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State hub · Texas
Texas ghost towns come out of almost every boom the state has had. Mining camps grew in the Big Bend country, where Terlingua produced quicksilver and Shafter silver, and in Erath County, where Thurber was the largest company town in Texas, with 8,000 to 10,000 people around 1920. Frontier forts drew supply towns like Fort Griffin, and Tascosa grew at a Canadian River crossing into one of the first towns in the Panhandle. Railroads made and broke towns: both of those faded after the tracks went elsewhere. On the Gulf, hurricanes in 1875 and 1886 destroyed Indianola, once the second port of Texas, and in 1973 Interstate 40 bypassed Glenrio, a Route 66 stop on the New Mexico line.
Oil and mill towns followed in the 20th century: Texon in the Permian Basin had about 1,200 people in 1933 and fewer than 10 by 1996, and East Texas mill towns like Manning emptied when the mill workers left. What survives is usually modest: a cemetery, a church, stone walls or a historical marker by a farm road. A few places became attractions or kept small populations, like Terlingua near Big Bend National Park and Luckenbach outside Fredericksburg. Fort Griffin is a state historic site and Thurber has a university-run museum. Only 1.9 percent of Texas is federal land, and most other sites are on private property.
Town guides
Our complete guides, most-read first: history, what's left, current access, photos, maps and directions.
GuideGillespie County
A German farm hamlet of 492 people in 1904 that had nearly emptied by the 1960s. Hondo Crouch bought it in 1971, and a hit song made it famous.…
GuideBrewster County
The camp of the Chisos Mining Company, once the source of much of the nation's quicksilver. It emptied after the company failed in 1942, and now its…
GuideCalhoun County
Texas's second port, where German immigrants and the Army's camels came ashore. Two hurricanes destroyed it, and most of the townsite now lies under…
GuideWashington County
The town where Texas declared independence in 1836 and later a capital of the Republic. It turned down the railroad in 1858, and by 1889 most of it…
GuideComal County
A German cotton town on the Guadalupe that the boll weevil and the Depression emptied by 1950. A kayaker and a dance hall brought it back. Today it…
GuideShackelford County
Fort ruins overlook the Clear Fork of the Brazos. Below the military post, merchants and buffalo hunters built a separate civilian town.
GuideDeaf Smith County
A railroad siding that became a Route 66 stop straddling two states. Interstate 40 passed it by in 1973, and its motels, cafes and gas stations stand…
GuideOldham County
A Canadian River crossing became the Panhandle’s cattle-trade town. Its courthouse now houses a museum on an active residential campus.
GuideErath County
A company coal town that held perhaps 10,000 people around 1920 and was nearly empty twenty years later. Its brick smokestack still stands beside…
GuidePresidio County
A silver-mining town in the Chinati Mountains, on US 67 between Marfa and Presidio. Between 11 and 30 people have lived there in recent decades, and…
GuideKarnes County
Once the most important town between San Antonio and Goliad, and by legend "the toughest town on earth." The railroad passed it by, and its 1873…
GuideFayette County
A Czech settlement named for Prague that lost its trade to a railroad town a mile away. Twenty-five people lived here in 2000, around one of the most…
GuideWashington County
Coles' Settlement became Independence, a college town where Baylor University began and Sam Houston joined the church. Baylor left in 1885, and the…
GuideCulberson County
A Southern Pacific water stop became a cotton-farming town on US 90. Its empty motel and roadside buildings survive south of Van Horn.
GuideGillespie County
A stage stop renamed for the storekeeper who moved here from Luckenbach. The town was put up for sale on eBay in 2007, and its icehouse and dance…
GuideWard County
A Pecos River irrigation town and Ward County's first seat. Its farms failed after a 1904 flood and its courthouse went to Monahans in 1938, but…
GuideMontague County
A Taovaya village here beat a Spanish army in 1759. A century later cowboys on the Chisholm Trail rode in for supplies. Now most of the buildings on…
GuideGillespie County
A town built around a big thoroughbred operation. The horses left in 1902, the post office in 1954, and the stone schoolhouse now stands on a private…
GuideFrio County
The first seat of Frio County, at an old Spanish river crossing. The railroad missed it in 1880, and the stone courthouse and jail now stand in the…
GuideCallahan County
A town laid out around a college in 1875 and made county seat in 1877. The railroad went to Baird, the courthouse followed in 1883, and the college…
GuideGonzales County
A cotton town with a hotel, saloons and a deputy to keep order. The gin closed in the 1940s and the last store in 1989. A church and the old…
GuideMilam County
A river port with a college and over 1,400 people in 1870. The railroads went to Hearne and Calvert instead, and twenty years later the town had…
GuideOldham County
A ranch headquarters and railroad switch halfway between Vega and Adrian that never had more than a few dozen people. What's left is a closed…
Watch
Desert mining camps, a surviving smokestack, and old Route 66. Explore the history, maps and access notes before you go.
Where to start
Open attractions, living towns and true ruins, with their current status.
Brewster County
Quicksilver camp near Big Bend National Park, emptied after its mining company failed in 1942. Stone ruins and a cemetery still in use sit beside a small town of restaurants and lodging.
Erath County
Coal and brick company town of up to 10,000 people, a virtual ghost town by the late 1930s. A smokestack, a cemetery and Tarleton State University's W. K. Gordon Center museum stand beside I-20.
Shackelford County
Buffalo-hunter town, called the Flat, below an Army fort that closed in 1881. The fort ruins are a state historic site open daily; only remnants of the town survive.
Gillespie County
Hill Country settlement of 492 people in 1904 and nearly a ghost town by the 1960s, bought by Hondo Crouch and partners in 1970. The general store, bar and dance hall open daily.
Oldham County
Cowboy town on the Canadian River that faded after the railroad passed it by. Its 1884 courthouse is a museum on the campus of Cal Farley's Boys Ranch, with Boot Hill cemetery nearby.
Deaf Smith County
Rock Island railroad town of 1903 on the New Mexico line, later a Route 66 stop. Interstate 40 bypassed it in 1973; empty motels, cafes and gas stations line the old road.
Calhoun County
Gulf port of 5,000 people wrecked by hurricanes in 1875 and 1886 and declared dead in 1887. Most of the townsite is under Matagorda Bay; markers and a La Salle statue stand by a small fishing village.
Presidio County
Silver camp on US 67 north of Presidio that produced about 31 million ounces from 1883 to 1940. A new owner bought the idle mine in 2025, and in January 2026 the Big Bend Sentinel saw trucks and workers back at the site. A few people still live in town.
Culberson County
Railroad stop and cotton town on US 90 south of Van Horn. Its wells ran short in the 1960s and it was abandoned in 1991. Three Germans owned it from 2001 and sold it to a Corpus Christi couple in October 2023; a January 2025 report lists a gas station, motel, grocery store and some houses still standing.
Near a city
Driving distance and time from downtown, routed over OpenStreetMap roads. Dirt roads are usually slower than the estimate.
Directory
Every town, camp and settlement in our Texas index, with its county. A ◦ marks sites already on the map.
No sites match. Try fewer letters or another county.
Plan a trip
In the Big Bend country the desert floor is usually well above 100°F by late morning from May through August, and July to September brings thunderstorms and flash floods. Spring is Big Bend's busiest season, and winter is usually mild and sunny. On the coast, the Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30, with most storms from mid-August to mid-October.
Only 1.9 percent of Texas is federal land. Outside parks and historic sites, treat a ghost town as private: look from the public road and ask before you walk in. Lobo has had private owners since 2001. Tascosa's courthouse and Boot Hill are on the campus of Cal Farley's Boys Ranch, a home for at-risk children, where visitors check in at headquarters and adults show photo ID.
Under the state's Antiquities Code, anyone but the owner who removes or damages a historical structure, marker or artifact without lawful authority commits a misdemeanor. Texas state parks require a permit for metal detectors, and national parks such as Big Bend ban them along with disturbing any historic structure or artifact.
Many Texas ghost towns still have people. Terlingua's cemetery, with graves from the 1900s mining era, is still used, and the town holds a Día de los Muertos observance there every year. Terlingua had 78 residents at the 2020 census and Thurber 48 in 2010. Stay on public roads and out of yards.
FAQ
It depends on the definition. Wikipedia's list sorts Texas sites into five classes, from barren sites with nothing left to historic communities that kept a fraction of their people. Our index has 654 sites.
Terlingua is the best known: stone ruins and a historic cemetery beside a small town with food and lodging, a few miles from Big Bend National Park. Closer to Dallas and Fort Worth, Fort Griffin State Historic Site is open daily, and Thurber's W. K. Gordon Center museum is open six days a week.
From downtown Dallas, Thurber is just under two hours west and Fort Griffin about three and a half. From Houston, Velasco, now part of Freeport, is about an hour and a quarter and Washington-on-the-Brazos about an hour and a half. From San Antonio, Gruene, now a historic district of New Braunfels, is under an hour, and Helena, Camp Verde and Luckenbach take about an hour and a quarter.
Usually. Only 1.9 percent of the state is federal land, so most sites outside state parks and historic sites are on private ranches and farms. Lobo has been privately owned since 2001, and Tascosa's remains are on the Cal Farley's Boys Ranch campus. Ask the owner before you go past a fence or gate.
Not without permission. On private land you need the owner's consent, and state law bars anyone but the owner from removing historical artifacts or markers without lawful authority. Texas state parks require a permit for metal detectors, and national parks such as Big Bend prohibit them.
October to April for West Texas and the Big Bend, where summer highs at low elevations pass 100°F. On the Gulf coast, avoid the peak of hurricane season, mid-August to mid-October.
Abandoned