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History & Culture
Local Notes
History & Culture notes
Bowie County · History / Economy
A WWII military complex in Bowie County is now one of the largest industrial parks in the Americas
The Red River Army Depot and Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant, built on nearly 40,000 acres in Bowie County starting in 1941, shaped the county's growth and now operate in part as TexAmericas Center, a large industrial redevelopment.
Bowie County · History / Local government
Bowie County's legal county seat is Boston, but the courthouse is in New Boston
Bowie County, established in 1840 and named for Alamo defender James Bowie, has had its county seat moved more than once. The legal seat is still Boston, but county offices have operated in New Boston since a new courthouse was built there in 1986.
Bowie County · History
Texarkana's Federal Building straddles the Texas-Arkansas state line
The United States Post Office and Courthouse in downtown Texarkana was built in 1933 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the only federal building in the country that sits in two states at once.
Brazoria County · County Museum
Angleton Has County History in an Old Courthouse
The Brazoria County Historical Museum fills the county's 1897 courthouse in Angleton, with strong holdings on Stephen F. Austin's original colony.
Brazoria County · County Park
Angleton's Austin-Munson Park Has a Giant Austin Statue
A 76-foot statue of Stephen F. Austin towers over a 10-acre county park west of Angleton, the largest figure of the man who started Anglo Texas in the county where his colony began.
Brazoria County · History
Brazoria County Is Where the Republic of Texas Was Born
Brazoria County was settled by Stephen F. Austin's first authorized colonists in 1821, hosted the treaties that ended the Texas Revolution, and served as the site of the Republic of Texas's first capital.
Brazoria County · History / Industry
Lake Jackson Grew as a Dow-Planned Company Town During World War II
Lake Jackson began as a planned town for Dow's wartime Brazosport workforce, with construction starting on December 8, 1941 and the city incorporating in 1944.
Brazoria County · Historic Site
Levi Jordan's Archeology Reaches Beyond the Main House
This state historic site uses buildings and artifacts to interpret people who were enslaved and others who lived on a San Bernard River plantation.
Brazoria County · History / Industry
Oil and Sulfur Mining Shaped Brazoria County's Economy Before Petrochemicals Arrived
Brazoria County had significant oil production beginning in 1901 and became a leading sulfur-producing county in the early 20th century, laying the groundwork for the later petrochemical industry.
Brazoria County · Historic Site
Varner-Hogg Shows Sugar, Cattle, and Oil
The Varner-Hogg state historic site in West Columbia layers 134 years of Brazoria County history (sugar, cattle, and oil) onto one piece of ground.
Brazoria County · Texas Revolution
Velasco Is Where Two Texas Treaties Were Signed
The two Treaties of Velasco (the papers that ended the fighting after San Jacinto) were signed at Velasco, near today's Freeport, in Brazoria County.
Brazoria County · History
West Columbia Served as the First Capital of the Republic of Texas
The town of Columbia, present-day West Columbia in Brazoria County, was the seat of Texas's first elected government in 1836, where Sam Houston took the presidential oath and Stephen F. Austin died.
Brazos County · History
Brazos County: from Stephen F. Austin's colony to county seat at Bryan
Brazos County was created in 1841, originally named Navasota County, and moved its county seat from Boonville to Bryan in 1866 to follow the railroad.
Brazos County · History
Downtown Bryan's National Register Historic District
Downtown Bryan was added to the National Register of Historic Places in February 2026. It is known for its railroad-era buildings and its unusual diamond-shaped street grid.
Brazos County · History
Hall's Town: Bryan's Freedman community after the Civil War
Newly freed Black residents began buying land in Bryan's Hall's Addition as early as 1867, forming one of the county's first Freedman communities on the northeast edge of town.
Brazos County · History
Millican: the railroad town that boomed and faded in Brazos County
Millican was briefly one of the largest towns in Texas during the Civil War era when it was the Houston and Texas Central Railroad's northern end point, but it faded after the rails pushed north.
Brazos County · History
Texas A&M: Brazos County's land-grant university
Texas A&M University opened in College Station in 1876 on land donated by Brazos County residents. It was the first public college in Texas.
Brewster County · History / Historic District
Alpine's downtown was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2026
Alpine's downtown was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in spring 2026. The district spans about 40 blocks and includes nearly 300 buildings and sites near the Union Pacific tracks.
Brewster County · History / Mining
Terlingua's mercury mines drove Brewster County's early economy
The Chisos Mining Company at Terlingua was once a major U.S. mercury producer. When it collapsed, it left behind what is now called Terlingua Ghost Town.
Briscoe County · History
Tule Canyon and the End of the Comanche Era
Tule Canyon in Briscoe County was the site of a key 1874 military campaign. That campaign ended Comanche and Kiowa control of the Southern Plains and opened the door to the ranching and farming era that shaped the county.
Brooks County · History
How Brooks County Was Built: Ranching, Railroad, and Tejano Roots
Brooks County was formed from Starr County in 1911. It grew from a ranching tradition that goes back to Spanish and Mexican land grants from the late 1700s.
Brown County · History
Camp Bowie: Brown County's World War II Training Center
During World War II, a massive military training camp covering about 120,000 acres south of Brownwood trained more than a quarter million soldiers and housed German prisoners of war.
Burleson County · History / Czech heritage
Czech settlers shaped Burleson County towns, and the Caldwell Kolache Festival keeps that heritage alive
Czech immigrants who arrived in Burleson County in the 1880s founded several communities still recognizable today. Caldwell celebrates that heritage every September with its Kolache Festival.
Burnet County · County History
Burnet County began with a namesake, a new government, and a short-lived colony
Created in 1852 and named for Texas's first president, the county organized the same year a Mormon settlement was building mills nearby.
Burnet County · Local Industry & History
Granite Mountain's owners gave Texas the stone for its Capitol
After Austin limestone discolored, donated Sunset Red Granite and a special railroad tied a Burnet County hill to the Capitol walls.
Caldwell County · County Origins
Caldwell County carries Mathew Caldwell's name
Caldwell County was organized in 1848 and named for Mathew Caldwell, a Texas Ranger and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence.
Caldwell County · Historic Preservation
Lockhart's 1894 courthouse and downtown are on the National Register
Lockhart's 1894 courthouse anchors a nine-block historic district with sandstone walls, a mansard roof, and a small forest of towers.
Caldwell County · Oil History
Luling still wears its 1922 oil story in plain sight
Edgar B. Davis's 1922 discovery turned Luling into an oil boomtown, and decorated working pump jacks still carry that history through town.
Calhoun County · Coastal geography
Calhoun County Is Bay Country Before It Is Road Country
Lavaca Bay, Matagorda Bay, Espiritu Santo Bay, and San Antonio Bay make Calhoun feel more like a chain of water edges than a simple county map.
Calhoun County · Lighthouse history
Halfmoon Reef Lighthouse Brought Bay History Ashore
The Halfmoon Reef Lighthouse once marked Matagorda Bay, then moved to Port Lavaca after its working life on the water ended.
Calhoun County · History
Indianola: The Calhoun County Port That Two Hurricanes Erased
Indianola was once one of the busiest ports in Texas, serving as a gateway for immigrants and frontier supply lines, before back-to-back hurricanes in 1875 and 1886 destroyed the town and pushed the county seat to Port Lavaca.
Calhoun County · Coastal industry
Point Comfort Began as an ALCOA Company Town
ALCOA began building Point Comfort as planned worker housing in 1949, with streets and utilities laid out before the first homes.
Calhoun County · Coastal community
Port O'Connor Faces the Bays Like a Fishing Porch
Port O'Connor grew on the edge of Matagorda Bay, where rail plans, seafood work, storms, and later tourism all left marks.
Calhoun County · Coastal community
Seadrift Carries Storm Drift in Its Name
Seadrift took its name from debris that heavy Gulf storms blew onto the shore.
Callahan County · Local History
Baird became the county seat because of the railroad
Callahan County had two earlier county seats before Baird, and the railroad decided which town survived and which one faded away.
Cameron County · Economic History
A Railroad Arrived in 1904 and Transformed Cameron County's Economy
The St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway reached the Rio Grande Valley in 1904, triggering a land boom and the rise of commercial agriculture.
Cameron County · City History
Brownsville Grew Up Around a U.S. Army Fort on the Rio Grande
Brownsville was founded in 1848 by merchant Charles Stillman near Fort Brown, the U.S. Army post built opposite Matamoros, Mexico.
Cameron County · County History
Cameron County Is Named for a Soldier of the Mier Expedition
Cameron County was created in 1848 and named for Captain Ewen Cameron, a Scottish soldier killed in Mexico during the ill-fated Mier Expedition.
Cameron County · National Historic Site
Palo Alto Battlefield Is a National Historical Park Near Brownsville
Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park preserves the site of the first major battle of the Mexican-American War, fought in Cameron County in 1846.
Cameron County · Tejano Heritage
Spanish and Mexican Land Grants Shaped Cameron County's Land History
Much of Cameron County's land was first granted under Spanish and Mexican rule. Fights over those land grants shaped life here for decades after the Mexican-American War.
Cameron County · Civil War History
The Last Land Battle of the Civil War Was Fought in Cameron County
The Battle of Palmito Ranch, fought in May 1865 near Brownsville, is recognized as the final land engagement of the American Civil War.
Cameron County · Port / Trade
The Port of Brownsville Is a Major Deep-Water Port on the Gulf Coast
Completed in 1936, the Port of Brownsville gave the Rio Grande Valley direct access to Gulf shipping and helped anchor the regional economy.
Camp County · County History
How Camp County Came to Be — and Why Two Railroads Matter
Camp County was carved from Upshur County in 1874 and grew quickly when two railroads crossed at Pittsburg in the late 1870s.
Carson County · Local History
Panhandle Was Built by the Railroad and Cattle Drives
The town of Panhandle was founded in 1888 as a railroad stop and became a major cattle shipping point for the region.
Cass County · County History
Linden: how Cass County got its county seat
Cass County was formed in 1846. Its county seat moved from Jefferson to Linden in 1852 after a boundary change split off Marion County.
Castro County · County History
Castro County was named for a French-born empresario, not a rancher
Castro County takes its name from Henri Castro, a 19th-century diplomat and land agent for the Republic of Texas.
Castro County · County Seat
Dimmitt is a small farming town about 55 miles southwest of Amarillo
Dimmitt anchors Castro County's economy through agriculture, food processing, and livestock industries.
Chambers County · Early history
A Spanish Mission Once Stood Near Present-Day Wallisville
Spain built a mission near what is now Wallisville in 1756. Before that, the area was home to Karankawa, Coapite, and Copane peoples.
Chambers County · County history
Anahuac Was Not Always the County Seat
Chambers County was formed in 1858 with Wallisville as its county seat. By 1908, Anahuac supporters won a lawsuit to move the seat there, and the courthouse has been in Anahuac ever since.
Chambers County · Oil and gas history
Chambers County Has Over a Century of Oil Production
The Barbers Hill oilfield, developed after 1918, helped shape modern Chambers County, where cumulative oil production had passed 907 million barrels by 2004.
Chambers County · Agricultural history
Chambers County Was Cattle Country Long Before Oil
Longhorn cattle were in what is now Chambers County as early as 1827. By 1900 the county had roughly 49,000 head, making ranching the base of the local economy before oil arrived.
Cherokee County · Caddo History
Caddo Mounds Is Ancient Ground With Living Caddo Stewardship
Near Alto, three earthen mounds and more than 110 acres of village ground tell an ancestral Caddo story still shaped by Caddo knowledge.
Cherokee County · Ghost Town
Cherokee County Once Tried to Build an Iron City
New Birmingham rose beside Rusk with furnaces, factories, electric lights, a street railway, and a hotel before money and fire ended the boom.
Cherokee County · County History
Cherokee County Was Named for the People Who Were Forced Out of It
Cherokee County was established in 1846 from Nacogdoches County and takes its name from the Cherokee people who lived in the region before being expelled in 1839.
Cherokee County · Tomato Country
Craft Put Cherokee County's Tomato Crop on the Railroad
The small community south of Jacksonville grew around rail access, packing sheds, and the tomato trade that shaped the county's public identity.
Cherokee County · Geography & Land
East Texas Timber and Sandy Soil Shape Cherokee County
Cherokee County sits in the East Texas Piney Woods, with sandy and clay loam soils, pine and hardwood timber, rivers, reservoirs, and a long timber-and-land economy.
Cherokee County · County Seat
Rusk Is the County Seat and Largest Town in Cherokee County
Rusk, the county seat, is home to the courthouse, the Rusk State Hospital, and the east terminus of the Texas State Railroad.
Cherokee County · Historic Railroad
The Texas State Railroad Runs Through Cherokee County
The Texas State Railroad, originally built in 1893 to support a state prison and iron ore operations near Rusk, is now a heritage railway attraction.
Childress County · County History
How Childress Became the County Seat
Childress County was created in 1876 but sat empty for over a decade. It only came alive when the railroad arrived in 1887, sparking a fight between two rival towns over who would be the county seat.
Clay County · History / Settlement
Clay County was named for Henry Clay and abandoned during the Civil War
Clay County was split from Cooke County in 1857, named for Kentucky statesman Henry Clay, and had fewer than 110 residents by 1860 before settlers abandoned it during the Civil War.