Topic
History & Culture
Texas has stories you will not find anywhere else — six flags over one state, missions and cattle trails, oil booms and ghost towns, courthouse squares and county namesakes. Pull up a chair for the history and culture that gives each Texas place its character.
Local Notes
History & Culture notes
Anderson County · County history
Anderson County Was Named for a Vice President Who Never Saw It Formed
Kenneth Lewis Anderson presided over Texas's annexation vote, left the session sick, and died at Fanthorp Inn. Months later, lawmakers gave his name to a new East Texas county.
Anderson County · Local identity / Parks
Palestine Is Texas's Official Dogwood Trails Capital
Palestine's Dogwood Trails Capital title grows from a public bloom route begun in 1939 and a wooded park built by local volunteers.
Anderson County · History / Economy
The Railroad Gave Palestine a Second Downtown
When railroad tracks, shops, and offices rose away from Palestine's courthouse, businesses followed and created the district still remembered as New Town.
Anderson County · History / Railroad
The Texas State Railroad Still Leaves Palestine for Rusk
A railroad built out from the Rusk prison ironworks now carries excursion passengers from Palestine through the Piney Woods toward Rusk.
Andrews County · History
Andrews County: named for a Revolution hero, built by oil
Andrews County takes its name from Richard Andrews, one of the first men to die in the Texas Revolution, and later became an oil powerhouse after a gusher struck in 1929.
Angelina County · History
Angelina County is named after a Hasinai Caddo woman from the 1690s
The county takes its name from a Hainai woman known as Angelina. Spanish records say she helped missionaries in East Texas around 1690 and worked as an interpreter.
Angelina County · Lumber town
Diboll Was Built Around Southern Pine Lumber
Diboll grew from Thomas L. L. Temple's sawmill and the Southern Pine Lumber Company, not from a courthouse square.
Angelina County · Old county seat
Homer Was Angelina County's County Seat Before Lufkin
A quiet marker south of Lufkin points back to Homer, the county-seat community Angelina County used before the railroad pulled power toward Lufkin.
Angelina County · Railroad town
Huntington Started With Rail, Timber, and a Rowdy Lot Sale
Huntington formed east of Lufkin after the railroad reached the pine country and a 1900 lot sale kicked off the new community.
Angelina County · History
Lufkin grew from a railroad stop into an East Texas lumber and paper hub
Lufkin was founded in 1882 as a stop on the Houston, East and West Texas Railway and grew into a major center of the East Texas timber industry.
Aransas County · History
How Aransas County Grew: From Cattle Packeries to Shrimping
Aransas County was formed in 1871 out of Refugio County, with Rockport as its seat. The town started with cattle slaughter and shipping, then shifted to fishing, shrimping, and tourism.
Archer County · History / Literature
Archer City is the hometown of novelist Larry McMurtry
Larry McMurtry grew up in Archer City. He based much of his early fiction on the town, and the 1971 film of The Last Picture Show was shot there.
Armstrong County · History / Ranching
The JA Ranch: A National Historic Landmark Still Operating in Armstrong County
The JA Ranch in Palo Duro Canyon was founded in 1876 by Charles Goodnight and John Adair. It is the oldest continuously operating cattle ranch in the Texas Panhandle and a National Historic Landmark.
Atascosa County · History / Architecture
Atascosa County Courthouse: the only Mission Revival courthouse in Texas
The 1912 courthouse in Jourdanton is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Texas Historical Commission says it is the only Mission Revival courthouse still standing in Texas.
Atascosa County · History / Agriculture
Poteet and the strawberry heritage of Atascosa County
Poteet in southern Atascosa County became a strawberry hub in the early 1900s. The town has held an annual festival since 1948 to celebrate that history.
Atascosa County · History / Tejano heritage
Rancho del Atascoso: the county's deep roots in Spanish mission ranching
Long before Anglo settlement, this land was ranched by mission-connected communities. Mexican and Tejano land grants shaped who owned the county in its early years.
Austin County · History / Immigration
Austin County was a gateway for German and Czech immigrants to Texas
The towns of Industry and Cat Spring in Austin County were two of the earliest immigrant settlements in Texas. Industry was the first permanent German settlement. Cat Spring was the main starting point for Czech immigrants spreading across the state.
Austin County · History / State historic site
San Felipe de Austin was the original capital of Texas's first Anglo colony
The San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site in Austin County preserves the townsite of the first colonial capital of Stephen F. Austin's settlement, burned by its own residents during the Texas Revolution and now open to the public with a museum and trails.
Bailey County · History
Bailey County Was XIT Ranch Territory Before Becoming Farm Country
Bailey County was named for an Alamo defender, spent its early years as part of the giant XIT Ranch, and became cotton and grain farmland after the railroad arrived in 1913.
Bandera County · History
Bandera County grew from a sawmill settlement into a cattle trail hub
Bandera County was carved from Bexar County in 1856. It was built first on cypress lumber, then on cattle drives. Polish Catholic immigrants were among its earliest settlers.
Bandera County · Courthouse
Bandera's Courthouse Gives Main Street Its Limestone Anchor
The 1890-91 Bandera County Courthouse at 504 Main Street is a locally quarried limestone building that still anchors the county seat.
Bandera County · Museum
Frontier Times Museum Grew From One Printer's Collection
J. Marvin Hunter's Frontier Times magazine and growing relic collection led to a Bandera museum that opened in 1933.
Bandera County · County park
Mansfield Park Carries Bandera County's Event Ground
Mansfield Park is built for county gatherings, with a rodeo arena, cattle pens, a recreation hall, pavilions, and RV space.
Bandera County · Medina
Medina's Apple Story Started With Dwarf Orchards in the 1980s
Medina's Apple Capital nickname has a specific local root: experimental dwarf apple orchards planted in the 1980s.
Bandera County · Settlement history
Polly's Chapel Keeps a Tejano Frontier Story in Stone
Polly's Chapel ties a rural Bandera County place to Policarpo Rodriguez, a Texas Ranger, Army scout, guide, and 1858 settler.
Bastrop County · Downtown
Bastrop's Main Street District Is a 62-Block Downtown Core
Bastrop's Main Street program gives the historic downtown a civic shape: a 62-block district, more than 200 businesses and organizations, and a preservation mission as of July 2026.
Bastrop County · History
CCC Craftsmen Built Bastrop State Park in the 1930s
Bastrop State Park's stone cabins, refectory, and trails were built by Civilian Conservation Corps workers starting in 1933. That work earned the park National Historic Landmark status in 1997.
Bastrop County · Historic trail
El Camino Real Still Runs Through Downtown Bastrop
Downtown Bastrop sits on El Camino Real de los Tejas, where the Colorado River crossing made the town a travel and trade hinge.
Bastrop County · Downtown
Local Brick Gives Elgin's Historic Downtown Its Look
Elgin's downtown historic district carries the city's brick-and-railroad identity in 14 blocks of commercial and industrial buildings.
Bastrop County · Railroad town
Smithville Grew Around the Railroad Tracks
Smithville's downtown story runs through the Taylor, Bastrop and Houston railroad, the MKT shops, and the old Main Street commercial district.
Bastrop County · History
The Man Behind the Name: Baron de Bastrop
Bastrop County is named for Felipe Enrique Neri, a Dutch man who called himself Baron de Bastrop and helped Stephen F. Austin secure land grants from Mexico.
Baylor County · History
How Baylor County and Seymour came to be
Baylor County was created in 1858 and organized in 1879, with Seymour as the county seat. Cattle, cotton, and wheat built the early economy, and oil arrived in 1924.
Bee County · History / Military
Chase Field: Bee County's Former Naval Air Station
Naval Air Station Chase Field operated near Beeville from 1943 to 1993, training Navy and Marine jet pilots before closing after the Cold War.
Bee County · History / Architecture
The Bee County Courthouse: A Beaux Arts Landmark in Beeville
The 1913 Bee County Courthouse in Beeville was restored with state funding through the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program.
Bell County · History / Courthouse
Bell County Courthouse: Belton's 1884 landmark
The Bell County Courthouse in Belton, completed in 1884 from local limestone, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and anchors the county seat's historic downtown.
Bell County · History / Military
Fort Hood and Bell County's military history
Fort Hood, established in 1942 near Killeen, transformed Bell County from a farming region into one of the most military-connected communities in the United States.
Bell County · History
How Bell County was settled and who was here first
Bell County was created by Texas in 1850 and named for Governor Peter H. Bell. The land had been home to Tonkawa, Lipan Apache, and Comanche peoples before Anglo settlers arrived in the 1830s.
Bell County · History / Natural landmark
Salado Springs and the Chisholm Trail in Bell County
The Salado Springs in southern Bell County are artesian springs that were a major water stop on the Chisholm Trail cattle drives from the 1860s through 1885.
Bell County · Geography / History
The Balcones Escarpment divides Bell County into two different landscapes
The Balcones Escarpment runs through Bell County, separating flat Blackland Prairie to the east from rockier limestone terrain to the west.
Bell County · History / Social
The Belton Woman's Commonwealth: a 19th-century self-governing commune
A group of Protestant women in Belton formed a self-supporting commune in the 1870s, ran a hotel and laundry, and left behind the foundation for the city's first public library.
Bell County · History / Education
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor: from republic-era charter to Belton campus
The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton traces its roots to 1845, when the Republic of Texas chartered it as the women's division of what became Baylor University.
Bexar County · History / Culture
African American history in San Antonio stretches from slavery through the Civil Rights era
San Antonio's East Side grew as a center of African American life after emancipation. The Black community there shaped the city's culture, churches, and civil rights history.
Bexar County · Demographics
Bexar County crossed two million people and kept growing
The 2020 Census counted 2,009,324 Bexar County residents, nearly 295,000 more than in 2010, and the 2025 estimate was higher still.
Bexar County · History / Records
Bexar County's Spanish Archives are among the oldest government records in the US
The Bexar County Clerk's Spanish Archives hold thousands of documents from the early 1700s. They are among the most important colonial-era government records in Texas.
Bexar County · History
Canary Island settlers founded Texas's first civilian government in San Antonio in 1731
Fifty-six colonists from the Canary Islands arrived in San Antonio in 1731 and established San Fernando de Béxar, the first formally organized civil government in Texas, and their descendants shaped the city for generations.
Bexar County · History / Trails
El Camino Real de Los Tejas National Historic Trail runs through Bexar County
El Camino Real de Los Tejas, the Royal Road to Texas, passed through what is now Bexar County. Congress made it a National Historic Trail in 2004.
Bexar County · History / Culture
German immigrants shaped the Hill Country towns surrounding Bexar County
German immigrants arrived in the Texas Hill Country starting in the 1840s. They built towns just outside Bexar County whose food, music, and buildings still shape San Antonio today.
Bexar County · Market Square
Historic Market Square Keeps a Downtown Market Tradition Visible
Historic Market Square is a city-managed downtown district of more than 100 locally owned shops and stalls, a living piece of San Antonio's Mexican American market tradition.
Bexar County · Historic Preservation
King William Anchored San Antonio's Local Historic District System
King William became San Antonio's first local historic district when the city created its preservation review system in 1968.
Bexar County · Historic District
La Villita Became a Historic Arts Village Beside Downtown
La Villita survived because San Antonio chose repairs over demolition in 1939. The old neighborhood found new life as an arts village beside the river.
Bexar County · History / Culture
San Antonio saved its river bend, then learned to walk beside it
After the deadly 1921 flood, San Antonio nearly paved over a downtown river bend before Robert H. H. Hugman's walkway plan offered another future.
Bexar County · History
San Antonio was founded in 1718 as a Spanish colonial outpost
Spanish Governor Martín de Alarcón founded San Antonio in May 1718. He built a fort, a mission, and the start of a civilian settlement along the San Antonio River.
Bexar County · Outdoor Theater
Sunken Garden Theater Turns Quarry History Into a Performance Space
Sunken Garden Theater is an open-air amphitheater carved into an old limestone quarry next to Brackenridge Park, with a back wall made of the quarry's own rock.
Bexar County · History / Culture
Tejanos have been central to Bexar County from its founding through the Texas Revolution
Tejano history is built into Bexar County: San Antonio grew from Spanish and Mexican Texas, and Juan Seguín carried that local story into the Texas Revolution.
Bexar County · History
The Battle of the Alamo in 1836 became the defining event of the Texas Revolution
The 13-day siege at the Alamo in February and March 1836, where roughly 200 Texian defenders faced the Mexican Army under Santa Anna, became a rallying symbol for Texas independence.
Blanco County · History / County origins
Blanco County Had Two County Seats — and Two Courthouses
Blanco County was created in 1858 with the town of Blanco as its seat, but a contested move in 1891 shifted county government to Johnson City — leaving behind an 1885 limestone courthouse that still stands today.
Blanco County · History / National park
LBJ National Historical Park Has Sites in and Near Johnson City
Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park preserves sites tied to the 36th president across two districts, including his boyhood home in Johnson City and his working ranch along the Pedernales River.
Borden County · History
Borden County and Its Seat, Gail, Are Both Named for the Same Man
Borden County was created in 1876 and named for Gail Borden Jr., a Texas patriot, surveyor, and inventor, whose name also became the county seat when it was established in 1891.
Bosque County · History
Bosque County was home to a significant Norwegian immigrant community starting in 1854
Starting in 1854, Norwegian immigrants settled in a triangle around present-day Clifton, Norse, and Cranfills Gap, creating a lasting cultural presence still visible in the area today.
Bosque County · History / Architecture
The 1886 Bosque County Courthouse was restored to its Victorian design in 2007
The Bosque County Courthouse in Meridian is a three-story limestone building from 1886, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and restored between 2005 and 2007 with Texas Historical Commission support.
Related topics