Skip to content

Utopia, Texas

Everything Utopia is known for

2 songs mention this city

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

Sign up for the free newsletter Get the iPhone app

Music in Utopia

Songs About Utopia

if you were mine
miranda labert & leon bridges
16%
all my ex's live in texas
george strait
10%

Artists From Utopia

No artists from Utopia in the database yet.

Know one? Add it →

Rivers & Roads in Song near Utopia

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

Frio River 13 songs US Route 90 9 songs Nueces River 3 songs Guadalupe River 18 songs Interstate 10 36 songs

History of Utopia

The Utopia That Almost Stood Here RoadyGoat

Here's a coincidence sharp enough to give you chills, and it starts right here in Utopia, Texas. The word Utopia did not just land on this canyon by a postmaster's whim. A real attempt at utopia had already reached for this exact ground. In the eighteen fifties a French thinker named Victor Considerant, a leading voice in a socialist movement built on the ideas of Charles Fourier, came to Texas to plant model communities where people would live and work in shared harmony. His main colony, called La Reunion, rose near what is now Dallas, far to the north of here, drew about two hundred French-speaking settlers, and collapsed within roughly a year and a half under blizzards, drought, and a plague of grasshoppers. But Considerant had also bought land far to the south, some forty-seven thousand acres right here in Sabinal Canyon in Uvalde County, meaning to seed another colony. It never materialized. So decades before George Barker ever wrote Utopia on a form, a man had literally purchased this canyon you're sitting in to build one. The dream failed. The name arrived anyway.

RoadyGoat →

The Word Nobody Was Supposed to Reach RoadyGoat

You're rolling through Utopia, Texas, a real little town on the Sabinal, and a name like that begs the obvious question, so let's take the detour and talk about where the word itself even comes from. It was invented, on purpose, by one man, long before any Texan borrowed it. In fifteen sixteen an English lawyer and scholar named Thomas More published a little book in Latin describing a perfect island society, and he needed a name for the place. He built one out of Greek. He took ou, meaning not or no, and topos, meaning place, and welded them together into Utopia. Read literally, it means no place. And here is More's joke, buried in the spelling. Utopia sounds almost identical to eutopia, which would mean the good place. So the word carries both at once, the good place and the place that does not exist. More was quietly telling his readers that perfect societies live only on paper. That single coined word launched an entire genre, centuries of utopian fiction and real utopian experiments. And a Texas postmaster, three and a half centuries later, hung it on this canyon town you're driving through right now.

RoadyGoat →

The Maples That Missed the Ice Age Exit RoadyGoat

Follow the Sabinal River north out of Utopia, Texas, and you reach one of the strangest little forests in the state, the bigtooth maples of Lost Maples. Here is why they matter. Around ten thousand years ago, as the last ice age faded, Texas was cooler and wetter, and these maples covered a lot of the hill country. Then the climate warmed and dried, and the maples retreated, mostly to the north and up into the mountains. But a pocket of them got trapped in these steep, spring-fed canyons, where the high limestone walls and the cool river hold a moist microclimate that the surrounding dry country lost. Scientists call trees like these relicts, survivors stranded by a climate that moved on without them. Every autumn, for three or four weeks around late October, they flare red and orange and gold, a New England postcard hiding in a Texas canyon. It is not a coincidence they survived exactly here. Geography built them a refuge, and they never left.

RoadyGoat →

Utopia, TX

1852

Utopia, located in the Sabinal (or Ugalde) Canyon, is on the Sabinal River at the junction of Ranch Road 187 and 1050, twenty-three miles north of Sabinal in Uvalde County. Archeologists have found evidence of Paleo-Indians in the canyon. Spanish explorers made several excursions into the area to take careful inventory of tribes, to note the flora and fauna of the area, and to name the rivers, mountains, and streams. They called the Sabinal River Arroyo de la Soledad. In 1790 Juan de Ugalde united Comanches, Taovayas, and Tawakonis and led a decisive victory over the Apaches at the site of future Utopia. The Spaniards also found silver and dug a shaft on the east side of Sugarloaf Mountain, five miles south of Utopia. This mine was seen by John C. Duval in 1836. On June 10, 1839, a party under John C. (Jack) Hays and Juan N. Seguín pursued a band of Comanches into Sabinal Canyon, where they destroyed newly deserted villages. Hays encountered the Comanches again on June 24, 1841, when eight Comanches were killed and two taken prisoner. Capt. William Ware , a soldier in the Texas Revolution , moved to the canyon with his son and six slaves in 1852, thus fulfilling a resolution he had made in 1835, when he first saw the place. With 600 head of cattle and two ox-drawn wagons full of seeds, fruit trees, food, and tools, they had to move large boulders to get the wagons through the pass into the canyon. Gideon Thompson, Aaron Anglin, John and James Davenport, Lee Sanders, Henry Robinson, and Chris Kelley soon arrived. More settlers arrived in 1853, and by 1856, a store-post office was built by Charles Durbon, who became the first postmaster of Waresville. In 1856 Victor P. Considerant purchased 47,000 acres of land in the canyon from the Cañon de Ugalde Land Company. This purchase was financed by the European and American Colonization Society. Considerant's plan to establish a Fourierist phalanx in the canyon did not materialize because the failure of La Réunion , near Dallas, had made potential colonists too wary. Settlers had friendly contact with Tonkawa Indians who had come to plant crops for their people, who were due to come later. The Kickapoos raided many times during the early years. Lipan Apaches captured Frank Buckelew in 1866 and held him captive for eleven months. They also raided Mr. Kincheloe's home that same year while he was away. His wife, Sarah, Captain Ware's daughter, was lanced seventeen times, and Mrs. Ann Bowlin was killed. Warfare continued until 1876. Kincheloe moved his family to land a mile north of Waresville, where he built a two-story home in 1873, marked off and sold lots, and donated land for churches, a park, and a school. In 1884 a survey for the town of Montana was filed in Uvalde County, and the post office was moved from Waresville to Montana. When they learned that another place in Texas was named Montana, residents renamed the place Utopia. By 1880 a stage stopped weekly at the community, where 150 citizens supported two gristmills, a cotton gin, a blacksmith shop, a store, and three churches. Methodist services were first held in Waresville by Andrew Jackson Potter in 1854. The Church of Christ was established in 1859; John C. Ware and his sister Eliza Finley were the first two to be baptized. A Christian church also moved to the canyon. Andrew Jackson Sowell, his wife, Mary Lillian, and ten other charter members established the Utopia Missionary Baptist Church in 1886. A man named Barker taught the first three school terms in the Methodist church. In 1880 a schoolhouse was built; this structure was torn down in 1906, and a two-story building took its place. This building was burned in 1926; the present structure, built in 1927, has had several additions. By 1904 the population of Utopia was 147. The town had telephone service by 1914. Annual rodeos have brought thousands of people since 1929. By 1946 the town had seven businesses, three churches, a post office, and a population of 150. In 19

Tsha Handbook →

Ware, William

1836

William Ware, soldier, was born on January 15, 1801, the son of Joseph W. and Elizabeth Dawson (Howell) Ware, in Muhlenburg County, Kentucky, according to some sources, and in Richmond County or Augusta County, Georgia, according to others. In 1828, with his first wife Ann McMurphy and three children, he moved to Texas, settling on Ware Creek, two miles west of the site of present Willis. His wife died soon thereafter. Ware raised and commanded a company of volunteers at the siege of Bexar at which he was slightly wounded on the hand. With Antonio López de Santa Anna 's return to Texas in 1836, Ware reenlisted in the Texas army on March 12, 1836, and was elected captain of the Second Company of Col. Sidney Sherman 's Second Regiment, Texas Volunteers. He took part in the battle of San Jacinto , where James Washington Winters described his effort "like a wild mustang." In Montgomery County in 1836 Ware married Elizabeth Ann Crane, the daughter of John Crane . In 1840 he owned 3,864 acres in Montgomery County, as well as eleven horses and seventy-five head of cattle. In 1844 he moved his family, which had now grown to eight children, to Kaufman County where they remained until 1849. The family then moved to a farm on York Creek, twelve miles south of New Braunfels, where Elizabeth Ware died on December 20, 1849. In 1850 Ware's family, eight children and three of his wife's younger siblings, were living on Cibilo Creek in Bexar County, where their property was assessed at $3,500. In 1852 Ware moved west again, establishing on August 17, 1852, the community of Waresville (now Utopia) in Uvalde County. At that time his was said to be the only Anglo-American family between D'Hanis and the Rio Grande. Ware died at Waresville on March 17, 1853, and buried at Waresville Cemetery in Utopia.

Tsha Handbook →

William Ware

1828

William Ware Capt. William Ware was born in 1800 to Joseph and Elizabeth Ware in Kentucky (Georgia in some sources). In 1828, he and his wife, Ann Murphy, and their three children moved to Montgomery County, Texas. From there, Ware raised a military company in 1835 and fought at the Siege of Bexar. In 1836, he raised the Second Company of the Second Regiment, Texas Volunteers, and fought with the Texas army at San Jacinto. That same year, the widowed Ware married Betsy Crane. While moving to Kaufman County in 1849, Betsy died en route to Sabinal Canyon. Ware and his son, John Crane Ware, arrived in 1852. Here they built a cabin, which became the cornerstone for the settlement of Waresville. Ware died in 1853 and was buried in the Waresville cemetery. 					(2003)

Historical Marker →

Old Waresville

1852

First nonmilitary colony in Uvalde County, founded 1852 by Capt. William Ware, veteran of Battle of San Jacinto. Ware built first log cabin home (still standing). Other early settlers included Gideon Thompson, whose wife was first Anglo-American woman in Sabinal Canyon. Colony lost settlers in Indian Raids, 1856-1866. Although the post office moved to Utopia in 1883, still here is the cemetery where Capt. Ware was buried in 1853; first store and post office built by Charles Durbon, 1856; homes of Joel Fenley, John Ware, built of native stone, 1870's. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1966.

Historical Marker →

Highsmith, Benjamin F.

1835

Served in the Army of Texas, 1835-36 a Ranger under Capt. John C. Hays, a member of the Somervell Expedition, 1842 born in Missouri Sept. 11, 1817. Died Nov. 20, 1905. His wife, Elizabeth Turner Highsmith, born in Missouri March 22, 1836, died Oct. 7, 1900.

Historical Marker →

Lost Maples State Natural Area

Bigtooth maples surviving from the last ice age in a protected Sabinal River canyon, producing spectacular fall color in the middle of Texas.

Natural Landmark → · 13.3 mi away

Things to Do in Utopia

nature 14.1 mi away
Lost Maples

Lost Maples State Natural Area near Vanderpool holds a relict stand of Uvalde bigtooth maples that should not exist this far south. Twelve thousand years ago…

Everything Near Utopia

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

  • Utopia, TX · Tsha Handbook

    Utopia, located in the Sabinal (or Ugalde) Canyon, is on the Sabinal River at the junction of Ranch Road 187 and 1050, twenty-three miles north of Sabinal in Uvalde County. Archeologists have found evidence of…

  • Ware, William · Tsha Handbook

    William Ware, soldier, was born on January 15, 1801, the son of Joseph W. and Elizabeth Dawson (Howell) Ware, in Muhlenburg County, Kentucky, according to some sources, and in Richmond County or Augusta County, Georgia,…

  • Utopia · 0.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Utopia, a town with a story that starts with a scare and ends with a name change. After an Indian raid in 1886, R. H. Kincheloe and his family moved here and built a home. By 1873, they'd added a…

  • Rock Store · 1.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Utopia, and right here is a piece of its very beginning. This stone building, erected in 1873, was Utopia's first building! It served as a general store, the Rock Store, for its owner R. H.…

  • Utopia Methodist Church · 1.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Utopia, and just up ahead is the Utopia Methodist Church. It was established way back in 1866, part of a growing mission to serve this frontier area. Imagine pioneer camp meetings held right here…

  • Utopia Baptist Church · 1.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Utopia, where the Baptist Church has roots going back to at least 1886. Organized with just nine charter members, they shared space with Methodists before building their own in 1912. The…

  • William Ware · 1.3 mi · Historical Marker

    William Ware Capt. William Ware was born in 1800 to Joseph and Elizabeth Ware in Kentucky (Georgia in some sources). In 1828, he and his wife, Ann Murphy, and their three children moved to Montgomery County, Texas. From…

  • The Utopia That Almost Stood Here · 1.4 mi

    Here's a coincidence sharp enough to give you chills, and it starts right here in Utopia, Texas. The word Utopia did not just land on this canyon by a postmaster's whim. A real attempt at utopia had already reached for…

  • The Word Nobody Was Supposed to Reach · 1.4 mi

    You're rolling through Utopia, Texas, a real little town on the Sabinal, and a name like that begs the obvious question, so let's take the detour and talk about where the word itself even comes from. It was invented, on…

  • The Maples That Missed the Ice Age Exit · 1.4 mi

    Follow the Sabinal River north out of Utopia, Texas, and you reach one of the strangest little forests in the state, the bigtooth maples of Lost Maples. Here is why they matter. Around ten thousand years ago, as the…

  • The Town That Renamed Itself Perfect · 1.4 mi

    You're standing in Utopia, Texas, and yes, that is the real name on the map, and it was chosen on purpose. Here's how it happened. This spot started as Waresville back in the eighteen fifties. Then a family named…

  • Paradise Was a Dangerous Address · 1.4 mi

    It is worth pausing on the nerve of naming this canyon Utopia, because for its first settlers it was closer to the opposite. This was a hard, contested frontier. Back in eighteen thirty-nine, the Texas Ranger Jack Hays…

Show all 61 nearby places
  • Pull the Name, Unspool the Canyon · 1.4 mi

    So look at everything one hopeful little town name out here on the Sabinal can hold. Pull on the word Utopia and the whole canyon unspools. It leads back to a postmaster named Barker, reaching past Waresville and a…

  • The Soldier Behind Waresville · 1.4 mi

    Before it was Utopia, it was Waresville, and that name has a real man under it. Captain William Ware fought in the Texas Revolution, and in the early eighteen fifties he pushed up into Sabinal Canyon to settle, hauling…

  • Hollywood Found the Name Too · 1.4 mi

    The name Utopia was too good for the movies to leave alone, and in twenty eleven they came for it. A film called Seven Days in Utopia was shot right here in this town, along with some scenes over in Fredericksburg.…

  • Bandera County, TX · 1.5 mi

    Bandera County's history is marked by Native American raids and significant battles. In the 17th century, the area was home to Lipan Apache and Comanche settlements. The 1832 skirmish between Shawnee Indians and…

  • Old Waresville · 1.6 mi · Historical Marker

    First nonmilitary colony in Uvalde County, founded 1852 by Capt. William Ware, veteran of Battle of San Jacinto. Ware built first log cabin home (still standing). Other early settlers included Gideon Thompson, whose…

  • Highsmith, Benjamin F. · 1.8 mi · Historical Marker

    Served in the Army of Texas, 1835-36 a Ranger under Capt. John C. Hays, a member of the Somervell Expedition, 1842 born in Missouri Sept. 11, 1817. Died Nov. 20, 1905. His wife, Elizabeth Turner Highsmith, born in…

  • Jones Cemetery · 1.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Jones Cemetery, a final resting place for some of Utopia's earliest settlers. The story starts in 1879 when Reverend Irvin Jones deeded two acres of his homestead for this burial ground. His wife…

  • Captain William Ware · 2.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Utopia, Texas, a town named for paradise. But this area was anything but idyllic in the early days. Look around and imagine Captain William Ware, born in Kentucky back in <say-as…

  • Waresville Cemetery · 2.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Waresville Cemetery, the final resting place for some of the earliest pioneers in this part of the Sabinal River valley. This land was settled by Captain William Ware, a veteran of the Texas…

  • Taylor School · 2.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the old Taylor School, founded back in 1883. Early settlers like Henry Taylor gave land for the first one-room schoolhouse, which had homemade desks. After burning down, two more…

  • Utopia, TX · 3.3 mi

    Tourism to Utopia boomed after the establishment of the Lost Maples State Natural Area nearby in 1979. The town is also close to Garner State Park, making it a destination for nature enthusiasts. These natural areas…

  • Joe A. Kelley Home · 5.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Joe A. Kelley Home, one of Utopia's few remaining pioneer houses. Built in 1865, this two-room house with back shed rooms was constructed by Joe A. Kelley, who came to the area with his family in…

  • In This Vicinity June 24, 1841, John Coffee Hays · 7.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, near Utopia. On June 24, 1841, a pivotal moment happened right around here. Captain John Coffee Hays, a legendary Texas Ranger, led a company of just 12 men. They teamed up…

  • Uvalde County, TX · 13.0 mi · Local history

    The Southern Texas Plains define Uvalde County, a land where the horizon stretches wide and the earth rolls gently. Here, the transition from the Hill Country's rocky terrain smooths out. The land, once part of…

  • Lost Maples State Natural Area · 13.3 mi · Natural Landmark

    Bigtooth maples surviving from the last ice age in a protected Sabinal River canyon, producing spectacular fall color in the middle of Texas.

  • Lombardy Irrigation Ditch · 13.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the Rio Frio area, where a major feat of 19th-century engineering took shape. In 1868, the Lombardy Irrigation Company dug this two-mile ditch by hand, channeling water to irrigate over 800 acres.…

  • Civilian Conservation Corps at Garner State Park · 13.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Garner State Park, a place built by the hands of young men during the Great Depression. Back in 1935, the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC, set up camp here. These young guys, working under a…

  • Lost Maples · 14.1 mi · Things to Do

    Lost Maples State Natural Area near Vanderpool holds a relict stand of Uvalde bigtooth maples that should not exist this far south. Twelve thousand years ago…

  • Tarpley, TX · 14.5 mi · Local history

    Nestled in the rolling hills of Bandera County, Tarpley's name speaks to its very beginnings. The community took its name from the Tarpley family, early settlers who carved a life out of the rugged Edwards Plateau. This…

  • Famous Cattle Trail, Near Route of · 14.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Real County, near where thousands of longhorns once thundered north. This trail, a feeder to the famous Chisholm Trail, helped save Texas' economy after the Civil War. It wasn't just cattle,…

  • Silver Mine Pass · 15.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Silver Mine Pass, a place with a history as rich as any supposed silver vein. Long before the Spaniards opened a mine here in the 1700s, this area was a strategic point. Though the silver ore…

  • Saltpetre Mine, C.S.A. · 15.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of a vital Civil War operation, right here in Concan! This cave system, stretching for miles, was once a booming saltpeter mine for the Confederacy. In the 1860s, workers dug out tons of bat…

  • Rio Frio, TX · 15.8 mi

    Rio Frio sits right at the heart of what makes the Texas Hill Country special, and that's always been tied to the land. You'll find folks around here who know the best spots for deer hunting like the back of their hand.…

  • Cypress Creek Cemetery · 16.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the historic Cypress Creek Cemetery, established in the 1870s. This graveyard served early pioneers before Leakey was even founded. Look for the graves of Laura Stidham and her son Alonzo,…

  • Cow Camp Massacre on Hondo Creek · 16.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Hondo Creek, the site of a deadly encounter in the mid-1800s. It was January 27, 1866. Three young men – August Rothe, George Miller, and Hubert Weynand – left their homes near D'Hanis to find stray…

  • Catherine McLauren · 16.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Leakey, the site of the last Indian raid in Frio Canyon on April 19th, 1881. Catherine "Kate" McLauren was home with her children when a Lipan Apache band attacked. Shot during the raid, she…

  • Leakey Cemetery · 16.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Leakey Cemetery. Originally known as the Floral Cemetery and serving an earlier community by that name, this cemetery dates to at least 1881. Land for the graveyard was sold by John and Nancy Leakey…

  • John Leakey · 16.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past John Leakey. Tennessee native John Leakey (1824-1900) came to Texas in 1847, settling for a time in Henderson County where he was a brickmason and rancher. He and his wife Nancy (Patterson) moved to…

  • Real County · 16.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Real County, a place carved out of the rugged Edwards Plateau. It wasn't always this county, though. Leakey was once the county seat for Edwards County, but after a move to Rocksprings, folks in…

  • Real County Courthouse · 16.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Real County Courthouse in Leakey. After county seat disputes, Judge D. D. Thompson pushed for a permanent building. Architect H. A. Reuter designed this 1918 Classical Revival structure, built…

  • Leakey, TX · 16.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Leakey, Texas, a town named for the family that settled here in 1856. John and Nancy Leakey arrived near these springs, drawn by the abundant cypress trees along the Frio River. Loggers quickly…

  • Home to Mission San Lorenzo · 16.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Real County. Located on the Edwards Plateau, Real County is in an area of rolling terrain broken by the canyons of the Frio River. Because of raids by Comanche, Apache, and Lipan Apache Indians,…

  • Real County · 16.6 mi · Historical Marker

    Located on the Edwards Plateau, Real County is in an area of rolling terrain broken by the canyons of the Frio River. Because of raids by Comanche, Apache, and Lipan Apache Indians, white settlement was hindered until…

  • Leakey School · 16.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Leakey School. Settlers arrived in the Leakey area, then part of Bandera County, in the mid-1850s. Many educated their children in their own homes, and early schoolhouses also existed near the John…

  • Leakey Methodist Church · 16.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Leakey Methodist Church. Its origins trace back to worship services held in the John and Nancy Leakey home, the first settlers in this canyon area starting in 1856. The congregation…

  • The Sunset Bat Tornado · 17.3 mi

    About fifteen miles down the Frio from Leakey, near Concan, a natural spectacle unfolds almost every summer evening. Tucked into the hills above the river is a cave that holds an estimated ten million Mexican…

  • The River from Inside the Rock · 17.3 mi

    The beautiful, clear Frio River, the very heart of Leakey, is the product of a fascinating plumbing system hidden beneath your feet. You're driving over the Edwards-Trinity Aquifer, a vast underground reservoir held…

  • The County Carved from Three · 17.3 mi

    As you pass the stone courthouse in the center of Leakey, you’re looking at a trophy from a political fight. For decades, this area was a geographic afterthought, split between three huge counties: Bandera, Kerr, and…

  • Taming the Twisted Sisters · 17.3 mi

    If you see an unusual number of motorcycles in Leakey, there’s a good reason. This town is the unofficial capital of a legendary riding loop known as the 'Twisted Sisters.' The 'sisters' are three Ranch Roads—337, 336,…

  • Leakey, TX · 17.3 mi

    On March 29, 2017, thirteen senior citizens from the First Baptist Church of New Braunfels were killed in a tragic accident near Leakey when a pickup crashed into their church minivan on U.S. Highway 83 inside Uvalde…

  • Lost Maples State Natural Area · 18.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country, and right here is Lost Maples State Natural Area. For thousands of years, this rugged canyon has been a natural refuge, but what folks really come for is the spectacular…

  • Polly, TX · 18.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Polly, also known as the J. P. Rodriguez Settlement, is a small rural community located approximately six miles northeast of Bandera and two miles north of State Highway 16 in eastern Bandera County. In 1858 noted U. S.…

  • Vanderpool, TX · 18.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Vanderpool is on State Highway 187 ten miles north of Utopia and thirty miles west of Bandera in western Bandera County. The land on which it is located was given as a headright certificate by the Republic of Texas to…

  • Bluff, TX (Bandera County) · 18.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Bandera County, and right here on Wallace Creek, you're passing through the site of Bluff. This tiny spot owes its name to a general store and post office that opened in 1906, right by a bluff…

  • Pipe Creek, TX · 18.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    The Pipe Creek community is on State Highway 16 about nine miles east of Bandera in eastern Bandera County. The town was founded about 1870 and was named for nearby Pipe Creek. The first settler of the community,…

  • Old Davenport Home · 18.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Uvalde County, past the site of the Old Davenport Home. This wasn't just any pioneer cabin; it started as a one-room log house built during a dangerous time, right in the era of Lipan-Apache raids…

  • Clark Family Cemetery · 19.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Clark Family Cemetery. Newlyweds Joseph Hutchinson Clark (1857-1901) and Annie Susie Wilson (1869-1953) bought this land from Annie's father on April 2, 1887. On Christmas Eve, 1901, Joseph was…

  • Historic Log Cribs · 19.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the Texas Hill Country near Medina, and you might spot these historic log cribs. Built by the Walker family starting in 1897, they were used to store feed for livestock. The craftsmanship shows…

  • Old Stanard Home · 19.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Old Stanard Home in Medina. Land here was once owned by Confederate General John Bell Hood, but hostile Indians kept folks from building until 1878. The Standard family has owned this property…

Explore Utopia 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