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Dust in the Wind -

A Guide to American Ghost Towns

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Ghost Town USA.

The Lone Star State is the second largest state in the United States. Only Alaska is larger. Texas’ scenery varies from the dry High Plains in the north to desert in the southwest, and thick forests in the southeast. To quote the Texas Department of Transportation from their 1998 state travel guide ...

"It's not exaggerated to think of Texas as a whole other country,

800 miles wide and nearly that far from north to south."

Texas ghost towns vary from "wild-west" shoot-em-up cattle towns to quiet agricultural communes, religious colonies, bustling seaports, rowdy oil boom towns, logging centers, Spanish/Mexican missions and presidios, American military posts with their wild support towns, railroad construction camps, mining towns, and faded 1950s highway towns. There are several good books on the ghost towns of Texas, and overall probably several thousand locations worth looking for.

In the descriptions below, you will note a road type called FM. This stands for Farm-to-Market Roads, which are a secondary class of state-maintained roads that are generally paved, striped and reflectorized.  However, a few may be graded dirt or gravel, but are generally readily passable in a family car.

Enjoy your brief visit to some of Texas' many ghost towns.

PLEASE NOTE: 

Where photos are indicated thusly (PHOTO!), please use your browser’s “BACK” button to return to this page.  More photos will be added over time.

ACME

Hardeman Co.

A class C gypsum-mining town located on US 285, four miles northwest of Quanah. The deposits were discovered in 1890, by James Sickler. It was a company town, and in 1930 had 515 people, four stores, a post office and a school. Ruins of the old town lie just near a still active gypsum plant.

ALANREED

AKA - Elfin Grove

Gray Co.

This sleepy, semi-ghost, class D, roadside community molders along the south side of I-40, at EXIT 135, 44 miles east of Amarillo. This old town is full of memories of a day when it was a busy highway town along old US 66. Many buildings remain, some occupied, some not.

Alanreed was our Ghost Town of the Month for June 1999.

BELKNAP

Young Co.

A class B-military post support town just east of SH 251, three miles south of Newcastle. The town was a half-mile east of Fort Belknap, which was established in 1851. In the 1860s this county seat, travel center and good-times town with its couple hundred residents, bustled with commerce as well as catered to the more prurient tastes of the soldiers. By 1880 only 44 people remained. The fort is on SH 251 and was restored in 1936 as part of the Texas Centennial celebration. Only rubble and the cemetery remain of the town.

CLAIRMONT

Kent Co.

Founded in 1888, this class D-ranching center is at the junction of SH 208/US 380, 13 miles southwest of Jayton. In 1892, Clairmont became the county seat, and by 1900 boasted 65 people, a post office, and a two-story courthouse with attached jail made from locally quarried stone. Through the 1930s and 1940s the population hovered around 200, but after WW II ended, the people left, and in 1954 the county seat was transferred to Jayton. In 1990, 15 people remained.

DABNEY

Uvalde Co.

Dabney, Texas was situated about twenty miles west of Uvalde, on an FM road, which intersects US90. It is an old mining town, which once mined rock for highway construction purposes and housed many of the miners who worked there. At one time John White had his White's Mines Company there, which mined the rock for decades. In the 1980's White sold out to Vulcan Materials. “When I was a boy I can recall visiting the old hotel that once stood there but I believe all buildings have now been destroyed.”

Information contributed by John Chamberlin

D’HANIS

(1^ST SITE)

Medina Co.

This class B-agricultural community is located 1.5 miles from present town of D'Hanis. It was established in 1847 by settlers from the Alsace region of France. In 1893 a diphtheria epidemic swept through the town basically killing it. It is "touristable".

FORT GRIFFIN

AKA - "The Flat”

Shakelford Co.

Like Belknap, above, only rubble remains of this class B good-times town located just outside the military post at Fort Griffin, which is now a State Historic Park. It was in operation in the 1870s-1881, and was well populated with saloons, gambling halls, and places to find "loose" women. It was a dirty, violent town, and one of the roughest hellholes on the frontier. Only ruins and rubble remain. The fort is on US 283 between Albany and Throckmorton, about 50 miles northeast of Abilene.

FRIO TOWN

Frio Co.

In 1990, 38 people, ruins and a museum remained of this class D, former county seat. It is located south of the Frio River, on FM 140 19 miles west of Moore (which is 44 miles southwest of San Antonio) in the northwest corner of the county. The once lively town is said to have played host to famed gunfighter John Wesley Hardin.

HELENA

Karnes Co.

Located at the junction of SH 80/FM 81, 11 miles east of Hobson, which is 46 miles southeast of San Antonio. This class D town is undergoing restoration, and in 1990 still had 35 people. It was established in 1852 and was once the county seat. In the 1860s Helena had a reputation as a "mean" town full of "whiskey mills". It faded in the late 1880s when the railroad passed through and missed the town. The county seat moved in 1893, and the town was doomed.

INDIANOLA

AKA – Karlshaven

Calhoun Co.

Located on the southwest side of Matagorda Bay, midway between Port Lavaca and Port O'Conner, this onetime huge seaport was destroyed by hurricanes in 1875 and 1886. It was established in 1844 as a port of entry for German immigrants coming to Texas. In 1860 a thousand folks lived here, and a decade later that number had doubled. It established itself as one of the largest seaports on the Texas Gulf Coast; only Galveston was bigger. Fishing-related businesses still lie scattered in the area, which is still shown on the state map.

KELSEY

Upshur Co.

This former Mormon Colony once fed the growth of other colonies in Texas. This class D semi-ghost now lies scattered south of the junction of FM 1795 /SH 154, six west of Gilmer. It was founded in 1902 when a town was laid out on the farm of John and Jim Edgar. A post office was established along with a church and a school. A decade later the town had stores, mills, blacksmiths, and a railroad connection. It peaked in 1917 with 750 folks. By the 1930s the town was nearly dead, and today a few scattered homes and ruins remain.

LOBO

AKA – Van Horn Wells

Culbertson Co.

This class D stage station/railroad station/highway/agricultural town on US 90, 14 miles south of Van Horn sits in a dry valley between the Wylie and Van Horn Mountains in the far western part of the state about 125 AIR miles southeast of El Paso.  In 1907 a post office was established, and a town began to grow. It faded after losing a bid for the county seat. Then during the early 1950s a second agricultural boom brought in cotton, and Lobo finally grew. That was short-lived, and by 1990 Lobo had faded to a population of 40.

MOBEETIE

AKA – Hidetown, Sweetwater

Wheeler Co.

A class C ghost 0.5 miles south of the junction of SH 152/FM 48, 11 miles west of Wheeler and just south of New Mobeetie. Dating to 1874, this was a former buffalo hunters camp, military support town and one tough frontier community just outside Fort Elliott, which was established in 1875, two miles northwest. In 1878 the town relocated closer to the fort. In 1890 some 400 folks still lived here, but the town was hurt when the fort closed. A tornado badly damaged the town in 1898, and in 1907 the county seat relocated to Wheeler. In 1929 the railroad came through missing the town by two miles. A Museum and a few buildings remain.

PERICO

AKA – Farwell

Dallam Co.

On US 87, 24 miles northwest of Dalhart.  In 1888, the Fort Worth & Denver Railroad established a siding called Farwell, but little happened until 1905 when the name changed and farms were established in the area. A railroad station, the agent's home, and a people appeared. By the early 1930s, the town had become a farming center for that part of the county, and there was a farm implement dealer/store, gas station, grain elevator, lumberyard, post office, two-story school, and a large train station. As late as 1960 there were 40 people here, but by 1990 the town was dead.

Perico was our Ghost Town of the Month for August 2004.

PRAHA

AKA – Mulberry

Fayette Co.

This class D agricultural community was named by the original Czechoslovakian settlers after the capital city of Prague. It is only one of several Czech Catholic settlements established in this region in the mid 1850s. In the 1880s this bustling town had as many as 700 people. It began to fade, and by 1990 only 25 folks still lived here. It is on FM 1295 0.8 miles south of US 90, three miles east of Flatonia, which is off I-10, midway between Houston and San Antonio.

SHAFTER

Presidio Co.

A class C silver-mining town located on US 67 19 miles north of Presidio, northwest of Big Bend National Park. The mines were active from 1880 until closed by the US Government in September of 1942. The town of Shafter began to grow around 1884. In a short time the town claimed 1000 people and was full of wooden, adobe, and stone buildings supplying all the wants and needs of the miners. When the mines closed, the town faded. Shafter produced over 90% of all the silver produced in the state of Texas -- over 30 million ounces! The 1990 population was 31.

TASCOSA

Oldham Co.

Twenty-three miles north of Vega, and north of the Canadian River, in the far northeast corner of the county is the Cal Farley Boy's Ranch. This is the remains of one of Texas' most notorious cattle towns full of saloons and other diversions for the hard working and hard playing cattlemen. Brawls and gunfights were common, and the town's cemetery claims 28 graves. Founded in the 1870s, it died in the late 1880s after the railroad missed the town. Cal Farley purchased the vacant town in 1939 and established a boy's ranch here. Several buildings remain, and the property is open to the public.

TERLINGUA

Brewster Co.

Located above the Rio Grande near Big Bend National Park, 80 miles south of Alpine, this class D mercury mining town began operations in the 1880s and boomed through the 1890s. There was a major resurgence in 1903 that lasted until the US Government closed the mines in 1942 after $40 million in mercury was produced. 1000 people were served by company housing (simple adobe and rock hovels), a hotel, post office, store, and later on a gas station and movie theatre. Many ruins remain, and the site is famed as the annual location for the National Chili Cook-offs. The old store and a few residences have been re-occupied, and the 1990 population has increased to 25.

Historians estimate that there may be as many as 50,000 ghost towns scattered across the United States of America. Gary B. Speck Publications is currently in process of publishing unique state, regional, and county guides called The Ghost Town Guru's Guide to the Ghost Towns of *** ™

These original guides are designed for anybody interested in ghost towns. Whether you are a casual tourist looking for a new and different place to visit, or a hard-core ghost town researcher, these guides will be just right for you. With over 30 years of research behind them, they will be a welcome addition to any ghost towner's library.

Thank you, and we'll see you out on the Ghost Town Trail!

For more information on the ghost towns of TEXAS, contact us at Ghost Town USA.

E-mailers, PLEASE NOTE:

Due to the tremendous amount of viruses, worms and “spam,” out there, I no longer open or respond to any e-mails with unsolicited attachments, OR messages on the subject lines with “Hey”, “Hi”, “Need help”, “Help Please”, “???”, or blank subject lines, etc.  If you do send E-mail asking for information, or sharing information, PLEASE indicate the appropriate location AND state name, or other topic on the “subject” line. 

THANK YOU!  :o)

IMPORTANT

These listings and historical vignettes of ghost towns, near-ghost towns and other historical sites in TEXAS above are for informational purposes only, and should NOT be construed to grant permission to trespass, metal detect, relic or treasure hunt at any of the listed sites.

If the reader of this guide is a metal detector user and plans to use this guide to locate sites for metal detecting or relic hunting, it is the READER'S responsibility to obtain written permission from the legal property owners. Please be advised, that any state or nationally owned sites will probably be off-limits to metal detector use. Also be aware of any federal, state or local laws restricting the same.

When you are exploring the ghost towns of TEXAS, please abide by the

Ghost Towner's Code of Ethics.