century engineering. Inside each dome, a process called nuclear…

During Prohibition in the 1920s and 30s, Glen Rose and the rugged hills of Somervell County earned a reputation for an industry that thrived in the shadows: moonshining. The area's geography was perfect for it. The…

If you see two massive, concrete domes rising from the horizon, you’re looking at a project that utterly transformed this small town. That’s the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant. Construction began in 1974 and was…

Glen Rose, Texas, has a rich history that began in 1849 when Charles Barnard opened a trading post near Comanche Peak. After the region became a federal Indian Reservation in 1855, Barnard moved his business to Fort…

The rusty iron bridge hanging over the Paluxy River near Bluff Dale may be the oldest bridge of its kind in the whole country. The Runyon Bridge Company out of Weatherford built it, and Erath County accepted the work in…

Just a few miles from here flows the Brazos River, the subject of one of Texas’s greatest literary works, written by a man who called this area home. John Graves lived for decades on his small, rugged farm near Glen…

As you come up on the town square you can't miss the Somervell County Courthouse - and there's a reason it's made of stone. The county's previous courthouse, finished in 1882, burned in 1883 and took the county records…

Get ready to step back in time as you approach the Bluff Dale Bridge, a true survivor from a bygone era. This isn't just any bridge; it's a tangible link to Erath County's late 19th-century history. Imagine a time…

The man who designed the old iron bridge near Bluff Dale is almost a mystery. When federal historians studied the bridge in nineteen ninety-six, they found very little about Edwin Elijah Runyon. What survives is a…