Abandoned Near a city · Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas
5 Ghost Towns Near Dallas–Fort Worth
Most of the old towns close to Dallas and Fort Worth were swallowed by the suburbs or left little more than a cemetery. The ones worth the drive are farther out. Thurber and Belle Plain lie west, off I-20 on the way to Abilene. Spanish Fort sits near the Red River in Montague County. North across the river in Oklahoma, Boggy Depot and Lehigh are a short drive apart near Atoka.
Each one lost out to a railroad, a closed mine or a moved county seat. Thurber has a museum, Boggy Depot is a Chickasaw Nation park and Lehigh is still a small town. Fort Worth is closer to the western towns and Dallas to the Oklahoma ones, so each entry gives the drive from both cities.
Each one is within a three-hour drive of downtown Dallas or downtown Fort Worth, by OSRM's estimate over OpenStreetMap roads. They're listed nearest first.
1.Thurber
A company coal town in Erath County. Mining began in 1886, and from 1888 the Texas and Pacific Coal Company owned everything. It may have held 8,000 to 10,000 people around 1918 to 1920, and it was nearly empty by the late 1930s.
- What's left
- The brick smokestack, the last Thurber-brick building downtown (now a restaurant), the restored St. Barbara's Catholic Church, a miner's house, the cemetery and a museum.
- Visiting
- At I-20 exit 367, about 75 miles west of Fort Worth. Tarleton State University's W. K. Gordon Center for Industrial History of Texas is open Tuesday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday 1 to 4 p.m.; adult admission is $5 (October 2026).
2.Spanish Fort
A cattle-trail town near the Red River, at the site of an 18th-century Taovaya village that beat back a Spanish army in 1759. It had about 300 people in 1885, then the trails moved west and the railroad went elsewhere.
- What's left
- Empty buildings on the square and a brick school built in 1924, as the Handbook of Texas described them in 2000, and the 1936 monument to the Taovaya village.
- Visiting
- At the end of Farm Road 103 in Montague County, about a mile south of the river. The Handbook of Texas counted about 50 residents in 2000, and we found no newer account. Treat the buildings as private and view them from the road.
3.Boggy Depot
A Choctaw and Chickasaw town founded in 1837 on the Texas Road, later a Butterfield stage stop and a Confederate supply depot. Chief Allen Wright, who lived here, coined the word "Oklahoma" in 1866. The railroad passed it by in 1872, and its post office closed in 1934.
- What's left
- A few stone foundations and the old cemetery, with the graves of Allen Wright and the missionary Cyrus Kingsbury.
- Visiting
- Inside Boggy Depot Park near Atoka, a former state park now run by the Chickasaw Nation. It is open daily, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with trails and a disc golf course.
4.Lehigh
The first coal camp in what is now Coal County, Oklahoma, with a post office from 1882. It had 1,898 people in 1920, then the mines and the cotton crop failed.
- What's left
- The Merchants National Bank Building, the only survivor of the old downtown, and a small town around it.
- Visiting
- A small incorporated town on US 75 south of Coalgate. The 2020 census counted 272 people. Stay on public streets.
5.Belle Plain
A town laid out around a planned college in 1875. It was the first Callahan County seat, from 1877 until the seat moved to Baird in 1883. Belle Plain College, opened by the Methodist Church in 1881, closed in 1892.
- What's left
- Stone ruins of Belle Plain College and the 1969 state marker by the road.
- Visiting
- South of Baird off US 283. A 2014 report put the college ruins on private land, visible from County Road 471, and we found nothing newer. The marker itself isn't on private property. Stay on the county road and don't cross fences.
How we picked them
- We started from every mapped site in our index of 6,591 US ghost town sites and routed to each one from downtown Dallas and from downtown Fort Worth, keeping those within 180 minutes of either.
- We preferred real towns over forts, stage stations and single mines; places you can legally visit or see from a public road; and sites with something left to see. We list at most nine.
- Status means what we could confirm from a recent source. Where we couldn't, the entry says "Not verified". Check before you go, and treat locked gates and posted signs as closed.
Near a city
Other cities
Sources
- Thurber: W. K. Gordon Center for Industrial History of Texas, "Plan your visit", as of October 2026: hours and admission.
- Handbook of Texas: Thurber, TX
- Wikipedia: Thurber, Texas
- Handbook of Texas: Spanish Fort, TX
- Boggy Depot: Chickasaw Nation, "Boggy Depot Park" and Chickasaw Country, "Boggy Depot Park", as of October 2026: a Chickasaw Nation park, open daily 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
- Wikipedia: Boggy Depot, Oklahoma
- Wikipedia: Lehigh, Oklahoma
- Wikipedia: Belle Plain, Texas
- Belle Plain: Texas Historical Commission Atlas, "Site of Belle Plain College" (marker 4729, 1969): the 1881 Methodist founding and the marker's location, not on private property.
- Historical Marker Database: Belle Plain College, with a November 2014 comment that the college ruins are on private property and visible from County Road 471.
- Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places of 20,000 or More, Ranked by July 1, 2025 Population: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (SUB-IP-EST2025-ANNRNK), U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division, Vintage 2025, released May 2026: Dallas city, Texas ranks 9 among US cities, with 1,329,491 people on July 1, 2025; Fort Worth city, Texas ranks 10 among US cities, with 1,028,117 people on July 1, 2025.
- Drive times and distances: OSRM routing on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), October 2026, from downtown Dallas (32.7767, -96.7970) and from downtown Fort Worth (32.7564, -97.3325) to each town's coordinates.
- Town list, counties and record pages: our index of ghosttowns.com state lists and Wikipedia's ghost town categories, October 2026.
- Map: US Census Bureau state and county boundaries via us-atlas (public domain).
Photo credits
- Thurber: Nicolas Henderson from Coppell, Texas, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- Spanish Fort: Renelibrary, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Lehigh: Nicolas Henderson from Coppell, Texas, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0