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Texas Ghost Towns: proposal

Not while the mining company people are driving by every thirty seconds eyeballing me as if I were already doing something wrong.:uhoh:
 
thanks to Dan and Ed for posting the first two ghost towns. I'd like to remind posters to include location; GPS coordinates or general location description like Dan did in his post.

Perhaps we'll get a delegated section soon :trust:
:mrgreen:
 
Okay, the missing information is added. By the way, there looks to be many miles of gravel, sand, and dirt to explore out there near this ghost town. Next trip I take that way will be on the KLR.

And the cobbler at Hammonds was pretty good today too. :wave:
 
Never had heard of Ft Spunky, thats a good story... Ft Belknap would be a ghost town also, it was once a bustling trading camp for buffalo hunters...I am going to start geting some fresh picks of the ghost towns near me...Kimball has been mentioned so I might skip unless someone requests info on it...:rider:
 
i fly in and out of Sabine Pass for work so i might try to swing over and see what is left of Sabine while im here. wont be on the bike tho...
 
There are dozens of ghost towns in West Texas. Check out the ruins of Hymen Settlement at 4:40 in this video I shot last summer:

 
Nice video, Tim. What car where you driving? 38-39 mpg is impressive!
 
Well alrighty then...... While heading towards the Hill country last memorial day weekend we rode thru Indian Gap, which is on CR1702, just east of 16. This first pic is of the old school dated 1913 that we took. the 2nd photo is one taken off of off this site:http://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTownsNorth/IndianGapTexas/IndianGapTx.htm

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This next pic of the old small house is almost in front of the old school.

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This picture of the old store was the general store in Indian Gap, but mine didnt come out so this one is off of the texasescapes.com website also......... although the store hasnt changed any....

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This is the old church across from the old school.....

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Im a fanatic of old rundown buildings and old churchs........... I think Im gonna take an afternoon ride and head down to Indian Gap again...... with a picnic basket in hand this time! :rider: :eat:
 
Indian Gap is a cool place. And nice road to ride. It's my preference for riding into the hill country, sort of a 'Through the Magic Door'.

Except for when you get lost on the gravel roads that surround it.....
 
Sounds like fun to me!
On the Sherpa, it would be, and is. But on the top-heavy, too-tall thoroughbred, and with a bum ankle, and on golf-ball sized road rock, it was not. I almost lost the bike twice when trying to turn it around in said conditions. It was not fun.

The Sherpa, on the other hand, I could get lost on that forever and love it.
 
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Wizard Wells
Jack County, Texas

Historical Marker:
N 33.20077
W097.97113


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I had never heard of Wizard Wells until researching stations on the Butterfield Trail in Texas. The name captivated me. Why 'Wizard'?

When the Butterfield Trail was rerouted from the original -Gainesville, Davidson's, Conolly's stations and Hog-eye Prairie- it went through Decatur and across the West Fork of the Trinity on Hwy 920, west of Bridgeport (Old Bridgeport was right on the bank for a few years, eventually moving east to present location). The next station was near Bean's Creek and east of where both old and new trail converged: Jacksboro.

Bean's Creek runs through, as you can guess, Bean's Valley. The valley and creek were favorite hunting and camping grounds of the Kiowa. By the 1850's, settlers were staking claims and setting up homesteads for farming and grazing livestock. It seemed a logical place for the Butterfield Overland Company to put a station. And the area prospered.

In the late 1870's George Washington Vineyard moved to the area. He dug a well for his household water, but it was so full of minerals it was undrinkable. Yet the water was used to bathe in. GW was plagued with chronic ulcers on his legs which the water supposedly cured, as well as his eye 'disease'.

News of GW's miraculous 'healing' from the water brought people from all over suffering from everything imaginable and hoping to find the cure-all, the 'miracle water'. Many camped along the creek during their stay. Eventually three hotels and 'soaking tubs' were built to accommodate cure-seekers.

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Vineyard owned most of the property in the area, but I can find no mention of what became of him or his family. The town, then called Vineyard (or Old Vineyard), was established in 1882 with a general store. Later followed by several churches, a newspaper, school, sawmill, blacksmith shop, and post office. It became a thriving retail center for the local farmers and ranches and by 1890 had a population of 100. From the 1920s until the 1940s the town's population was near 175, and by 2000, 63.

You can't really get a complete story of Wizard Wells without nearby associated towns: Vineyard (be patient; you'll see) and Sebree. When the Chicago, Rock Island and Texas Railway bypassed Vineyard on it's way from Bridgeport to Jacksboro in 1899, many people left Vineyard and formed a new community around the depot two miles south. The historical marker claims they called the new town 'Sebree'.

HF Stamper and his two sons, all from Missouri, had settled in the town of Vineyard. When many left and settled to the south near the RR, the three male Stampers petitioned the Texas Legislature in 1914 to rename the town of Vineyard to 'Wizard Wells'.

In 1915, after the name change to 'Wizard Wells', the new town, then a center for shipping of farm and ranch products and a thriving community on its own, adopted the new name of 'Vineyard.' So this is the second 'Vineyard'. By 1925 the population of Vineyard was 212 and by 1933 the new Vineyard was a thriving community with a brick school, businesses and several stores. However, following the demise of the railroad no businesses or stores existed by the 1970s. The population had declined by the 1950s to 40. In 2000 the population was 37.

Now, another source reports that Sebree was a separate community; by 1910 it had become a community center for area farmers and ranchers. "Three general stores, a cotton gin, a grocery store, and a dry goods store served an estimated 200 residents in 1914. Soil erosion reduced the productivity of the land surrounding the community, however, and residents left Sebree for Jacksboro, the county seat, fourteen miles to the north, and for Bryson, where oil had been discovered in the 1920s. The post office was closed in 1915, and by the mid-1940s Sebree no longer existed."

So where is Sebree? I guess we'll have to find out :trust:

Interestingly, the Wizard Wells cemetery is the final resting place for many members of the founding families: Stampers, Beans, etc. An interesting place to explore, for sure.

The pattern I've seen here, and elsewhere, is "Build it and they will come." Railroads, stage coach lines, military roads, etc. And when the original impetus for many of the communities die, so do the towns. Look at the same pattern today, such as the strip malls, etc along the major highways/freeways. Transportation seems to be a significant factor in civilization, both birth and death.

Now on to some modern news. Wizard wells still stands; well and all.
I found this advertised by the current owner:

"Whispering Waters is a Holistic Retreat Center owned and operated by Kevin and Gail Leech. Kevin and Gail are registered massage therapists and artists who purchased the property in 1999. They have worked steadily (obsessively?) ever since to bring the land and buildings back to life in a creative, loving and respectful manner.
Your Hosts

As registered massage therapists, Gail specializes in cranio-sacral therapy, while Kevin's focus is myofascial release. The charge per therapy session is $40. Overnight stays are $50 per room for up to 2 guests(add $10 for a 3rd). Mineral soaks and outdoor hot tub are included with the room, as is a light breakfast and lots of peace and quiet.
The Property

The property consists of a 3 story building,built in the 1940's, whose bottom floor has been renovated to include 7 bedrooms with 16 beds, 7 bathrooms, 1 soaking room, 1 of 3 massage therapy rooms, a small esoteric library and a cozy plant filled entry-way. The second and third floors are in the process of being renovated to accommodate 3-4 longer term house guests. Kevin and Gail are currently living on the 2nd floor.Connected to the 3-story is a single 3,000 square ft building,built in the 1930's which includes a unique common area that serves as a dining room, classroom, gathering space, etc. Adjoining the common area is a large kitchen, another large soaking room, the other massage therapy rooms and a small gift shop. On the land are also 2 other buildings. One was originally the town's general store and hasn't been used since the 70's and is in need of repair.This building would eventually make a great sanctuary or community space for all to come and share in the oneness that IS. The other,the oldest, a native rock building, consists of 4 separate rooms which is currently in use as Kevin's pottery studio.

There are endless possibilities here and we are continually open to guidance about our purpose.In following the promptings of spirit, we feel now we are creating a gentle place to energize and heal.We stand back and look at what has been created and see artist studios, quiet places to rest your mind,body and spirit, energizing encampments,a place to nurture spiritual awakening, growth, renewal. Surrounded by ever improving organic gardens of vegetables, herbs, flowers, and cactus, guests can enjoy the medicine wheel, meditation gardens, massage therapy sessions, camping, comfortable lodging, workshop facilities, personal overnight and weekend retreats. We have also been blessed with a rich esoteric library, relaxing mineral waters for soaking,soothing or detoxing, magical musical chimes and so much more."


Thus New Age merges with Old Age ;-)

It certainly is an interesting place to visit. One of these days soon, the Sherpa and I will be paying another visit to discover more, stop to visit the New Age people and the hotel, and explore another nearby long-gone community and cemetery, Jim Ned.

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WOW!! :clap: ^^^^^ Well there isnt anything left of Sabine, espacilly after the hurricane but i took some pics of Sabine Pass and surrounding areas with some historical markers. i will edit this later for the report.
 
So many excellent write ups, so many great pictures! My hat is off to Tim for his amazing video footage! Well done to all!:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:
 
Squaw Mountain community, Jack County

Squaw Mountain, Jack County.
Historical marker: FM 2190
N 33.36433
W098.32640


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On my way north up to Oklahoma last Friday I rode through two ghost towns. One I stopped to spend some time in.

This is excerpted from my story of that weekend:

On FM 2190 I passed Lynn Creek Rd to see a small church off the road and shaded by a tree-covered hill. Bingo; the familiar Texas Historical Society marker alongside the road. Executing a perfect U-turn I pulled up to stand on the grassy bank in front of the marker, dismounted and looked around.

According to all the resources I’ve read (and there aren’t many), a skirmish between a group of Texas Rangers and a band of Indians occurred here in 1875. A young Indian woman was killed on a mountain near Lynn Creek and the Rangers buried her there. The peak was named Squaw Mountain based on the legend, and the community that grew up along the creek and near the mountain also bore that name.

Settlers arrived in 1877 and Squaw Mountain grew. In 1892, along with a stage relay stop, a post office was named. Later followed cotton gins and a thresher, blacksmith shop, store, school and another church. Coal mines were discovered in 1917.

But, as the familiar pattern with pioneer towns, the exodus followed the railroads. By 1997 only a church and a few ranches remained. The only business I’m aware of is a large big game ranch with a lodge, cabins, elk, deer, axis, oryx, hogs, Dall and Corsican sheep, turkey, and dove, 20 ponds and a lake. Even that was listed for sale in the mid-2000’s; only for $3 million.

Yet many of the original settlers, some of their descendants and families, still remain here at rest in a cemetery a few miles away down a lonely gravel and dirt road. [Lynn Cemetery; included in main story]

Other than a small modest building serving as a church for the neighboring farmers and ranchers, nothing else betrays presence of a community that once stood here. Cows grazed in a pasture across the road, giving me an occasional glare. But the surrounding Cross-timbers and mesquite thickets betray nothing; no town, no stage coaches, no cotton fields, no comfortable community with a few bustling business.

Like most other ghost towns, Nature reclaims her own.

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Eliasville, Young County

In the early 1870s, J. L. Dobbs built his ranch headquarters on a wide, southerly bend of the Clear Fork of the Brazos in what is now the extreme southern end of Young County. At the time, this was the extreme western edge of the frontier; the town of Arkansas (later called South Bend) was located ten miles downriver but Dobbs was the first to settle his part of the Brazos Valley.

(My mom's mom's maiden name was Dobbs - I suppose we're related somewhere deep in the woodpile.)

In 1878, Elias DeLong established a store to serve the growing community, and an unknown amount of politicing resulted in the name Eliasville.

Brothers William and Thomas Donnell had arrived in the area in 1876 from Missouri. They began raising cattle and planning a gristmill business. They built their first mill in 1877; it was destroyed in a flood. The 1878 attempt was also destroyed by a flood.

They overcame their male unwillingness to seek advice and consulted with a U. S. Agricultural Extension engineer in 1879. The engineer picked a spot near Dobbs' headquarters on an ancient limestone shelf. He chose wisely - the mill is still there:

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Learn from the Donnell brothers. When an engineer gives you advice, take it.

The town grew, and boomed starting in 1921 when commercially viable quantities of oil were discovered nearby and the Wichita Falls and Southern Railway opened a line to serve the growing gasoline refinery and the carbon black plant.

By the middle 1920s, Eliasville had a bank, several churches, a school complex, dentists, doctors, a lumberyard, a boilermaker business, a feed store, a hotel, two theaters, three filling stations, and the old gristmill.

Oil production eventually decreased, and the refinery and carbon black plant closed in the late 1920s. A lightning strike in 1927 burned the gristmill. The consolidation of agricultural production began to affect small towns everywhere during the 1930s, and the Second World War emptied the town when the defense plants in Fort Worth began hiring.

By the middle 1950s, Eliasville was a ghosttown. The commercial district today:

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The school complex closed in 1957. Today:

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All of the other ghosttowns that I've chased down died in the late nineteenth century or very early in the twentieth. Seeing one that finally died during the fifties is pretty neat: you can still see railroad rights-of-way, building foundations, standing buildings... Neat, and creepy.

I'm new to the DFW metroplex, and I hadn't ridden in the Clear Fork Valley before. It is gorgeous out there.

To get there:
Eliasville is about fifteen miles southwest of Graham and about twenty miles west of Possum Kingdom Lake at the intersection of county roads 701 and 3109.
 
South Bend, Young County

Settlers arrived at the junction of the Clear Fork of the Brazos and the Brazos proper in far southern Young County in the middle 1850s. Nearby Eliasville grew more quickly until July 4, 1920 when the McCluskey Oil Company's first well gushed in with a Spindletop-level blowout.

What had been a quiet ranch and farm trade center boomed; suddenly over ten thousand new citizens established multi-story hotels, boarding houses, rooming houses, a school with six teachers, oil field service businesses, restaurants, grocery stores, hardware stores, speakeasys, brothels, casinos, a lumberyard, a small refinery, movie theaters, car repair businesses, a dairy, gasoline stations, and two churches.

Most of the old Texas town stories I've read about towns that grew up during the nineteenth century make it sound like the first three things built were a church, a school, and a store. South Bend was a twentieth century town, and it sounds like the casino/brothel/bar action arrived before (and outnumbered) the school/church/hardware district.

As oil production in the area got harder and slower during the late 1920s, the town stared dying. Today, there isn't much left. I don't know when this motor hotel was built, but judging by the width of the attached covered parking spaces, it was in the Model T and Model A era:

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Last to arrive, last to leave:

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At the very end of South Bend's oil boom, Eugene Stovall was hoping against hope and still drilling for oil. He hit a vein that very quickly stopped producing oil and started flowing dark and oily water. He thought it was useless.

Stovall's now-useless well was on ranch property that he owned about two miles west of the townsite. His ranchhand's children had been suffering from some kind of skin ailment, but after they went swimming in the tea-colored oil-topped water, they were cured.

Stovall quickly grasped the commercial implications and built a bathhouse, a restaurant, and a hotel featuring masseurs, nurses, chiropractors, playgrounds, croquet, and skeet. The spa boomed until the 1950s, and stayed open until it burned in 1994. (Interesting - the Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells opened around the same time and offered similar Curative Waters, but it closed in 1963. Eugene Stovall's little outfit on the banks of the Brazos outlasted it by three decades.)

Not much is left. The bathhouse:
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The cafe:
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I drove through Mineral Wells on the way back to Euless. Does anybody know how to get into the Baker Hotel?

To get there:
South Bend is at the intersection of county roads 67 and 701 about five miles south of Graham. To find the hot springs, go north off 701 onto an unmarked paved road (crossing the Clear Fork by an old concrete bridge) about 100 yards west of 67. Go about one mile, then turn north onto a once-paved road marked by a very faded sign reading Stovall Springs Circle. The ruins of the bathhouse are about one mile down Stovall Springs Circle.
 
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I'd reccomend a visit to Spanish Fort. It's up north of Nocona/St Jo. Here's a map. Might not be as 'Ghost Towny' as some of the aforementioned towns but it is pretty lonely up that way. Plus you get to stop on Munster and get some bratwurst!:eat:

Didn't get too many photos but here's one that I got while out there.
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Great idea, Elzi! I've subscribed to this thread.

Me and a buddy are going for an all day ride this Saturday, heading NW out of Ft. Worth. We're planning on stopping at about 10 of the Ghost Towns listed on TexasEscapes.com. I'll make sure to take pictures.

Here's another site that I found with some targets to hit: http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/tx/tx.html

Also, this site: http://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/shell-county.htm will allow you to search all of the Historical Markers in TX. I was able to get a pretty good fix on the Donahoe Cemetery using this site.

We're also working on a Google Map to which we're adding every
Ghost Town (or it's approximate location) that we can locate. I'll post a link to it when we get more done.
 
I'm submitting a proposal for a category in the member's* section: Texas Ghost Towns.

* Does this mean that only members can view the thread? That's a shame. It would be really nice if visitors that are not members can view it.

:tab Any visitor to TWT can see that the Member's section exists, but they cannot view the content. All they have to do is register and then they can view/post like anyone else. Seeing as there is no charge for registering, I don't think it too big a deal for someone to register :shrug: You can't just give it all away without keeping something to entice people ;-)

:tab As for some of the posts in this thread, it would be cool if the original posters could replicate their posts as new threads in this section.
 
Me and a buddy are going for an all day ride this Saturday, heading NW out of Ft. Worth. We're planning on stopping at about 10 of the Ghost Towns listed on TexasEscapes.com. I'll make sure to take pictures.

We're also working on a Google Map to which we're adding every
Ghost Town (or it's approximate location) that we can locate. I'll post a link to it when we get more done.
That's a great idea! I was thinking the same but I lack that precious commodity: time. :(

Realize that many ghost towns exist that are not chronicled in those web sites. Which is cool; we get to trail blaze. Or is that 'ghost blaze'? :mrgreen:

If you are around Fort Belknap, be sure to stop in. Fascinating history there. The former town is nearby in the middle of a cow pasture. One of my Texas frontier 'heros' is buried there, shot in the back on the main street (now reverted to cow poop and grass).

:tab As for some of the posts in this thread, it would be cool if the original posters could replicate their posts as new threads in this section.
I started doing just that the other day. I hope the others will follow suit.

I'll be up on the Panhandle and along the eastern Estacada escarpment this holiday. Have several ghost towns already marked. (still need to report on half a dozen visited previously :doh: )
 
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