Skip to content

Ranger, Texas

Everything Ranger is known for

1 song mention this city

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

Sign up for the free newsletter Get the iPhone app

Music in Ranger

Songs About Ranger

Desdemona
Owen Temple
49%
"Near the barrooms of Ranger, the boomtowns of the plains"

Artists From Ranger

No artists from Ranger in the database yet.

Know one? Add it →

Rivers & Roads in Song near Ranger

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

Interstate 20 13 songs Brazos River 43 songs

History of Ranger

The Camp That Named the Town RoadyGoat

You're in Ranger, Texas, so here's the ranger tangent behind the name: Texas Rangers camped nearby during the eighteen seventies, and Ranger Camp Valley preserved their presence. When the railroad arrived a few miles west in eighteen eighty, residents moved toward the tracks and carried Ranger into the permanent town name. Ranger sounds like one mysterious lawman, but it records an actual camp and a force whose members ranged across wide territories. Mounted patrols made sense where roads were poor and settlements far apart: horses carried an officer, weapons, food, and evidence across country a wagon or early automobile could not reliably cover.

One Riot, Many Rangers RoadyGoat

You're in Ranger, Texas, so here's the ranger tangent behind the name: One riot, one Ranger is a powerful slogan, not a reliable operating rule. It became linked to Ranger Bill McDonald and an illegal eighteen ninety six prizefight near El Paso. The joke is that virtually every available Ranger was involved in efforts surrounding the event, which undercuts the lone-hero version. The Lone Ranger radio and television character strengthened the image of one masked lawman solving frontier disorder through courage and moral certainty. Real Ranger history includes public service and celebrated investigations, but also violence against Mexican Americans, Indigenous peoples, labor organizers, and others. Accuracy requires achievement and abuse in the same account.

The Oil Town That Arrived Overnight RoadyGoat

You're in Ranger, Texas, so here's the ranger tangent behind the name: Ranger was a drought-struck farming community when the McClesky Number One well came in during October nineteen seventeen. Oil transformed it into a crowded boomtown of derricks, refineries, banks, workers, gamblers, speculators, improvised housing, mud, fire, disease, and violent crime. The population may have reached roughly thirty thousand before production and finance collapsed after the short boom. Law enforcement in such a place faced a classic capacity problem: population and money arrived faster than sanitation, courts, housing, streets, and police institutions could grow. Ranger's name began with a camp, then the oil boom made Rangers and other officers newly necessary.

Ranger - The Oil Boomtown

1917

In 1917, the McCleskey No. 1 well blew in near Ranger, triggering one of the most chaotic oil booms in Texas history. The town's population exploded from about 1,000 to over 30,000.

Historical Marker →

Site of J.H. McCleskey No. 1, Discovery Well of the Ranger Oil Boom

1915

The Texas and Pacific Coal Company struck oil at 1,000 feet about 10 miles east of Ranger in 1915. This event raised the hopes of area ranchers, farmers, and businessmen struggling to survive an economic slump brought on by severe drought and boll weevil-ravaged cotton fields. Oil expectations mounted then subsided when subsequent test-drillings turned up dry holes. Desperate local leaders sought out Texas and Pacific Coal Company general manager William Knox Gordon in nearby Thurber to help them continue the search for oil. Contrary to the conclusions of some geologists, Gordon believed oil lay much deeper within the earth than the depths reached by previous test drillings. Gordon agreed to drill to a depth of 3,500 feet and on July 2, 1917, contractor Warren Wagner began drilling here on J.H. McCleskey's farm. On October 17, 1917, at a depth of 3,432 feet, McCleskey Well No. 1 hit pay sand and roared in with an estimated daily flow of 1,600 barrels of oil. The well was plugged on May 18, 1920. J.H. McCleskey Well No. 1 sparked the much-heralded, wild, and prolific Ranger oil boom that gained Ranger international fame as the town whose oil wiped out critical oil shortages during World War I, allowing the Allies to "float to victory on a wave of oil." (1995)

Historical Marker →

Ranger, Desdemona, and Breckenridge Oilfields

1917

Although the Ranger, Desdemona, and Breckenridge oilfields are sometimes considered separately, they are more logically discussed together because of their geographical proximity, times of discovery, and production figures. The oil prospecting in 1890 at Abilene found neither oil nor water, and no more test holes were drilled in this general region until 1912, when test holes in Eastland County indicated oil seven miles south of Ranger. In 1915 a good producer was brought in at Strawn, ten miles east of Ranger. A 200-barrel producer was brought in near Breckenridge in October 1916, and exploration continued in the Ranger area. In 1917 William Knox Gordon was persuaded by a group of Ranger citizens to finance a deep test well near Ranger. On October 21, 1917, the second test hole blew in under good pressure at 3,431 feet. This McClesky No. 1 well, a 1,700-barrel producer, opened the Ranger boom. Within a year, Ranger's population climbed from 1,000 to 30,000, mostly men, and Ranger became a typical oil-boom town. Gordon's company, the Texas Pacific Coal Company (reorganized as the Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company), had leased most of the field, and as gusher after gusher came in, the territory was subleased at prices as high as $8,000 an acre. Independent operators and small companies fanned out from Ranger and opened such fields as the Gray-Hightower, the Parsons, the Sinclair-Earnest, and the Lake Sand. The most spectacular area was the Brewer pool, which produced more than $2 million worth of oil in 1918 and launched a frenzied drilling campaign. By 1919 eight producing horizons had been opened, and the field had produced nearly four million barrels of oil, which, because of its good quality and economic stimulus emanating from World War I , brought a top price of about $4.25 a barrel. The discoveries at Ranger stimulated exploration, and in September 1918 a 2,000-barrel discovery well blew in at 2,960 feet near Desdemona (frequently called Hog Town). Unlike Ranger, Desdemona was a small operator's field. Production reached a peak of 7,375,825 barrels in 1919, and then dropped sharply, chiefly because of overdrilling. There had been drilling in the Breckenridge area as early as 1911, but it had been unproductive. The No. 1 Chaney, coming in as a huge producer on February 4, 1918, began the boom, which swelled the population of Breckenridge from 800 to about 30,000 in a short time. Some 200 derricks rose within the town, and five years later more than 2,000 oil rigs were located in the immediate vicinity. The production at Breckenridge in 1919 was over ten million barrels and rose to a peak of 31,037,710 barrels in 1921. By means of acidization the Breckenridge field was kept as a producer, having an output of more than two million barrels in 1948. Ironically, while attention was drawn to major subsurface tectonic features during the search for petroleum, the failure of the majority who developed the fields to understand the area's geology resulted in serious consequences. Many operators, adhering to the "Rule of Capture" doctrine, bled away natural gas until petroleum flowed from the well bore. They destroyed reservoir dynamics by drilling offset wells along property lines, thus bringing a premature and expensive end to the oil game for many wildcatters, even though most of the oil was left underground. Over a thirty-year period, from 1950 to 1980, production levels gradually slumped, but in 1982 the Sun Oil Company flooded many dormant wells in the Ranger field with water from Possum Kingdom Lake, forcing remaining oil pools to rise to the surface. Though the boom days are past, the Ranger, Desdemona, and Breckenridge fields still contain many small producers; 5,601,323 barrels were produced in Stephens County alone in 1990.

Tsha Handbook →

Ranger, TX

1917

Ranger, on Interstate Highway 20 between Abilene and Fort Worth in northeastern Eastland County, derived its name from the Texas Rangers , who in the 1870s had a camp in a valley about two miles northeast of Ranger on a prong of Palo Pinto Creek. This camp would have been at the south end of the present Hagaman Lake, earlier the Watson Ranch. By 1879 the beautiful valley housed a tent city with tent churches, schools, hotel, and general store, and was known as Ranger Camp Valley. In 1880 the Texas and Pacific Railway Company laid tracks a couple of miles west of the valley. In August 1880 I. G. Searcy deeded 160 hundred and sixty acres to Texas and Pacific Railway Company. The inhabitants of Ranger Camp Valley moved to the railway and established the permanent town of Ranger. On December 27, 1880, James M. Davis was appointed postmaster of the new Ranger post office. Between 1889 and 1904 Ranger grew from a town of 350 with two doctors to 750 with five doctors, a bank, a high school, and a women's literary club. It had become a trade center for Stephens County, an important wheat-producing area to the north. As an agricultural center, Ranger was hit hard by the drought of 1917. Inspired by adversity, a few residents encouraged William Knox Gordon , vice president of the Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company, to begin testing for oil. The first well drilled, the Nannie Walker No. 1, was somewhat of a disappointment, as it first produced gas and only later blew in oil. But in October 1917 the McClesky No. 1 came in, reached a daily production of 1,700 barrels, and began a mammoth oil boom that drastically changed Ranger and Eastland County. The discovery of oil in Ranger led the oil industry to reappraise Texas as an oil-producing area and allayed fears of a nationwide oil shortage, which had been growing since 1900. In June 1919 the Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company, whose stock had skyrocketed from thirty dollars to $1,250 a share, was drilling twenty-two wells in the area. Eight refineries were open or under construction, and the city's four banks had $5 million in deposits. Later in the boom, work was begun on an eight-inch pipeline to carry oil to the Gulf Coast. Although census figures never went higher than the 16,201 recorded in 1920, Ranger may have had 30,000 residents at one time. With the arrival of the Wichita Falls and Southern Railroad, Ranger a second railway line; trains running between Fort Worth and Abilene made five daily stops in Ranger. The city was incorporated in 1919. Not all the effects of the boom were positive, however. At about the same time that oil began flowing, the drought broke, and torrential rains fell through the fall and winter, turning Main Street into a three-foot bog in which one man reported he saw a mule drown. The rains, coupled with crowded and jerry-built housing, led to an epidemic of typhoid and influenza that killed many. Pictures from the boom days show derricks sprouting up like trees throughout the town. Their proximity meant that residents could never escape the smell of oil. It also meant that when wells came in and caught fire, as they often did, they endangered the whole town. One fire, on April 6, 1919, destroyed nearly two city blocks. The boom also brought with it rapid growth in the number of gambling houses and brothels, and oilfield killings reportedly were common; many people considered Ranger to be a typical oil-boom town. By 1921, after less than two turbulent years, the boom was spent. Eastland County wells, drilled into black lime, produced remarkably at first, diminished, and stopped after relatively short lives. A number of bank failures in 1921 put a decisive end to the boom, and by the time of the next census in 1930, the population of Ranger had fallen to 6,208. During the 1920s the Ku Klux Klan grew strong in Eastland County, with Ranger as the hub of activity. In the economic unrest after the oil boom spent itself, the Klan, with its anti-black, anti-Jewish,

Tsha Handbook →

Ranger, Roaring

1917

Boom of high excitement and strategic importance. When oil demand was high during World War I, Texas Pacific Coal Company general manager W.K. Gordon, a believer in deep drilling, persuaded his company to make the venture that started Ranger's oil boom at McClesky No. 1 (1 mi. S). This blew in, October 1917, as a 1700-barrels-a-day gusher. Later gushers yielded up to 7,000 and 11,000-barrels-a-day each. Ten daily trains brought in prospectors packed in the aisles or on tops of coaches. Ranger's dozen or so houses became a city of drillers, suppliers, oil company offices. Living quarters were so scarce that not only were beds of day-tour men occupied by the graveyard-tour men, but overstuffed chairs were also rented for sleeping. Food was hard to get and prices were high. For two rainy years, Ranger was a sea of mud. A sled taxied people across streets, or a man in hip boots carried them piggyback. However, money was plentiful, and forces of vice moved in. After five murders occurred in one day, law officers arrested many criminals and expelled gamblers and vagrants. Ranger's success overshadowed its troubles. It is said to have yielded in a year twice the wealth of best years in California and Klondike gold fields. (1967)

Historical Marker →

Davenport, Overton Fletcher

1861

Overton Fletcher Davenport, farmer, stock raiser, Confederate officer, county official, and state representative, was born in Oglethorpe County, Georgia, on February 10, 1820, the son of William and Elizabeth Sydnor (Andrew) Davenport. Davenport was raised in Georgia and married Margaret Susan Roberts in that state on December 29, 1842. This couple had two sons. Around 1850 Davenport traveled to California where he mined for gold until the end of 1851. His wife died shortly before or after his return. Overton Davenport married Eliza Agnes Pennington on August 5, 1852. This couple had eight sons and three daughters. Davenport immigrated with his family to Texas in 1855, settling a ranch and homestead at Station Creek near Eagle Springs in Coryell County. Here he engaged as a farmer and stock raiser. In 1861 following the outbreak of the Civil War Overton Davenport traveled to Harris County and enlisted as a private in Company H of the Tenth Texas Infantry Regiment. He received promotion to third lieutenant in March 1862 and was transferred to Company K. Overton was with this unit when it was captured at the Battle of Arkansas Post in January 1863. He spent the spring of 1863 in the Federal prison camp at Camp Chase, Ohio, before being exchanged at City Point, Virginia, on April 29. Davenport returned to service with the Tenth Texas and received promotion to first lieutenant then captain of Company A in May and November of 1863, respectively. He was wounded at the Battle of Franklin in November 1864 and the Battle of Nashville in December 1864. His second wound was serious enough to keep him in various Confederate hospitals at the closing stages of the war. Davenport was captured at a hospital in Okolona, Mississippi, on January 10, 1865, at which point he was sent to Sandusky, Ohio, before being paroled on May 12, 1865. Davenport returned to Coryell County to resume his farming and stock raising concerns as well as serve as county commissioner from 1865 through 1866. In 1872 Davenport won election as representative for District Twenty-eight—comprised of Bell, Brown, Comanche, Coryell, Hamilton, Hays, Lampasas, San Saba, Travis, Williamson, Coleman, Concho, and McCulloch counties—to the Thirteenth Texas Legislature. In 1892 Overton and several of his relatives relocated to Eastland in Eastland County. Davenport himself stayed in Eastland briefly before resuming his ranching activities near Ranger in Eastland County. Overton Fletcher Davenport died here on June 22, 1909, and was buried at Pioneer Cemetery in Ranger. He was a Baptist.

Tsha Handbook →

Things to Do in Ranger

historical 15.3 mi away
Americas First Union Town

On Labor Day 1903 the miners of Thurber had had enough. More than 1600 men joined the United Mine Workers walked out of the mines and shut down production…
food 11.7 mi away
Mary's Cafe

Strawn's legendary chicken-fried steak and oversized burgers — Texans drive across the state for a plate. A roadside icon in tiny Palo Pinto County.
historical 15.2 mi away
The Largest Town Between Fort Worth and El Paso

At its peak around 1920 Thurber boasted a population somewhere between 8000 and 10000 people making it the largest town between Fort Worth and El Paso. It had…
quirky 15.2 mi away
The Town They Sold Piece by Piece

When Thurber died it didnt just fade away -- it was literally dismantled and sold. The company auctioned off buildings houses equipment and anything that wasnt…
historical 15.3 mi away
Twenty Nations Underground

At its peak Thurber was one of the most ethnically diverse places in all of West Texas. Nearly twenty different nationalities worked side by side in the mines…
historical 15.3 mi away
One of the First Electrified Cities in Texas

In 1895 while most of Texas still relied on kerosene lamps the coal mining town of Thurber had full electric power running 24 hours a day. The company built…
historical 15.4 mi away
The Bricks That Built Texas

When coal started declining in the early 1900s Thurber pivoted to bricks. The company fired up kilns running day and night producing millions of bricks from…
quirky 15.2 mi away
The Coal Miners Ball Club

Coal mining was brutal work so the company gave Thurber something to cheer about: baseball. The company sponsored semi-pro teams that traveled across Texas to…

Everything Near Ranger

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

  • The Camp That Named the Town

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

  • One Riot, Many Rangers

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

  • The Oil Town That Arrived Overnight

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

  • Ranger, Sheriff, or Marshal?

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

  • Tracking Before Databases

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

  • The Baseball Name and the Fire Tower

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

  • Ranger, Desdemona, and Breckenridge Oilfields · Tsha Handbook

    Although the Ranger, Desdemona, and Breckenridge oilfields are sometimes considered separately, they are more logically discussed together because of their geographical proximity, times of discovery, and production…

  • Ranger, TX · Tsha Handbook

    Ranger, on Interstate Highway 20 between Abilene and Fort Worth in northeastern Eastland County, derived its name from the Texas Rangers , who in the 1870s had a camp in a valley about two miles northeast of Ranger on a…

  • Davenport, Overton Fletcher · Tsha Handbook

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

  • Hamon, Jake Louis · Tsha Handbook

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

  • Williams, William · Tsha Handbook

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

  • Conrad Hilton's First Hotel · 0.1 mi

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

Show all 158 nearby places
  • The Roaring Ranger Gusher · 0.1 mi

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

  • Engineering the Gusher · 0.1 mi

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

  • Ranger, TX · 0.1 mi

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

  • The Main Street of America · 0.1 mi

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

  • Ranger - The Oil Boomtown · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    In 1917, the McCleskey No. 1 well blew in near Ranger, triggering one of the most chaotic oil booms in Texas history. The town's population exploded from about 1,000 to over 30,000.

  • Ranger, Roaring · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker

    Boom of high excitement and strategic importance. When oil demand was high during World War I, Texas Pacific Coal Company general manager W.K. Gordon, a believer in deep drilling, persuaded his company to make the…

  • First Oil Well Drilled in Eastland County · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Ranger Municipal Airport · 1.2 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Site of J.H. McCleskey No. 1, Discovery Well of the Ranger Oil Boom · 1.6 mi · Historical Marker

    The Texas and Pacific Coal Company struck oil at 1,000 feet about 10 miles east of Ranger in 1915. This event raised the hopes of area ranchers, farmers, and businessmen struggling to survive an economic slump brought…

  • Bullock Cemetery · 3.2 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Merriman Cemetery · 3.3 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Merriman Baptist Church · 3.5 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • The Wartime Highway Name That Waited Sixty Years · 5.0 mi

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

  • Forty Two Years Behind the Badge · 7.3 mi

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

  • Bankhead Highway through Eastland County · 7.3 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Hargus, Larry · 8.2 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Mount Zion Cemetery · 8.8 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Old Rip, the Thirty-One-Year-Old Lizard · 9.1 mi

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

  • The Boom That Built the Town · 9.1 mi

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

  • Engineering a Solution: Lake Eastland · 9.1 mi

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

  • Eastland, TX · 9.1 mi

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

  • The Hometown Hero, Hayden Fry · 9.1 mi

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

  • Old Rip — The Horned Toad That Slept Thirty-One Years · 9.5 mi · Research

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

  • Eastland, TX · 9.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Eastland, a town that owes its existence to a bit of political maneuvering and a very famous toad! Back in 1875, founders Daugherty and Connellee platted this townsite. County voters agreed to…

  • Connellee, Charles Ulrich · 9.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Eastland County, and right here, in what is now Eastland, is where a man named Charles Connellee staked out the town square back in 1875. He bought 320 acres, surveyed the land with partners, and…

  • Alameda Cemetery · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Connellee-Majestic Theatre · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Early Banking in Eastland · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Eastland, a town whose banks boomed and busted with the fortunes of oil and the nation. The first bank opened in 1880, right after the railroad arrived. Decades later, the Ranger Oil Field…

  • Eastland County · 9.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Eastland County, a place that was once a rugged frontier. Named for Captain William Mosby Eastland, a victim of the Mier Expedition's Black Bean Episode, this land was far from settled in the…

  • Eastland, Wichita Falls and Gulf Railroad · 9.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

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

  • First United Methodist Church of Eastland · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Eastland County Courthouse · 9.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Eastland County Courthouse, a building with a story as grand as its Art Deco architecture. Originally a simple stone building, it faced fires and fierce county seat elections, even surviving a…

  • Eastland · 9.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Eastland, a town that hit it big in the oil boom of 1917. Suddenly, this place exploded from 250 people to 25,000, attracting celebrities and fortunes. The real wonder? In 1928, they opened the…

  • Camp Salmon, C.S.A. · 9.6 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Eastland County, Early Settlers of · 9.6 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • First Christian Church · 9.6 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Connellee, Charles U. · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • New Hope Baptist Church #3 · 9.8 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Prairie Oil and Gas Company Housing · 10.0 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Burkett House · 10.1 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Mary Jane Gentry · 11.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Strawn, and we're thinking about Mary Jane Gentry. Born in Boston in 1912, she became an educator, historian, author, and world traveler right here in Texas. Her master's thesis at UT in 1946,…

  • Mount Marion Cemetery · 11.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Mount Marion Cemetery, the final resting place for many Strawn pioneers. It was named for William W. Johnson's daughter, Marion, who died as a child. The earliest burial here dates back to 1883, and…

  • Mary's Cafe · 11.7 mi · Things to Do

    Strawn's legendary chicken-fried steak and oversized burgers — Texans drive across the state for a plate. A roadside icon in tiny Palo Pinto County.

  • Strawn, TX · 11.8 mi

    Strawn, Texas, was one of several towns developed around 1880 when the Texas and Pacific Railway began service. The site, known earlier as North Fork for its location on Palo Pinto Creek, was laid out on the land of two…

  • Strawn, TX · 11.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Strawn, a town that owes its existence to coal and oil! Originally known as North Fork, this community was laid out around 1880 when the railroad arrived. But it was the discovery of oil in 1895…

  • Johnson, William Whipple · 11.8 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through what used to be coal country, and right here, William Whipple Johnson and his brother Harvey struck black gold. In 1887, they founded the Johnson Coal Mining Company south of Strawn, striking a…

  • Strawn, Bethel · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Strawn, a town named for Bethel Strawn, an 1858 settler and leading citizen. During the Civil War, Strawn enlisted in the Texas State Troops, serving to protect settlements that supplied…

  • Stuart, James Nesbit, House · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the home of J. N. Stuart, built way back in 1874. Imagine hauling all the materials, like milled lumber and window glass, by ox-wagon from east Texas! A shipbuilder named Andrew Murdock even helped…

  • Strawn City Hall · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Strawn, a town that boomed thanks to oil, gas, and coal. In 1920, its population hit 5,000! Just a year later, they issued bonds to build this very city hall. Designed by Abilene architect David…

  • Strawn, Stephen Bethel · 12.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Strawn, a town that owes its very existence to the man whose name it bears: Stephen Bethel Strawn. He arrived in Palo Pinto County in 1859, one of the first settlers pushing into this frontier.…

  • Thomas House · 12.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Thomas House, a stunning example of Prairie School architecture, built right here in Strawn. Designed by Dallas architect Thomas J. Galbraith, it was completed in 1919. This home has strong ties…

  • Gunsight Community · 12.6 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Kokomo School · 12.9 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Wayland School · 13.1 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • The Chicken-Fried Steak Pilgrimage · 13.4 mi

    There's a good chance you're passing through Strawn for one specific reason: a meal at Mary's Cafe. This unassuming restaurant has become a Texas institution, a place people plan entire road trips around. Why? For what…

  • The Strawn Greyhounds Football Dynasty · 13.4 mi

    In Texas, high school football is a way of life. And in Strawn, it’s a championship way of life. This town is home to one of the most dominant six-man football programs in the state. Six-man is a fast-paced,…

  • Engineering the Underworld · 13.4 mi

    Strawn's first boom came out of the ground, and it took real engineering to get it. In 1903 the Johnson brothers sank the Mount Marion shaft here, and that mine and the ones around it fed one hungry customer: the…

  • The Ghost of a Company Town · 13.4 mi

    Just a few miles from Strawn is the ghost of the town that was once its bigger, more powerful neighbor: Thurber. At its peak, Thurber was one of the largest industrial centers in Texas, a massive company town built…

  • America's Main Street · 13.4 mi

    The road you're traveling might feel like a simple state highway, but it follows the path of a historic American journey. This route was once part of the Bankhead Highway, one of the nation's first transcontinental auto…

  • Desdemona, TX · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

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

  • Ellison Springs Indian Fight · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

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

  • Mangum, TX · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

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

  • Long Branch, TX (Eastland County) · 13.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

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

  • Davidson, Joseph Peter · 14.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Palo Pinto County, heading past where Joseph Peter Davidson set up shop. Born in Tennessee in 1823, Davidson came to Texas around 1856, establishing a trading post right near here. He didn't stop…

  • Sergeant Fenley Went Door to Door Into the Smoke · 14.5 mi

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

  • Mangum Baptist Church · 14.7 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • The Largest Town Between Fort Worth and El Paso · 15.2 mi · Things to Do

    At its peak around 1920 Thurber boasted a population somewhere between 8000 and 10000 people making it the largest town between Fort Worth and El Paso. It had…

  • The Town They Sold Piece by Piece · 15.2 mi · Things to Do

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

  • Snake Saloon, Site of · 15.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Thurber, a Texas town that once had a legendary saloon. The first Snake Saloon, right here in town, boasted a massive horseshoe-shaped mahogany bar. But when liquor sales were outlawed in Erath…

  • The Coal Miners Ball Club · 15.2 mi · Things to Do

    Coal mining was brutal work so the company gave Thurber something to cheer about: baseball. The company sponsored semi-pro teams that traveled across Texas to…

  • Thurber Cemetery · 15.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Thurber Cemetery, a nearly ten-acre testament to a once-thriving, multi-ethnic coal mining town. This graveyard tells a story of immigration and early Texas life, divided into Catholic,…

  • Americas First Union Town · 15.3 mi · Things to Do

    On Labor Day 1903 the miners of Thurber had had enough. More than 1600 men joined the United Mine Workers walked out of the mines and shut down production…

  • One of the First Electrified Cities in Texas · 15.3 mi · Things to Do

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

  • Twenty Nations Underground · 15.3 mi · Things to Do

    At its peak Thurber was one of the most ethnically diverse places in all of West Texas. Nearly twenty different nationalities worked side by side in the mines…

  • The Saloon Across the County Line · 15.3 mi · Things to Do

    Thurber sat right on the border of Erath and Palo Pinto counties and the company exploited this geography brilliantly. When Erath County voted dry the company…

  • Thurber · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the heart of what was once a booming coal town, the site of Texas's most important mine for three decades. Coal here, known possibly to Native Americans, was officially 'discovered' in 1886. The…

  • The Bricks That Built Texas · 15.4 mi · Things to Do

    When coal started declining in the early 1900s Thurber pivoted to bricks. The company fired up kilns running day and night producing millions of bricks from…

  • New York Hill · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Thurber, and you might notice a slight rise to your right. That's New York Hill. Back in 1917, the Texas and Pacific Coal Company, already a big player, decided to jump into the booming oil…

  • Hotel Knox and Thurber Mining Office, Site of · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Thurber, and right here stood the Hotel Knox, built around 1895 by the Texas and Pacific Coal Company. This wasn't just any hotel; it was a first-class establishment, serving out-of-town guests…

  • Thurber Brick Plant, Site of · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Thurber, Erath County, where a massive brick plant once churned out materials that paved Texas. In 1897, W. K. Gordon saw potential in local shale, convincing the Texas and Pacific Coal Company to…

  • Thurber's First Coal Mine, Site of · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Thurber, Texas, a town built on coal. Look to your left, and imagine this spot nearly 140 years ago. Brothers William and Harvey Johnson dug the area's first coal mine right around here, hitting…

  • The Opera House with Ceiling Fans · 15.4 mi · Things to Do

    The Texas and Pacific Coal Company didnt just dig coal in Thurber -- they built culture. The company opera house seated over 650 people and was the first…

  • Saint Barbara's Catholic Church · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Thurber, a town built on coal, and right here, you're passing the site of Saint Barbara's Catholic Church. What's fascinating is that this church was originally built by the coal company back in…

  • Whitehead Cemetery · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Whitehead Cemetery, a quiet reminder of the African American community that once thrived in Thurber. When the company offices moved in 1933, some families stayed behind. Albert Whitehead and…

  • Desdemona First Baptist Church · 15.5 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Fort Blair, C.S.A. · 15.7 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • New York Hill and the 150-Dollar Houses · 15.7 mi · Things to Do

    Thurber was divided by class and the geography made it obvious. Company executives lived atop New York Hill in houses that cost eight thousand dollars each…

  • Mingus Baptist Church · 15.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Mingus Baptist Church. Area Baptists trace their history back to 1891 with the organization of the Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church. The congregation was renamed Mingus Baptist…

  • The Free Town and the Company Town · 15.9 mi

    As you drive here, you're traveling between two worlds that once sat side by side. Just down the road is the ghost of Thurber, a company town where as many as ten thousand people lived on land owned outright by the…

  • The Technology That Killed a Town · 15.9 mi

    The railroad tracks running through Mingus tell a powerful story about technology. For decades this town thrived because those tracks carried steam locomotives, and steam locomotives were hungry for the coal dug out of…

  • A Secret Hub for the Great Coal Strike · 15.9 mi

    In 1903 the company town of Thurber was turned upside down by one of the most important labor fights in Texas history. Thurber was fenced, guarded and multilingual — twenty nationalities down in the coal — and the Texas…

  • Thurber Ghost Town · 16.0 mi · Historical Marker

    In 1888, a coal company did something almost unheard of: it built an entire city from scratch. Thurber had 10,000 residents, its own electricity, running water, an opera house, and the only complete company town in…

  • Desdemona Cemetery · 16.0 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Robinson School · 16.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Palo Pinto County, not far from Strawn. Look for the Robinson School, a simple brick building that served rural students for just six years. It was built in 1937 after local families petitioned…

  • Ellison Family Graveyard · 16.3 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Ellison Springs · 16.3 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Carbon City Jail · 16.3 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • First Baptist Church in Carbon · 16.4 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Thurber Big Lake and Dairy, Site of · 16.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Thurber, Texas, and right around here, the landscape tells a story of industry and ambition. Back in 1891, a small lake was built to serve this town, but it wasn't enough. So, just five years…

  • Carbon Methodist Church Building · 16.5 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • The Iron Compass: How a Railroad Drew a Town · 16.6 mi

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

  • Carbon, TX · 16.6 mi

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

  • The Eastland Complex Fire · 16.6 mi

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

  • Caddo · 16.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Caddo, a town that started with just a handful of residents in 1860. It grew slowly, with ranchers recording their brands and a store opening in 1875. But Caddo boomed in 1916 when the first oil…

  • The Word Behind Texas Friendship · 17.0 mi

    You're in Caddo, Texas. This small town carries the name of a much larger Caddo history, so here's that tangent: Texas or Tejas came through a Caddo word commonly interpreted as friends or allies, which is why the state…

  • A River Civilization Before Texas · 17.0 mi

    You're in Caddo, Texas. This small town carries the name of a much larger Caddo history, so here's that tangent: Caddo settlements flourished along the Red, Sabine, Neches, Angelina, and connected river valleys. Fertile…

  • Family, Leadership, Removal, and Survival · 17.0 mi

    You're in Caddo, Texas. This small town carries the name of a much larger Caddo history, so here's that tangent: Caddo kinship has traditionally been matrilineal, with descent and clan relationships traced through the…

  • From Campsite to Oil Town · 17.0 mi

    You're in Caddo, Texas. This small town carries the name of a much larger Caddo history, so here's that tangent: Caddo in Stephens County developed in the late nineteenth century at a place identified in local history…

  • Mounds Older Than Modern Texas · 17.0 mi

    You're in Caddo, Texas. This small town carries the name of a much larger Caddo history, so here's that tangent: ancestral Caddo centers built earthen platform, ceremonial, and burial mounds. The site now called Caddo…

  • Salt, Bows, Pottery, and Long Trade Routes · 17.0 mi

    You're in Caddo, Texas. This small town carries the name of a much larger Caddo history, so here's that tangent: Caddo exchange networks reached toward the Gulf Coast, Great Lakes, Southwest, and Mississippi Valley…

  • When the Peanut Was King · 17.0 mi

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

  • The Science of the Peanut Capital · 17.0 mi

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

  • Gorman, TX · 17.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

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

  • Site of Blackwell Hospital · 17.8 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Two Lawmen and the Santa Claus Bank Robbery · 17.9 mi

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

  • Parks Camp · 18.0 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • First National Bank · 18.5 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Santa Claus Bank Robbery - Cisco · 18.6 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Old Mobley Hotel · 18.6 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Old Shinoak Springs · 18.6 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • First Baptist Church of Cisco · 18.6 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Hilton Hotels Corporation · 18.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

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

  • Hilton, Conrad Nicholson · 18.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

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

  • Cisco, TX · 18.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

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

  • Gordon - 2025 Texas 1A Division I state football champion · 18.7 mi · Sports News

    You're near Gordon High School in Gordon, an hour west of Fort Worth. Last December, the Longhorns took down Rankin sixty-nine to twenty-two at AT&T Stadium to win the Texas one-A Division One six-man state football…

  • Kendrick, Robert [Bob Skyles] · 18.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

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

  • Cisco Junior College · 18.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

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

  • Kean, Edward Everett · 18.7 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Cisco College · 18.7 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Lieske, August · 18.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

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

  • Richardson, Thomas Clarence · 18.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

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

  • Brannin, Carl Philip · 18.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

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

  • Texas HS Baseball Playoff Leaders 2026: Gordon (Gordon) · 18.8 mi

    Gordon put 6 players on the statewide leaderboards of the 2026 Texas high school baseball playoffs. Aiden Shank had 21 RBI (1st in the state), 43 strikeouts (8th in the state), 17 runs (4th in the state), 9 stolen bases…

  • First United Methodist Church of Cisco · 18.8 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • First Presbyterian Church of Cisco · 18.8 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • The Free Town and the Company Town · 19.0 mi

    Just a few miles south of here lies the ghost town of Thurber, and you can't tell Gordon's story without it. In the late 1800s, Thurber was a massive industrial city that claimed to be the largest town between Fort…

  • The Iron Horse Arrives · 19.0 mi

    The railroad tracks you see running through Gordon represent a monumental feat of 19th-century engineering that literally created this town. When the Texas and Pacific Railway pushed west in 1880, it wasn't as simple as…

  • Gordon, TX · 19.0 mi

    Gordon's history began in 1864 with the founding of the community of Hampton, Texas. The town of Gordon was planned by the Texas and Pacific Railway one mile south of Hampton in 1874. The railroad was built through the…

  • Conrad Hilton's First Hotel · 19.1 mi

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

  • The Santa Claus Bank Robbery · 19.1 mi

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

  • Engineering a Lake to Save a City · 19.1 mi

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

  • Cisco, TX · 19.1 mi

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

  • Oakwood Cemetery · 19.2 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Thornton, Daniel Roberts and Mary Anna (Garland) · 19.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the land once home to Daniel Roberts and Mary Anna Thornton. They married in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1853</say-as>, and settled here in Erath County in <say-as interpret-as="date"…

  • Pleasant Hill Baptist Church · 19.9 mi · Historical Marker

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

  • Redeemer Lutheran Cemetery · 19.9 mi · Historical Marker

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

Explore Ranger on the Map
All music from Texas → Find another town Vote on city songs

Sign up for the free newsletter

Longer stories, research notes, photos, videos, and where the road goes next. Free, and no iPhone needed.

Subscribe free