| Remember when your mom used to tell you to do something productive with your time? She probably didn't have Ghost Town Hunting in mind. Or maybe she did! I heard she's pretty cool. The Red River Valley of the Southwest is full of towns that history has long passed by. Discovering them is not only a great way to spend a day, but it's also a way to appreciate this area of the world. Let me take you on a journey. Interested in discovering them yourself? Find out where they are what's to see in Red River Historian's book, Traveling History among the Ghosts. Click to buy! All photos, unless otherwise noted, were taken by Red River Historian. |
Fulton, Hempstead County, Arkansas
Founded in 1819, Fulton served as a border city between
the United States and Mexico after the Louisiana
Purchase, and it maintained its frontier-like quality
throughout its life, with numerous saloons, restaurants,
inns, and stores catering to those who were
Texas-bound, including Stephen F. Austin and Davy
Crockett. Situated at the Great Bend of the Red River,
Fulton became a steamboat landing and deep water ferry
crossing at the Red and Little Rivers. The railroad no
longer stops at Fulton and Interstate 30 bypassed it,
making the once-thriving port a city a sleepy but
fascinating little village.
Ringgold, Montague County, Texas
Ringgold sits only a few miles from Oklahoma, and it once was a fairly thriving
town, as it was situated at the intersections of two highways and two railroads (US
82 & US 81 and Rock Island & Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railways). However, after the
railroad ceased operations and pulled its tracks, Ringgold's population steadily
declined. Its fate was not helped when a devastating wildfire ripped through the
town in 2006. Ringgold and its neighboring ghost town, Stoneburg, share a school
district.
Gotebo, Kiowa County, Oklahoma
When I visited Gotebo, I was stunned.
This pretty little town on the prairie
seems to be Oklahoma's newest ghost
town, as businesses still line the state
highways but the downtown section is
completely devastated. The string of
commercial buildings, the old lodge
building, a drug-store foundation, and
the abandoned school building hark to
better times, when the Rock Island
claimed the town at the turn of the
century. Gotebo still has a city hall, too!
When I visited Gotebo, I was stunned.
This pretty little town on the prairie
seems to be Oklahoma's newest ghost
town, as businesses still line the state
highways but the downtown section is
completely devastated. The string of
commercial buildings, the old lodge
building, a drug-store foundation, and
the abandoned school building hark to
better times, when the Rock Island
claimed the town at the turn of the
century. Gotebo still has a city hall, too!
Faxon, Comanche County, Oklahoma
Yet another railroad town, Faxon benefited from its
proximity to the Wichita Mountains and the picturesque
Cache Creek. Catering to tourists and to the local farming
community, Faxon's population gradually declined when
the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway stopped coming
through.
Thalia, Foard County, Texas
For anyone who’s read Larry
McMurty’s The Last Picture Show,
he/she will recognize Thalia as the
protagonist’s home town. I didn’t
see any theaters in Thalia, but I did
encounter fascinating remains.
Thalia, a farming and oil
community, declined throughout
the years as the economy
worsened. The school closed in
the 1940s..
For anyone who’s read Larry
McMurty’s The Last Picture Show,
he/she will recognize Thalia as the
protagonist’s home town. I didn’t
see any theaters in Thalia, but I did
encounter fascinating remains.
Thalia, a farming and oil
community, declined throughout
the years as the economy
worsened. The school closed in
the 1940s..
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| Red River Ghost Towns |
| A beautiful sky surrounds the former school, built 1938, at Cloud Chief in Washita County, Oklahoma. Cloud Chief was once known as Tacola and served as the county seat. It's an Oklahoma Land Run town. |
| Dundee, Archer County, TX Dundee was once the largest city in Archer County, with many businesses, churches, and schools catering to the area ranchers. A three story hotel greeted travelers on the railroad, and the town even had study clubs and other civilized endeavors. Despite its prominent beginning, Dundee never recovered from a tornado and the Great Depression. |
| Loveland, Tillman County, Oklahoma The railroad started Loveland, when it sold lots to farmers in 1908. Soon, the town centered the agricultural activity in the area. Although the railroad still runs through what used to be the town, several fires destroyed the commercial area and nothing was rebuilt. By the 1960s, Loveland was a goner. |
| Medicine Mound, Hardeman County, Texas The town was named after the nearby Medicine Mounds, which are ancient Comanche holy places. The town was larger than it once was until, reportedly, a spurned woman burned down the commercial district in the 1930s. Buildings were replaced using Oklahoma stone (you’ll see similar architecture in Grandfield, OK). Today, the town has a population of zero. |
| Tatums, Carter County, Oklahoma After the Civil War, several prominent civil rights leaders advocated for African Americans to move to Indian Territory, where they could live and blossom relatively unmolested by white racism. Many families followed the advice and founded towns throughout Indian Territory, near antebellum towns that had already been established by free blacks. One of these towns is Tatums. The town centered around its church, hotel (bottom photo), and school, which was built with matching grant funds from the Rosenwald Foundation (top photo). Lack of jobs pushed many of Tatums' citizens into the cities, so now the busiest day of the week is Sunday, when church is in session. |
| Garland, Miller County, Arkansas Established as a steamboat landing on the Red River in 1833, Garland City made its money in the cotton business, slave trade, and moonshine. After the Civil War, farmers continued to prosper when the St. Louis & Southwestern Railroad (better known as the Cotton Belt) came through. Garland City continues to be a liquor hub but not much else, as US 82 bypassed it in the 1980s. |
| Dougherty, Murray County, Oklahoma Dougherty' was named in honor of a prominent regional banker after years of being known as either Henderson or Strawberry Flat. The town's nestled alongside the Washita River in the Arbuckle mountains and is still an incorporated town with a post office but meets my definition of a ghost town, since the school is closed and children attend school outside the village. |
| Bonita, Montague County, Texas The railroad helped to build Bonita when the Gainesville, Henrietta and Western Railway (later, the MKT) came through in 1887. Never a very big town, Bonita nonetheless served area farmers as a shipping point for cotton and cattle until US 82 bypassed it. Today, the town's center is looked after by the pastor of the Baptist Church. |
| Dexter, Cooke County, Texas Dexter, founded in 1870, once held several businesses and considered itself a rival to nearby Gainesville. Citizens' hopes of progress were dashed, however, when the railroad bypassed Dexter in favor of a more southerly route with more even terrain. Dexter-ites began to move away, some even taking their buildings with them. |
| Rosser, Kaufman County, Texas Rosser began life as Trinidad. Situated at a bend along the East Fork of the Trininty River, the little town grew around steam boating before the Civil War. After the war, when railroad came throuh, the post master reapplied for a post office, and the town was renamed Rosser. The town grew ever larger for several decades until World War II, when many residents moved to larger cities to find work. |
| Headrick, Jackson County, Oklahoma Though farmers settled the area around Headrick in the 1880s, the town itself wasn't formed until the Oklahoma City & Western Railroad came through in 1901. Sitting along US 62, Headrick served as a farming community for several years, but the town kept dwindling until the school district was consolidated and kids were sent to Navajo. |
| Fulton, Hempstead County, Arkansas Founded in 1819, Fulton served as a border city between the United States and Mexico. Stores catered to those who were Texas-bound, including Stephen F. Austin and Davy Crockett. Situated at the Great Bend of the Red River, Fulton became a steamboat landing. Interstate 30 bypassed it, making the once-thriving port a city a sleepy but fascinating little village. |
| Ringgold, Montague County, Texas Ringgold was once a thriving town, as it was situated at the intersections of two highways and two railroads. However, after the railroads ceased operations and pulled their tracks, Ringgold's population steadily declined. Its fate was not helped when a devastating wildfire ripped through the town in 2006. Ringgold and its neighboring ghost town, Stoneburg, share a school district. |
| Byars, McClain County, Oklahoma Founded by the railroad in 1902, Byars sits not too far from the location of Camp Arbuckle, established in 1850. The town replaced Johnsonville, a mere mile north, in prominence after the Oklahoma Central and Santa Fe railroads bought right-of-ways through the town. Alas, the rails stopped running, and Byars has stopped growing. |
| Gotebo, Kiowa County, Oklahoma Gotebo seems to be Oklahoma's newest ghost town, as businesses still line the state highways but the downtown section is completely devastated. The string of commercial buildings, the old lodge building, a drug-store foundation, and the abandoned school building hark to better times, when the Rock Island claimed the town at the turn of the century. |
| Faxon, Comanche County, Oklahoma Yet another railroad town, Faxon benefited from its proximity to the Wichita Mountains and the picturesque Cache Creek. Catering to tourists and to the local farming community, Faxon's population gradually declined when the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway stopped coming through. |
| Thalia, Foard County, Texas For anyone who’s read Larry McMurty’s The Last Picture Show, he/she will recognize Thalia as the protagonist’s home town. I didn’t see any theaters in Thalia, but I did encounter fascinating remains. Thalia, a farming and oil community, declined throughout the years as the economy worsened. The school closed in the 1940s.. |
| Odell, Wilbarger County, Texas The Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway helped to found this town at the turn of the 20th century, which turned into a sizeable settlement within just a few years' time. Alas, the cessation of the railroad, coupled with a fire in the business district sealed the fate of this prairie town, which once boasted over 30 businesses, including a movie theater. |
| Vinson, Harmon County, Oklahoma Vinson was founded at the turn of the 20th century as a farming community in Oklahoma Territory. Upon statehood, Vinson had a school, several churches, a hotel, an ice plant, a gin, and later, even a car dealership. Things were looking up until the Great Depression, coupled with storms and people moving to larger cities, made Vinson shrink. |
| Jean, Young County, Texas Although all of its downtown buildings date to the 1920s, Jean is a little older than that, having been founded by the town-building arm of the Gulf, Western & Texas Railroad at the turn of the century. An oil boom kept the town afloat with a bank, stores, and a school, but when the train stopped coming, so did newcomers to Jean. |
| Rodessa, Caddo Parish, Louisiana Rodessa was first called Frog Level, but the name changed to Rodessa after the Kansas City Southern Railroad came through in the 1890s. Then, oil was discovered, and Rodessa became one of the largest towns in northwestern Louisiana - at one point, it had 15,000 people. A horrible tornado that left dozens dead, and a declining oil yield, put the hurt on the town. |
| Enloe, Delta County, Texas Enloe is a rather recent ghost town. Founded in the 1880s, its growth was thanks to the Texas and Midland Railroad and the fact that it was the biggest town in the area. However, larger cities like Greenville, Paris and Dallas lured Enloe-ians away. The school is closed, and even the Enloe State Bank has shuttered its doors. |
| Powhattan, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana There's not much left of Powhattan, but at one point this little settlement, founded on the Texas & Pacific line and along the Jefferson Highway, was a major draw for many residents and farmers. |
| Newlin, Hall County, Texas Not much is left of Newlin at all, although at one point, it had a number of inhabitants thanks to the Fort Worth & Denver City Railway. The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl swept the town away. |
| Myra, Cooke County, Texas Myra, a railroad town, died not when the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway tore up its tracks, but when the highway was re-aligned one mile to the north. Its hospital, electric company, lodge, general store, and even school closed. |
| Paluxy, Hood County, Texas Named after the nearby stream, Paluxy is an old town, having been found before the Civil War. Due to Indian raids, its population fluctuated, but it retained a post office all the way until the 1990s. |
| Leon, Love County, Oklahoma Originally a part of the old Cloud Ranch, a Chickasaw antebellum cattle breeding operation, Leon grew as a way-station for early cattle drives and a ferry crossing on the Red River. The Great Depression wasn't kind to Leon, and neither was modern encroachments like drugs and the like - now Leon's pretty much a ghost town. |
| Lehigh, Coal County, Okalhoma After the Missouri Kansas Texas Railroad got permission from Congress to slice through the Choctaw Nation, speculators who worked for the railroad found it very convenient to start mining coal, even though the coal belonged to the Choctaw Nation. This is how Lehigh was established. Several thousand people came to Lehigh to find work, but when they began to unionize, the railroads simply shut the mines. |
| Peacock, Stonewall County, Texas Peacock's colorful name comes from the post master's last name. Though the town never boasted more than 400 people, its relative isolation on the prairie made it a market center. The railway line went out of business in the 1960, taking the town's school with it. |
| Victory, Jackson County, Oklahoma Jackson County is also home to several ghost towns, like little Victory. The town was founded in 1892 while Jackson County was still Greer County,Texas.The town "took off" not because of its commerce but because of its school, which opened in 1912 to become one of the premier public schools in Oklahoma. Declining enrollments caused the school to close in 1956. |
| Elmer, Jackson County, Oklahoma Elmer served the farmers living in southern Jackson County at the turn of the 20th century. The loss of the railway and school signaled the town's demise. The bank is now the town's post office, and is in very good condition. During my visit, a little black dog kept following me and barking. If you see her, tell her I won't say "hi." |
| Cloutierville, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana Cloutierville is an old town, having been founded in the 1820s around the Cloutier plantation, which was once home to the famed author, Kate Chopin, in the 1880s. Cloutierville has no town center. Instead, it hugs one side of the Cane River banks. Its school closed in 2019. |
| Glenrio, Deaf Smith County, Texas Although it sits on fabled US 66, Glenrio was built by the railroad in 1906 when the Rock Island placed a depot there. Route 66 grew the town, however, until the interstate closed the old roadway and bypassed this little spot. Glenrio has lots of relics but hardly any residents left. |
| Swenson, Stonewall County, Texas The town sounds Swedish, and it is. Swenson owes its name to a prominent local rancher from Sweden who invested in the railroad that linked nearby Stamford in 1910. Ranching income declined, as did the population, and not much is left of the town. |
| Buffalo Springs, Clay County, Texas Founded prior to the Civil War, Buffalo Springs was going to be the location of a military fort to ward against Comanche raids, but a lack of rain made the nearby buffalo wallow go dry, so the U.S. government chose to build Fort Richardson in Jack County instead. Population grew when a train was supposed to come through, then declined. |
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