Weird history29.5599° N, 104.3715° W
Presidio, TX
A massive fortified adobe trading post along the Rio Grande, reconstructed to show the isolated borderland world of the 1800s.
- Access
- Open to visitors
Weird history in Texas
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Weird history96
Suggest a stopReal events too strange to have made the textbook.
- Weird history32.6106° N, 99.6786° W
Abilene, TX
Chimneys and stone foundations are all that remain of an 1850s frontier military post on the open prairie north of Abilene.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history34.0918° N, 98.6969° W
Burkburnett, TX
This is a Texas historical marker telling the story of Clara, a former German settlement near Burkburnett, rather than a preserved ghost town with buildings to explore. The marker is a roadside stop, although the Texas Historical Commission currently indicates that the physical marker is being replaced, so travelers may temporarily find no plaque on site.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Weird history31.6807° N, 96.3599° W
Teague, TX
Settled before 1848 around Dr J. S. Wills' mule-powered cotton gin, growing to support churches, a school, a newspaper, stores and saloons. The businesses went when the railroad bypassed it in the 1870s. What stands now is a Texas historical marker explaining a settlement that is no longer there.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Weird history35.1789° N, 103.0427° W
Glenrio, TX
A near-abandoned Route 66 settlement straddling the Texas-New Mexico line. Remains of motels, service stations and road businesses survive as a stark reminder of traffic shifting to the interstate.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Weird history28.6689° N, 97.3892° W
Goliad, TX
A large live oak beside the courthouse is traditionally associated with frontier-era hangings and vigilante justice.
- Access
- Roadside, no entry
- Weird history30.8874° N, 102.8794° W
Fort Stockton, TX
Preserved frontier-army buildings and reconstructed structures interpret the post that protected travelers and regional settlements after the Civil War.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history29.2301° N, 103.3783° W
Big Bend National Park, TX
A lonely stone ranch house in the Blue Creek valley survives from one of the region's large early-20th-century ranching operations.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history29.1792° N, 102.9995° W
Big Bend National Park, TX
Ruins of a riverfront health resort surround a geothermal spring beside the Rio Grande. The site also preserves pictographs and traces of early settlement.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history29.1797° N, 103.0001° W
Big Bend National Park, TX
Small prehistoric pictographs survive on the limestone wall along the Hot Springs trail, one of only two prehistoric sites in Big Bend specifically managed for routine public visitation.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history31.9171° N, 106.0437° W
El Paso, TX
A cluster of granite outcrops preserves thousands of pictographs and petroglyphs, including a remarkable concentration of painted mask figures. Access is tightly managed.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Weird history28.5131° N, 96.5114° W
Indianola, TX
The cemetery is one of the clearest surviving remnants of Indianola, a once-important Gulf port destroyed by devastating hurricanes and largely abandoned.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history26.1948° N, 97.7194° W
Harlingen, TX
A full-size working model of the famous Iwo Jima flag-raising sculpture stands beside a museum honoring the battle and Marine veterans.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history30.3323° N, 97.5095° W
Manor, TX
J. Lorraine Ghost Town is a recreated Old West roadside attraction outside Austin, built with western storefronts, props and rustic structures meant to evoke a fictional frontier settlement. It is a playful man-made ghost town rather than an authentically abandoned community, with access depending on the property's posted hours and events.
- Access
- Seasonal or ticketed
- Weird history29.8090° N, 101.5594° W
Langtry, TX
The tiny original saloon where Judge Roy Bean conducted business and dispensed his idiosyncratic 'Law West of the Pecos' is preserved beside the visitor center.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history31.7861° N, 106.4488° W
El Paso, TX
Notorious gunfighter John Wesley Hardin is buried in Concordia Cemetery beneath a distinctive marker.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history29.8091° N, 101.5596° W
Langtry, TX
A state visitor center preserves the original Jersey Lilly saloon and courthouse associated with eccentric frontier justice of the peace Roy Bean.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history32.7365° N, 97.1915° W
Fort Worth, TX
Lee Harvey Oswald's grave in Rose Hill Cemetery is marked by a simple stone and has long drawn visitors interested in Kennedy-assassination history.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history33.6211° N, 101.8881° W
Lubbock, TX
An archaeological preserve containing evidence of nearly continuous human occupation for thousands of years and active excavation areas.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history29.2426° N, 103.5686° W
Big Bend National Park, TX
A tiny stone-and-wood shelter traditionally associated with Gilberto Luna, who lived in the remote desert country for decades.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history29.0944° N, 103.1820° W
Big Bend National Park, TX
Remote ruins of a mercury mine and processing complex stand on the desert slopes, preserving furnaces, foundations and dangerous mining history.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history31.6422° N, 94.6501° W
Nacogdoches, TX
A collection of relocated 19th-century East Texas buildings assembled into a walkable historic village.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history31.5934° N, 102.8921° W
Monahans, TX
A gigantic concrete oil-storage tank built in the 1920s forms the centerpiece of a local-history complex devoted to the Permian Basin oil boom.
- Access
- Open to visitors
- Weird history27.7911° N, 97.3911° W
Corpus Christi, TX
A seaside memorial to Selena centered on a life-size bronze statue overlooking Corpus Christi Bay.
- Access
- Open to visitors