Abandoned Near a city · San Antonio, Texas
6 Ghost Towns Near San Antonio
San Antonio's ghost towns fall into two groups. South and east of the city are old county seats and cotton towns the railroads passed by: Helena in Karnes County, Frio Town in Frio County and Cheapside in Gonzales County. North and west, in the Hill Country around Fredericksburg, are small German settlements: Luckenbach, Albert and Morris Ranch.
Few are fully empty. Several still have a handful of residents, a church or a dance hall. Much of the land around them is private ranch land, so plan to look from the road unless a site says it is open.
Each one is within a three-hour drive of downtown San Antonio, by OSRM's estimate over OpenStreetMap roads. They're listed nearest first.
1.Helena
The first seat of Karnes County, founded in 1852 on the road from San Antonio to Goliad. The railroad bypassed it in 1886, and the county seat moved to Karnes City in 1894.
- What's left
- The 1873 courthouse, the old post office, the John Ruckman home, the Sickenius farmhouse and the jail, restored as museum buildings, plus four historical markers.
- Visiting
- Near State Highway 80 and Farm Road 81. About 35 people lived here in 2000. The post office opens for one Saturday each December. We haven't confirmed museum hours.
2.Frio Town
The first seat of Frio County, laid out in 1871 at the Presidio Crossing of the Frio River. Most people left for Pearsall, which became the county seat in 1883.
- What's left
- The town cemetery, and the largely intact stone courthouse and jail, as of 1990.
- Visiting
- The cemetery is on Farm Road 140. In 1990 the courthouse and jail stood on the private Roberts Ranch. We haven't found a newer account.
3.Luckenbach
A German Hill Country settlement that reached 492 people in 1904 and had nearly emptied by the 1960s. Hondo Crouch and partners bought it in 1970.
- What's left
- The general store and saloon, still in its original building, and the dance hall.
- Visiting
- On Farm Road 1376 south of US 290, east of Fredericksburg, paved. The store, bar and dance hall open daily.
4.Albert
A stage stop first called Martinsburg, renamed Albert in 1892. Young Lyndon Johnson went to its school for a year. In October 2007 the town was offered for sale on eBay.
- What's left
- By 1985 the store was gone. The school was a community club and the dance hall was used for storage. Albert had 25 people in 2000.
- Visiting
- On Williams Creek 16 miles southeast of Fredericksburg, a mile from the Blanco County line. We haven't confirmed what is open to visitors now.
5.Morris Ranch
A town that grew up around a thoroughbred horse ranch started in 1856. The Morris family closed it in 1902, the post office closed in 1954, and by 1968 no population was listed.
- What's left
- The stone schoolhouse, on the National Register since 1983, and other original buildings that were still standing in the 1980s.
- Visiting
- 8½ miles southwest of Fredericksburg. We haven't confirmed whether the schoolhouse or grounds are open, so plan to look from the road.
6.Cheapside
A cotton town of the 1880s with stores, a hotel, saloons and lodges. Its school closed in 1949, and its last store and post office closed in February 1989.
- What's left
- A community church and the old schoolhouse, used as a community center in 1990, and the ruins of the old settlement.
- Visiting
- On Ranch Road 2067, 21 miles southeast of Gonzales. We haven't found a recent visitor account.
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 San Antonio, keeping those within 180 minutes.
- 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.
Sources
- Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association: Helena, Frio Town, Luckenbach, Albert, Morris Ranch and Cheapside, checked October 19, 2026.
- Wikipedia: Albert, Texas, Morris Ranch, Texas and Cheapside, Texas.
- Luckenbach's opening: the Texas page on this site.
- 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: San Antonio city, Texas ranks 7 among US cities, with 1,548,422 people on July 1, 2025.
- Drive times and distances: OSRM routing on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), October 2026, from downtown San Antonio (29.4241, -98.4936) 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
- Helena: 25or6to4, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Frio Town: Darrylpearson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Luckenbach: Nicolas Henderson from Coppell, Texas, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- Albert: Renelibrary, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Morris Ranch: Renelibrary, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0