ABANDONED TEXAS: Rural Towns DYING A Slow DEATH - Far Off The Interstate
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- Опубліковано 26 лис 2022
- I visited several rural, Texas towns in the Panhandle area of the state, all of which have lost a significant percentage of their populations.
Texas towns visited:
Paducah
Matador
Floydada
Silverton
Quitaque
Turkey
Texas Counties:
Cottle County
Motley County
Floyd County
Briscoe County
Hall County
Travel Vlog 172
I’m only 27, but I’m a trucker and I pass through these towns in this area and all over America and my heart breaks when I see all of these towns drying up and imagine how they used to thrive and be so beautiful. Imagine knowing ever shop owner and nearly every resident. Knowing the hard work and money you spent went into your neighbor’s business instead of a giant corporation.
Great insight for a 27 year old. It's a huge dilemma, these towns did it to themselves by supporting big corporations and accepting lower quality products for much less money. If you are barely scraping by, you can see how saving a few dollars can be enticing...example, offering your kids an extra gift at Christmas because you buy from a toy manufacturer vs local toy maker. It ultimately destroyed their future in the end.
Every dollar spent makes a rich man richer these days.
@@Jdalio5 from the very beginning every country in the world should have controlled salaries. The highest earner in any company should be paid no more than 10x the lowest earner - including bonuses and other forms of compensation (just an example... Perhaps more realistically it could be 25x).
My son says exactly the same. Heartbreaking.
@@bumblebootwiddletoes5185 I had a coworker from a Serbian family who told me it was like that in his father's land. That way it was in your best interest to pay your employees well enough to at least support a family.
Here my generation is so impoverished it's no wonder that hardly anyone is having children. What's the point if you can't ever afford a house for it. Basic homes are close to a million dollars where I live.
All of those communities that you drove through are entirely dependent on agriculture, mostly cotton. I grew up in the area and still have many relatives that live out there. One of the reasons that these towns are dying is due to the advancement of agriculture technology. For example, my sister-in-law's brother farms close to 5,000 acres. He is able to farm all of those acres with just him, his son, and one helper(farm hand). In the 60's it would have taken at least 15 people, mostly men, to farm that. That would have supported 10 families with an average of 4 kids. For cotton, you used to need 6 or 7 pieces of equipment to just harvest. Now, one cotton harvester replaces that equipment and the workers needed to keep them running and the parts that needed to be replaced. Plus, many of the farmers have moved to Lubbock or Amarillo and will commute to their farms. Being close to restaurants, hospitals, and other services are important to them too. You should go back to Turkey for Bob Wills' Day. You will need to prepare your liver, though. LOL Good video.
My garndfather Doyle P. Brink, of the Texas Swingsters, used to visit and travel with Bob Wills back then out to california,,, thousands of fans in the 30's.
this look like a scene o f the movie
children of the corn
TRUTH OF THE UNIVERSE Maybe why that movie hit 🏡 to us 🤔
😁 just kidding- Actually, not much corn in this area. We raised it a few times, but raising corn needs too much water. Mostly cotton.
Irrigated cotton and dry-land cotton farmers co-exist in this area.
Everything Chad Smith said is true.
One thing to add is that it takes the large 🚜 farm for a single family to make a modern living. Farmers still get paid about the same from their product as they did 80 years ago. So, it takes a lot (more product) cotton or loaves of bread 🍞 to earn a modern living. That is why so many stopped farming over the years. I remember major exodus from farm life in the early 80s. Less people means less economy for the locals. Eventually, these old houses will be gone. It will not look that way. Instead, just bare, empty, and openly vast.
@@davidlemons5650 this video was creepy like watch that movie..i was think the guy wll meet children of the corn.hahahhaha
On June 21, 2023 Matador, Tx was hit by a devastating tornado. A lot of what you showed on this video was literally blown away. The Matador people are working hard on rebuilding their little community.
Devastating tornado. So sad. I have pictures of before and afters. Absolutely heartbreaking.
Good people too. My prayers go out to yall tonight
😭☹️😠🫤🤔
IMAGINE THE BILLIONS AND BILLIONS SENT TO UKRAINE AND ALL OVER THE WORLD, FOR POLITICAL BA, AND LAUNDERING BACK TO THE WHITE HOUSE, JUST A SMALL PORTION OF THAT TAX PAYERS MONEY 💲💸💰💲💲 COULD HAVE UPDATE RENOVATED ALL OF THIS BEAUTIFUL TOWNS 😵💫😡😤😡
GIVING POEPLE AN OPTION TO MOVE TO THIS PLACES FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING INSTEAD OF THE STREETS OR THIER CARS 🥺😥😟
BUT OFCOURSE THAT'S ONLY IF THE WHITE HOUSE CARTEL CARED 😠☹️😭
WE GET TAXED TO THE HILLS, BUT HAVE ZERO TO SAY ON WHERE OUR MONEY 💲💲💸 GOES TO😤😡🤬 THAT'S BS, WE SHOULD HAVE THE FIRST RIGHT TO SAY WHERE IT GOES ‼️IT'S OURS TO BEGIN WITH‼️
PERFECTLY GOOD TOWNS GOING TO WAIST BECAUSE OF GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION 😠☹️
Luckily downtown was not hit and Bob’s is ok.
I just retired from trucking(May 2023)after 32 years OTR and I used to love driving thru these small towns all over America.. the peacefulness and home town hospitality was second to none. Unfortunately most of these places are all but forgotten but because of the endless times I drove thru these towns it made me hate the noisy, crime ridden, rude people city life and made me want to live in a peaceful town such as this.
I totally agree. Places like these are by far my favorite places to visit.
I would Love 2 live there!
@@StephanieRagan definitely
Video really does explain what I tell people about how small towns used to be completely self-sufficient, a stark contrast to today. Many people romanticize small town living, but the reality is that small towns all over America are dying off. Here in southern Illinois, my town hasn't had an increase in population in over 20 years. All of the jobs moved to bigger cities and it's near impossible for young people to get their feet off the ground in a small town with no opportunities that was once there.
Would you not agree that they *had* to be self-sufficient since obtaining things from elsewhere took so long before highways and planes? It was also much harder simply to move -- I think ww2 was an event that allowed millions to move for the first time -- war work in CA, airplane manufacturing for example, meant that it was not much of a gamble to leave a crummy agricultural job in Texas and simply show up and find work. Nowadays, especially with the Internet, finding a better job in a better place is pretty simple and so the process of decline for dying towns is accelerated -- people are no longer stuck, at least if they have some skills in demand. The average age of dying towns goes up and average income goes way down and what service businesses like restaurants and stores close which further contributes. -- perhaps it only takes a few years for some places to become places where no one will move to and so when the older remnant dies off or does manage to move, the town is basically gone -- there may actually be town that have zero population that it will take a while for the government to discover this as no letters go out, no one pays for electrical power.
Same here in Australia, sad. Then the small retailers in the larger towns get eaten up by the major chains.
What town do you live in? Is it a good place to retire?
Repent to Jesus Christ “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Matthew 6:33 NIV
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@@jjohnsengraciesmom well, you have to wonder why so many people left. the pros would be as i think u suspect very low cost of living. but the cons might be extensive including some surprising things that you take for granted about where u live now. i visited a place for a couple months which was on its way down and i found that there was but one function streetlight where i lived. very limited selection of restaurants. the grocery stores were nothing like i was used to. a real sign of the decline is that commercial jets which used to land there no longer did and the nearest airport that did have them was an hour's plus drive away. Also, the train no longer stopped there.
If you did decide to live there, maybe you have to spend a week where you live now and make a list of all things you do during the week and then try to find out if this little town (which may indeed grow smaller) will allow you to do them or if you can live without.
Money is important and if living in a place like this makes it stretch significantly longer. But note too: some things may be more expensive -- I took a limo (that was all that was available) to that airport and iirc it was 120 bucks each way. You might find that you have to pay extra for trash pickup to a private company because the tax base is too low for normal public services.
But I have to say, for me, that one lonely street light represented a lot about that town. I assume the towns in the video have a pretty low crime rate but a town on its way down is a different thing and the place I visited had because of employment a high crime rate.
If your neighbors are fellow retirees, no problem. But if you have a bunch of neighbors who live on occasional work and unemployment insurance, you may find those same neighbors may be thinking about breaking into your car or house.
One thing that happened to me after a bunch of houses were broken into was I was walking to get a cup of coffee at night and as i was talking to a random person I had walked past previously and chatted with before and a guy in pickup truck stopped and asked both of us what we were doing. The guy I had been speaking to was in his own front yard and i was just 5 houses away from where I was staying, It ended okay after I told him that but I was frankly annoyed at some random guy playing policeman -- maybe he felt the cops had their hands full and he was trying prevent another break-in but I sure did not like being challenged for walking in my own neighborhood. I guess that the street was pitch black did not help matters.
Bottom line, there may be other affordable towns with less of compromise. You get what you pay for is not always true and usually there is a reason that a town is cheap. What is true is, You get at MOST what you pay for and sometime much less. I have occasionally been forced to spend a night in a cheap motel not because I could not afford better but because it was the only thing available and I do not need to tell you some of the things I discovered about that cheap room -- I should have slept in my car probably.
I would not want to live in a town where it was like that motel for years.
My father grew up in Paducah in the 40s and 50s. The green Victorian house on the corner was my grandparents home. I remember going to the movie theater with my cousins as a young child. The Dairy Queen must be gone now - that’s where my grandmother would take me to “show me off” when I was a college student. So many great memories. I’m devastated to see the little town die.
At least it's clean and free of drugs and vagrants. I'd love to visit all of these towns! Stay fond and proud of your memories, they live on in that town.
@@FlyingCircusAct Amen
Is anyone living in the house now? I’ve always wanted to live in older Victorian home in a small town.
Amazing family history! Thanks for sharing it. I love seeing beautiful homes like that in little towns because they're a reminder of how prosperous those places used to be. I also hate to see wonderful little towns and nice old neighborhoods die. Maybe there still lingers a glimmer of hope for those places, however, and some day they will see a resurgence (??)
@@kristyjean6219 Just make sure that it's not on the US Historical Building Record. If it is, and you desire Gov't funding for restoration, anything done within the past 10 years is part of the historical record (especially turning an older and spacious private home into an apartment building with flavor. Visited a beautiful house in Abilene, TX, but someone in the 70's decided to add cement to the wrap around porch, then enclose it: it's part of the historical record and cannot be removed without forfeiting any and all Gov't funds: all that restoration will be on your own dime, unless you can find donors.
As an aside, rooms will be small. Nutrition and hygiene wasn't what it is now: folks were physically smaller on average, so feel fortunate if the kitchen holds more than one person at a time...and bringing things up to code, especially on the electrical side, could void the Historical Building funding. It's almost like they want these places to burn down so as to abolish their jobs. Surely they aren't part of any REIT investment board?
I work for a small town in Texas, pop. 4,000. The towns you drove through have so much potential for historic preservation and could thrive. What happens a lot is when interstates are built, towns like this get bypassed and forgotten. When interstates are built, people stop having to drive through, which leads to economic decline. It’s a real shame…
Which is why we need better train transportation so people can work in cities but live in small towns, densify the small town centers so small businesses can thrive too and the people working in cities will bring money into the town to be spent.
@@danbobway5656 with how cheap cars are trains make no sense in these regards.
I love our small towns, I always take the more scenic route everywhere I go, even when I travel from West Texas all the way to Houston or beyond. Brady, Llano, Goldwaithe, Giddings, great towns!
Trains service thousands if not millions while in operation, costing less than gas(hopefully) to get around. How many cars would you need to supply to each individual that would use a train. People in the U.S. are ignorant and think public services are communism and everything should be owned by a private company (uber) and compete to screw over people. :)@@highlanderc
So what you're saying is the movie Cars was right about the effect of interstates :(
I am immigrant from China and Texas was the first place I stayed after coming to the US 25 years ago. I feel sad that these towns are dying. I also watched a lot of videos about the ghost town or abandoned villages in China, same feeling - sad… wish people always live in a happy, prosperous place.
For sure!
It's sad but time and progress doesn't stop for anybody, Life is always evolving and on the move for better or worse. The Better days of America are definitely in the past. Glad i grew up in a better world than now.
They need immigrants who need jobs and a place to call home can save our small towns
@@marks4840 Definitely, same here in Canada!
Only one thing is for certain in life and that is everything changes. That was a hoot to peek in that window and see a sign which says " live Rattlesnakes." I was born in West Texas, but raised in Central Texas, a town of 2300. As kids, we loved old abandoned structures. I was an adventure and at the same time frightening as a kid to explore those old buildings. I saw a few Copperheads but no rattlesnakes but I didn't go looking for them either. I have never explore this part of Texas, maybe it's time. Thanks for the content.
2:27 I'm pretty sure this is a reference to the 1971 film "The Last Picture Show", which is about a dying town in 1950s Texas, not too different from the ones in this video. It ends with a movie theater that closes down, and the last thing played there was "Red River" starring John Wayne. Interesting to see how self-aware they are about the state of their town.
The movie "The Last Picture Show" was set in Archer City. TX, south of Wichita Falls. The outdoor scenes were filmed there.
Wow 😮
Very interesting observation. Thanks for that.
Archer City is where Larry McMurtry, the author (also wrote Lonesome Dove, and a myriad of other novels) was from. Up until his death, he ran a collectibles bookstore there. Angela Kinsey, who played Angela on The Office is also from there.
As others have pointed out, the downtown street scenes (pool hall, gas station, cafe and theater) in "The Last Picture Show" were shot in Archer City, TX. The pool hall is now a dirt lot, there are recognizable remnants of the gas station, the cafe isn't recognizable but the building that housed it is there. The theater has been well-preserved and restored, but only as a facade (there is no movie theater, and the inside shots in the movie were shot elsewhere; there is a small auditorium adjacent to it). McMurtry's bookstore is full of books but closed, apparently over litigation involving his estate. I know this because I was just there about a month ago, on a road trip from California to Indiana where I made a side trip just to see it. The town is well-aware of this movie heritage. Stayed at the renovated Spur Hotel right among those buildings and definitely recommend the hotel.
As a Texas resident I appreciate your tour of these old towns. I am also grateful for the respect your showed these towns and their old buildings. You could have made fun of them but you didn't, and I think that's a mark of a good person. Thank you. I have subscribed for other videos. Happy Holidays! Take care, stay safe.
It is a historic trip into old Americana.
Yes I agree! Great respect!
That is true , he does a good job showing the sad state of affairs without being a jerk about it .... I think he does these videos well .....
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Nothing to make fun of. Run down, but not full of trash and drug addicts. I love these towns ... historic, clean and generally safe. You can keep the San Francisco's, San Bernardino's, Chicago's ... etc.
My grandparents lived in Floydada. They had a store call the little grocery store. The store was in front and they lived in the back. They had the first snow cone stand. When we were old enough we were allowed to run it. The store is no longer open because they both passed. But I loved going to visit them. Thanks for bringing back some great memories.
This video does bring back some memories. Matador was partly hit by a tornado but the old downtown still stands. I even saw my old house in silverton. That cool old house in silverton used to be an old gas station but then someone turned it into a house. The old drive-in no longer operates. They had to change to a more modern projector and it was too expensive. I worked there for a time. And turkey is usually dead until bob wills. My in laws helped renovate the old gem theatre. This is a really wonderful video and a great way for some of these old towns to be immortalized. Thanks!
Thank you!
@sammedenton4737, yes I noticed it too, the small house that he mentioned on the corner in Silverton look very similar to the old gas station building in Turkey. Those small buildings do make nice tiny houses.
Honestly after being born in Dallas but growing up in a town of 5,000 in the Hill Country and then living in Dallas as an adult, a 1,000 person town sounds like a great place to move to right about now.
Me too. Currently live in apt in a town of 14k
I’m from college station (whoop!) and I’d 💯 rather suffocate myself with a Target bag than live in Dallas.
I'm near Dallas , and thinking the same thing .... Garland / Rockwall area , turning to crap , and I'll take the slower pace of a small town any day , just gotta find the right one ..... I do need "SOME" work .... and that's the catch-22 ..... But I'ved lived in the DFW area for 64 years , makes me sad to see it nowdays , it's a disgusting rat race and feels like New York City ..... hate it
@@shure46 I am from Garland. I can see that, but it's inevitable as human population touches to 8 billion and still increasing. I am looking for a small piece of land in the country and move there when I turn 65 after 20 years.
@@andykumar4103 Population is a huge problem .... I am NOT for "killing people off" , but we sure better slow down "having babies' or there won't be a "20 years later" , and I am serious .... This world is STUPID ... I AM 64 right now , I have SEEN what population explosion has done , and it is not good .... along with destroying American livelihoods , sending all our jobs to China .... What fools .... Anyway , yes I am "looking" too , for next year , a "move" , it's going to get BAD around these large cities ... I give it 5-10 years , and these places will be war zones .... Crime is already insane now , and the cops are restrained from stopping it , we are STUPID .... Chaos is insanity , and that's what I see coming .... We will look like Somalia soon .... watch and see .... America is being RUINED ON PURPOSE .... Sad
I'm very grateful with the people of Paducah. My motorcycle broke down on my way from childress to Abilene, right there in Paducah, exactly at the gas station. A guy who I will every be grateful with (his name I believe is Joe) helped me find some one to help my haul my motorbike on a Saturday all the way to Abilene. It is sad, that the town is slowly dying but the people of that town are one of a kind.
My vehicle also broke down in Paducah a couple of years ago. A very nice lady who worked at the convenience store helped me out the best she could. There was no real repair shop or parts store open. After a couple hours I was able to make a temporary repair and made to Plainview, TX which had a parts store and a repair shop. The people there were also extremely nice and helpful.
My deer leash is there.
@@jimritter9769Yup, left my kangaroo harness there.
I think people in Texas are generally very nice and helpful. If they can’t help they can usually find someone who can snd will!
Any one Texan is the nicest person you'll ever meet. But if you get a whole bunch of them together with ballots and bibles, watch out.
There is a great film from the early 70's called "The Last Picture Show" which chronicles the lives of several people in a dying small Texas town. It stars a young Jeff Bridges and Cybil Shepard in her first big role along with Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman.
It perfectly shows why these towns died. Lack of work and the young yearning for excitement of far off places.
And... Red River was the movie that was the last picture show in that movie. Maybe this was just a nod in that direction.
Great show
🎵🎶"The Stars at Night, are Big and Bright!! Deep in the heart of Texas!!" 🎵🎶 ⭐🌩💖
I once had a long conversation with a farmer/rancher in McDonald Kansas concerning what had caused rural Kansas and Texas to fall apart. He remarked that in his youth, the forties and fifties, it had been possible to make a living on a quarter of a section of land. (160 acres) Now just how good of a living remains debatable but certainly such is an impossibility today. He then mentioned that he owned over 150 quarter sections. So, in the sense of farmers and their families coming to town on Saturday and spending enough to keep local businesses afloat, he had taken the place of 150 families. Hardly a sustainable business model for small agricultural towns.
Right along with that is the technological evolution that saw working animals replaced with small tractors that turned into huge tractors. Just south of my small dying city of Slaton (near Lubbock) I know a farmer family where the father keeps 5,000 acres of cotton, and his son keeps 10,000 acres of cotton. Most of the year it is just the two of them, with one full time hand and some seasonal help. There are now autonomous tractors that are run by GPS and satellite.
Interesting.
Also interesting.
Where are schools,libraries,hospitals and gas statiomns?mi V8 V8 V8
Do they have water in these homes?
In Australia, country towns are being revived due to the fact that people can not afford to buy their own homes in the cities anymore. They are not in decline, but thriving. We have also had a campaign for many years called "buy local", which has had wonderful success and enabled local businesses to keep trading. I live in a very small town and we have about two new homes being built here every year, which is a big deal considering how far away we are from the nearest big city.
Thank you so much for your video. I thought the towns were beautiful.
We've had "Buy Local" campaigns in the US for decades. People did - and still do, but it isn't enough. Not many people are buying their first homes anymore. They're living in their cars or with their parents. Those who do buy are either foreigners making a lot of money or low/middle class buying in low-cost areas still within commuting distance to jobs in cities.
@@bumblebootwiddletoes5185 The price difference between the cost of housing in Melbourne, where the average home is now around 1 million dollars, compared to moving into the country where homes are around 200K, is the only way the majority of people will ever see themselves in their first home. Where I live, homes that go up for sale, are sold within the week. Moving to the countryside is a leap of faith and scary because you have to start over from scratch in terms of finding employment. I commuted for two years straight until local work started coming my way and have not looked back. The value of my home has increased five times over the time I have lived here, plus I have additional land to sub-divide if necessity called for it. I'm not rich, but have an affordable mortgage and live in a great town where the first set of traffic lights are over an hours drive away. 😀
it's coming here too
A lot of people are trying to return to these towns for the same reason. I grew up about 40 miles away from these towns and even my son always told me he wanted to move there since it is so quiet and peaceful.
@bumblebootwiddletoes5185 There is very little local to sell. It is all from Walmart and Amazon. None of these towns have a Walmart. Nearest Walmart to Matador is Plainview or Childress, 80 miles in opposite directions. Nothing at Walmart is local. That ship sailed. Sadly, even Lubbock is preaching buy local. The farm land is all that will produce locally. The government put many farms into CRP (paying farmers NOT to farm) a couple of generations ago.
Just watched this video yesterday- woke today to the news that a tornado struck Matador Texas, with 4 fatalities and multiple injuries. Stay strong Matadorians
I was living in roaring springs in the 80. And went to school in matador tx. During the 1st tornado. I love this area. And the people are some of the best on this planet
So glad the all mighty UA-cam algorithm popped up with this video. I was born and raised right in the middle of all these towns, literally where I grew up.
I still have family and friends who live in these exact towns as well as one's next to them. I'll forever cherish growing up in small town Texas. Thank you for visiting and helping show others a tiny glimpse of our tiny towns.
You are always so polite , respectful, and appreciative of each town, and no matter how run down a town in you always find something positive to say about it. These towns are hidden gems and should not be forgotten. Mostly you let the pictures speak for themselves. I had my 1st date w/my husband and we went to a movie drive-in 52 yrs. ago. It was $1.50 a carload, he said it was too expensive to go to the snackbar, so we didn't. I married him anyway, In Oct. we have been married 51 yrs! WOW!
Great story, Estelle! :)
respek to the Lord himself
Woot! I still remember seeing the first Star Wars and The Raiders of the Lost Ark double feature at the drive-in.
Amen to"these small towns are gems" so true.
"he said it was too expensive to go to the snack bar, so we didn't. I married him anyway" oh man... I bet you bring that up all the time I can already picture his face hahahahhh
What a fascinating video. I'm from the UK and this is exactly the kind of vlog I love to watch about other countries, not NY or LA or the usual Tourist Trail locations, but the normal everyday small towns that you would never usually hear of.
Glad you enjoyed it! :)
I live in Alsace (France) and like you, I appreciate this kind of report.
Here, many small towns in the countryside are also dying.
What a world...
I also live in the uk, but love these small USA towns. So sad to see them dying
I drove across America in 2015
I saw these places
Fascinating
I'm British
If you can go, before it all disappears and there is only growing city's left
Hi there, do these small towns you are visiting in this Texas series have there own fire stations ? or even locally based police/ambulance, because up to now I have not seen any signs of them in your excellant series, thanks for posting.
I appreciate you making these videos. I am trapped in my life and I will never see anywhere besides my route to work and back. Thank you.
A couple of years ago I visited downtown Plainview, Texas and found it to be largely vacant and deserted. I found my grandfather's vacant tire store and was flooded with childhood memories. Did you know the streets in these old rural towns are very wide because when they were laid out, they had to be wide enough to turn around a horse drawn wagon. Also, the red bricks you find in the downtown areas were installed by government work programs during the Great Depression (according to my grandmother). Great video for anyone with roots in West Texas. Those interesting round things that produce cotton are called cotton bowls.
I Was Wondering Why The Streets Where So Wide.
😄 My dad probably bought tires from your dad. We lived 26 mi NW, did a lot of our shopping in P-ville. From tires to tractors.
Cotton bolls rather than bowls. 😉
@@rt3box6tx74 Thanks for the clarification on the bolls. I still have a handfull of them in a jar in the back bedroom. Name of the tire store was Shook Tire in Plainview.
@Irwhodunit Oh yeah, I remember Shook Tire Co well. There were a few big tire dealers in town until Wal-Mart came in and undermined the whole market.
Plainview is a classic case of how the arrival of a "superstore" can destroy a town so gradually that most people don't even notice the entrepreneurial businesses slowly go away as economies of scale force competition to give up the fight for business.
I find it wonderful as to the number of posters who have first hand knowledge of the actual histories of these small rural towns.
My family was from Paducah. My Grandfather was a state representative for that area. We owned a huge cattle ranch outside of town. It used to be such an awesome place to visit when I was a child. It really started to die out after the west Texas oil boom came to an end. I remember getting toys from ME Moses when I was little. It’s really sad to see what Paducah has become. It’s a shell of what it used to be.
Billions: Time and circumstances reduces people and places to "a shell of what it used to be."
It is not mentioned with highway these towns are on. Is it route 66?
MUCH of America is "a shell of what it used to be" ..... very sad to see this happening
shure46: Soon, all of America will be a shell of what it used to be.
@@fifty9forty3 not on Route 66... It's on State HWY 62
@@MrDepodot7 Oh man that is sad .... I hate what i see nowdays , I am 64 and this is the WORST this nation has ever been in my lifetime .... Just sad , sick , and frankly evil
I watched this video with some sadness. As a 70 year old, I remember traveling through these towns as a young man. And to see how they have decayed is depressing. Previously, they were vibrant and economically prosperous. But he jobs dried up, the young folks left, and the old folks were left behind to await their death. I don't know if anything can save these towns and their demise is just another facet of the world we live in.
One would think they would offer incentives for people to move to those towns. I recall Beaumont, CA was giving away abandoned houses back in the mid 90s. It seemed to have worked and it is a bustling city now.
nope
31 year old here, I'm sorry to hear that. It's a very harsh aspect of life. Everyone seems to be moving to the big cities. I grew up in one, and they suck. I wish we'd embrace the small town roots.
Industry would have to come back instead of being sent overseas.
@@rockstarofredondo It was starting to under Trump, but people instead voted for Democrats and their anti-American attitude reversed that back to overseas.
My family is from Floydada, Texas and I visit often. I wanted to point out that, yes, Floydadians love their pumpkins. The Pumpkin Pyle is south of Floydada and is a major attraction in October.
October is also when Pumpkin Days is held. It's a week long celebration usually the 1st/2nd week of the month. It's a very big tourist attraction at that time.
It may look like it's dying, but I assure you it has remained at a steady rate. That hotel is actually a rather old hotel that is still in use to this day, but it's more of a museum. The inside is art deco and events can be held within. My parents always told me it was haunted by cowboys from years gone by.
Across from the courthouse, to the north is the museum. It has some creepy looking mannequins in a historically accurate rooms to show what life was like for early settlers. I recommend stopping by some time.
Lastly, the Palace theater is someone's home. The inside has been redone, but the facade was kept because the town loved it so much.
If ever, I reccomend visiting my hometown, Olton, Texas. We're much smaller with a Roxy theater that the city owns and lets the school use from time to time.
I'm from Plv but we drive down there alot. I agree Floydada is not dying! I loved seeing the downtown history but he did miss the streets where they have those great schools and houses. 🤔 It's definitely different when your just driving thru tho.
I am Chad Hinkle, I grew up in Floydada. The Hotel for as long as I remember has been more of a museum but you can stay there, most most of the town square from what I know is owned by distant relatives or are basically used as storages. I graduated in 2002 and if I remember correctly the population was 2676. When this video was put up the new football field and new school was already built, he only showed the inner town.
I used to drive sprinter van all over the usa, drove through so many small towns, there was something really charming about them, life seemed to move alot slower there, people are just alot more chill and relaxed. Growing up in the city Im beggining to hate it and the stress it comes with. Hope to buy a house in a charming small town and find some peace and happiness
OK, dude, you got me! I held my breath waiting for Turkey to come up...and I wasn't disappointed! Back in 1986 or there'bouts, I was a drilling supervisor for a major oil company out of SE New Mexico. I drilled the first successful well in Turkey, even though other oil giants had been trying since right after the war. Credit not to me, but the little blonde geologist that I married who put her entire career on the line, which paid off. The W.W. Mullins #1 came in flowing 525 BOPD with zero water (yes, FLOWING!). I have fond memories of staying in the Turkey Hotel, never locking my room or company truck the entire 4 months I lived there. Drilled three more over the next two years. Folks were friendly as all get-out.
Oh, and on the Drive-In between Turkey and Quitaque, when I was drilling there, it belonged to a man named Roy. Just Roy. I pulled drilling water from the property and one day I asked him just how many people between the two towns had been conceived there at the Drive In. In typical W. Tx fashion (my stock, too) he cocked his head, tipped his hat, rubbed his forehead and said, "Don't rightly know...probably a fair dozen or so wouldn't you think?" Great vid, glad I found it! Gotta go...blonde (ok'now, grey) geologist is callin' me to the table to eat.
LOL, thank you for the great comment, RF. Turkey is an interesting looking little town. And, I know all about those "activities" at the drive-in. It's where I discovered the incredible-ness' that are women.
Sounds like your lady is a lucky woman. :)
Repent to Jesus Christ “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Matthew 6:33 NIV
N
We drilled two wells outside of Turkey on Turkey Creek ranch in the early 80's Our company man knew nothing about drilling in that part of Texas and when we lost circulation at around 4,000 ft. he wouldn't let me pull any pipe he just had me pickup off bottom and rotate while we mixed mud. Shortly there after the rotary table quit turning the clutch started smoking and we were stuck for 28 days. I don't remember how many ft. we washed over but it was a bunch.
@@txsailor57 Oh, jeepers! Yep, that company man probably had a bit of explaining to do! The most I ever remember being stuck was 19 days on a jackup in the Gulf of Mexico before kicking it into directional drilling. By any chance was it Texaco?
Does this area still have any active oil or has it all dried up
Joe and Nic,
My first visit here and it's both happy and sad.
The comments below explained why these place have lost so much population.
People wanted more for their families so they managed their farms from a distance.
I saw a lot of place like this during my U.S.A trips in 1968 and 1969.
Thank you for the visits and your information.
Cheers,
Rik Spector
Once you get outside of the Texas Triangle, which is experiencing a nuclear-level population explosion, the rest of the state is pretty empty other than Amarillo, Corpus, Lubbock, and a few border cities. The rest of the state is vast emptiness dotted with small towns that are either stagnant or dying. Oil fields and agriculture keep some areas alive, but they'll never grow past a few thousand people.
You’re right.
Port A is actually growing like crazy. Mostly vacation homes, but still seeing a lot of growth.
I am from Algeria, North Africa, I assure you that it happens even here. People being tired of of difficult economic conditions and the birth rate decreased. I saw the same thing, like abandoned cities and factories in Russia, Europe, South Africa, China and Japan. etc
It reminds us of the cities of ancient Rome
So, he's going down the road, wondering how to say "Quitaque" and he decides he'll ask the locals. He pulls into the first open business he sees, enters, and asks, "How do you say the name of this place?" The young lady looks at him kind of funny and says, slowly, "Dai-ry Queen."
Oh my! I just died!😅😂😆. You totally got me! So cute!
Actually on the sign going into Quitaque there's a phonetic spelling of it.
Lol
There is a state park close. Loved this part of Texas.
A Turkey resident The building on the other side of Bob Will's bus is the old Greyhound station and if you had gone on down to the intersection of Hwy 86 and 70 you would have seen another turkey. They both represent the city. The turkey in front of the fire station is a permeant feature, Also if you had turned left at the Bob Will's mural you would have you would have found The Turkey Hotel which has never closed since it opened back in the 1920's and / is also listed on the National Historic Registry.
My husband and I have been enjoying your channel! Great information and insight into the overlooked parts of our great country.
As a Texan, I love that you found your way here. A lot of those Texas towns are near (in Texas terms) or pass thru to state parks and other destinations. Quitaque is right outside of Caprock Canyon SP.
Even the towns on more traveled roads have seen better days but some are still pumping along if not exactly thriving. More people are moving out of the suburbs back to the country so maybe things will start changing.
My husband is from Vernon. TX a little further east of Floydada...Don Williams was from there. Thanks for this video!
Great video! I am a South African living in Auckland New Zealand and have visited Texas a couple of times. The issue of rural small town decay is a worldwide phenomenon due more to farms getting larger (and less with politics) and road as well as rail traffic bypassing the smaller towns. I have seen this in South Africa, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and even eastern Europe (Poland and Ukraine)
Small towns in South Africa are dying too. Ventersdorp come to live when it is grants payday
Thank you for the great comment, Gerhard. :)
I think the American situation is a lot different since food is one of the very few industries in America, which is inexplicably tied to politics. Americans put up with so many horrible policies that make their lives worse (health insurance, lack of public transportation, etc) because food is so damn cheap here compared to anywhere else in the world. And the only reason for that is because the government subsidizes the hell out of the food industries lol
Massive mechanization of the remaining agriculture has had a LOT to do with the decline of jobs in rural America. I would note that Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in America from WWII grew up in a similar small rural town in northeastern Texas (Kingston) in a poor sharecropper family that picked cotton for a living (he worked alongside poor black sharecroppers doing the same thing).
As mentioned in the video - cotton is one of the major agricultural crops grown around Paducah, still.
As late as the 1970s, picking cotton was still a job description that many rural small town people were able to scrape a living by.
I looked up the statistics once of how much cotton a human worker could pick vs. one of the new giant cotton picking/gin machine combines that started to become available by the 1980s. The machines could do the work of about 1,500 human workers, needing only one driver. And it could run 24/7 if you wanted it to do so.
So, in a nutshell, that's what happened to all the jobs in these rural small towns. The farms and crops are still there, the machines have just replaced the human workers.
@@nolanholmberg311 How dare you tell Texans that they did this to themselves even though they 100% did this to themselves based on their own voting habits and then blamed it on immigrants.
I visited Paducah in 2000 to help a coworker I used to work with (she was an RN) move her aging parents off the farm she grew up in, to a small house in Amarillo. The farm was south of Paducah I think about 10-15 miles. We both live in the Denver area. Anyway, I remember how beautiful the entire area is. Enjoyed hearing her stories of life growing up on the farm. I think they grew cotton.
I really love these videos. I've lived my whole life in a city of 100,000 people and always felt that it was too crowded. These videos have helped me to gauge just how small of a town I'd be willing to live in when I eventually move away.
Videos like this remind you of how massive the country is - where some places are just bound to be forgotten to time.
i live in small town texas. and i love it. we are far from dead or even heading that way. i love the small town feel, the attitude, everything about it. i think we have about 560 people here. a few stores although nothing large-(grocery store). a few restaurants, 2 dollar type stores, ad of course gas stations and convenience stores. we have our choice of 2 directions which bring us to 2 larger towns, still small but big enuff for a walmart, grocery stores, etc..takes about 30 min to get to one of these. THEN ofcourse we could drive 1+ hours to get to a large town. perfect for me as i am very organized so i hit "town) about 1 time a week. get all my errands done and then head back to paradise. never moving! BONUS;and and homes -very cheap! you get tons for your money! i came from phx about 15 years ago. there-people losing homes,becoming homeless way more than ever. so glad i left! i have 20 acres, and a large house in the middle of nowhere-paradise for sure!
I want to visit your town. Please add the google map.
@@4kasiavlogs elkhart tx. sorry dont have google map.
The homes are cheaper , that's great, but what about salary? It should be less to...
@@tatyanarudnik7361 i dont think so. i dont have anyone complaining to me . i own my own business and do wonderful. 6 figures for part time work.
Hi just moved here from KY and would like to know the name of your town. Thanks Lamont
As a Brit I found this very interesting and sad, parts of America we seldom see, thank you for your efforts.
Thanks for watching! :)
As a Texan, I’m also fascinated with the countryside of Britain. Not big cities, but small towns and farms. They look amazing on UA-cam.
While sad, it is fairly universal, and inevitable. There are always towns (or neighborhoods) that are just starting to boom, usually for economic reasons and having a big employer and that then slowly shrink after the economic trends go elsewhere. Nothing is constant in life, except change.
Texas is also in a bind in that young families can and do move there for the low house prices…..but are often Democrats, and the percent of Dems is slowly creeping up…if it reaches the 52% majority in the state, no Republican could be elected President, as for decades Republicans are only elected due to the odd electoral college system, of which a Republican Texas is the mainstay. So with low cost of living, Texas could easily attract more employers, such as tech headquarters, but younger professional workers are often….Democrats.
@@juanbotello1 We have plenty of cities and our towns are 15,000 - 35,000+ populations. Nearly 70 million people in the UK - almost exactly the same size as Michigan.
@@juanbotello1talking for rural Scotland we have a bit of a different issue to a lot of rural America, local young don’t even get the choice to stay rural here.
We have villages where 75% of the homes are owned by foreigners, or people from the southern cities, kept as holiday homes. As such the price of property is very high, however as the 25% of locally owned homes are majority retirees, there’s pretty much nobody there to work. Local businesses go bust because they can’t pay shopkeepers/cleaners etc enough to live where they can’t get a house for
Absolutely incredible vid .👍. Really sad . The soul has been ripped out of this Beautiful town .
Greetings from Great Britain ❤
I got here by starting my research on Floydada. I recently found a listing for a 4 bedroom house with 2 levels, on 5 acres. It is selling for only $65,000 cash. I think it is a good deal for a veteran like me, who prefers more space between myself and neighbors, with no HOA fees😊 I just hope all that land is good enough to sustain a nice garden. My husband and I love to grow things and feed the community 🥰
Just don't count on much rain.
@@mikerobinson8758 thanks for the input. I LOVE rain. Absence of rain makes me weary where I have been living since May. Just spent 2 weeks away and came back to nice, mild weather. Plants were still alive and thriving.
I cannot even find that Floydada house online anymore. Probably a good thing. I have now noticed an influx in people in the panhandle area just leaving their homes fully furnished, putting the home up for sale. Hurricanes might be a thing for some as well. I would be a first time (military vet) buyer, so I really do appreciate the feedback. Thanks again.
I live not even 10 minutes away from Floydada in another small town with a population of 1200. We play these schools in football and basketball it’s kind of weird seeing my little corner of the world in front of 1.6 million people 😂. Thank you for documenting these towns I know that a lot of kids in high schools in these small towns are very proud of where they’re from but we have to move away because there simply aren’t enough opportunities in these small towns. It’s sad but as somebody from one of these towns I know that there’s not much that can be done to save them.
@@gracehunter7808 I could see it being an option but not in some of these rural areas that don’t have fiber optics or stable enough internet as might be required.
@@dexter7015 Im guessing lockney or plainview?
You have enough people for sports teams? Lol
@@phettywappharmaceuticalsll8842 yeah, 6 man football. High school sports are actually a really big deal in small towns maybe it’s just Texas but the small town football teams usually pull the whole town to games.
don't mean to come across as offensive or ignorant (I am) but what supports the population in the first place. Like what jobs are there?
I live in Australia and have traveled around the entire country quite extensively, and it's strange how similar our dying towns look. You pass through them on most highways, and there are yet more off the beaten path that make you wonder how anyone survives in them. It's both fascinating yet sad at the same time. The tiny towns along the highway can at least get by with a servo or bakery catering to travelers moving between the major cities, but the towns based further out baffle me. I find some odd kind of peace in their atmosphere, but that'd certainly change if I actually lived in any of them. Great video.
Thank you, Avenir. I plan on visiting some of those towns in Australia in a couple of years.
that's a good point about them being similar since many towns both in Australia and many places in southern and south western parts of America were created using similar ideas in that these towns serve as a convenient residence for workers and settlers who's towns were picked out typically to take advantage of some sort of natural resource like Mining operations or logging and in doing so are usually linked to a proper city or any resource hub. The majority of the people who originally moved from the eastern colonies in North America to the west almost only did it due to these kinds of government/privately funded towns which is also very similar to Australia's settlers.
@@joedatius Pretty interesting to think that a bunch of people who jumped on a new opportunity, pretty much had to do it again after that opportunity dried up or else
@user-yb8ub3rn4d Well, it wasn't like they just up and moved. It took a hundred years, or more. My great grandad, actually on both sides, settled in this area in the late 1800s and early 1900s. I moved away in the year 2000. They managed to provide for several generations by farming. My wife has a similar story.
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Hi there, I just wanted to say that I really like the way you show people your countries townships. I’m from Australia and I really feel for all the people that have had to shut down their shops and livelihoods. It’s unfortunate that your government don’t do incentives for people to restart the townships. Thankyou for all the information that goes with your vlogs, I love seeing all the buildings but feel sad to see the sign of the times😢
Same in most countries. At least nature reclaims it and animals move in.
Our government very well could but don’t want too! With the billions upon billions they send all over the world, they could keep here to do just that. They rather send our tax dollars to other countries that will help line their pockets instead of the American peoples.
Another reason they don’t and won’t is because the big corporations pay them not too. If they invested in small businesses like years ago then there wouldn’t be no real need for these huge greedy corporations!
I grew up in roaring springs. And went to high school in matador Texas. Great place to be from. Good people. Place were the people still have values. Wouldn't change it for the world. I'm still friends With all the kids I grew up with. That doesn't happen in the city. Plus there is a hidden place out there called roaring springs ranch. It's a beautiful place with rivers. Lakes pools and camping and trails. With Indian heritage all over it.
About an hour due north of Paducah is a town named Shamrock. There is a gas station there that was an inspiration for the one in the animated movie "Cars".
My mother, born 1918, lived in Quitaque. Her parents had a cafe. Half the population left because of hard times during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Her family was among them. Her grandfather, who was among the first settlers in the area after the Civil War, had a ranch and a general store on the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River.
Interesting.
My mother was also born in Quitaque May 26 1918 and her father had a ranch outside of town. Laura Mae Collier, as best as I can remember.
Amaizng I’m a Texas native and reside in San Antonio never have heard or seen any of these towns. So so interesting to see know the history. Funny thing is my mother aunts and uncle were all born in Lubbock but I’ve never been ..going to have to make an effort to make a getaway ..I could just drive for hours looking at all this ..wonder if you had an issues with locals or law enforcement?
Quitaque will survive to some degree just due to Caprock Canyons.
@@richarda996 I wonder if your two mom's knew one another? I imagine they must have. Amazing.
I actually stayed in the only hotel in Paducah, it was a old morgue that was turned into the Hunters Lodge. Definitely was a trippy stay!! I've been through most of the small or stayed in the dying towns you show!!
I couldn't stay in that mortuary for anything. I drove to childress
I'm a female truck driver bypassing the empty little (previously beautiful) towns and this saddens me. It reminds me of an episode of Lucille Ball and mr. Moony about a highway schedulef to shut down a beautiful little town, with grocery stores, gazebo at the center of it and local people mingling...It has been the era of greedy corporations 😢
1:00 Paducah
8:16 Matador
15:45 Floydada
24:25 Silverton
28:40 Quitaque
34:10 Turkey
Hi there, Lord Spoda. Thank you for traveling through these wonderful old Texas towns, especially my place of birth in Matador in 1946. Hope you won’t mind too much my comments on several things. 8:43 Some of these old towns have unique parking in the Middle of the Street! 11:11 Amazing structure of the gas station at Bob’s Oil Well. 15:10 Two Cotton Modules with tarps on them. 15:15 You are holding 2 Cotton Bolls. The Closed Brownish one isn’t mature yet and the Open Boll is mature for harvest. 20:35 Railroad Car. Years ago Migrant Workers would live in them while they were here for harvest. 33:33 In this day and age, you couldn’t leave the Speakers outside because they would be vandalized. Ask someone in town. 35:49 Maybe a fellow Traveler camping in the area? Maybe camper or dog carrier? 37:07 Amazing restored Gas Station! 38:00 Great shot of Bob Wills Travel Bus! Thanks for the nostalgic trip! Keep Safe & Healthy!!! P.S.: Turkey and Quitaque Schools consolidated and the new school is called Valley.
Thank you for the great comment, Cary. :)
Thank you all UA-cam content providers should follow this torment makes a great travel log
Cary Ward, thank you for the great explanation of the cotton boll. My father was a cotton farmer in this area in ‘70’s & ‘80’s. I was going to explain the cotton boll, but you did a great job. Also, I believe the little house in Silverton was also a small Phillips 66 gas station like the one he shows in Turkey.
@@gaylestegall7239, thank you very much for your reply! My parents worked on farms around Flomot & Paducah area from “30’s & 40’s” and moved to Lubbock area in 1948. I always loved coming back and visiting those wonderful little towns! Keep Safe & Healthy!!! PS: Have a great Holiday Season!
I'm from Amarillo. My Uncle's wife was from Floydada. They settled in Happy Texas. Muy grand parents settled in Happy in 1899. Really sad to see these towns falling on hard times.
When I went to college at West Texas State I drove a delivery truck at night. I delivered the Mail and newspapers from Amarillo to many of these towns. It was a midnight to 8:00 grind seven nights a week.
I lived in Amarillo for 4 years. I worked at Amarillo Iron Works on 4th street. I used to live in the back house of 2410 Rule street just a block off Amarillo Boulevard.
I love your videos, which are always so informative. I do wish that you would show the schools in the cities you visit if there are any. I’m sure there are a lot of others interested in seeing them. Thanks
A little bit of trivia for your viewers. The closed down cinema in the first town of Paducah I think references the last film shown ( John Wayne: Red River) in The Last Picture Show (1971) which itself depicts a dying rural( way of life) Texas town on the eve of the Korean war.
I think you're right.
Thank you for your Vlogs . I enjoy watching while recovering from cancer surgery in February this year. It’s taken a long time to heal and I thank you for your videos. 😊
Wow, that is amazing, Beatrice. I'm glad I can do this for you.
Bea - Sending good energy your way! 🎇🎇
You're right on the edge of the Caprock Escarpment. I'll be going through that region in a few days. Paducah is sometimes host to storm chasers every Spring and Summer, as they descend on the region to chase storms, which can reach epic proportions in this region of "Tornado Alley".
Quitaque (yup, you pronounced it correctly!) is the gateway to Caprock Canyon State Park. I'm there probably twice a year to camp and paint. I've eaten at the Buffalo Cafe many times. That drive-in has "Closed for Winter" since at least 2020.
Hotel Turkey is a very old building, but well worth the stay, with an excellent breakfast and dinner on the weekends. Bob Wills, Considered by music authorities as the founder of Western swing, was very popular in the 40s and 50s. He had two top ten hits and starred in a number of films. He passed in 1975.
Love these videos. Fun to see so many of the places I visit on a fairly regular basis. I saw Leuders in one of your other videos. I have to visit there soon. As an artist, it looks a gold mine.
The "Closed for Winter" sign at the drive-in has been there since 2010, plus or minus 5 years.
I would love to look inside the old court houses and town halls of these old places I love seeing this and learning the history of old towns and things thank you for sharing. 👍 Great Vlog ❤
I live in Amarillo which is the hub city for most of these satillite towns (Turkey, Quitaque, Silverton). It is crazy watching them fade away into history. And their are a TON more than this in the area. I have lived here for 27 years and I still discover towns of 500 people or less that are within 90 minutes of me. Alot of these people are moving here, which is making Amarillo grow quickly but it is still crazy.
Actually Lubbock is called the hub city
They just aren’t changing with time historical value red brick 🧱 come to California and you’ll respect those towns more I haven’t seen one brick home here in California homes from the 1920-1950 selling here for 1.7 million crazy and you can touch your neighbors home from your window 🪟 here in California the homes are run down old A/C units light bills are 1,000 dollars people here don’t even wanna use their A/C cause they can’t afford it. Homeless person on every corner it’s sad 😢
I. really. Like. Small towns But Question. Where to. Work. ? there and. What. To. Do. ?
@@craigweir8092 Lubbock may have the nickname, but Amarillo is truly a hub for its area. All the major highways radiate away from it and it is the intersection of two interstates while Lubbock only has the one, and it only goes between Amarillo and Lubbock.
And before you say Im biased, I grew up outside Lubbock and graduated from Texas Tech.
@@alejandroflores3473 lots of work from jobs nowadays
I am from Poland. Thirty times smaller than the US. Here, as everywhere, people are also resettling, but it is not visible because there is not a huge scale like yours. Your videos make me sad and I wish I could live in one of these beautiful towns and have the power to bring them back to life :) Great video.
Thank you for the great comment, FS.
As a polish you have the power to start the 3 world war
@@ErickRus57 completely unnecessary and hateful comment. Grow up, your words are uncalled for.
@@andyc6542Imagine being triggered so easily LOL
Haha totally raging
Sadly Matador was hit by a tornado this year and was heavily damaged. One of the few tornadoes to hit the panhandle region this year.
I drove by there this passed weekend. The dollar store is being rebuilt and it looks like Billie Dean's Restaurant is being rebuilt as well. I was pretty surprised at the progress. Sadly, the whole west side of town just looks different with so many other houses and buildings just gone.
I love your videos! I feel like I have been all over America with you and Nic. This is an excellent source of information if someone is looking to relocate to another city. Thank you for all the work and information you include in each segment.
This reminds me very much of the dying towns of Western Australia, the Post Offices have shut, the banks have closed, the only hotel in town has 'backpacker' staff ( people on working visas often from Europe or UK). The vast distances in Western Australia often make the closest larger town about 4 hours drive away. In these towns there is a growing drug problem often, high suicide rates, depression, social problems etc etc. I have worked as a teacher is several such towns over the years and my last job was as a school Principal in a school of 50 students. As such, I knew a lot about what was 'hidden' away in the town. There's a myth that these towns are very friendly little places, I spent 4 years in one and didnt find it that way at all. Im sure they were different many years ago. The world's changed at an alarming rate over the past 25 years or so. Just fascinating, thankyou for showing us this!
I’m in the UK and just watched the tv program Mystery Road, the prequel. Didn’t realise Western Australia was like that at all. A bit of an eye opener.
@@carl_marks1626 I havent watched Mystery Road, but may well do so now! Thanks.
It hasn’t put me off. It’s still on my bucket list to visit. The dusty ghost towns with their wooden colonial buildings are still beautiful to look at. In the UK we get all the gold and opal mining tv programs so we get to see the real outback places.
@@carl_marks1626 Hardly anyone in Australia says 'outback' - it's termed as 'the bush' as in "Im going bush" - unless youve experienced desert conditions, it's hard to imagine what it's like living in the bush, the sun is relentless and everyday is a sweaty day. Forget about a garden, East and West Australia are very different.
I don’t think anyone harbours any illusions that outback towns are ‘friendly’ - they’re drug-flooded, anti-social, liquor-inundated hopeless Hellscapes for the most part. Probably decent good people in every single one of ‘em, but on balance they’d all be pretty rough places I reckon.
Lockney, Texas
- home 🏡
Lockney lives in my heart ❤️
Everyone I knew is in the cemetery.
You turned in Floydada off of Hwy 70 toward Silverton and went through a very small town called South Plains on your way to Silverton in Briscoe County.
I have an uncle in Quitique.
Last I knew, the drive-in does operate. They use FM radio for the sound.
Everyone alive, except a few farming families, has left that I knew.
Lockney lives only in my heart ❤️
@tpfmike1976 Yes, I am in Fort Worth. My comment probably represents the sentiment of most kids from these towns. Lockney would have been the next town in the video after Floydada, except the video went towards Silverton instead. Lockney still has a hospital. Several kids a few years older than me came back as doctors, which certainly helped. Of course, their resources are limited, but people appreciate that it is still open. However, 40 years old doctors become 60 year olds pretty fast. Lockney is a bedroom community to Plainview. I truly appreciate your comment.
@@davidlemons5650 I just moved from Brooklyn NY to Irving TX. I really like TX alot and i have seen small towns. Sad that people left for bigger cities for more paying jobs but you have to take care of the family. Have a great holiday. :)
@@tpfmike1976 Welcome to Texas!!
We want you here!
Been enjoying these videos of west Texas. My Grandparents were small time cotton farmers 12 miles west of Floydada. My Dad and his three other siblings went to high school there. I could tell the whole area was changing 30 years ago when I went back for my Grandpa's funeral. Lack of adequate water supply, large cooperated farms needing fewer hands to work and changing social economics etc.
I moved to west Tx. sort of unexpectedly while growing up. It was funny to meet so many people my age, at the time, that wanted to leave. It wasn't "cool". Never really had a thought about it as good or bad; it was just a place. Being older now, I think back on the area pretty fondly. The flat plains, the sky, the seemingly never ending horizon. I'd bicycle around the less populated parts around there, and always found it starkly beautiful. Larry McMurtry describes the area pretty accurately in Lonesome Dove.
My wife grew up in Quitaque and I grew up in Nazareth about 60 miles west of there. Most folks in these small towns in this area are engaged in farming or ranching, or businesses that support these folks. A big part of some of the decline of these towns is not as many people are engaged in agriculture as before. Some of the older cotton gins have closed down as farmers can now ship their cotton farther to regional gins. There is also more modern farm machinery requiring less manual labor. Also people will drive farther distances to do their shopping which has resulted in some of the old downtown businesses closing over the years. I still go and stay at my mother-in-law's house in Quitaque and love the quiet peacefulness of these small towns. I am very familiar with all of these towns featured in this video and there are a lot of great people living in these small towns.
so basically all the people are on their farm and mostly visit big towns/cities?
@@roiad876 pretty much
Do the Pig's in Quitaque still own and operate the restaurant there? When I was growing up we would go eat there every now and then, and met up with my uncles brother Rex Yeary.
Yes they are peaceful towns. I used to work i.n the cotton fields in the 50's. Went back to visit a couple of years ago and it's so sad to see how it's dying. We had a Moses five and ten here in the Valley in Texas where I had my first job(besides the fields. Very good memories. Bittersweet.
@@pingpongjung1983 The Sportsman is called the Bison Cafe now, and someone else owns it.
My dad played baseball in each of these towns in the era following World War II when towns had baseball teams that would play each other. Plus, he played high school baseball, so he would also play in some of these towns. My grandfather drove an LP truck during this era, so he also came to these places. Bob Wills had a weekly radio program in the 1940's on KVOO, Tulsa which broadcast from Cain's Ballroom. It was extremely popular in its time and influenced the music of George Strait.
Amazing! Thank you for sharing that.
And Bob Wills is still the King.
Everyone needs to listen to him. It sure is not Nashville country corporate.
I love these guys! His narration keeps you watching!😂🎉😊. Keep them coming!❤
Wish I had the time to do what you do man! Love it. Thanks for the ride around Texas.
born and raised in Turkey, know all the towns and most of the places in this great video. been to the theaters when they were open. Gem in Turkey and MIdway between Turkey and Quitaque were owned by same folks back in the day. If you don't own a farm or ranch or related business, not much to do in these towns. I was last there a year ago and the stars at night I had forgotten about, just about knocked me over looking at them. God bless Texas!!
Awesome!!
I think I'd like to see "Small towns that are GROWING" too! ;) I enjoy your videos!
Fair enough, and I will be doing those soon. 😀
These are the only videos to help lull me into sleep at night your videos are perfect
I love traveling off the freeways and visiting the rural towns around the country! These fading towns are beautiful in their own way, it's too bad they can't keep more of the youth from having to leave for work. I spent several days visiting Mason Texas a few years ago, for a family reunion. The county building looks very similar to these simpler ones. It's a busy little town, with an old fort and lots of history.
I lived in Paducah, TX for 3 years back in the early 80's'. You actually had a view of my house near the old Cottle Hotel. I was going to mention most drive inns now use a local FM transmitter instead of the pole speakers. Been to all of the towns you showed. We have been having a drought. Cotton is king in most of West Texas. When the drought moves on, these towns are lush and green. Nice to see a recent video of the different places. Thank you for sharing this!
My father grew up on a farm not far from Lockney and Floydada. About 1954, his parents sold out and retired to Tulia, not covered here but nearby and very similar. I remember visiting them up to 1971, and went through several of the towns covered here. Thanks for the memories.
And at 39:57, it's called a "boll" of cotton.
What a remarkable channel. No gimmicks. I am addicted to binge watching this guys videos. Love from india.😮
Thank you for the kind words!
I'm a 70 year old guy that is a huge fan of your videos, as I grew up in the times of many of these towns heyday and came from a small town in Missouri. 600 people at one time but floods have pretty much ended the town with probably only about a 100 people left there. I currently live in California and love taking drives through country towns like you are doing. I hope you keep doing your videos as they bring back soo many memories. What most people today are missing is the hometown feeling and comraderie, which is a shame. Tom
Thank you for your great comment, Tom. And yes, I will be doing these videos for a long time.
You like CA? I think I'd rather stay in a suburban town in Missouri than live in Cali
@@undrwtrbsktwvn1110 There's still some good areas left. I love living in San Diego but it's sad to see it get overrun by homeless.
Agree with you regarding people missing the hometown feeling and comraderie. Im one of them! I moved away from my small town at 20. Now 46, I have lived in the same suburb of a decent size city only an hour away from my hometown and life is not the same. People are busy....too busy... and I believe social media has added pressures to keep up with the Jones'. I miss the simpler times. We just bought land in a small town and considering a permanent move there within the year.
Yep as soon as I seen that you live in California I stopped reading your comment
I enjoy going with you on your tours! I see things I normally wouldn't have!
Awesome, Mary!
I lived in Knox City for a while. My wife was a teacher. It’s really sad what’s happening to these little towns, but to be fair…some of them have brought this on themselves. Some of these towns have a handful of families who own all the restaurants and shops but live elsewhere. They attract families with troubled children from surrounding municipalities who’ve often been expelled from larger school districts, leading to their school system being far below acceptable. My wife graduated seniors who literally couldn’t speak English even though they have been citizens their whole life. If you want to spiral into a dark, reclusive depression…move to one of these towns.
It’s neat how all of these semi-west Texas towns have very similar architecture in their downtown square areas.
IT SOUNDS TO ME LIKE YOU NEED BETTER TEACHERS, AND PEOPLE WHO CARE FOR YOUR FELLOW CITIZENS.
I think I saw a Happy State Bank in almost every single town in this video, which are all probably owned by the same people too.
Freeman you make some excellent points
@@mmecharlotte
Thanks for the update.
yeah many factors that drove people away were almost inevitable for entire towns to get abandoned like this. We tend to forget that not everything is sustainable even though it may SEEM nice
This isn't a recent phenomenon, it's an old story in small towns "off the beaten path" all over North America. A lot of those towns peaked in the '20s and '30s and never recovered from the Great Depression and Dust Bowl years. I don't know if you've ever seen the movie "The Last Picture Show", but it was made in the early '70s and is set in the '50s. The story revolves around people living in a dying Texas town much like those in the video.
I was sent to Wichita Falls, which is near where the movie was made, on temporary assignment for a couple of months in '82. With nothing else to do on weekends I wandered around the Texas countryside, through small towns much like in the video. Those towns look about the same now as the ones I saw back then, in some cases better. The video brought back memories of a couple of times back then being out wandering around north central TX on a Sunday, getting lower on gas and hungrier the farther I went, but going through town after town and having a hard time finding anything open.
Partly because of my job and partly just because I like travelling, I have travelled all over the West and the US and Canada in general over the last 45 years, and I can attest those towns don't look much different than "past their prime" towns in OK, KS, WY, etc, or even Appalachia. At least the towns in the video seemed to have the advantage of being county seats and on one or more US routes. Some are not so lucky.
Very true. My hometown of Spur, pop. 1,000 now, was almost 2,000 when I graduated in 1984. It was over 3,000 in my grandfathers time, in 1940. Photos of the streets in the 30s and 40s showed packed streets and thriving businesses. There were a half dozen schools in the county, now there is only one with a fraction of the students.
Great video brought back lots of memories. I grew up in Swisher County it’s was great, thanks for the memories.
You just got another subscriber. As a former truck driver when I would drive through towns like that I would wonder about things like housing costs, jobs etc and how these people made the town survive. Your attention all of those facts answered a lot of questions lol. Plus your presentation was out together really really well. My mom was born in Floydata TX which is one town you covered in this video. Kudos to you.
Awesome! I'm glad you're here. :)
Thanks for this. I live in South Africa and was totally unaware of these towns.
I live in Texas, in a town called Corsicana. That cotton you picked up in the field is called a cotton bowl. My grandmother use to tell me stories of when she picked cotton growing up. She said the cotton bowls would shred your fingers and hands because of how rough they were when you picked it. Back in the day cotton was picked by hand and each person who picked it, made so much for every bag of cotton they picked. My dad told me when he was little, they even had bags for children to fill and they made so much for each of those too. Sadly I have seen so many towns like those you showed that are dying out because time just passed them by.
Been to Corsicana many times. Great town. Will be doing a video there soon.
Hey neighbor B-)
I've driven through Corsicana a few times before, lovely town.
I was a cotton picker myself. Those messed my hands up even if you wear cotton gloves. I am old now and I still have scars that I show my grandchildren .
I am also a Texan by family heritage and would like to thank you for your comment regarding normal people picking cotton in the fields. My Grandparents and my Parents picked cotton in the fields..there are just as many White people that pick cotton than Black these days. The color of your skin means nothing..the need to make ends meet and feed a family necessitates working any way you could to make enough money to buy food and get along. It does scratch and rips up your fingertips. We used to use leather quilting thimbles on our fingers to avoid the sharp thorns on the bowls.
I think the tiny house you noticed was not a house at all. It was a former Philips gas station. It had the same architecture as the one in Turkey. You could see the remnants of pavement in front of the building. The building that collapsed next to it was probably the service garage. Enjoyed your tour of these Texas towns.
You're right. I noticed it in edit. :)
Thank for showing the cotton bulb. Interesting!
thanks for sharing, love all the history
That area you drive through during 1:40 with the courthouse is very common in Texas. We call those areas "squares", and they all look the exact same. One large building (usually a courthouse) in the middle, businesses on the perimeter. You can see them in places like Denton, Lockhart, San Marcos, Granbury, Hallettsville, Waxahachie, and probably a thousand other Texas cities.
The reason there are 254 authentic squares in Texas is that every town that has one is the county seat. Texas followed a guideline that no man should be more than a day's ride (on horseback) from his county courthouse. In Collin county, Frisco was jealous of the real county seat, McKinney, so they built a phony square there, using faux early 20th century architecture. Anyway, that's why Texas has such small counties and they all have a square.
As a Texas resident from an extremely small town as well (200 people in lakeside village TX) I have to agree with you 💯 on that they look just about the same
We even got them here in rillo and lbk
I was wondering why that despite the fact that they were all different towns, they all pretty much looked the same. If you showed me a picture after I finished the video and asked which town it was I wouldn't be able to tell you lmao.
Ours is a bit bigger, but yeah, even Lubbock has one.
Fascinating video. I grew up in Texas but have lived in the Pacific Northwest for some time.
Bob Wills was a huge star in the 1940s and into the 1950s. Waylon Jennings, born in Littlefield, NW of Lubbock and a star in his own right recorded “Bob Wills is Still the King” in 1975.
One of my favorite songs by Waylon.
My grandfather Doyle P. Brink of the Texas Swingsters used to travel with Bob Wills back then. The also had a bus like his and they traveled to to huge shows out in California up to 100,000 fans would show up and dance. They were very famous before WW2 ended it all. The swing they played, ended up being incorporated into other Texas and Louisiana music to create Rock and Roll. With the help of Buddy Holly of west Texas and many others all th way to Waco.
Thank you so much Joe doing these. I find your style very relaxing. You have made my day many times.
Thank you!
What I would like to see if you could talk to some of the people in the towns you drive through…..if it’s safe of course. Would be very interesting to hear what some of the residents in the are think.
And thanks for the amazing videos you produce.
28:03, abandoned gas station, similar to the Phillips 66 station in Bob Wills’ town of Turkey. Thanks for the videos of your journeys documenting “flyover” country that is forgotten by those that live on the coasts. I’ve found that visiting the cemeteries of small towns gives historical insight into the origin of early settlers of a town.
I love going to The Bob Wills gathering in April! So much fun.
Repent to Jesus Christ “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Matthew 6:33 NIV
Jh
Great video…Most of those towns flourished when they had railroad service. The Quanah, Acme, and Pacific ran through Paducah out to Floydada. The Ft. Worth and Denver (Burlington) and Santa Fe were big players in the region also. That big elevator in Floydada would have been rail-served. In fact, Floydada had a big facility for trains to unload new automobiles for dispersal throughout the region.
@ScoobyDoo Yes, railroads did ship all that cotton. But they were abandoned, tracks removed. Everything goes by truck now.
I can confirm that the rails have been removed.
After the Frisco Railroad was merged into the Burlington Northern (now BNSF) they kept the track from Quanah as far as Paducah, but it’s gone now also. The Santa Fe served Floydada, and the Frisco (QA&P) would hand off transcontinental trains to them. Once the transcons were re-routed elsewhere, much of the traffic disappeared. Many rail lines were built in this region out of competition among companies, even though rail traffic was generally light in all these small towns.
I'm fascinated by your videos. Thank you for taking the road less traveled. I've always wanted to go to places like Turkey TX.
Thank you, Lester. :)
That is such a great video! To someone living in the south of Europe, this seems sooo different, there are no people on the streets, to me it looks like a movie set...
Same and I'm in America. It's like we were already born into a dystopia, dying society snd no one told us they just let it devolve.
My wife’s dad grew up in a similar small town in deep East Texas. Population now is about 1,200 and it just survives, but prior to WWII, it was a bustling agricultural town that supported a cannery for the produce raised in the area. He described the days in the 30s-40s when everybody went into town on market Saturdays. The place would be packed, with activities on the square, a movie at the theatre, and even a clean public restroom building to handle the crowds. Like so many rural towns, after the war most of the boys never returned. Then it also became impossible to survive at small farming, so everything dried up. I often think we lost something important.
By the way, like many little towns, they generated their own electricity with diesel Fairbanks-Morse generators. They’d hear the big engines’ quiet firing pulses from a mile out in the country. Several Texas towns have preserved their diesel municipal light plants.
I don't think it became impossible to survive as a small farmer. It's only that you can't have a modern lifestyle. If you are happy with a badly insulated house, no appliances, no tractor, no electricity, no consumer goods, then you can do it, even get rich. Amish do, after all. But you can imagine how much, or maybe i should say how little, they spend.
Good comment. Thank you.
do you know what the name of the town is?
I'm 70 and I've never given a thought to where small towns got their electricity. That's a really interesting note. It adds value to this string of comments. Thanks.
I've been to all of the towns in this video multiple times, as I travel through West Texas fairly often. I've stayed at Hotel Turkey on more than one occasion and it's awesome. They serve amazing food there and everyone is super friendly. Some people might find these old towns rather boring and, while I don't think I'd want to live there, I certainly enjoy visiting them often. Great video, thanks for sharing. Fun to see these old familiar places on UA-cam.
I drove through many towns in the Rolling Plains and High Plains of Texas when I was a young geologist way back in the 70s and early 80s. We drilled many wells in that area, and It seemed as though I was on location every week or so, as I was either supervising logging operations or making formation picks based on sample runs. Not one of the towns up there was much to look at 45 years ago, and it seems that they are in worse shape today.
I am a Scottish woman living in Scotland, and absolutely love this. Sooo fascinating. Heartbreaking to see how they’ve just stopped thriving. And the global agenda of having everyone in the cities is never more apparent than in these little towns. 😢
And as a jok, I am gonna say, this is the stuff that Texas chainsaw massacre is made of!! 😂 (I guess they got their storyline from somewhere) but I’m not serious. 🤍🥰🙌🏼
Would love to know how the people of the towns you drive through and film, feel about their town being featured. And so many people being interested. ☺️
Myself I imagine how two strangers walk in the middle of these streets, guns ready to draw, and coffin maker shops on the side of the road...
Thank you so much for pointing out the global agenda the oligarchs have for us. More people need to know...