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Meridian, Texas

Everything Meridian is known for

3 songs mention this city 2 artists from here

RoadyGoat plays music like this when you drive through Meridian. It's free on iPhone, and full songs play through Apple Music.

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Music in Meridian

Songs About Meridian

texas trilogy - bosque county romanace
lyle lovett
90%
texas trilogy - bosque county romanace
michael martin murphy
70%
High
Casey Donahew Band
39%
"Walkin' down Browns mountain tryin' to find my way around"

Artists From Meridian

H
Houston Marchman & The Contraband
country
H
Houston Marchman
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Meridian

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

Brazos River 43 songs Interstate 35 45 songs Chisholm Trail 8 songs

History of Meridian

A Precise Name With an Uncertain Origin RoadyGoat

You're in Meridian, Texas, so here's the meridian tangent behind the name: Meridian was likely named through Meridian Creek and Meridian Knobs, believed to lie near the ninety-eighth meridian, but the exact naming chain remains partly uncertain and may involve imperfect nineteenth-century geography. A meridian is an imaginary north-south line of longitude connecting the poles. Parallels of latitude remain parallel; meridians converge. The town-name irony is excellent: Meridian sounds mathematically exact while its own origin may preserve an approximate or mistaken location. Surveying has always combined measurement with the limits of instruments, maps, terrain, and human recordkeeping.

The Clock That Solved Longitude RoadyGoat

You're in Meridian, Texas, so here's the meridian tangent behind the name: latitude can be estimated from the height of the sun or stars, but longitude at sea requires comparing local time with time at a known reference meridian. Earth rotates fifteen degrees per hour, so the time difference reveals angular separation. The hard part was building a clock accurate through ship motion, humidity, and temperature changes. John Harrison's marine timekeepers became famous solutions. Local solar noon still occurs when the sun crosses a location's meridian, which rarely matches twelve o'clock exactly because civil time zones, seasonal clock changes, longitude within a zone, and Earth's orbit all intervene.

Why Greenwich Is Zero RoadyGoat

You're in Meridian, Texas, so here's the meridian tangent behind the name: the Prime Meridian at Greenwich became the internationally adopted zero for longitude in eighteen eighty four, largely because many nautical charts already used it. It was a political and practical standard, not a natural line etched into Earth. Longitude measures angle east or west from that reference. The International Date Line lies roughly opposite but zigzags so countries and island groups are not casually split between calendar days. Time zones zigzag for the same reason: governments and commerce prefer shared clock time within political regions over perfectly straight slices of longitude.

English

1568

The first English in Texas, according to an early written account, were not settlers, but three seamen set ashore by John Hawkins in Mexico in the sixteenth century near Tampico, after a battle with the Spanish at Veracruz on Hawkins' third expedition to the Indies. The three seamen, David Ingram, Richard Twide, and Richard Browne, allegedly walked across lower Texas on their way north in 1568, and Ingram's brief account was included by the younger Richard Hakluyt in his publication in 1589 of The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation (though Hakluyt's doubts about the authenticity of the story caused its omission from subsequent editions). Scattered English farmers and businessmen may have settled in Texas by 1800. At least six Englishmen were awarded empresario contracts in the 1820s, though none was successful in bringing in families; in the 1830s attempts at colonization began on a much larger scale, though again with limited success. Beales's Rio Grande colony included a few English families, and the contract granted by the Republic of Texas to the Peters colony in 1841 eventually resulted in the scattered settlement of large areas in North Texas, covering parts of twenty-six future counties. William Kennedy failed to fulfill a contract to bring 600 families to Texas, but he did attract a good deal of attention with his book, Texas: The Rise, Progress, and Prospects of the Republic of Texas (1841); William Bollaert , who published some of his own accounts of traveling in Texas in English magazines, was attracted to the new republic by Kennedy's book. A later colonization attempt was made in Bosque County in 1850 ( see COLONY OF KENT ). Ranching and land-investment interests in the Panhandle undoubtedly reflected the greatest intercourse between England and Texas, especially in the boom years of 1880–87. By the end of 1886 the English had invested about $25 million in western ranches and directly controlled more than twenty million acres of Panhandle land. The largest investor, the Capitol Freehold Land and Investment Company , showed nominal capital of £1,532,226 in 1885. Concerned that Texas lands were becoming monopolized by foreign control, many Texans sought protection from the large corporations. In 1891 Governor James S. Hogg approved the Alien Land Law , which prohibited aliens from holding lands unless they became United States citizens. Even though the law was later changed and did not prohibit land ownership by alien corporations, British investments declined in the following decades. The benefits that British investors and managers conferred upon the land and economy of Texas are not easily measured. They helped to introduce barbed wire , steel windmills, deep wells, and better breeds of cattle into the northwest part of the state, and they also made attempts to attract more settlers. The considerable English influence upon the diplomacy and laws of Texas during its years as a republic resulted in several treaties and mediations ( see ANGLO-TEXAN CONVENTION OF 1840 , DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS OF THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS , and LAW ). English culture in Texas through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, mostly mediated by the settlement of Anglo-Americans, became so pervasive that it is difficult to isolate various contributions. In the twentieth century the largest influx of English into the country occurred when soldiers returning home after World War II were accompanied by their English brides. In 1953 the Anglo-Texan Society was formed in London to foster the establishment of closer cultural ties; Graham Greene, the British novelist, served as the first president. In the latter part of the twentieth century, Renaissance festivals and the Texas Folklife Festival in San Antonio celebrated English culture. The 1990 census listed 2,024,001 persons of English descent in the state of Texas.

Tsha Handbook →

Rock Springs, TX (Bosque County)

1878

Rock Springs, also known as the Colony, is located on Farm Road 1637 in south central Bosque County near the McLennancounty line. It was founded by James B. Sadler, a former slave from Tennessee who was brought to Bosque County shortly after the Civil War . A self-educated teacher and preacher, he founded a church, a school, and a lodge on part of the 545 acres he purchased in 1878. The church, erected in 1890, was the focal point of one of the first free African-American communities in the state. The church was originally a one-room structure, thirty by twenty-one feet, overlooking a spring which runs through the Sadler property. It had a steeple with a huge bell that could be heard throughout the area. In the late 1980s the church still stood in its original form, except that it had lost its steeple, and a choir room had been added. A cemetery located near the church contained the graves of many of the founding pioneers of the Rock Springs settlement. An annual homecoming, organized in 1950, was celebrated on each first Sunday in November. At this celebration, funds were provided for the continual upkeep of the church property and cemetery. The church was the only structure in the community listed on maps in the late 1980s. The Colony was the only African-American community in Bosque County.

Tsha Handbook →

Nelson, General Alison

1850

(1822-1862) Soldier, statesman and Indian fighter. In his native Georgia, a legislator and mayor of city of Atlanta. General in Cuban liberation forces, 1850. On reaching Texas 1856, joined state troops fighting Indians. Elected 1859 to State Legislature; served as delegate to 1861 Texas Secession Convention. In the Civil War raised, trained and led 10th Regiment Texas Infantry. Sent into defense of Arkansas, repulsed Federal assault on Devall's Bluff, June 1862. Died of illness in camp near Austin, Ark., October 7, 1862. (1964)

Historical Marker →

Nelson, Allison

1862

Allison Nelson, legislator and Confederate army officer, was born on March 11, 1822, in Fulton County, Georgia. During the Mexican War he recruited and led a volunteer company. He was trained as a lawyer and elected in 1848 to the Georgia legislature, where he served one term. He also served as mayor of Atlanta in 1855. During the Cuban war for independence Nelson served as a brigadier general under Gen. Narciso López. Nelson was in Kansas during the "border troubles" but moved to Meridian, Texas, in 1856. He also owned a house in Waco. For the next four years he was engaged in Indian affairs. He served under Lawrence S. Ross as an agent but also distinguished himself as an Indian fighter with a captain's commission from Governor Hardin R. Runnels . Nelson was elected to the state legislature in 1859 and to the Secession Convention in 1861. At the outbreak of the Civil War he raised and was elected to command the Tenth Texas Infantry regiment, which saw early service in Arkansas under Gen. Thomas C. Hindman. On the recommendation of Gen. Theophilus H. Holmes Nelson was promoted to brigadier general, to rank from September 12, 1862, and was assigned to the command of the Second Division of Holmes's army in Arkansas, which consisted of his own and George M. Flournoy 's brigades. Nelson fell ill of typhoid, or "camp fever," on September 27, however, and died near Austin, Arkansas, on October 7, 1862. "He is an irreplaceable loss to me," wrote General Holmes. Nelson was buried in Little Rock. Camp Nelson, near Austin, Arkansas, was named in his honor. He was survived by a widow and three children.

Tsha Handbook →

Bosque County

1841

Named for the Bosque (Spanish for "woods") River. The territory now part of this county was traversed in 1841 by the Texan-Santa Fe Expedition. Maj. George B. Erath, noted surveyor and soldier, explored the region prior to its settlement. The first colonists established homes in 1850-51. Among the national groups who immigrated here were the English (at Kent), Norwegians (at Norse and elsewhere), and the Germans (in eastern part of county). Formally created and organized in 1854, Bosque county has traditionally had farming-ranching economy. The Chisholm cattle trail crossed the area in the 1870s. Erected by the State of Texas - 1973

Historical Marker →

Lomax, John A.

Only a log kitchen now marks the homesite of John Lomax, one of the foremost collectors of American folksongs. Here, on part of the Chisholm Trail, young Lomax heard cowboys crooning and yodeling to restless herds; Negro servants taught him jig tunes, chants, work songs, and calls; and on winter nights his family sang songs and swapped stories around a blazing fire. Lomax began to write down this music while still a boy; and when he left Bosque County at age 20, he carried with him a roll of cowboy ballads -- the nucleus of his lifelong work. (1970)

Historical Marker →

Things to Do in Meridian

historical 10.8 mi away
Murder of the Disk Plow Inventor

Young Ole Ringness grew up on a Norse farm near Clifton watching mud cup inside a wagon wheel. That observation inspired the disk plow and disk harrow. In 1872…
historical 10.9 mi away
The 11000-Year-Old Shaman Burial

In 1970 archaeologists excavated a limestone overhang along the Bosque River near Clifton and found something extraordinary. The 11000-year-old remains of a…
nature 24.3 mi away
Dinosaur Valley State Park

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…
historical 10.7 mi away
Norwegian Capital of Texas

In 1854 a band of eighteen Norwegian immigrants led by Cleng Peerson settled in the hills west of Clifton. They built homes from native limestone because rock…
historical 10.8 mi away
The Father of Norwegian Immigration

Cleng Peerson is buried near Clifton in the tiny Norse community he helped found. Known as the Father of Norwegian Immigration to America he first scouted New…
quirky 10.8 mi away
The Day Clifton Out-Snowed the Panhandle

On December 21 1929 a weather station near Clifton recorded 24 inches of snowfall in a single day. That is the all-time daily snowfall record for the entire…
quirky 10.7 mi away
The Limestone Homesteads of Norse

The Norwegian settlers near Clifton built everything from native limestone because trees were scarce on the Bosque County prairie. About 40 of these hand-cut…
quirky 10.8 mi away
Largest Norwegian Collection in the South

The Bosque Museum in downtown Clifton houses the largest repository of Norwegian artifacts in the entire South and Southwest. Spinning wheels rosemaling…

Everything Near Meridian

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

  • A Precise Name With an Uncertain Origin

    You're in Meridian, Texas, so here's the meridian tangent behind the name: Meridian was likely named through Meridian Creek and Meridian Knobs, believed to lie near the ninety-eighth meridian, but the exact naming chain…

  • The Clock That Solved Longitude

    You're in Meridian, Texas, so here's the meridian tangent behind the name: latitude can be estimated from the height of the sun or stars, but longitude at sea requires comparing local time with time at a known reference…

  • Why Greenwich Is Zero

    You're in Meridian, Texas, so here's the meridian tangent behind the name: the Prime Meridian at Greenwich became the internationally adopted zero for longitude in eighteen eighty four, largely because many nautical…

  • The Ninety-Eighth Meridian Divide

    You're in Meridian, Texas, so here's the meridian tangent behind the name: the ninety-eighth meridian is often used as an approximate transition between the wetter eastern United States and the drier Great Plains. It is…

  • North Is More Than One Direction

    You're in Meridian, Texas, so here's the meridian tangent behind the name: true north points along Earth's surface toward the geographic North Pole. Magnetic north follows the planet's changing magnetic field and points…

  • Star Instruments and Other Meridians

    You're in Meridian, Texas, so here's the meridian tangent behind the name: astronomers once used meridian circles, precisely aligned telescopes that measured when stars crossed the local north-south line, helping…

  • Throw It, Then Outrun Everybody

    In the spring of nineteen seventy-six, a senior from Meridian High, a small Class B school, went to the Texas state high school track meet and put on a one-man show. Frank Pollard Junior won the discus, with a throw of…

  • First Car Ride, First Airplane, One Day

    One of Texas's best-known folk painters had a big day in Meridian. Clara McDonald Williamson was born up the road in Iredell in eighteen seventy-five, and she did not start painting until she was sixty-eight. Most of…

  • Nelson, General Alison · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    (1822-1862) Soldier, statesman and Indian fighter. In his native Georgia, a legislator and mayor of city of Atlanta. General in Cuban liberation forces, 1850. On reaching Texas 1856, joined state troops fighting…

  • Bosque County Courthouse · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Bosque County Courthouse in Meridian. This limestone beauty, built with rock quarried from the surrounding hills, is the county's fourth courthouse. Imagine, the very first one back in 1854 was…

  • Martha Mabray Randal · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the final resting place of Martha Mabray Randal. Born in 1852, she was the daughter of J. N. Mabray, a key figure in organizing Bosque County and its first clerk. Martha married Thomas J. Randal, and…

  • First Baptist Church of Meridian · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the First Baptist Church of Meridian. Missionaries established it on March 13, 1859, with ten local residents. The congregation met in various community buildings until constructing their…

Show all 152 nearby places
  • St. James Episcopal Church · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of St. James Episcopal Church, founded in 1913. The Lumpkin family donated the land, and the church prospered for decades before membership declined. The Diocese donated the deconsecrated…

  • Nelson, Allison · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Allison Nelson, legislator and Confederate army officer, was born on March 11, 1822, in Fulton County, Georgia. During the Mexican War he recruited and led a volunteer company. He was trained as a lawyer and elected in…

  • Lumpkin-Woodruff House · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Lumpkin-Woodruff House, a beautiful example of Eastlake architecture built in 1898. It was home to Dr. James J. Lumpkin, who arrived in Meridian in 1878 and quickly became a prominent doctor,…

  • Alexander, W. J. D. · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Bosque County, not far from Meridian, where Dr. W. J. D. Alexander made his home before the Civil War. When Texas called for men to defend the frontier against Indian incursions in 1862,…

  • Meridian State Park · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Bosque County, not far from Meridian. Right here is Meridian State Park, a place built by veterans of World War I. From 1933 to 1934, Civilian Conservation Corps Company 1827 worked tirelessly to…

  • Meridian, TX · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Meridian, the county seat of Bosque County. This town owes its existence to a legislative act back in 1854. Commissioners were tasked with finding a central spot for the county seat, and a…

  • Helton, Joseph Knowles · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Bosque County, near Meridian, where Joseph Knowles Helton made his home. Helton was a farmer, lawyer, and judge who served in the Fourteenth Texas Legislature from 1874 to 1875. He represented a…

  • Meridian Junior College · 0.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Meridian, Texas, a town that once hosted its own junior college. It started in 1907 as the Meridian Training School, founded by a Methodist pastor who wanted to educate ministers and their…

  • Bosque County · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker

    Named for the Bosque (Spanish for "woods") River. The territory now part of this county was traversed in 1841 by the Texan-Santa Fe Expedition. Maj. George B. Erath, noted surveyor and soldier, explored the region prior…

  • The Boys Who Built a Park · 0.8 mi

    Just outside of town lies Meridian State Park, a beautiful oasis built from hardship and hope. During the Great Depression, the men of Civilian Conservation Corps Company 1827 arrived here — and they weren't kids. This…

  • The Courthouse That Wouldn't Quit · 0.8 mi

    The magnificent limestone courthouse in the center of Meridian is more than just a beautiful building; it's a survivor. Being a county seat on the Texas frontier was a tough business, and Meridian’s early courthouses…

  • Engineering a Lake by Hand · 0.8 mi

    The serene lake at Meridian State Park isn’t a natural feature; it’s an impressive feat of 1930s civil engineering, built almost entirely by hand. When the Civilian Conservation Corps arrived, their primary challenge…

  • English · 1.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    The first English in Texas, according to an early written account, were not settlers, but three seamen set ashore by John Hawkins in Mexico in the sixteenth century near Tampico, after a battle with the Spanish at…

  • Rock Springs, TX (Bosque County) · 1.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Rock Springs, also known as the Colony, is located on Farm Road 1637 in south central Bosque County near the McLennancounty line. It was founded by James B. Sadler, a former slave from Tennessee who was brought to…

  • Giddings-Clark Election Contest · 1.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Texas during Reconstruction, a time when the right to vote was fiercely contested. Back in 1871, a congressional election in the Third District became a battleground. Democrat Dewitt Clinton…

  • Peerson, Cleng · 1.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Bosque County, Texas, and right here is the final resting place of a man who basically paved the way for Norwegians in America. Cleng Peerson, born in Norway in 1782, was a Quaker who championed…

  • Ringness, Ole · 1.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Bosque County, a place that inspired a Texas invention that changed farming forever. Ole Ringness, a Norwegian immigrant who settled west of Clifton, noticed something odd about his wagon wheel.…

  • Willingham, Foy Lopez [Foy Willing] · 1.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Bosque County, Texas, the birthplace of Foy Lopez Willingham, better known as Foy Willing. Born in 1914, Willing became a star during the singing cowboy craze. He led the popular band, the Riders…

  • Kimball, TX · 1.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Kimball was near State Highway 174 twenty miles northeast of Meridian and forty-six miles north of Waco in northeastern Bosque County. The Colony of Kent , an abortive attempt by a British firm to create a settlement,…

  • Norse, TX · 1.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Norse is on Farm Road 182 forty miles west of Waco in southwestern Bosque County. Norwegians had arrived in East Texas by 1845, but in 1853 the malaria then prevalent in Henderson and Kaufman counties forced them to…

  • Norwegians · 1.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through a part of Texas where the old world meets the new. Back in 1841, Johannes Nordboe, already in his seventies, was the first known Norwegian settler, arriving near Dallas. Later, in 1845, Johan…

  • Quaestad, Carl Engebretson · 1.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Bosque County, and right here near Norse, a house still stands that was built by Carl Engebretson Quaestad. He came all the way from Norway in 1851, settling first in Kaufman County before moving…

  • Smith Bend, TX · 1.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Smith Bend, inside a bend of the Brazos River a few miles below Lake Whitney in southeastern Bosque County, was settled in 1856 by John Jackson Smith, a wealthy landowner from Scott County, Mississippi. Smith's oldest…

  • Bosque County · 1.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Bosque County, an area named for its woods, or 'bosque' in Spanish. The name comes from a tributary of the Brazos River first noted by Spanish explorer the Marqués de San Miguel de Aguayo in 1721.…

  • Sedberry, William Rush · 1.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Bosque County, the heart of Texas farm and ranch country. Right here, William Rush Sedberry built his life, becoming a successful farmer and stock raiser. He was so respected, he served as county…

  • Eulogy, TX · 1.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Eulogy is near Farm Road 56 some nine miles northeast of Walnut Springs and fifty miles northwest of Waco in northern Bosque County. Charles Walker Smith founded the settlement when he moved his store there from Brazos…

  • Spring Creek, TX (Bosque County) · 1.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Spring Creek is a community on a creek of the same name, two miles north of Farm Road 1473 and twelve miles northwest of Meridian in Bosque County. The community was on the Tim R. Hawkins survey. Settlers began to…

  • Lomax, John A. · 2.1 mi · Historical Marker

    Only a log kitchen now marks the homesite of John Lomax, one of the foremost collectors of American folksongs. Here, on part of the Chisholm Trail, young Lomax heard cowboys crooning and yodeling to restless herds;…

  • Womack - White Cemetery · 6.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Womack-White Cemetery, which began as a family plot for the Abner Pryor Womack family when they settled here in 1859. The earliest documented burial is John A. Womack in 1874. Later, the White…

  • First United Methodist Church of Morgan · 7.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Morgan, and right here is the First United Methodist Church. Organized way back in 1889, this congregation actually started by meeting in the Baptist church building! It wasn't until an 1891…

  • Morgan, TX (Bosque County) · 7.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Morgan, Texas, a town that owes its existence to the railroad. Originally called Steele's Creek, the community got its start when the Texas Central Railroad approached. The post office went up in…

  • Morgan, Texas: The Railroad Town Built Around Tower 50 · 7.3 mi

    Morgan is a small town in northern Bosque County, Texas, that grew up around the railroad. Originally called Steele's Creek, it was renamed Morgan — for Thomas Morgan, a Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway stockholder and…

  • The Railroad that Built and Broke a Town · 8.7 mi

    The highway you're on follows the ghost of Morgan's creator: the railroad. The community started in 1876 as Steele's Creek, when Louis Cole gathered a few rural neighbors under a live oak tree for a religious meeting.…

  • Engineering a Town's Lifeline · 8.7 mi

    The existence of Morgan is a direct result of a 19th-century engineering project. Before the rails, this was Steele's Creek, and it got a post office in 1879 as the Texas Central pushed northwest out of Ross Station…

  • The Mill on Steel Creek · 8.7 mi

    For a couple of decades the most impressive thing in Morgan wasn't a courthouse or a church. It was the mill. The Morgan Mill and Elevator Company was chartered up in Austin in May of 1900 — fifteen thousand dollars in…

  • Oswald Cemetery · 8.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Oswald Cemetery, which has been in use since the early 1860s. Captain Allen S. Anderson, a frontier scout, was buried here in 1864 when it was known as Clifton Graveyard. His daughter deeded the land…

  • Knudson, Knud S. · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Cranfills Gap, and right here is the site of the Knud S. Knudson farm. Knudson, a Norwegian immigrant, arrived in Bosque County in 1868 and got a state land grant for this very spot. He built a…

  • Spring Creek Cemetery · 10.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Spring Creek Cemetery near Meridian. Land here was set aside for a church, school, and this cemetery after the Civil War. Local legend says the first person buried here wasn't a settler, but a horse…

  • Site of Clifton Mill · 10.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Clifton Mill, a place that powered Texas' burgeoning frontier. It all started in 1857 with a wooden mill built by R.G. Grant, harnessing the Bosque River's flow. Just a couple years…

  • Clifton Whipple Truss Bridge · 10.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Clifton Whipple Truss Bridge, built way back in 1884. For over fifty years, this 150-foot-long iron marvel was the main way folks crossed the North Bosque River, connecting the south and west of…

  • Our Savior's Lutheran Church · 10.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Our Savior's Lutheran Church, the mother church for Norwegian settlers in Bosque County. It was organized on June 14, 1869, by those same pioneers. The original building went up between 1875 and…

  • Fulton Cemetery · 10.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Fulton Cemetery, originally known as Morgan Cemetery. The first marked burial here was Martha A. Duke in 1880. Daniel Morgan, a Civil War veteran who came to Texas in 1834, is buried here with…

  • Norwegian Capital of Texas · 10.7 mi · Things to Do

    In 1854 a band of eighteen Norwegian immigrants led by Cleng Peerson settled in the hills west of Clifton. They built homes from native limestone because rock…

  • Cureton, Captain J.J., C.S.A. · 10.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the resting place of Captain J.J. Cureton, a true Texas frontier legend. He settled near Palo Pinto County back in 1854, becoming a rancher and a lawman. When Indian raids threatened, Cureton led his…

  • Olsen, Carl Edwin [Pat] · 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Clifton, Texas, the hometown of Carl Edwin "Pat" Olsen. He was born here in 1902, went on to pitch for the New York Yankees' minor league system, and even roomed with Lou Gehrig during spring…

  • The Limestone Homesteads of Norse · 10.7 mi · Things to Do

    The Norwegian settlers near Clifton built everything from native limestone because trees were scarce on the Bosque County prairie. About 40 of these hand-cut…

  • Barry, James Buckner · 10.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Bosque County, heading past Walnut Springs. Look to your right, and you might see the ranch where James Buckner Barry lived out his days. Barry arrived in Texas all the way from North Carolina…

  • Clifton College · 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Clifton, Texas, a town that was once home to Clifton College. Organized in May of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1896</say-as> as the Lutheran College of Clifton, it opened its doors just…

  • Kell, Frank · 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving past Clifton, Texas, the birthplace of Frank Kell. Born in 1859, Kell started his career right here, working in a local store before moving into the grain business. He eventually returned to Clifton and…

  • Clifton, TX (Bosque County) · 10.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Clifton, a town named for the dramatic limestone cliffs that surround it. It all started in the winter of 1852-53 when families like the Lockers and Kell settled here. The first public buildings…

  • Clifton, TX · 10.8 mi

    Clifton, Texas, is deeply rooted in its Norwegian heritage. The city and surrounding area were settled by Norwegian immigrants in the mid-1800s, and this ethnic heritage continues to shape the community's culture and…

  • Murder of the Disk Plow Inventor · 10.8 mi · Things to Do

    Young Ole Ringness grew up on a Norse farm near Clifton watching mud cup inside a wagon wheel. That observation inspired the disk plow and disk harrow. In 1872…

  • The Day Clifton Out-Snowed the Panhandle · 10.8 mi · Things to Do

    On December 21 1929 a weather station near Clifton recorded 24 inches of snowfall in a single day. That is the all-time daily snowfall record for the entire…

  • The Father of Norwegian Immigration · 10.8 mi · Things to Do

    Cleng Peerson is buried near Clifton in the tiny Norse community he helped found. Known as the Father of Norwegian Immigration to America he first scouted New…

  • The Norse Smorgasbord Tradition · 10.8 mi · Things to Do

    Every fall since 1949 the descendants of Norwegian settlers gather at Our Saviors Lutheran Church near Clifton for the Norse Smorgasbord. Workers dress in…

  • Largest Norwegian Collection in the South · 10.8 mi · Things to Do

    The Bosque Museum in downtown Clifton houses the largest repository of Norwegian artifacts in the entire South and Southwest. Spinning wheels rosemaling…

  • Clifton College Administration Building · 10.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the old Administration Building of the Lutheran College of Clifton. This grand structure, built in 1923, was the heart of the school for over thirty years. Imagine students and faculty walking these…

  • Cureton, Calvin Maples · 10.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Bosque County, not far from where Calvin Maples Cureton was born in 1874. He wasn't just any Texan; he rose from ranching and editing a magazine to serving in the Texas legislature. But his…

  • The Day the Whistle Died · 10.9 mi

    Imagine a town where nearly every family depends on one company. For Walnut Springs, that was the railroad. When the Texas Central pushed its line through here in 1880 and '81, the town became headquarters for the…

  • The 11000-Year-Old Shaman Burial · 10.9 mi · Things to Do

    In 1970 archaeologists excavated a limestone overhang along the Bosque River near Clifton and found something extraordinary. The 11000-year-old remains of a…

  • The Engineering of a Division Point · 10.9 mi

    The rise of Walnut Springs wasn't an accident, it was a decision made on a railroad map. The Texas Central Railroad bought much of the land that became this town in October 1880 and built its line through in 1880 and…

  • Fairview Baptist Church and Cemetery · 10.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Fairview Baptist Church, founded in 1889. While the church itself has been a community hub for over 125 years, it also has a wilder past. Infamous outlaw Belle Starr is rumored to have…

  • The Christmas Eve Fire of 1906 · 10.9 mi · Things to Do

    On December 23 1906 a fire ripped through Cliftons business district destroying a large portion of the commercial buildings. The town rebuilt but the disaster…

  • The Limestone Opera House · 10.9 mi

    Walnut Springs got its name from a spring ringed with walnut trees, and it got its boom from a railroad's toolbox. In 1880 and 1881 the Texas Central Railroad made this town the headquarters of its divisional machine…

  • Clifton, Texas - Founding · 10.9 mi · Historical Marker

    Clifton was founded in the winter of 1852-1853, when the families of Frank Kell, Joseph A. Kemp, Samuel and Monroe Locker, and T. A. McSpadden settled in the vicinity. The town was named Cliff Town after the surrounding…

  • Graves-Payne House · 10.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Kopperl, Bosque County, and you might just miss this old stone house. Look for the Graves-Payne House, built in 1876. That date is carved right into a limestone brick in the fireplace! The Aaron…

  • Olson, Joseph · 11.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of a log cabin, built by Joseph Olson in 1866. Olson and his family had immigrated to Texas from Norway just eight years earlier. They lived in this cabin, their first permanent home in the…

  • Clifton Lutheran College · 11.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Clifton Lutheran College, a testament to Norwegian heritage and education in Texas. Organized in May of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1896</say-as>, this school began as a high…

  • The Norwegian Who Scouted America · 11.2 mi

    Farm to Market Road Two Nineteen, between Clifton and Cranfills Gap, has carried the name Cleng Peerson Memorial Highway since October twentieth, nineteen seventy five. Peerson is remembered as the Father of Norwegian…

  • The Bosque River Floods · 11.3 mi · Things to Do

    The Bosque River runs through Clifton over impermeable bedrock that turns even moderate rains into serious floods. Documentary records going back to the 1900s…

  • Jenson, Jens · 11.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Jens Jenson house, a home built by Norwegian immigrants right here in Bosque County. Jens arrived with his parents in 1854, later serving in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. After…

  • St. Olaf Lutheran Congregation (The Rock Church) · 11.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Rock Church, a testament to Norwegian grit and stonecraft. Built by the Mickelson brothers in 1886, it started with a simple dirt floor and kegs for pews. Imagine that! This stone beauty served…

  • Norse Seventh Day Adventist Church · 11.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Norse, a community founded by Norwegian immigrants in the 1850s. Look for the Norse Seventh Day Adventist Church, organized in 1880 after Ole T. Nystel, who survived a Comanche capture at age 14,…

  • Cedron Cemetery and School · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through what used to be Cedron, a once-thriving community in northeastern Bosque County. Settlers arrived in the 1850s, drawn by the fertile land along Cedron Creek. Their first project? A schoolhouse,…

  • The Church Built by Hand · 11.9 mi

    Just a few miles from town stands a simple stone building that tells a powerful story of faith and determination. It's St. Olaf's Kirke, better known as the Old Rock Church. Built between 1884 and 1886, this church was…

  • When the Whole Town Moved a Mile · 11.9 mi

    Imagine having to move your entire business district. That's close to what happened here. The original village of Clifton - Old Town - sat down in the valley near the Bosque River. In 1880 the Gulf, Colorado and Santa…

  • The Hospital That Heals with Art · 11.9 mi

    One of the most important buildings in Clifton today used to be a place of learning. The elegant three-story building that houses the Bosque Arts Center was built in 1923 as the administration building of Clifton…

  • The Dam That Powered a Town · 11.9 mi

    As you cross the Bosque River, imagine a time before the statewide power grid. In the early 1900s, if a town wanted electricity, it usually had to make its own - and here in Clifton, the machine to do it was already…

  • Clifton, TX · 11.9 mi

    On December 21, 1929, a weather station near Clifton recorded 24 inches of snowfall, which is the greatest daily snowfall ever recorded anywhere in Texas. This event stands out as a remarkable weather occurrence in the…

  • Union Hill School · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Union Hill School, one of many country schools that educated Bosque County's early settlers. Classes here began even before 1879. A two-room schoolhouse went up across the road in…

  • The Father of Norwegian Immigration · 12.4 mi

    Just a few miles from here, in the quiet Norse Cemetery, lies a man who changed the course of two nations. His name is Cleng Peerson. In Norway, he is a household name, remembered as the 'Father of Norwegian Immigration…

  • The Church Built of Faith and Limestone · 12.4 mi

    Just outside of town stands the building that defines Cranfills Gap: St. Olaf Kirke, known to everyone as The Rock Church. Built in 1886, it’s more than just a beautiful old building; it’s a testament to the community…

  • The Town That Moved for a Ghost Train · 12.4 mi

    The place where you're driving through Cranfills Gap isn't where the town started. The first settlement sat back in the gap itself, and the name goes back to George Eaton Cranfill, who settled near the site by 1851. So…

  • A Fish Story That Draws Thousands · 12.4 mi

    Every year, on the first Saturday in December, something remarkable happens in this tiny town. Cranfills Gap, population around 300, swells to a crowd of thousands. They come for one reason: lutefisk. It’s a traditional…

  • Engineering the Rock Church · 12.4 mi

    The St. Olaf Rock Church isn't just a historic landmark; it's a marvel of vernacular engineering and materials science. When the Norwegian settlers decided to build it in the 1880s, they had no architects or modern…

  • Cranfills Gap, TX · 12.4 mi

    Cranfills Gap's history is deeply rooted in Norwegian heritage. The city was founded by Norwegian emigrants, and many residents today can trace their lineage back to these founders. The town reached its peak population…

  • Steiner Baptist Church · 12.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Steiner Baptist Church, a testament to resilience! It started in 1891 as Fowler Baptist Church. After a fire in 1907 destroyed their first building, they rebuilt, only to be renamed…

  • The Bertelsen House · 12.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Bertelsen House, a testament to Norwegian settlement here in Cranfills Gap. The stone part of this home went up in the 1880s for Andres Johnson, likely built by Andrew Mickelson. Then, Bertel and…

  • Norwegian Settlements in Bosque County · 12.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Bosque County, the heart of Texas' largest Norwegian settlement. Back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1854</say-as>, Ole Canuteson arrived, finding this landscape of woods, hills, and…

  • She Started Painting at Sixty-Eight · 13.3 mi

    A woman born in Iredell did not start painting until she was sixty-eight. Her name was Clara McDonald Williamson, born here in eighteen seventy-five. As a girl she went to school only when the chores allowed. Back in…

  • Two moves in twelve months · 13.3 mi

    You're in the second version of Iredell. Ward Keeler and Ranse Walker settled out here in the late 1850s and named the place for Keeler's son, Ire. The original townsite sat near the Walker homestead. Then in 1880 the…

  • Engineering a Town's Future · 13.3 mi

    The railroad tracks you see in Iredell represent a massive nineteenth-century engineering project that created the town as it stands. The Texas Central Railway was chartered on the 30th of May, 1879, to run from Ross…

  • Follow the Cows Home · 13.3 mi

    Out on this frontier, a settler named Peter Cartwright Johnson and his ten-year-old son made a run to Meridian, to the mill and for supplies. On the way home, driving oxen near a hill the old accounts call Johnson's…

  • Ninety-One to Ninety · 13.3 mi

    Iredell's six-man football team once won a playoff game ninety-one to ninety. It happened on Friday night, November twenty-second, twenty twenty-four, in the area round, against the eighth-ranked Strawn Greyhounds, a…

  • Ire, Plus a Dell · 13.3 mi

    Iredell was named for Ire Keeler, the son of an early settler named Ward Keeler. One telling says the dell was added just to make the name sound nicer, as in The Farmer in the Dell. That old ring game has a longer road…

  • Iredell First United Methodist Church · 13.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Iredell's First United Methodist Church. Back in 1869, Methodists here started worshipping at the Hester Schoolhouse, sharing the space with Baptists. Pastor Peter Gravis led the early…

  • Riverside Cemetery · 13.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Riverside Cemetery, the final resting place for generations of Iredell citizens. Local stories say Ward Keeler, a New Yorker who arrived around 1870, donated the land for this cemetery and the church…

  • Peerson, Cleng · 13.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Bosque County, the heart of a large Norwegian settlement. And you owe it all to one man: Cleng Peerson. Called the 'Father of Norwegian Immigration to America,' Peerson first came to the U.S. from…

  • Colony of Kent · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Bosque County, near what is now Kopperl, where a grand experiment in British colonization unfolded. In 1850, the Colony of Kent was founded with visions of becoming a manufacturing hub and a…

  • Allison, Alvin Ray · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Kopperl, Texas, a town that's home to Alvin Ray Allison. Born here in 1907, Allison's life took him from West Texas to the halls of power. Despite the Great Depression interrupting his studies, he…

  • St. Olaf Lutheran Church · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of St. Olaf Lutheran Church, a community hub for Norwegian immigrants in Bosque County. Built in 1886, this "Old Rock Church" was a center for fellowship for over fifty years. By 1914, the…

  • Cranfills Gap, TX · 14.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Cranfills Gap, a town named for George Eaton Cranfill, who settled near here way back in 1851. The community really got its start in 1879 when a post office was moved into the area. Imagine, a…

  • Colwick, John and Mary · 14.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the John and Mary Colwick house, a home built with a story stretching back to Norwegian settlement in Texas. John Colwick arrived in Texas with the famous colonizer Cleng Peerson way back…

  • Election Oak · 15.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Election Oak, a witness to Bosque County's very first vote. Back on August 7th, 1854, this grand old tree served as one of three polling places. Imagine the scene: 21 votes were cast in the whole…

  • Gary Cemetery · 15.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Gary Cemetery, the final resting place for one of Bosque County's founding families. William and Rutha Gary arrived here from South Carolina in 1852, settling in what was then McLennan County.…

  • William Berry Smith · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site where William Berry Smith lived out his final years. He arrived in Texas all the way from North Carolina back in 1834, just in time to fight for Texas independence. Smith didn't stop there,…

  • What the Drought Gave Up · 16.5 mi

    In twenty eleven, Texas came off the driest twelve months it had ever recorded, and Lake Whitney dropped far enough to give up some secrets. Five sites full of Native American artifacts were reachable for the first time…

  • Fort Graham · 16.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of old Fort Graham, a frontier military post established way back on March 27, 1849. <break time="400ms"/> It was built by the Second United States Dragoons, right on top of a Waco Indian…

  • Bass Fishing in Texas · 16.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Hill County, and the waters of Lake Whitney hold a special place in Texas history. Back in the 1950s, bass fishing was just starting to catch on, boosted by new reservoirs built to combat a major…

  • Towash · 16.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past what used to be Towash, named for a Hainai Indian chief and one of the very first settlements in Hill County. In 1850, S. C. Dyer built a grist mill and carding machine here, turning Towash into a…

  • Laguna Park, TX · 16.8 mi

    Laguna Park's history is closely tied to the construction of Whitney Dam in the early 1950s. This dam project transformed the area into a recreation destination, drawing visitors to Lake Whitney. To support the growing…

  • The Graves the Lake Moved · 17.3 mi

    Highway twenty-two runs right across the top of Whitney Dam. It did not always go this way. Before the dam, the highway went through a river community called Walling Bend, where King Creek met the Brazos. The bend took…

  • Coon Creek · 17.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Coon Creek, a community that grew from the oldest settlement in this part of Bosque County. It started with Temple Spivey in 1853, but John Jackson Smith really got things going when he bought…

  • Lanes Chapel and Cemetery · 18.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Lanes Chapel, a community hub built around 1880 by John R. Lane and his sons. It started as a Methodist chapel on land donated by Joshua McCuistion, right next to a schoolhouse. The…

  • Site of Early Cattle Trail · 18.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Hill County, right where one of the great cattle trails once thundered. Often called the Chisholm Trail, though it connected with that famous route further north, this path brought thousands of…

  • Brummett Cemetery · 18.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Hamilton County, passing the Brummett Cemetery. Established around 1900, it was officially designated a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2012.

  • Taming the Brazos: The Whitney Dam · 19.0 mi

    The lake that defines Whitney is no accident of nature; it’s a massive feat of civil engineering. For the first half of the 20th century, the Brazos River was a menace, prone to devastating floods that wiped out farms…

  • The Ghost of Towash · 19.0 mi

    A few miles from here there is a town you cannot visit, because it is under the lake. It is called Towash, and it started in 1835, when a band of Ioni Indians moved from Louisiana to the east bank of the Brazos. The…

  • The House on the Cliff · 19.0 mi

    Imagine watching your backyard crack open above a seventy-five-foot drop. That is what happened at the White Bluff community on Lake Whitney. For years, a luxury home sat on a scenic bluff with a spectacular view of the…

  • Whitney, TX · 19.0 mi

    In 1922, a local druggist named D. Scarborough, also known as 'Doctor Dee,' installed a bench outside his store in Whitney. This bench quickly became a gathering spot for the town's old men, who would sit there to…

  • Baker-Lain Cemetery · 19.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Baker-Lain Cemetery, a quiet resting place for Johnson County pioneers. The story goes that the very first person buried here was a little girl who died in the 1850s, traveling through with her…

  • Huron · 19.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the rolling hills of Hill County, near Whitney. This area, once home to Fort Graham in the late 1840s, saw settlers like the Neal family establish communities. But the town you're passing through,…

  • Fort Graham Cemetery · 19.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving near Whitney, and just a few miles northwest lies Fort Graham Cemetery. This place is a direct descendant of a frontier military post, Fort Graham, established right here in 1849. The fort only lasted…

  • Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church · 19.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Hill County, near Whitney. Back in 1869, the first African-American Baptist congregations began forming right here. Three of those early churches, at Towash, Lofer's Bend, and near Aquilla, joined…

  • Prairie Valley Community · 19.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Prairie Valley, a place that started life in the shadow of the Waco Indians. Look around – this area saw some of the very first land grants in the region, including one to Dr. Levi Jones,…

  • Smith Bend-Coon Creek Cemetery · 19.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the area near Meridian, where John Jackson Smith and his wife Margaret settled in the 1850s. They founded the Smith Bend community and gave land for this cemetery after their son Burton died in…

  • Whitney · 19.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Whitney, the first railroad town in Hill County, established in 1879. Imagine folks gathered for a 'Grand Picnic' that November, bidding on lots for new businesses and homes. The town thrived, even…

  • King Memorial United Methodist Church · 19.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Whitney, and right here is the King Memorial United Methodist Church. It all started back in 1875, west of town, in a place called Pecan Grove. A circuit rider named I. M. Reeve helped the folks…

  • Nearly 1,700 readers by 1903 · 19.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Whitney Messenger, a newspaper that started publication in 1883, just four years after this railroad town was founded. Under Dan Mayes' leadership, it grew from a small four-page…

  • Whitney Messenger · 19.7 mi · Historical Marker

    This newspaper began publication in 1883, four years after the railroad town of Whitney was founded. Established by H. P. and J. O. Jones, the "Messenger" was purchased by J. T. and Dan S. Mayes in 1890. Dan Mayes, who…

  • Scrutchfield Cemetery · 19.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Scrutchfield Cemetery in Clifton. Deeded to Bosque County in 1883 by Lowry Hampton Scrutchfield, this public burial ground's first burial was likely Minnie, infant daughter of Daniel and Carolyn…

  • The Name the Ironworkers Gave Him · 19.8 mi

    The most quoted list of Texas towns in country music was written by a man who grew up in this one. Sanger Shafer was born just outside Whitney in 1934, into a gospel-singing house. Both his parents sang with the Stamps…

  • Whitney - Battle of the Benches · 19.8 mi · Historical Marker

    In 1949, the small town of Whitney, Texas, held an election that ended up in Life magazine. The issue on the ballot was whether to move some benches. For years, the cedar benches on Main Street had been the gathering…

  • Fairy Cemetery · 19.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Hamilton County, passing the site of Fairy Cemetery. It wasn't always called Fairy. Back in the 1860s, this area was known as Martin's Gap, named after a man reportedly killed by Native Americans.…

  • Martin's Gap · 19.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Hamilton County, passing Martin's Gap. This rugged spot was named for Jim Martin, a frontiersman who met his end here in the 1860s, killed by Indians. Back then, this whole county had fewer than…

  • Boesch House · 19.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Boesch House in Whitney. Edouard Boesch arrived in 1879, shipping the very first load of lumber to this brand new town. He bought the local lumberyard and soon became a leading…

  • United Methodist Church of Fairy · 19.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past United Methodist Church of Fairy. First church organized in Fairy. Chartered as "Martin's Gap Methodist Mission" on July 3, 1886, under the Rev. J. S.

  • Duncan, Thomas Elmer [Tommy] · 19.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Whitney, Texas, the birthplace of Tommy Duncan, a legend of western swing music. Born in 1911 to a poor farming family, Duncan's early life was marked by hard work and a deep appreciation for the…

  • Whitney, TX · 19.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Whitney, Texas, a town that owes its very existence to a railroad auction held way back in 1879. Imagine this: land developers selling town lots right off the back of a wagon! The Houston and…

  • Whitney Messenger · 19.9 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Whitney, Texas, a town that owes its early life in part to its own newspaper. The Whitney Messenger fired up its presses for the first time on November 2, 1883. For over a century, this paper…

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