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History & Culture
Local Notes
History & Culture notes
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.
Camp County · Downtown
Pittsburg's Main Intersection Changes All Four Street Names
Mount Pleasant becomes Rusk and Jefferson becomes Quitman at downtown Pittsburg's main intersection; the westbound road then crooks toward the railroad.
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.
Carson County · White Deer
Two Markers Hold White Deer's Polish Story
On Sacred Heart's North Main grounds, two markers connect an 1854 voyage and long walk to a 1909 Panhandle move, a tornado classroom, and a sausage festival.
Cass County · Early town lots
A center hall carried Queen City through its early years
A house begun after Queen City's 1877 lot auction later served merchants, a doctor, and patients needing emergency care.
Cass County · Railroad city
Atlanta keeps its railroad beginning at the depot
Railroad tracks, sawmills, and later oil shaped Atlanta; its restored depot gathers those chapters under one roof.
Cass County · Railroad shift
Avinger moved one mile toward the railroad
Mail and business shifted about a mile from Hickory Hill after a narrow-gauge railroad reached the area in 1876.
Cass County · Railroad edge
Cass County once had a railroad just 7½ miles long
A local company rebuilt a logging route into a tiny common-carrier railroad between Atlanta and Bloomburg.
Cass County · Courthouse
Cass County's 1859 courthouse wears a 1930s face
Linden's working courthouse began before the Civil War, finished after it, and now presents the Classical Revival look restored from 1934.
Cass County · Springs and iron
Iron water named Hughes Springs before the railroad arrived
Iron-rich springs drew an early settlement, an iron furnace, camp meetings, and eventually a railroad town called Hughes Springs.
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 · Rusk Institution
Rusk State Hospital Stands on Penitentiary and Ironworks Ground
The Rusk institution changed from penitentiary to state hospital, but its sandstone building, iron furnace, and prison-built railroad belong to one connected history.
Cherokee County · Courthouse Square
Rusk's 1941 Courthouse Has an Old Jail Story Upstairs
The active Moderne courthouse pairs WPA-era limestone and metalwork with a third-floor jail that later became office space.
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 · Local history
Cambridge moved toward the railroad but kept a marker
A courthouse marker remembers Cambridge, a nearby town whose residents and businesses shifted to Henrietta after railroads passed it by.
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.
Cochran County · Agriculture
Cotton and Farming Drive the Local Economy
Cochran County shifted from open-range ranching to crop farming in the 1920s, and cotton remains the backbone of the local economy today.
Cochran County · County History
The County Is Named for an Alamo Defender
Cochran County was named after Robert Cochran, who died defending the Alamo in 1836.
Coke County · Historic Site
Fort Chadbourne is a preserved 1850s frontier post in Coke County
Fort Chadbourne, established by the U.S. Army in 1852 on what is now Coke County, became a frontier post and a stop on the Butterfield Overland stage route.
Coke County · County History
Robert Lee became the county seat after a contested 1891 vote
Coke County was formed in 1889 from Tom Green County, with Hayrick as its first county seat, but Robert Lee won a close election in 1891 and has been the county seat ever since.
Coleman County · County History
Coleman County is named for a signer of Texas independence
Coleman County was formed in 1858 and named for Robert M. Coleman, who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence and fought at San Jacinto.
Collin County · Allen History
Allen's Depot Is a Replica, but the Railroad Story Is Real
Allen's depot replica, restored locomotive, and Heritage Village trace a town that began at an 1876 railroad water stop.
Collin County · Growth & Demographics
Collin County Has Grown from 150 People to Nearly One Million in 180 Years
Collin County started with about 150 residents in 1846 and grew to over 885,000 by 2014, making it one of the most densely populated counties in Texas.
Collin County · Land & Agriculture
Collin County Sits on the Blackland Prairie — Some of Texas's Most Fertile Soil
Collin County is part of the Blackland Prairie. The dark, clay-heavy soil made the county great farmland, and it still affects home foundations today.
Collin County · County Origins
Collin County Was Named for a Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence
Collin County was created in 1846 and named for Collin McKinney, who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence.
Collin County · Frisco History
Frisco Heritage Center Holds a Town's Move Toward the Railroad
Frisco Heritage Center connects the city's railroad-era origin with a museum, historic buildings, a locomotive, and a caboose.
Collin County · County Seat
McKinney Grew from a Donated Townsite into the County Seat
McKinney became the county seat of Collin County in 1848 after a landowner donated 120 acres for the original townsite.
Collin County · Local Museum
Myers Park Has a Free Farm Museum That Shows Early Collin County Rural Life
Collin County runs a free Farm Museum at Myers Park. It preserves tools, equipment, and buildings from the county's farming past.
Collin County · Plano Local Color
Plano's 1908 Interurban Station Still Sits in Haggard Park
Haggard Park pairs a playground and gazebo with Plano's 1908 interurban station, now a railway museum.
Collin County · Economic History
Railroads in the 1870s–1890s Opened Collin County to Large-Scale Farming
Before 1872, Collin County farmers had no good way to ship crops far away. The railroads changed that and transformed the county's economy.
Collin County · Historic Building
The Old Collin County Courthouse Served the County from 1876 to 1979
The 1876 Collin County Courthouse in McKinney is a Texas Historical Commission landmark — it was built from local stone and renovated significantly in the 1920s.
Collingsworth County · County History
Collingsworth County Grew From Open Range to Cotton Fields
Collingsworth County started as open-range cattle country in the 1870s and shifted to farming after 1890, becoming a significant producer of cotton, wheat, and peanuts.
Colorado County · Town Origins
An Eagle, a Stage Line, and a Railroad Shaped Eagle Lake
Eagle Lake's town marker links an 1821 eagle story to a lakeside stage headquarters, an 1856 townsite, and the railroad's arrival three years later.
Colorado County · River & Rail
At Alleyton, Rail Cars Became Cotton Wagons
During the Civil War, Alleyton became the railhead where cotton shifted to wagons and carts for the long route to Mexico, then received supplies on the return trip.
Colorado County · County History
Colorado County: One of Texas's Original Counties
Colorado County was created in 1836 as one of the Republic of Texas's first counties, with Columbus as its seat since the beginning.
Colorado County · Rice Country
Forty Acres of Rice Changed Colorado County's Economy
William Dunovant's 40-acre rice experiment at Eagle Lake grew into pumping plants, canals, mills, new rail construction, and a countywide change in cash crops.
Colorado County · Rice Country
Garwood Was Named for a Judge Who Never Lived There
Three investors built rice canals and a townsite on older colony land, then named Garwood for a judge who never lived in the town or Colorado County.
Colorado County · Old Stage
Special Trains Once Ran to Columbus for Show Nights
The 1886 Stafford Opera House seated 1,000 beneath gas chandeliers and a painted curtain, while special trains carried audiences into Columbus for performances.
Colorado County · Historic Courthouse
The 1891 Courthouse Is Columbus's Most Visible Landmark
The Colorado County Courthouse in Columbus was built in 1891, lost its tower in a hurricane, and was fully restored in 2014.
Colorado County · Rail Town
Weimar Began With a Railroad and Half the Town Land
D. W. Jackson donated half the land for an 1873 railroad townsite that took the name Weimar and soon supported cotton trade, two newspapers, and an opera house.
Comal County · Local History
Canyon Lake Began Filling on a June Day in 1964
A 6,830-foot earthfill dam turned a Guadalupe River valley into Canyon Lake for flood control, water, and recreation.
Comal County · Population & Growth
Comal County Has Grown Rapidly Since the 1990s
Comal County has gone from a small rural county to one of the fastest-growing counties in Texas over the past few decades.
Comal County · County History
Comal County Was Founded by German Immigrants in 1846
New Braunfels began with an 1845 German immigrant settlement; Comal County followed one year later.
Comal County · Local Culture
New Braunfels Still Carries Strong German Roots
German settlement survives in New Braunfels through its town plan, fachwerk buildings, music, and an annual salute to sausage.
Comal County · Geography
The Balcones Escarpment Gives Comal County Two Landscapes
Rocky plateau country drops across the Balcones Escarpment toward the lower coastal plain in eastern Comal County.
Comanche County · Newspaper
An Idle Press Gave Comanche a Civic Voice
Geraldo Alonzo Beeman turned an idle press into The Comanche Chief in 1873, then used its pages to argue for settlers, schools, representation, and Ranger protection.