Abandoned Towns
The weathered wooden Magnolia service station in Texola, its canopy sagging, beside a street

Railroad and road town · Farm and ranch town · On Route 66

Texola

The last Oklahoma town on Route 66 before Texas. It peaked at 581 people in 1930, lost the highway traffic to I-40 in 1975, and now has a few dozen residents among empty buildings.

35°13′21″N 99°59′35″W · ≈2,150 ft

Photo: Crimsonedge34, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Overview

The last stop before Texas

Old Route 66 through Texola at sunset, April 2011
Old Route 66 through Texola at sunset, April 2011 · Photo: John Phelan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

Texola sits a mile east of the Texas line on old Route 66, in western Beckham County. Its post office opened on December 12, 1901, and the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad came through in 1902. Before it was Texola, the townsite was called Texokla and Texoma. Its spot so near the state line was surveyed eight times.

Cotton kept it going. In 1909 Texola had two gins, a gristmill, a bank, three hotels and four churches. The population peaked at 581 in 1930, the year the Magnolia Petroleum Company built a service station on Route 66, and then fell to 45 by 1990. Interstate 40 was completed to the north in 1975 and took the highway traffic with it.

Texola is still an incorporated town, with 43 people in 2020. A 2025 travel report says its last restaurant and bar have closed. What draws Route 66 travelers is the empty Magnolia station, the one-room jail in a field and a row of derelict businesses.

Timeline

Cotton, the railroad and Route 66

An abandoned house with a collapsed roof, 2017
An abandoned house with a collapsed roof, 2017 · Photo: Gorup de Besanez, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
An empty frame house with a dormer, 2017
An empty frame house with a dormer, 2017 · Photo: Gorup de Besanez, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
  1. A post office opens with Reuben H. Grimes as postmaster. The townsite, in northern Greer County, has also been called Texokla and Texoma.
  2. The Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad is built through. The weekly Texola Herald starts.
  3. Statehood. Texola becomes part of the new Beckham County.
  4. Two cotton gins, a gristmill, a bank, general stores, three hotels, two restaurants and four churches.
  5. The census counts 361 people. A small jail dates from about this time; Wikipedia also gives the late 1800s.
  6. Peak population: 581. The Magnolia Petroleum Company builds a service station on Route 66.
  7. I-40 is completed to the north and takes the Route 66 traffic.
  8. The Magnolia Service Station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
  9. The census counts 43 people.

What's here

A gas station, a jail and a bar

An old bar on 5th Street, the Route 66 alignment, in 2008
An old bar on 5th Street, the Route 66 alignment, in 2008 · Photo: CTLiotta, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
An abandoned restaurant and service station, February 2023
An abandoned restaurant and service station, February 2023 · Photo: TheDoctorWho, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Magnolia Service Station stands at the southwest corner of Elm Street and Route 66. It was built in 1930, closed for good in the 1980s according to Islands, and was listed on the National Register in 1995. Photos from 2015 show it empty, its wooden canopy sagging. The one-room cinderblock jail, built around 1910 by the same 2025 account, stands deserted in a field, with a memorial to the class of 1939 in front. Along the old highway are derelict businesses, including the former Last Stop Bar and the overgrown Friendly Cafe at Grand Avenue and Route 66.

  • Magnolia Service Station (1930, National Register)
  • One-room jail
  • Former Last Stop Bar
  • Former Friendly Cafe
  • Empty storefronts and houses

The historic maps below show the town on the state line. The 1955 sheet shows US 66 and the railroad running east from Texola to Erick, and the 1961 sheet shows the street grid on US 66 just south of the railroad, with the highway marked four-lane east of town.

USGS topographic map of Texola south of the I-40 interchange, with 5th Street running east
USGS The National Map, topo. N 1675 runs south from the I-40 interchange and becomes Grand Avenue in town; 5th Street runs east. The dashed Wheeler–Beckham county line at left is the Texas line.
Aerial view of Texola's street grid, houses and empty lots among farm fields
Aerial imagery, same area. Houses and empty lots in the grid, with farm fields all around.

Historic maps

Texola on USGS maps, 1955–1961

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Texola, 1955
Clinton sheet, 1955, 1:250,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Day trip

Plan a day trip to Texola from Sayre

Take it with you

Day trip itinerary

The essentials, the sample day with boxes to tick, what to photograph and the coordinates, on two printable pages. Handy where there's no signal.

Download the PDF (509 KB)

Texola is a short Route 66 stop at the Texas line, about 25 minutes from Sayre on I-40. See the Magnolia station, the jail and the old businesses along the highway, then head back to Sayre to eat.

A sample day

  1. Leave downtown Sayre for I-40 west. It's about 25 minutes to exit 1.
  2. Start at the Magnolia station on Route 66, then walk the old highway past the closed businesses.
  3. Find the one-room jail in its field.
  4. Head back east on I-40 to Sayre for lunch.

What to photograph and film

  • The Magnolia station. Step back across the street to fit the building and its sagging canopy in one frame.
  • The old businesses. Shoot down the old highway with low morning sun to line up the empty storefronts.
  • The jail. A small building alone in a field. A wide shot shows how little is around it.

Map & directions

Getting there

Texola is at I-40 exit 1, the first exit east of the Texas line. Sayre is the nearest city with services, about 25 minutes east, and downtown Oklahoma City is about 2 hours 40 minutes away.

Topographic map from Sayre west to Texola along I-40, with the route drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Sayre22.7 miabout 25 min
  1. From downtown Sayre, head south on South 4th Street, Business I-40 and US 283.1.9 mi
  2. Take the ramp and merge onto I-40 west.20.2 mi
  3. Take exit 1.0.2 mi
  4. Turn left onto Grand Avenue into Texola.0.4 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • Paved interstate to exit 1, then town streets.
  • People live in Texola. Look at the empty buildings from the street, and don't go inside.

Photos

Texola in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Texola?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Texola

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Oklahoma index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, "Texola" (Linda D. Wilson, updated 2024): post office, earlier names, Greer and Beckham counties, railroad, newspaper, 1909 businesses, populations 1910–2020, I-40, National Register listing.
  2. Wikipedia, "Texola, Oklahoma", retrieved October 2026: eight surveys, Route 66 as 5th Street, I-40 completion in 1975, exit 1, jail dates, Magnolia station built in 1930, coordinates.
  3. National Register of Historic Places, Magnolia Service Station (95000028): location at Elm Street and US 66, Magnolia Petroleum Co., 1930.
  4. Islands, "Oklahoma's Once-Thriving Town On Route 66" (Rene Bennett, May 31, 2025): 40 residents as of 2023, the last restaurant and bar closed, the jail, the Magnolia station's closing in the 1980s, the Last Stop Bar and Friendly Cafe.
  5. City and town population estimates for Oklahoma, Vintage 2024, U.S. Census Bureau: July 2024 estimate of 41 for Texola town.
  6. ghosttowns.com, "Texola": fact-sheet cross-check (county, 2WD roads).
  7. Commons file pages for each photo: dates and places taken. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits