Lorena, Texas

You're driving past the site of Bruceville Methodist Church, a congregation with roots stretching back to the Civil War era. Local tradition says it began as Cedar Bridge Methodist, holding services near a cedar bridge…

Hewitt is at the intersection of Farm roads 2063 and 1695, eight miles southwest of Waco in south central McLennan County. It was established in 1882, when the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad built the section of…

You're driving past the site of Bruceville Baptist Church, a congregation with roots going back over 125 years. It started around 1870 as Salem Baptist Church in the town of Mastersville, holding services in homes and…

You're driving through Hewitt, and right here, you're passing the site of the First United Methodist Church. It all started way back in 1875, eight miles west, with Methodist settlers gathering at Stanford Chapel.…

The highway you may be driving on right now, Interstate 35, is the single most important piece of engineering in Hewitt's modern history. Think of it as a great concrete river. When it was built through here in the…

The town of Hewitt owes its existence, its location and even its name to a railroad. In 1882 the Missouri, Kansas and Texas - the Katy - pushed a line south from Hillsboro toward Taylor, straight across this stretch of…

For nearly eighty years, Hewitt was barely a village. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad put it on the map in 1882 and named it for a railroad director, George A. Hewitt. From the early 1930s clear through the…

Hewitt's community flourished on farming and agriculture, especially during the days when 'cotton was king'. This agricultural heritage has been a significant part of the town's identity and economy.

You're driving past Hewitt Baptist Church, a place that's been a cornerstone of this community for over a century. It all started on November 4th, 1894, when twenty members of a nearby church decided to form their own…

You’re driving through a town that literally owes its existence to art. By the 1960s, Edom was on the verge of becoming a ghost town. The railroad had passed it by, the school had closed, and young people were leaving.…

One of the most important things that ever happened to Edom is something that *didn't* happen. In the 1870s, railroad companies were laying tracks across Texas, creating boomtowns wherever they went. The Texas and…

As you look out at the landscape around Edom, you're seeing the product of some very specific soil science - and of a town that got named out of the book of Genesis. This settlement started in 1849 a few miles from…

As you pass through town, picture the old Edom school. For a full century it was the heart of this community. Edom's schools opened in 1866, in a settlement that had already been here since 1849 under the name Hamburg —…

You're driving through McLennan County, and right here is where Joel Bunditt Crain lived out his days. He was a sergeant-major in General Sam Houston's army during the Texas War for Independence. Imagine this: Crain was…

You're driving past the site of Cottonwood Baptist Church, a testament to faith and community for over a century. <break time="400ms"/> This congregation began in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1884</say-as>…

You’re driving through a place with a split personality, literally. Bruceville-Eddy wasn’t always one town. For 92 years, they were Bruceville and Eddy, two separate, competing towns founded about a mile apart on the…

Bruceville-Eddy might seem like just another blur of highway signs along I-35, easily missed between Waco and Temple. But it’s got a story, like every place does, and a few interesting characters have called it home.

As you cruise down Interstate 35, you're on the piece of engineering that redefined this place. Bruceville and Eddy started as two separate railroad stations in 1882 - Bruceville named for Lucien N. Bruce, who donated…

The reason you're passing a town here at all is a railroad nicknamed the Katy. In 1882 the Missouri, Kansas and Texas put stations on this stretch of prairie, and two communities formed around them. One took the name of…

You're driving through Bruceville-Eddy, a town born from a rivalry between two railroad stops. <break time="400ms"/> Back in 1882, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad laid tracks, creating two stations: Bruceville,…

You're driving past Stanford Chapel Cemetery, a place with roots stretching back to 1862 when Reverend Thomas Stanford and his family arrived in Texas. The Stanfords, along with the E. R. Barcus family, were true…

You're driving through Waco, and right here is the story of the Brazos River Transmission Electric Cooperative. Organized in February 1941 by eleven small electric co-ops, this was the very first generation and…

You're driving past the Flowers House, a reminder of the cotton boom that once fueled this area. Built in 1910, this home was designed by Roy E. Lane, a prominent architect who left his mark on Waco. Look for the…

You're driving past the Eddy Methodist Church, a place that's been serving this community for over a century. It all started back in 1868, when Methodists in the area built a simple sanctuary near a cedar log toll…

You're driving past the site of the First Baptist Church of Eddy. It started life way back in 1875 as Sage Chapel. The congregation packed up their little frame church and moved it two miles east to the new town of Eddy…

Midway High School in Waco, Texas qualified for the 2026 UIL state softball championships, reaching the state tournament (final four) in Class six A, Division One.

You're driving past Harris Creek Cemetery, a final resting place for some of the earliest settlers in this part of McLennan County. The story here starts back in the 1850s when families like the Haleys, Crains,…

You're driving through Robinson, Texas, a town that owes its existence to two brothers. In 1856, John and Levi Robinson surveyed 171 acres, dividing it into lots to encourage others to settle here. They even sponsored…

You're cruising past Zion United Church of Christ in Waco. Imagine this: it's the 1870s, and German-speaking immigrants are looking for a spiritual home. Pastor Friederich Werning starts holding services in a…

You're driving past the site of Fletcher Cemetery, a final resting place that started with a single, unmarked burial. Sample Carrigan, an early settler, was laid to rest here in 1868. The first *marked* grave belongs to…

You're driving through Mooreville, Texas, a community founded by an Irishman named Robert Moore in the 1850s. He opened a general store right here, and soon other families joined him. By 1865, Confederate veteran Edward…

You're driving past the birthplace of Roy Bedichek, a giant of Texas education and culture. Born in Illinois in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1878</say-as>, he came to Falls County as a boy and was educated…

You're driving past the site of Waco's Central Presbyterian Church, a congregation with roots stretching back to 1869. It started as the Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Waco with just 18 members. Their first…

Robinson put a player on the statewide leaderboards of the 2026 Texas high school baseball playoffs. Bryce Vasquez had 19 hits (3rd in the state), and 8 stolen bases (14th in the state).

Robinson, TX placed on the Texas high school baseball PLAYOFF HITS leaderboard for the 2026 postseason: Bryce Vasquez (19 hits, #3 in TX).

Here's a fascinating fact about Golinda: it's a city with a split personality. The town is physically sliced in two by the border between McLennan County and Falls County. This isn't just a line on a map; it has…

Take a look at a map of Golinda and you will see a line slicing it in half. That is not just a political boundary, it is the border between McLennan and Falls Counties, and it makes running this little city a genuine…

Golinda, Texas, has a history marked by a tragic event. In 1905, Sank Majors, a Black man from Golinda, was lynched by a white mob in Waco. This dark chapter in the city's past is a stark reminder of the racial tensions…

You're driving past the site of Youngblood Memorial Presbyterian Church, a testament to faith and community in Robinson. This congregation got its start way back in 1874 as Robinsonville Presbyterian Church, organized…

You're driving past the site of Harris Creek Baptist Church. Worship services once gathered in the home of Aquilla and Delila Jones. In 1872, they donated this land for a church, school, and cemetery. The congregation…

Robinson is a place where Friday night lights mean something. You can feel it in the air – the pride that swells up when the Rockets make a playoff push.

In the spring of 1955 the land southwest of Waco held two loose settlements - Woodland West and the Village of Midway - and about two hundred fifty people. In May the citizens started talking incorporation. The…

As you drive through Woodway, the massive body of water to your west, Lake Waco, is more than just a pretty view - it's a monumental piece of civil engineering. The original, smaller Lake Waco, dammed in 1930, was no…

The Carleen Bright Arboretum is named for a woman who was here before the town was. Carleen Bright was born on a farm west of Waco in the Whitehall community — ground that sits inside the city of Woodway today. She…

The town you're in has answered to three names, but it has never moved. Brothers John and Levi Robinson claimed homesteads here in the early 1850s — John came up from Demopolis, Alabama in 1852 with his family and six…

The name Woodway has a unique origin, stemming from a creative blend of existing local place names. In the early 1950s, a committee of citizens came together with the task of naming their developing community. They…

You're driving past the Isaac Jackson Teague property, a home built for a large family back in 1899. Isaac Teague, born right here in Texas, bought this land in 1893. He hired a local contractor to build this farmhouse,…

You're driving through Robinson, a town with roots stretching back to German immigrants. It all started around 1882 when Herman Staas convinced fellow Germans to settle here. By 1884, they'd formed this congregation,…

You're driving past White Hall Cemetery, the last remnant of a once-thriving farming community called White Hall. The earliest burials here date back to 1877, on land donated by Civil War veteran Captain Burl Jones…

You're driving past the former site of North Prairie School, a community born out of a petition back in 1896. Imagine this place buzzing with life! By 1910, a two-room schoolhouse was already teaching about twenty…

Right here, south of Waco, near Golinda, is where a brutal chapter of Texas history unfolded in the summer of 1905. Sank Majors, a young Black man, was accused of assaulting and stabbing a white woman. The community…

You're driving through Golinda, a community named after a priest, Ignacio Galindo, who received a land grant way back in 1833. Early settlers chose this spot on high ground, avoiding the malaria-prone Brazos River…

You're driving past the site of Providence Sanitarium, a hospital born out of necessity in Waco. Back in 1901, Dr. James W. Hale saw his patient needed care, but Waco didn't have the facilities. So, he teamed up with…

You're driving past the last vestige of the Perry community, established by pioneer settlers here in McLennan County. Look around – all that remains is this cemetery. It began with the burial of Jane Leach, a…

You're driving past The Grange in Texas. The Grange, also known as the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, was a nonpartisan national organization comprised of farmers to establish economic independence, socialization and…

You're driving through Moody, Texas, and right here is the Welborn-Bostick Home. This land has been in the same family for over 120 years, making it the oldest continuously family-owned property in Moody. James Irby…

You're driving past the site of a surprisingly exclusive club that started right here in Waco. Back on January 10, 1890, some of the city's most prominent citizens met to form a boating and fishing club. They got their…

You're driving past the site of Downsville Baptist Church, organized way back on May 6, 1894. Elder A.J. Moore and nineteen members from the Robinson Baptist Church started this congregation. By the end of that year, 39…

You're driving through Moody, Texas, and right here is Moody United Methodist Church. This congregation started way back in 1855 as a union church in the old settlement of Perry, just a couple miles northeast of here.…

Beverly Hills, Texas, a small community near Waco, holds a surprising connection to a figure whose name once echoed through American pop culture.

Just west of Beverly Hills is a massive piece of 1930s traffic engineering that shaped this entire area: the Waco Traffic Circle. They built it out in the countryside in 1933, and for a while you could drive out to it…

Look at a map of Waco and you'll see a small hole in the middle of its south side. That hole is Beverly Hills. This is an enclave — a piece of territory completely surrounded by a larger one. It didn't get that way by…

This road carries a Blue Star Memorial Highway designation, one of a string of them across Texas. The name comes from a family tradition. When someone in a household was serving in the armed forces, the family displayed…

You're driving through Central Texas, maybe near Moody, where Fred Acree started his remarkable life. Back in 1892, at just fourteen years old, he bought a bookcase full of old books and began a lifelong passion for…

You're driving through Moody, a town born from the railroad. In 1881, the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway laid track right through here, connecting Temple and Fort Worth. They named this spot Moody in honor of…

West of Moody, on the Leon River, there is a state park that exists because one woman refused to charge anybody to use her riverbank. Isabella Neff came from Virginia as a newlywed in eighteen fifty-four, a ride of…

The town of Moody is, fundamentally, an engineering project. In 1880, this was just open prairie. Then came the surveyors from the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway. Their job was a complex math problem: find the…

The governor who grew up on the Leon River just west of Moody ran on a promise not to hand out pardons, and then a prisoner sang his way out. Pat Neff's family farmed the land that is now Mother Neff State Park. He…

Before there was a Moody, there was Perry. Just a few miles from here, Perry was the original settlement, a small but established community with a post office and a few businesses. Its residents must have felt secure.…

The town of Moody is named for a Galveston cotton banker who was captured in the Civil War, wounded, and went on to build one of the big Texas fortunes. William Lewis Moody was born in Virginia in eighteen twenty-eight…

You're driving through Moody, Texas, and this town has a story tied to the railroad. Back in 1881, the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad decided to bypass the older settlement of Perry, just a couple miles north. So, a…

Moody, Texas, sitting there in McLennan County, owes its existence to two things: the railroad and the blackland prairie soil. Folks started trickling in after the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway pushed its line…

This town is not named for the man behind Moody's bond ratings, but that other Moody built something a newspaper columnist once ranked alongside a superpower. John Moody was born in eighteen sixty-eight, and he…

You're driving through Moody, and right here is the Howard House, built in 1900. Charles Howard, who arrived in Moody when the town was founded in 1881, became a successful businessman. He built this elegant home for…

You're driving past the Hill House in Moody. George Hill arrived in Texas as a boy, eventually settling in this town. After working in a local hardware store and buying it out, he had this home built for his family in…

You're driving past the Kuykendall House in Moody. In 1900, Dr. P.M. Kuykendall, a prominent physician, built this beautiful Victorian home. He ordered the plans from a St. Louis architect, and the house features…

You're driving past Naler Cemetery, a resting place that started with a family tragedy. In 1863, Joseph Naler buried his wife Polly here, on land he'd settled just 12 years earlier after migrating from Georgia. Naler…

You're driving past the Moody Cemetery, a final resting place for many of this town's early pioneers. The idea for this burial ground came about soon after Moody was founded in 1881, as folks sought a closer spot than…

The name Beverly, Texas, evokes a certain pastoral elegance, a sense of rolling hills and perhaps a quiet, tree-lined street. However, the true origin of the town's name is rooted not in a grand vision, but in a…

Koehne Park sits on the edge of Lake Waco, a place where people fish and run trails. In July of nineteen eighty-two, three teenagers, Jill Montgomery, Raylene Rice and Kenneth Franks, were drinking beer here when,…

You're driving through Waco, and right here is the site of Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church. Organized back in October of 1886, this congregation served the African-American community southeast of town. They…

You're driving through Waco, and look around at the streets. This is Castle Heights, platted in 1923 by W.T. Herrick and W.L. Wollett. It was named for Cottonland Castle and its high elevation. For six years, it was its…

You're driving past the site of a Waco castle, built on the back of King Cotton! Stone contractor John Tennant started this place in 1890, right when Waco’s cotton economy was booming. He sold it unfinished in 1906 to a…

You're driving past the historic Elite Cafe in Waco. This spot opened in 1941, but its story starts earlier, in 1919, when the first Elite Cafe opened downtown. The Colias family, Greek immigrants, took over the…

You're driving past Evergreen Cemetery, established on land given by William and Margaret Oliver back in 1860. For decades, families gathered here for camp meetings, and later, these evolved into annual reunions for…

The University High School campus on Bagby Avenue in Waco, TX is where LaDainian Tomlinson starred before his Hall of Fame career. Born in Rosebud with family roots near Marlin, Tomlinson was raised in Waco and, as a…

Mid-century burger-and-custard stand on the Waco Traffic Circle, open since 1949. The neon sign and the carhop layout are untouched roadside Americana.

You're driving through Waco, home to Congregation Rodef Sholom, which means 'pursuing peace.' This historic Jewish congregation began forming back in 1869 with the Hebrew Benevolent Association, which later bought land…

You're driving through Waco, and right here, you're passing the site of the very first church in town. Back in 1850, Reverend Joseph P. Sneed and 23 members started this Methodist congregation. They began meeting in a…

You're driving past the site of Blevins, a community that started around 1860 with the Barron family. By the 1870s, Reverend Isaac Taylor was already teaching local kids. The Blevins School opened in 1885, and by 1916,…

You're driving past Blevins Cemetery, a final resting place that tells a story of Texas grit. It began in 1875 with the burial of Amanda Ruble Taylor, who arrived here in 1855, born back when Texas was its own republic.…

You're driving past the home of Waco's oldest organization, still in continuous existence! It started as Bosque Lodge way back in 1852, and changed its name to Waco Lodge in 1856. This Masonic lodge has been devoted to…

You're driving past the site of Cedar Grove Baptist Church, a story of faith and resilience born right after emancipation. In 1865, newly freed African Americans gathered on Colonel Ruben Buhl's plantation to form their…

You're driving through Waco, and to your right stands a beautiful example of Tudor Revival architecture. This was the home of Albert Turner Clifton, a prominent Waco businessman and civic leader, built for his family in…

You're driving north of Waco, right through McLennan County. In 1896, this area was the site of one of the most spectacular publicity stunts in Texas history: the Crash at Crush. Passenger agent William George Crush of…

You're driving through what was once wild Texas frontier, a place where fortunes were sought and lives were often lost. Right here, in what is now McLennan County, Peter Ellis Bean found himself in the middle of a…

You're driving through McLennan County, Texas, the heart of oil country. Back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1935</say-as>, the oil industry here was in a real slump. To help out, Senator Tom Connally…

You're driving through McLennan County, right near where a series of important meetings happened back in the 1840s. These were the Tehuacana Creek Councils, where Texas officials tried to forge peace with numerous…

Bosqueville is four miles northwest of downtown Waco near the intersection of Farm roads 1637 and 3051 in north central McLennan County. Settlement of the area was well underway by the 1850s, and the community may have…

The firm of Torrey and Brothers traded widely with the Indians for about ten years, from John F. Torrey 's arrival in Houston in 1838 until 1848, when the Torreys sold the major trading house to George Barnard . The…

You're driving past Bell's Hill in Waco, an area that owes its name to a groundbreaking moment in 1886. That's when Joseph D. Bell drilled the city's very first artesian well right here. Soon after, the local school…

You're driving near Bosqueville, not far from Waco. Right here is where Bosque College and Seminary once stood. Chartered in 1858, it was the first coeducational college in McLennan County. It offered a wide range of…

Axtell is on Farm Road 1330 between U.S. Highway 84 and State Highway 31, eight miles northeast of Bellmead in eastern McLennan County. It was established in 1881, when the Texas and St. Louis Railway laid track from…

Downsville is on Farm Road 434 eight miles southeast of downtown Waco in southeastern McLennan County. William Woods Downs owned the land in the 1850s and used slaves to work it; after the Civil War he gave each family…

Tours, on Farm Road 3149 seventeen miles northeast of Waco in northeast McLennan County, was first called St. Martinville. A wagon train from Teutopolis, Illinois, arrived at the site on November 11, 1874, the feast day…

Windsor is at the intersection of Farm roads 3268 and 3047, near the Middle Bosque River twelve miles west of Waco in west central McLennan County. It took its name from Windsor Ranch, which was the property of Harry…

You're driving through McLennan County, and right here, in Bruceville, John M. Barcus was licensed to preach in 1880. He went on to earn the first M.A. degree from Southwestern University and served as secretary of the…

You're driving through the heart of Texas, near the Bosque River. The name itself, 'Bosque,' is Spanish for 'woods,' and it likely got its name back in 1719 from the Marqués de San Miguel de Aguayo. Some accounts even…

You're driving through Bosqueville, Texas, the birthplace of Dr. Marvin Lee Graves. Born in 1867, Graves wasn't just any doctor; he was a pioneer in Texas medicine. After earning his degree in New York City, he…

You're driving through McLennan County, and right here is the site of a Texas first! In 1965, voters approved the creation of McLennan County Junior College. The very next year, it became the first public junior college…

You're driving through McLennan County, near the Brazos River, and you're passing through what used to be Patrick. The area was first settled in the 1850s and called Garrett's Mill. A post office named Starke Grove…

You're driving through McLennan County, and right here, in the heart of Texas, Scots have been celebrating their heritage for decades. Back in 1963, the Scottish Society of Texas was formed, bringing together fifty…

Battle, once known as Battle Institute, is between State Highway 164 and Farm Road 2957 three miles northwest of Mart in eastern McLennan County. The area was settled about 1880 and named for Nicholas William Battle ,…

Elm Mott is near the intersection of Interstate Highway 35 and Farm Road 308, eight miles north of Waco in northeast central McLennan County. The area was settled shortly after the Civil War by the Christian and Long…

Harrison is on State Highway 6 some eight miles southeast of downtown Waco in eastern McLennan County. The area was part of a plantation owned by Gen. James E. Harrison during the late 1850s and 1860s. After the Civil…

Hoen (Hoehn), also known as Pate, is on Farm Road 308 about four miles northeast of Leroy in northeastern McLennan County. It was established in the late 1800s by the George Hoehn family. The community became a flag…

Rosenthal was on U.S. Highway 77 four miles south of Robinson in southern McLennan County. The area was settled in the 1870s, and a school community called Oak Grove was established on Castleman Creek. By 1880 the main…

South Bosque is on the South Bosque River just south of U.S. Highway 84, eight miles northeast of McGregor in southwest central McLennan County. Though settlers began arriving in the area in the 1850s, the South Bosque…

Koehne Park sits on the edge of Lake Waco — a place where people fish and run trails. In July of nineteen eighty-two, three teenagers were found murdered near this park: Jill Montgomery, Raylene Rice, and Kenneth…

The town of Chilton is named for a storekeeper, but the storekeeper's father helped write one of the most famous books about the American frontier. Lysias B. Chilton opened a store near here in eighteen seventy-six, and…

Chilton's first settlers came from Missouri. Five families arrived in eighteen fifty four, onto prairie and creek bottoms where, by one old newspaper account, deer, wolves and even bears still roamed. An early settler,…

In April nineteen twenty two, Falls County's first oil well came in on Deer Creek, southeast of Chilton. In nineteen twenty four, during another search for oil around Chilton, the drill brought up something else: hot…

You're driving through Chilton, Texas, a town with a pretty unusual start. It all began in 1876 when Lysias B. Chilton opened a store. But the town wasn't officially named Chilton until 1888, when the San Antonio and…

Chilton is a small town, but its Pirates have climbed to the top of Texas high school football twice, thirty-four years apart. The first state title came in nineteen seventy-two. Then came the long wait. In the fall of…

Over the Fourth of July weekend in nineteen thirty-one, somebody pulled off a safecracking in Chilton. The burglars pried open a window at the William Cameron and Company store and blew the safe open with a powder…

One of Chilton's early settlers arrived carrying a piece of the American Revolution. Billy Nelson, known around here as Uncle Billy, came from Blount County, Alabama, with a rifle his grandfather, also named Billy…

Chilton is nestled in the western part of Falls County, Texas. The community is strategically positioned with U.S. Route 77 marking its western edge, offering a direct route 20 miles north to Waco or 16 miles south to…

You're driving past Cobbs-Walker Cemetery, a quiet resting place with a surprising connection to Texas history. It began in 1853 with the death of an infant, but it also holds the stories of veterans from the Texas War…

You're driving past the site of McGregor's First Christian Church. It all started in the 1870s with just four families near Comanche Springs. They called Reverend W. L. Harrison to be their first pastor. When the…

You're driving past the McGregor Mirror, a newspaper that's been serving this town since 1904. It was founded by T.E. Streight, but the Hall family really made it their own, purchasing it in 1918 and running it for…

You're driving past McGregor, a town that owes its start to the railroad. On this day, back in 1882, lots were sold for this brand new town, advertised statewide by two major railways. It was named for Dr. Gregor…

You're driving through Waco, and right here is the site of Central Christian Church. It all started way back in 1867, with just eighteen members of the Disciples of Christ meeting in homes. By 1870, they had organized a…

You're driving through McGregor, and right here is the First Baptist Church. Its roots go way back to 1858, with the Onion Creek Baptist Church, about ten miles southwest. About thirty members from the Comanche Springs…

You're driving past the Glenn and Mary Gulledge Crain House, built in 1892. Glenn Crain, whose father was McGregor's first mayor, started selling insurance and married Mary Gulledge in 1890. They hired architect Charles…

In the eighteen nineties the most famous writer in Waco was William Cowper Brann, and his paper, the Iconoclast, reached something like a hundred thousand readers. His favorite target was Baylor University. In October…

Bonnie Parker's first crime happened here in Waco. She met a young Dallas car thief named Clyde Barrow in January of nineteen thirty, and a month later he was locked up. In March he was booked into the McLennan County…

In the nineteen twenties the Baylor and Texas A and M football game was played here in Waco, at the Cotton Palace stadium, and it had a history of fights. On the thirtieth of October, nineteen twenty six, not many…

On the seventeenth of May, twenty fifteen, bikers from around Texas gathered at the Twin Peaks restaurant on the south side of Waco for a meeting of a coalition of motorcycle clubs. Members of the Bandidos and the…

You're driving through Texas, maybe sipping on a cold one. But did you know that iconic Dr Pepper was first concocted right here in Waco, back in 1885? It all started in a drugstore, where pharmacist Charles Alderton…

You're driving through Texas, maybe not far from Waco, where Leon Jaworski got his start. This wasn't just any lawyer; this was the man who headed the Watergate special prosecution force. Right here, in the early 1970s,…

Of the 492 lynchings that occurred in Texas between 1882 and 1930, the incident that perhaps received the greatest notoriety, both statewide and nationally, was the mutilation and burning of an illiterate…

Waco liked to call itself the Athens of Texas, for its colleges and churches, but it had another nickname, Six Shooter Junction, and for almost thirty years it had something few American cities ever did: a legal…

Katy Park, Waco's old minor league ballpark, had quite a run after Babe Ruth played there. In nineteen forty seven the Waco Dons had a pitcher with a wooden leg: Monty Stratton, a former Chicago White Sox All-Star who…

When Elvis Presley was drafted and stationed at Fort Hood in nineteen fifty eight, he spent a lot of his free time here in Waco, at a house on Lasker Avenue. It belonged to Eddie Fadal, a disc jockey who had met Elvis…

On the twenty second of January, nineteen twenty seven, Baylor's basketball team left Waco by bus, in heavy rain, for a game at the University of Texas, along with team managers, yell leaders and a student reporter. In…

In December of nineteen fifty five, Waco stayed home to watch a murder trial. The case started in San Angelo that January, when a car bomb that prosecutors said was meant for a rancher named Harry Weaver killed his…

On the sixth of January, eighteen seventy one, Waco's city marshal, Laban John Hoffman, was shot in the back of the head in a barbershop, the first lawman killed in the line of duty in McLennan County. Nobody ever…

In June of two thousand three, a Baylor basketball player named Patrick Dennehy disappeared. His car turned up in Virginia with the license plates taken off. In July his teammate Carlton Dotson was arrested in Maryland,…

You're driving through Waco, Texas, the birthplace of Travis Banton, a Hollywood costume designer who defined the 'Paramount Look' during the Golden Age of cinema. Born in 1894, Banton moved to New York as a child but…

You're driving through Waco, and right here, you're passing through the history of Texas dentistry. Alexander Archer Beville arrived in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1870</say-as>, and he's credited as the…

You're driving through Waco, Texas, the birthplace of Julius Bledsoe, a baritone whose voice would make an American classic out of "Ol' Man River." Right here, in Waco, this gifted musician got his start, eventually…

You're driving through Waco, Texas, the birthplace of Benjamin Lee Boynton. Right here, in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1898</say-as>, a future football legend was born. Boynton wasn't just any player; in…

You're driving through Waco, a town that once defied the law for a good show! Gussie Oscar, a pianist and conductor, took over the Waco Auditorium in 1915. She brought stars like Houdini and Will Rogers to town, but she…

You're driving through Waco, Texas, the hometown of Eddy Shaver. Born in 1962, Eddy grew up surrounded by music, the son of legendary songwriter Billy Joe Shaver. By age thirteen, Eddy was already playing on his…

You're driving through Waco, Texas, and right here is the home of the legendary Texas Rangers. The Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum isn't just a building; it's the official state historical center dedicated to…

You're driving through Waco, Texas, the birthplace of Hank Thompson, a true innovator in country music. After serving in the Navy during World War II, Thompson returned to Texas and formed his band, the Brazos Valley…

You're driving through Waco, and right here, you're passing through the birthplace of the modern motel. Edgar Lee Torrance, born just up the road in Elk, Texas, was probably the first in the state to develop the concept…

You're driving through Texas, maybe near Waco, where George Henry Gay, Jr. was born back in 1917. He was a Navy pilot flying a torpedo bomber in the Battle of Midway. On June 4th, 1942, his squadron took off from the…

You're driving through McLennan County, and right here, in the heart of Texas, you're passing through the territory of Marvin "Red" Burton, a Texas Ranger who wasn't afraid to stand up to the Ku Klux Klan. On October…

You're driving through Central Texas, maybe near Waco, where a baseball legend got his start. Ted Lyons wasn't just any pitcher; he was a star athlete at Baylor University, earning letters in baseball, basketball, and…

You're driving through Waco, a city with roots stretching back to an ancient agricultural village of the Waco Indians. Right here, in 1849, George Erath laid out the first block of this new town. It was a gamble,…

Richard Coke, Texas governor and United States senator, son of John and Eliza (Hankins) Coke, was born near Williamsburg, Virginia, in March 1829. He entered William and Mary College in 1843 and in July 1848 was awarded…

Richard D. Evans, noted African-American civil rights attorney and first president of the Texas State Conference of Branches of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), son of Col. Tom…

Whitt L. Moreland, Medal of Honor recipient, was born in Waco, Texas, on March 7, 1930, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd W. Moreland. He entered the military service in Austin. Private First Class Moreland was an…

Vivienne Lucille Malone-Mayes, mathematician, civil rights activist, first Black woman with a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin , and first African American professor at Baylor University , was…

Tom Wilson grew up in Waco, in a church where his father directed the choir, and he went on to change rock and roll. After Fisk and Harvard he started a small jazz label, and then, as a producer at Columbia Records, he…

Baylor has kept live bears on campus for more than a century, and it started with a soldier's pet. At the Baylor and Texas A and M game in November of nineteen seventeen, played at the Cotton Palace, a truck decorated…

For years, people on Austin Avenue wondered about the light that burned late every night in the attic of the Cooper house. Madison Cooper was heir to a Waco grocery fortune, but he dressed and lived like a man with no…

Allene Jeanes was born in Waco on the nineteenth of July, nineteen oh six, and graduated from Baylor in chemistry. At a federal research lab in Illinois she worked on dextran, a substance that could extend blood plasma,…

Waco once threw one of the biggest parties in Texas. The Texas Cotton Palace opened in November of eighteen ninety four, and in January a fire destroyed it. It took until nineteen ten to open again, but when it did, it…

Baylor's old stadium had two nights nobody here forgets. In November of nineteen seventy four, Baylor trailed Texas twenty four to seven at halftime and stormed back to win thirty four to twenty four. The season before,…

Texas Guinan was born in Waco in eighteen eighty four, the oldest child of Irish immigrants who ran a grocery business, and she went to Sacred Heart Academy here, where her classmates knew her as Mamie. She worked in…

In nineteen forty five, a Black businessman named Herbert Walker, who already ran a taxi stand, opened a club in East Waco with a big dance floor, and for years it was the only place of its kind open to Black Wacoans.…

On the twenty ninth of July, nineteen seventeen, soldiers of the Army's Twenty Fourth Infantry, a Black regiment, arrived in Waco from El Paso to guard the construction of Camp MacArthur. That night, soldiers gathered…

Beside the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame is First Street Cemetery, the oldest public cemetery in Waco, dating to eighteen fifty two. It never had fences to mark its boundaries, nobody kept accurate burial records, and in…

This highway is part of the Purple Heart Trail, a symbolic trail that runs through all fifty states to honor those killed or wounded in combat while serving in the armed forces. In Texas it started with one road. In two…

On a Saturday afternoon, the twenty seventh of October, nineteen hundred, Waco police officer William Mitchell was riding home with a basket of grapes for his family. He'd been on the force six months. A man named Will…

You're driving through Waco, home to one of the world's most impressive collections of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning poetry and manuscripts. Right here, A. Joseph Armstrong, a dedicated English professor, spent…

You're driving through Texas, and right here, you're passing through a story of adventure and trade. George Barnard, a merchant from Connecticut, arrived in Texas in 1838. Just a few years later, in 1841, he joined the…

You're driving through McLennan County, and right here, you're passing near the heart of Texas Ranger history. Thomas Hudson Barron, a frontiersman who fought from the Mexican Texas period all the way through the…

You're driving through Waco, the heart of Central Texas, and right here is where Samuel Palmer Brooks shaped a university for over thirty years. Born in Georgia, he came to Johnson County as a boy and eventually took…

You're driving through Central Texas, and right here in Waco, a transportation giant got its start. In 1925, William W. Callan, Sr., fired up a single Model-T truck, founding Central Forwarding and Warehouse Company.…

You're driving through Waco, the hometown of Mary Evans Horne Coke, the First Lady of Texas. When she was just fifteen, she met Richard Coke, who was so smitten by her foot and ankle that he declared he would marry her.…

You're driving near Waco, Texas, where a Confederate regiment was organized in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1862</say-as>. Jouett Harbert Davenport, a local livestock raiser, was elected major of this unit,…

You're driving through Waco, Texas, a city that owes a debt to Mervyn Bathurst Davis. He arrived here in 1873, but Davis wasn't just a journalist; he was a passionate conservationist. In 1881, right here in Waco, he…

You're driving through the heart of Texas, and right here, you're passing through Waco. But did you know this city owes its very existence to a pioneering land agent and colonizer named Jacob Raphael De Cordova? Back in…

You're driving through Waco, and right here is a place that remembers Kate Harrison Friend, known to many as Miss Kate. By age thirteen, she'd read all of Shakespeare! She founded the Waco Shakespeare Club in 1899, and…

You're driving through Central Texas, and right here in Waco, you're not far from the story of Thomas Harrison. He wasn't just any soldier; he rose to lead Terry's Texas Rangers during the Civil War. Harrison took…