Disappearing Towns of Northwest Texas - Ghost Towns in the Making
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- Опубліковано 11 лис 2020
- Since the 1950s a large swath of northwest Texas has experienced tremendous population decline. In this video, we highlight a few of the many towns that have been hit hard by this phenomenon. If things don't change, the only thing left here in 50 years will be empty buildings and hunting ranches.
#texas #westtexas #westtx #town #smalltown #ghostown #abandoned #panhandle #historic #historical #historicalbuildings
I went to school in McAdoo back in the late 70's. I often go back just for the memories. I remember the whole school letting out early at times to eat watermelon just to the west of the gym. Great times
Just curious... Was watermelon the town's main produce at that time?
@@famj4860 nope
More info on the old swinging holes if you could please I’m going metal detecting there this summer if I can get the time . Hey you can meet me there I have extra machines 🦆🦆✅
I went to the McAdoo Volunteer Fire Dept. 4th of July fireworks & BBQ fundraiser a few years ago. The windmills around there are spectacular, especially at night.
My Granddaddy ran the Fina station in McAdoo for many years and also took care of the cemetery there. My Great Granddaddy also helped build the McAdoo Methodist Church. I went through McAdoo in November - so many fond memories of playing around town but so sad to see some of it now.
I had forgotten how many Texas towns have the red brick roads in their downtown squares. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
We have a ton of those in downtown Fort Worth, especially going on Main Street to the Stockyard, and 7th Street to the Museum District. No matter what you drive, it still is a bumpy ride.
So i come from a migrant family, and I remember spending some summers there in Memphis back in the late 70's early 80's. My family's job was to walk down what seemed to be miles of cotton fields, and pull the weeds out with a garden hoe, from dawn to dusk. I was too young to work and get paid, but helped the family by being the water boy. I used to wear an old army belt with 3 canteens full of water. When one of my family members canteen was empty, I'd replace it with a full one, and walk all the way back to the station wagon and fill them back up. As an adult I think back at what a strong woman my grandmother was, she'd get up around 3am and make breakfast, and lunch for everyone ( there was 8 of us)go out to the fields and work all day out in the hot Memphis sun, and come home and cook dinner. Sure do miss my grandma. I still stop by Memphis once in a long blue moon when I drive from Ft Worth to Colorado Springs to visit my old army buddies.
I remember our basketball team playing the McAdoo team. They barely had enough players, but all their players were seemingly better.
Great story
Love your story and your grandma.
blessings on your family and your grandma..... real people.... thanks for sharing, consider publishing your stories before all our history is forgotten.... Bill in Vermont
Thanks for the story
Having been born and raised in Texas it is sad to see the possible end of small town life. Small towns have a charm all their own.
I agree. I was born in a small town in Nebraska, but have seen the same decline of small towns there. I long to return to small town life.
Texas still has hundreds, if not thousands of small towns hanging in there. The smallest ones simply can't afford to survive in today's economy, sad but inevitable.
Seems small towns everywhere are getting flooded with meth and all the bad stuff that goes with it
@@guaporeturns9472 its urbanization that causes this. You basically have to move to a city to work. Then you find out rent is too expensive in the city so... Small towns are basically ghettos.
@@guaporeturns9472 Same thing with the opioid crisis in the rust belt & Appalachia. When the jobs & opportunities vanish so does peoples hopes & dreams.
It’s so flat you can watch your dog run away for three days
Just like the earth
Its 7 if you stand on a tuna can.
@@andy-gr2zy lol what
@@Level_No_Curve The Earth ain't flat
@@timmick6911 it sure as hell isnt a spinng ball on space i know that much. Quit envisioning a flat disc in space not what im saying
Borger? I remember, at age 11, taking a chartered train from San Angelo, Texas, to frigid Borger to see our San Angelo Bobcats play a nonconference game there. Those Borger Bulldogs were tough. They beat a superb San Angelo high team that went on to the playoffs. The train ride, 5 hours each way was fun. Students sold food and drink in one train car. My dad, now 94, always talks about our trip together to see the mighty Bobcats and Bulldogs play.
This video on virtual ghost towns is soooo melancholic...
I had a feeling Paducah was in this list. I used to travel there for work and stayed in the Hunters’ Lodge, a former funeral home. It’s lovely. First time there, I rode with my supervisor. He dropped me off at the lodge and stayed somewhere else. On foot during the few days I was there, I explored Paducah after work and met some residents, all friendly. The courthouse is beautiful and interesting, one of unique courthouses designed by architects Voelcker & Dixon. Really something. I wonder (hope) if more people working remotely, like me, means the revival of some of these towns. I considered moving there for the low cost of housing and living. Childress is only 30 minutes away and offers quite a bit. Nice video.
Great comment Gwen. Happy New Year, God bless you!
@@jasonroberts9357 happy new year! God bless you, too!
I feel like WAH folk will definitely be wanting to get as far away from city centers as possible in the coming years. They will probably be political violence refugees, though I hope that won’t be the case
I feel with the state of the country and the mass amount of people moving to Texas, areas such as this have hope of being revived.
@@singlemotherRespector I used to take time as a truck driver to do u turns and drive through these towns. I am retiring and often think of going to Colorado city Texas. Back in 91 I got pulled over by the Hiway patrol and he made me go to the court house and talk to the judge. A $140. fine got reduced to $40.00 after the judge and my wife got to talking about Quarter horses and they knew all about them and chated for about an hour. Me being a city boy I kept my mouth shut and after many trips going through there to check out the cool town I'm seriously thinking of moving there. But I'm from California and we're not well received in Texas these days but we will soon see. I have skills that they may like there so we may give it a try.
I was born in Abilene and lived all over west Texas and the Panhandle. These towns are all in a perpetual state of winding down for good. If they're lucky, they still have a Dairy Queen to lure weary travelers off the highway and there's almost always a closed down Higginbotham-Bartlett lumber yard, a neat little church, grain silos (the tallest structures in town) and the remains of a cozy town square and courthouse surrounded by uneven brick paved streets. If you took the time to listen, all you'd hear is the roar of outbound interstate traffic and the howling of the wind.
Yup like Coleman Baird Clyde anson mason Brady Haskell hamby munday
@@momlife24-7 Grew up just off Highway 277. Anson has been a hauntingly dilapidated town since the late 90s. Last time I saw it was five years ago and I honestly couldn't say if it had gotten worse or if it had always looked that way.
I live in Abilene now and west texas has a melancholy feel, especially for a transplanted Dallasite such as myself
@@momlife24-7 brady is a cool little town IMO
But why - what are the forces that created these towns and are now depleting them?
Having been born and raised in Amarillo, my wife and I have seen a large share of Small Town USA in the Texas Panhandle: from Texline to Canadian, from Adrian to Shamrock, from Muleshoe to Paducah, these small towns were just parts of our life. As a college student, I worked at McKesson Robbins and part of my job was delivering to those towns, like Fritch, Pampa, Borger, Dumas, Hereford, and Canyon. Being in HS in Canyon, we played basketball in Tulia, Happy, Dimmitt, and Bushland. It's said that change is inevitable; there's no mention of the sadness involved.
My Family is from Vigo park and Tulia, lived in Amarillo for my elementary years and my sister is raising a family in pampa and have lots of family in Amarillo. Visiting Pampa was always depressing for me but with covid it seems to be turning around on the population front.
Yes, its sad. Old people are left mainly. The small farms gone. Amarillo is sad to me now. Its huge and getting bigger, its another cookie cutter Texas city now.
I'm very familiar with that area. Two of my brothers were born in Tulia, and we other two in Littlefield.
Grew up in Spearman. It is a little better than these towns but not much.
@@thomaslthomas1506 only been through there once on my way to Liberal, KS. Goodness, those towns and people seem so long ago. In recent years, my brother and I, while on a trip to Amarillo, went to look for Adobe Walls. And though we found it, there is very little to see of it. From what I recall, it was north of Stinnett and south of Spearman, towards the east.
I live in central Tx but I drive a truck and I’ve been to all these towns. I hate to see this happening. The panhandle and west Tx are my favorite places.
Then how could foreigners come to revive it?
@Alexer yes, I know, so the place is suitable for export business as we have already sources of income. We need a quiet place and no power no problem we use solar and wind. Homesteading with chickens vegetables and other would also add. Serious we are tired of corona city life.
@@whitelion7976 those were my thoughts exactly. This would be a perfect "work from home"city, I personally think that's where we're headed anyways, especially now that people have a taste for it, and companies are realizing they don't need a physical office...
Why tho.west texas sux
I agree, because they still feel like the Texas of our childhood.
I lived in Borger, in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Lovely people, almost no crime. I hated the idea to move there, and cried when we had to move.
Crime has gone up tho
@@DavidLeon140m3 How sad.
Were you transferred?
@@sybileberhart3439 Yes. Phillips headhunted my husband out of Santa Fe, then, we spent almost 3 years in Borger. Later transfered too Midland. Midland is also a hidden gem, for families.
I grew up in Stinnett, just a few miles north of Borger. Much time was spent cruising the Borger Main Street back in the day. That's all part of a bygone era now. I've been gone from the region now for 3 decades. Visit every once in a while.
It's sad. The empty buildings and homes were someone's hopes and dreams....
Not anymore. The American dream is evaporating. Now we are bombarded every five minutes through our screens by middle man ( hundreds of them) trying to convince us to invest in stocks market and become millionaires just by sitting in a coffee shop and using a laptop. What a crap?.
Another thing. Those vultures did increase their attack just after the release of 1.9 trillion dollars stimulus package.
It’s very sad. To think that it used to be a thriving little town.
Looks like most grew old and died. The young have no reason to stay.
I ain't gonna lie, I teared up
@@SonyaJeanetteSo did I
Texas, West Virginia, Nevada, Montana, Nebraska ... no matter where you go, little towns are dying. Whole counties are emptying out. Its so sad.
Add Iowa to the list, unless you're withing 30 miles of Des Moines. It pisses me off.
This is a trend all over the world. Japan is giving free houses to try to lure people back to villages. Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece are the same. Few people want to live on very unreliable agriculture based mostly on human labor.
@@seththomas9105 that's because there's no decent paying jobs in small town Iowa
@@ronjohnson9507 Yep, that's why I had to move. 🤨
@@seththomas9105 i left there in 2013
Wal Mart built the coffins, Amazon hammered in the nails.
Doesn't look like Wal Mart affected Paducah much. The closest store appears to be in Lubbock, about 90 miles distant. Amazon could not be good for the town though.
that had nothing to do with the loss of population.
People always trash Walmart but the one I worked at employs alot of people-more people than the small businesses that went out of business did. I had better health insurance at Walmart than I have with the Union job that I left Walmart for.
That really wasn't the case. These towns were in decline long before anyone outside of Arkansas had ever heard of Walmart. I grew up in the Texas Panhandle, and these towns were nothing to speak of in the late 1960s and 1970s.
We have antitrust laws on the books to prevent this sort of thing but our government does not enforce them due to bribes.
A lot of these towns were created 30 miles apart along railroads so the steam engines could fill their boiler with water.
Drive across the panhandle on I-40 and it's like hopping from one little town to the next: Grain elevator, Dairy Queen, and maybe a feed lot or a closed movie theater. Then you see the next grain elevator in the distance.
Interesting.
Nope. It's how far people could travel in a day. Lots of towns didn't have railroads when they were founded.
The county seats were established one day horse ride from each other. The county seats are roughly 40 miles apart except for the big counties in west Texas.
I grew up in Seagraves, Tx. It’s another small town community that has suffered from population decline. My folks are buried there. It’s very sad to see the decline when we go to visit them at the cemetery.
I grew up in Seminole and went to the dentist in Seagraves. Lovely man, I believe his name was Dr. Colley (sp?). I also remember the carbon black plant there. Small world.
@@timlewis6660 oh Yes.I knew Dr. Cauley very well. In fact our family were very close. My mother was their housekeeper for many years. She also cleaned his dental office and my brother is his son Mikes best friend. Dr. Cauley was a super nice man. He passed away a few years ago. We sure do miss him and his wife Jeanne.
I remember Seagraves I was from Littlefield
The decline is sad but on the plus side, it’s better than going through a boom and loosing the identity of the town and watching it change into something else full of people from everywhere else full of the same ol big box store buildings looking like any town USA.
I’m from a small town of 12,000 people just over the New Mexico border, it’s grown a tad but it still looks the same as it did 30 years ago, with a few new buildings and remodels here and there. I think that’s really cool cause it’s nostalgic and you still see the town as you did when you were a kid.
I grew up in seagraves as well. My mother and grandparents are buried there too. Nothing changes.. everyone graduates and moves away. No one comes back....
I grew up in a dying town here in NH. I had to leave at 18 because there was no work. Its painful to watch the death of a town.
We need to recreate these towns. They are adorable.
I know that feeling very well. I grew up watching the town I lived in disappear, one store, one home at a time.
Big ag pushed all the little guys out
That’s what happens when Republicans take full control of everything! They support big businesses on the expense of the little guys.
@@grandwonder5858 Really? Have you checked the Dems donors lately? They're pro big business, pro war and pro illegal immigration. And the Repubs suck too. Get your head out of the false binary.
@@boodog4023 Both parties have become lunatic asylums. Either that or they've colluded with each other in a diabolical plan to keep everyone distracted in a culture war while they split the winnings behind closed doors.
Well, we all want cheap food don't we?
Yep, I agree about big Ag. Also, everybody also wants convenience and even more options. They tend to find lots more options in cities and suburbs. In the long run though, it isn't worth it for everyone (just for some people it is).
I’ve been living Fort Worth my entire life and considering how crowded and populated north Texas and Texas as a whole is it is hard to image a empty town in Texas for me
Yeah, I was just thinking that. 5th generation Texan here, and the metro areas in TX are insanely overcrowded so it is hard to believe these places in the Panhandle are shriveling up. That being said, my grandparents left the Panhandle in the 50s for a better life in the DFW area.
Omgg as a person who lives in the metro, I feel this comment. I'm miles and miles from ghost towns.
We traveled through Memphis every time we went west on 287 from Dallas. I often think of these small towns and the lives lived in their heyday. Thanks for sharing.
I am from Amarillo and worked as a firefighter/EMT in Borger for a long time. A lot of industry still exists in Borger like the Phillips 66 refinery, but these towns are fading for sure. I live in Yakima, WA now, beautiful place but I sure miss the people. Great vid, cheers :)
My wife and I watched this last night on our tv. She was particularly interested in your video and really liked it. I really like seeing these cool little towns. Its cool seeing how even though the town seems to be dying, there is still some cool parts and architecture of each to see. The brick roads and town squares are really neat. Its a neat part of Texas. Thanks for the video.
Cool, I'm you all enjoyed it. It's sad but fascinating. I think many see the rapidly growing large cities like Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston but may not be aware of the numerous places like this in Texas.
@@secretsoftexas6872 We need to rebuild them. People need to go back to the land and grow organic food.
Towns like these, and people who grew up and lived in those towns, are the ones who made America the nation, it is today.
@Syed yes and there are thousands of them in our beautiful country 😢
Yeah, spent the last 6 year traveling the country for work. Most of it looks like this.
I don’t think people understand quite how gutted America is.
A nation built for opportunity that has largely dried up.
Really? I didn't know the founding fathers were from the Panhandle. Lemme guess. George Washington was from Dimmit, Thomas Jefferson form Hereford, James Madison from Earth, and of course all the slaves who built the Capitol in Washington D.C. were surely from the Panhandle too. No doubt. 😏
It's not true. Bigs cities have been civilization's leaders. People from small town are too closed minded and hate changes and differences. They don't want to advance, they are happy just with things they already know. Your point is false, go to read history.
@@mjrtensepian1727 we have many of these small towns in Upstate New York as well. We thought it was just here but our travels took us through similar gutted villages in several states. Terribly sad what has happened.
It looks like radiator springs from the movie "cars". So sad.
It is the area they based it on
Radiator springs was modeled on Kingman Arizona. On old Route 66
Thats what my friends and I called Roaring springs, TX when we visited.😆
@@leewilliams2094 neither texas nor kingman. Peach Springs and Seligman AZ. Towmater was inspired by truck in Seligman, I lived there for awhile
So sad to see these little towns get destroyed by the big corporations that now own the farms and ranches.
I guess so called progress isn't always a good thing.
Well to be fair, the older generations that ruled towns did not plan for the future generations. Towns that purposely diversified their economy fared better and survived. Change will happen and you fight back to dilute it as much as you can, diversify, but if you just let it, it erases the precious heritage.
All I can think about looking at these towns is, water and electric?
Just went through the great winter storm of 2021 in south central texas.
As a retired person. I wouldn't mind living out in the middle of nowhere.
8" of snow is routine for those towns though. I saw that a few times in Borger the 3 years I went to a college there. Students from Colorado would gripe about how Texans can't drive in the snow. I couldn't help but think that they hadn't seen people from Louisiana drive in snow yet.
@@aNaturalist Or Virginia .
Thank you for this video. I had an Aunt that lived in Paducah. Most of my family ,that didn’t move to California in the 30’s are from Pampa, Childress and Amarillo area. It’s so sad to see these towns like this.
If you ever do any videos form that area I’d love to see them. My grand parents and mother were with the group that moved to Calif. I’ve been to visit but it was long ago .
2021 Thanksgiving I took my wife and grandchildren to Post Texas. One day I took to see Wellington Texas where she and her family used to pick cotton. I drove around the town looking for a hotel that they called home but couldn't find it and it hurt me because she got so sad. We walked the town square for several hours as she recalled stores that were now empty. So sad
My wife's parents grew up in Spur in Dickens County, not far from Paducah. We still have family in that area. All these towns have suffered like this.
It's like the Rust Belt. People move on to greener pastures.
Small town USA is dying, so sad, and happening across most States now ...
Who owns most of the Main Street empty buildings? Walmart. They need to be boycotted.
Make small town USA, a brand or a product,coupled with advantages,such as very low taxes, financially beneficial to live out there, I accept the ideas will require hard work and serious effort on everybodies part,including all the Government agencies,of course.
@@christophermiller853
Good ideas. Everybody has to tighten their belt and work shoulder to shoulder. Citizens need hope and a plan. 🌈
@@christophermiller853
In order to implement that, first if all, you need ...PEOPLE. 🤷🏽♂️😂
@@HK-xx1is
Exactly. But they need jobs out in these areas too. There has to be a way to turn this around. 🌈
I was born in Crockett, Texas. Watching these small towns disappear is a bit sad.
It wouldn't be so bad if they cleaned up after themselves before leaving
They should market themselves to the tiny home movement. Lots of people would be interested in cheap real estate in the middle of nowhere
Crockett is a neat town. Stopped there and laid a cigar on the foot of the bronze likeness of Lightnin'
Hopkins.
i planned on retiring in Crockett but my home on the bay never sold after restoring a home to live in at crockett. I finally put the restored home up for sale and moved back to Anahuac, Tx. It will be retirement for me. Always loved Anahuac anyway but the taxes and windstorm insurance has gotten so out of hand people are having to choose which one if either they pay. It used to be really nice and away from the hustle bustle but so many immigrants, californians and north easterners have moved to Houston and Anahuac and i find myself getting right back in the hustle because of the growth in Anahuac.
I stayed in paducah for 3 days at the hunters lodges motel, and went to their friday night fish fry, then traveled over to Roaring springs. The people in those 2 towns are so sweet and welcoming. In Roaring Springs I got to talk to a real Texas ranger who at the time was in his 90s, you can tell his mind was slipping, but when he started telling us about his work as a ranger his eyes lit up so much. He showed us his old badge and everything. These little towns have some really cool gems hidden, if you just take the time to talk to the locals.
I grew up in these dusty little oil towns. When I think about living in those towns now I get a feeling like I can't breath. And I want to forget all those memories. And thoughts of a lonely slow drawn out death haunt me.
Omg me too. I lived in Borger. I feel exactly how you said it. I cherish memories with my dad and family and it stops there. Depressing.
Perhaps modern work-from-home hi-tech could re-vitalize small towns??$$ People are fed-up with high taxes, crime, smog and trash#!?😳😘😁Texas should consider subsidizing hi-tech installation in their small towns with all these people moving in from other states??😉😁
And bums begging
City liberals will bring their horse crap ideas with them.
Well,your comment has set me thinking.
The ideas I have, would need permission from the State governer and down to the various revenue collection agencies in each State.
An individual,couple or a family, would be encouraged to move to a town, of their choice,this is very important.
They would not pay any taxes,but they must pull their figure out, and start a business,quite possibly very tourist oriented and leaning heavily on that towns historic past,so ,people would be dressed out in period clothing,with period transport,cars,trucks,buses etc.
This sort of thing works in various parts of the UK.
At the same time, the towns need to work to attract the high tech people. People won't trade high taxes for a crumbling infrastructure, lack of education for their kids, and no airport.
COVID and urban crime will bring some people back. Companies are realizing work-from-home policies save them money.
Lots of folks looking for someone to blame here, but the truth is that change happens. It's been true forever. I think it's nice that the vlogger here took the time video some of these old towns.
I look at these abandoned towns and see possibilities... if only I had the money... 😢
It might be best that you don't have the money. These towns are out in the middle of nowhere, with crumbling infrastructure. You'd be better off buying a hunting ranch if you're interested in that part of Texas. Land out there is $1000/acre, with tons of deer and turkey, plus several other game birds.
My family often traveled on Hwy. 287 between East Texas and Colorado back in the 1960's. I recall the towns along that storied highway as being vibrant and lively. In 2010 I was in the area and took note of the lack of life and activity in many of the small , once busy towns. Times change, but not always for the better.
Thanks for sharing those memories
@@secretsoftexas6872 You're welcome. Thank you for the great video.
Love this area.....been through Texline, Dumas and Dalhart, Texas a bunch, and also Guymon, Boise City and other places in the OK Panhandle. It’s nice to get off the Interstate and major highways and see these small towns outside of the larger cities. It’s sad seeing these places crumbling away, but you can see the way things used to be.
Mechanized agriculture has a lot to do with it
Fewer farm hands needed and fewer jobs for the people in the service industry who depended on the farm hands for business
You nailed it - finally a comment that makes sense. It is a domino effect - mechanized agriculture leads to less labor and bigger farms which leads to fewer families, all with a consequence of fewer jobs. And many of the remaining jobs are low wage jobs that don't interest local kids and so they move to, for instance, Houston where they can make way more money. Oh, and throw in that the mechanized farms are owned by people in cities far away so most of the wealth is drained away and not spent locally.
@@michaelinhouston9086 - Here in California, a Sancuary state, is realizing how mechanized large agriculture has become as well. Mandatory union membership has become serious competitive. Only the best will stay on, the rest whom can’t keep up get the boot. End up in jail, or on the streets living in desperation.
This reminds me of the movie the last picture show. Wow
Filmed in Archer City , Tx. & it looks like one of these towns.
I just saw that movie for the first time. Great but sad and true movie. It was based of a true story.
It does.
That’s what I was thinking too.
@@pamil1923 Me too.
I was born in this region and I left as soon as I could. The weather is interesting to say the least. If you like wind in its many forms you'll like the panhandle. Local saying--"It rained 10 inches last month and I remember the night it happened."
Fl here and my pond that was empty 2 days ago is full. Yesterday they said we got a half a inch in 5 min. So all I hear is Fl without all these yanks
Windmills... just saying. What is/ was the main employer, outside of its oil past?
When McAdoo was winning championships they were in class B, the smallest sports division; however, the large schools were afraid to play McAdoo. They had a tough team.
Same for Paducah back in the late 80’s had multiple d1 players and they played big Lubbock and Amarillo schools and won despite having such a small school
I drove through several on my trip from Colorado to Louisiana. Thank you for making this. Nostalgia gets to me like NOTHING ELSE CAN.
Are water shortages part of this picture? Five minutes of research showed me that most of the panhandle lies above portions of the Ogallala Aquifer that are drying up due to overuse by large agriculture operations. That water was deposited millions of years ago and is now being pulled to the surface and used much faster than it is recharged. On the aquifer maps, this area appears to be largely above the shallower parts of it and I've read elsewhere that many of the shallower parts of this aquifer no longer have any water left. Even where it is deeper, large agriculture operations can afford to sink deeper wells, leaving small family farms with no water as the water level below their feet drops below their wells. If this is the problem, even the large farms with few people will run out of water and close before long.
And therein lies the reason for most of the conflict that is the history of the American west.
Too many people trying to live in areas that were never able to support those populations in the first place.
Water rights have been the source of conflict so they divert water from other places. The Rio Grande River used to flow to the Gulf of Mexico but not anymore. Too many diversions. Same thing with other rivers like the Colorado river supporting Los Angeles.
And when the water dries up, so do the towns.
@@JamesDavis-ne7nf parasites
No. Not even a little bit. Paducah grew before people anywhere were irrigating with aquifer water. It grew when ranches needed more labor than they do now and transportation was a lot slower. Now, there are fewer people on the ranches, and people drive to the nearest bigger town to shop.
You can literally see from the architecture that around 1920, when the highway system went in, the town went into decline.
If anything, aquifer irrigation would have delayed the decline for a whil because that's a bit more labor intensive than ranching.
Also...you you SERIOUSLY think that the main crop up there is irrigated corn or cotton????? And if you can't grow corn or cotton, farms have to "close"? What in your imagination did people farm when Paducah was at it's height?
It's cattle. Always has been. Yes, the aquifer is shrinking, but that just means that the people who went to corn and cotton have to go back to cattle ranching, same as before.
@@toomanymarys7355 Corn and cotton are grown in huge quantities up here in the panhandle/south plains. So are wine and table grapes. And acres and acres of pumpkins and ornamental gourds.
I was born and raised in Memphis Texas. A lot of my family still live in Memphis. Both sides of my grandparents and 2 uncles and my dad are laid to rest so it will always be my home. Made a lot of bad ass friends from kindergarten till Sr. year. Still in a group chat with several of them today. One of them shared this video on our group chat. I also got to move back and raise my older 2 kids for a few years and it was fun.
My grandmother is buried in Memphis. You kin to any Durhams?
@@minombre5555 who was your grandmother
Nanny Mae Durham
@@minombre5555 doesn't ring a bell. I was born and raised in Memphis graduated in 99.
She was my great grandmother so way back when! Thanks!
Great video. I only make a comment around once a year but here goes. You hold your camera steady, calm voice, you talk enough but not too much, good music. Perfect video, I will watch more of yours.
Wow thanks for the great comments and for watching
Thank you for taking us to these towns. Magnificent to see. They could be restored to such beauty. Sooo much history.
Outstanding video, monologue and history. I enjoyed this very much and hope you do more. Great job, thank you.
I love these videos, keep them coming if you can!! Thanks for sharing it! Lots of history to be seen.
Looks like a great opportunity for Chip and Joanna Gaines to go into yet another business. Could be called City Fixer-Upper.
If I were them I would at least attempt that! A little bit later on in my career though in case it falls through
I sure hope not. Last thing we need in beautiful northwest Texas is reality TV shows
No absolutely not, I will not have those Waco destroying transplants ruin more of Texas!
Glad your documenting this!
The scaled down Detroits of Texas. The most striking is the lack of vandalism, illegal dumping, and graffitis in the abandon properties. The decays are mostly natural through passage of time and the exposure to the elements.
I wonder why?
@@williamesselman3102 I could tell you why but I would be banned from youtube .
@@kenj.8897 truth hurts.
It's okay to say it like this, it's because of IQ.
@@kenj.8897 don't you think it's weird that we live in a country of 73% European descent and a movie can be made that says White Men Can't Jump and all the white people go to the movie and laugh? But if I made a movie that said a certain demographic of our society can't do arithmetic, everyone would sh*t their britches.
Do you think that's weird?
Thanks for sharing. You never hear about the other Texas.
Originally from Texas and I love going through small towns... if the walls could talk...wow!!!...
They can
love these old brick buildings. got a few towns like this out here in central texas. like Gatesville, Hamilton. Though not nearly unpopulated like this
I recently recorded some video from towns in central Texas. I'll be releasing those in the near future. Thanks for stopping by.
So you’re saying there are other towns in Texas that exist that are not anything like this.
@@BMDSD ?
@@cynicaltexan9639 I was rephrasing what you had said. Of course there are places that are not populated as low as this, that is the point. That these are not populated. So if the places you are thinking have more people... they are not the same.
@@user-ch7zy8eg2m I believe I remember that place , also good memories of Jim Millers Store Saloon in Gatesville on the square !! I surely do miss the simple times !! 😊
Great video, thank you.
Remember driving cross country several years ago through Snyder, TX that looked a lot like these towns.
Very interesting! History is getting lost everywhere. It’s sad. But sharing the knowledge is so important. Keep up the good work.
This is so sad. I love the brick old buildings. Is the main reason young people moving away for jobs?
So many are homeless and then there are all of these empty homes. We must push to bring jobs back and more support for small farms.
Not enough opportunities so they move on, yeah.
I moved to Borger when I was 5yrs old with my parents, Phil and Nita Green. My dad worked at the Panhandle State Bank. He was a vice president in the loan dept.
Very good work! I appreciate this type of story-telling.
Love your channel and love your choice of music!! 👏👏👏
Thank you. 🤠
I grew up in the Panhandle close to Lubbock. I went to college at NTSU in Denton, and I drove US114 back and forth for years. There are several towns along the way that are almost ghost towns, although it seems that a small number of people still live there. Dickens, Guthrie, and Benjamin. I think they have only hung on because they are the county seats. The economy is mostly ranching, cotton farming, or the oil industry, and it seems that those industries are still going on - the farms are full of cotton plants, and the ranch area is fenced off from the roads, and you can still see cattle along the way. I don't think Amazon or Walmart had anything to do with the towns' demises.
Cable TV and intenet access has helped make them not so isolated, but the truth is that these towns are just mind-numbingly boring. Kids grow up, go to college and never come back. And who can blame them? There's no future there for them. There is a romantic idea about living in a small town, but I assure you that the reality is much different. One bank. One small grocery store. A couple of churches. One hospital maybe (if not, you're looking at a minimum hour+ drive to the closest town that has one). If you're lucky, you might have a restaurant in addition to the Dairy Queen. This is not going to be a Mayberry life.
If you called it NTSU when you attended UNT you must be my age LOL
People r too scared to spend the money in ghost town. Big towns pay a lot of tax. People should get together & try to spend. I think crime in future will make people move to ghost towns. Small towns r rascists. Small towns dont want big paying factories to come in, they r afraid that their small companies will have to start paying more. Ghost towns aint got much to do, so most sleeps with each others wives. Farmers have to have big families to do the farm work. Governmenty wants to pay low wage & not be able to own a home. Government wont build rental assistance for apartments in ghost towns for farming. Or pay a decent wage to own a home in ghost towns for farming. Gov wants farmers in big towns, paying little wages to get more taxes & crime
@@myronhelton4441 If you have figured out what is bad, why don't you create what is good?
@@restoretheearth2829 We cant get enough sheeple to go along with us. Closing our pipelines completely doesnt seem to be working. They are digging up the whole planet just to do a few windmills. But I am for conservation. You have a point, why dont I di dsomething about tht.I never thought about it, until you said something. Thanks. Maybe I could sell solar. On youtube I's like to have a sonar electric sailboat. But people have to have the money.
Lubbock is not in the panhandle .
I left small town Texas at age 18 and never looked back. So depressing, no opportunity. Horrible education system. Tax dollars all go to support the high school football team. Ridiculous
Imagine if the dollars went to support the town instead of the high school football team.
Would it matter? Is it enough money per year it makes a difference?
If it's 12 Grand, then maybe so. If it's 1200 then probably not.
@@macmcleod1188 oh, it's a lot more than 12 grand. My small town Texas high school had 470 students and 22 football coaches. We had a championship team year after year and most people in town were perfectly fine with paying high property taxes to support it.
@@jbw53191 That sounds insane. Were all those paid positions? That sounds beyond a small town budget- sounds regional.
@@macmcleod1188 yes, those were all paid positions. Also, the football team was supplied with state-of-the-art facilities. Whatever they needed. This occurred during the 1970s and 80s. And it was all encouraged and supported by the booster club and school board
Great job. It's so sad that we are" losing" so many small towns across America. The funny thing is, with the ability for so many people to work from home and products (including food) being able to be delivered in a few days, you would think more people would take advantage of lower prices of property in towns like these. If i were younger and had the ability to work from home I would buy a well built brick structure with some land and enjoy life. Hopefully, we will see a positive change for these towns and for America in general. Thanks very much.
Thanks for visiting and commenting. Yeah I'd like to see some creative ideas implemented in towns like these.
@@secretsoftexas6872
One suggestion I heard floated around before was to take people from the same state, in different towns that were losing population and jobs, and then have them move to one town all together. I guess if people were willing to relocate (same state) It sounds like a great idea.
I live and farm in Cottle county. Paducah is my county seat. It’s sad. This is the only region of Texas that is shrinking in population. I remember back in 1985, my grandfather and I went to a farm sale south of Paducah. It was on a Saturday and on the way back through town, on the way home, he said “you wouldn’t believe what it was like back in the old days on a Saturday night!” He told of not being to be able to park around the square it was so crowded! That was before tv and people would go to 3 theaters around the square. Mostly they gathered to visit. Country folks getting a taste of crowds even if they knew everyone there!
Thanks for commenting. It's great to hear perspective from someone that lives here.
I think the pre-TV and internet days definitely had their social benefits. I'm from south Louisiana. My older relatives tell me that people used to walk the streets and visit with each other on the front porch in the evening instead of watching something on a screen.
I've lived in small country towns and life in them is a double-edged sword. If you're racial or ethnic minority in them, don't fit the socio-cultural norm or fall on the public tongue, life can turn into a sour deal for you fairly quickly. Add to that the meager employment and networking options in those towns and you can see things close in around you fast if you're not careful. That's why each generation, more world-savvy, educated and choice-motivated than the next, is more driven to leave and stay away than the previous one.
For years I've been hoping that the internet would help make it possible to save some of these towns from getting totally wiped out. A lot of these places no doubt still don't have great internet access, but that could change in time. And with people being able to work remotely, perhaps some of these places could gain new residents some day. I know a couple of people who have left DFW for smaller towns well outside the metroplex because homes were more affordable and they're now working from home permanently. (And this is pre-covid.) One of the Texas towns my ancestors lived in became a ghost town over a hundred years ago. About the only thing left is the cemetery. And even that has crumbled significantly over the decades. Anyway, thanks for the video.
Yes. It would be great if we could all live where we want but still have the opportunities of earning a living there.
From what I've been hearing, SpaceX's Starlink is supposed to be an order of magnitude better than current satellite internet services... so that could be happening soon... at least if you can find people who want to get that ball rolling.
@@will9357 I hadn’t heard about that, but hopefully that or something like it would become widely available and inexpensive. 👍🏻
@@will9357 will that Online work in any other country, lets say like Rural Mexico so i can play PS online with my buddies!.....that be perfect for me😁😁
HELL no. I'm 63 and semi-retired, and if I were to to do a remote gig and move away from the city the last place I'd do it would be some God-forsaken, ex-chicken ranch town in the middle of a socio-cultural wasteland surrounded by coyotes and rattlesnakes. I'd rather move to some small seaside town in the Caribbean as an expat, probably cheaper to live in, too.
Terrific music! I appreciate the tunes. It would be nice if it was shown in the description so others could enjoy the artist more. Great video!!!
Any clue who it is?
Thank you for doing this. Society needs answers to these small towns problems. Maybe one we will
The answer is two-pronged. Decent statewide rail transportation for rural commuters and local politicians/leaders accepting that for their townships to grow the socio-cultural demographic has to change and they will have to embrace it, otherwise nobody young and productive is going to move there.
@@JorgeHernandez-lu1mi better dead than red
Had no idea. Fabulous video! Thank you for taking the time to research and create it. I'd love to stop and visit these sometime, maybe explore some ideas for restoration. Bright blessings.
My mother was born in Memphis, TX, I had a girlfriend in Borger in the early '80s. I grew up in Clayton, NM, at the junction of Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. I don't think there's any towns in the panhandle and surrounding areas in Oklahoma and NM that aren't going through similar issues.
I’ve lived in this area in several different places all my 61yrs. It was a booming agricultural area in my youth. It seems to me the first nail in the coffin was the energy crisis in the early seventies. After the drastic energy price increases, every other cost begin to rise as well. The bigger operators began to gobble up the smaller ones as is the law of survival in such a hard economic environment. I’ve for years asked myself whatever became of the money that once flowed into so many pockets? The end result is hard to look at.
Very interesting. Thank you for sharing this.
HEH, I was just diddling around the youtube world and saw this video.....I live in Killeen and thought, "why not watch?" Then I saw that I had already commented! Heh, small world. Love the channel. You are doing a historic service by documenting these sad little towns. I hate the idea that they are just crumbling away but I guess when the industry dries up, there's nothing that can be done.
All I can see is the amount of labor and love that went into all of those buildings. Also, the vision of the possibility of grabbing the American dream.
Keep up the good work. Someday someone will need this record to carry on with the history of these areas.
This breaks my heart. Maybe one day we'll need to go back to a simpler life, and by so doing we will repopulate and restore our Texas towns.
MEANWHILE THOUSANDS ARE EVICTED
One day never comes it's all over you are irrelevant, you don't matter...
Well theres thousand of Honduran and Central Americans trying to get into the country, maybe the USA should house them there😁😁.
Sadly, I think you are correct. "Save a penny 'cause it's jumbo-sized, they don't even realize what they are doing to the little man - oh the little man." Alan Jackson
Problem is its happened in W Europe too The bucolic towns in England, Ireland have seen same thing happen
I grew up in the Panhandle during the late 1960 and 1970s. These towns and dozen more like them, where sick or dying even then. A lot of them never recovered from the Depression and the Dust Bowl years. The thing that weakens and eventually kills farming communities like these is the exodus of young people in search of better lives. Amarillo and Lubbock grew in part due to that migration. Eventually the only growth is in the number of headstones in their cemeteries.
But Texas overall is increasing in population. Why aren't these cities benefitting from that?
@@nofurtherwest3474 Because most of these (in fact all of them, essentially,) are (were) farming towns that served the needs of farmers and ranchers in the immediate surrounding area. Unless you wanted to take over the family farm, which most didn't, there simply wasn't any way to earn a living in these small towns, which meant the young people left the farms and these small towns to pursue opportunities elsewhere. Unless you want to take up farming, there's no reason to live there.
@@jamesrogers47 I’ll bet if they sold the properties for cheap, like $1, like they do in Italy to entice foreign buyers, that some would buy and remodel. Many people are looking for alternatives like that. To go somewhere chill. But maybe it’s not that charming there? Are there homes on large lots that could be had for cheap?
@@nofurtherwest3474 because the only long-lasting attractions Texas has for young folk from elsewhere are the job market and (quickly fading) affordable housing market, and even in the big cities Texas is mediocre at best as far as affordable healthcare, crime, education and public transportation, you can imagine what life is like for young folk trying to push their families ahead in dead-end towns that don't even have decent jobs to make up for everything else that's lacking. I myself am 63, retired and wouldn't be caught dead living in one of those dead-end, coyote-and-rattlesnake socio-cultural wastelands. I'd go nuts.
@@JorgeHernandez-lu1mi Maybe not right in the town, but on say 10 acres of land.
Some people for example buy homes in Italy for $1 and remodel them and live there.
Or some people want to go off grid.
Many various alternatives for many people.
Anywho - I would market these towns as an "opportunity" to bring something back to life.
Just came across your video so well done 👏 I love your presentation and background. What a shame these buildings have been let go. Beautiful brick 😍
I just happened to stubble across this video and man what a change, I grew up in the town of Panhandle just the other direction from Borger, man what memories, I'm now 38 and have lived in some of the largest cities in the U.S. from L.A. to NYC and Miami. I currently live in Boston Massachusetts, and before I moved here I went back to the Texas Panhandle to visit my family, and I must say what a big difference, I do miss the quite small towns and southern hospitality, but It breaks my heart to see such history being left behind... thank you for making this video. Even though I've lived all over the U.S. Texas will always be my Home.
I grew up in one of those small towns on the Texas Plains. Brownfield was a wonderful place to grow up. It hasn’t died but the population is the same as in was in the 1950’s. And that population has changed dramatically.
It seems as though the western Panhandle has generally fared better than the eastern for some reason in terms of population. It's likely partially due to the interstate that runs from Amarillo to Lubbock.
@@secretsoftexas6872 What about the communities that are on Route 66 going through the panhandle?
I left Brownfield in 79 and my parents left in the 90's. Dad said the only jobs left were with the prison system or video rental stores.
I used to drive near those places and never took the time to see them myself. Paducah had that Heritage museum that should have much value in it, as I saw the old fire truck out front. I bet it would be great for metal detecting. Thanks for sharing. I love and miss Texas. Used to live in Lewisville and Lubbock. New sub.
I enjoyed that. Thank You. Thumbs Up!
Nice video and love the narration! Good research too.
Being a Texas native, this makes me misty eyed. Liked and subscribed
You are making me miss Texas, as I used to travel through small Texas towns all of the time. You would also find a tavern or beer joint on on the side of the road. I have played all over Texas, playing keyboards with country bands and I have lived in many places all over Texas. The problem with these small declining towns, no good jobs available to keep anyone living there. I live in Springfield, Tennessee, as there are no real good jobs in my town. Too bad that you could not be able to go into those movie threaters.
I liked it a lot, a guess time was a factor, but a little peek though a window would have added a little bit more flavor to the video, still a big thumbs up. Those old buildings that are still standing are a small look into the past, your camera work and nice clear voice was tops
Awesome footage and soundtrack. I really like Big Spring out there as well
This is what happens when you have a country involved in multiple wars without end and the largest transfer of wealth to the upper class in recorded history.
Expect more to come. They called it "agenda 21" for a reason.
Tell me about it: I paid twenty-four thousand in taxes last year and I'm getting back $1400...... MAYBE
@@anderander5662 my taxes went up in that last tax cut.
@@dallastaylor5479
If you "get your money back" you did something wrong.
Please explain how rich can make retirees leave small town where taxes are cheaper.
Those are really good looking brick buildings. That town has a lot of potential if you could get people to move there.
First, you have to get the people that are there to move out. The few that are still there, don't want it redeveloped. While trying to maintain the small town charm, they are actually ensuring the death of their own towns.
I was born in Dallas, but my father moved the family to Abilene when I was 8. I didn't see it at the time, but I was blessed to grow up there. Running from personal demons,, I moved back to Dallas in the mid 90s.
Thank you for sharing an educating us on the history
Not a single property for sale in Mcadoo. They are consolodating these towns into mega farms. It's not as poor as it looks.
This is like the movie "The Last Picture Show" except in color!
By the way, these towns were ghost towns back then, not only when the movie was made (1971) but when it was set (1951),
Every time I drive the panhandle on the way to CO, starting in Memphis, the same question comes to mind: How are these people living out here?
No oil, no Wagner Ranch. 115 on a bad summer day. 0 in a bad winter. Scrub and cactus for farming.
As settlers go...they really settled there.
Really enjoyed your video
Such an interesting video. Thanks.
I worked there.for a few years.gas station and a burger place.I met some of the finest people i know.Really sad to see it in disrepair.Childress was the nearest place for getting essentials.
The city I work for in washington used to be one of the large more important cities in the state. It was a blue collar city and a hub for the region. The city's population began to decline post WWII and by the 80s business moved to unincorporated areas to avoid taxes. In the 90s, the city was plagued by gang violence and poverty. In the early 2000s, it was one of the most dangerous cities in he state. With half the population the city had in the forties, people are now starting to return. However, business are not. Amazon came to the area and tech employees from Seattle found they could avoid the hazards of King County by settling there. Now working people can't afford a home there. It's sad to see cities go or lose themselves but this is the world now.
Great content. Subscribed!
Great video but sad! Thank you.
Recently did Ancestry and found records of my grandfather briefly living in a town called Royalty, off highway 18 in Ward County near Odessa. After some light research I found it peaked in the 40's with a population of around 750 but currently has less than 50 people living there, last estimate was 29. Abandoned doesn't even begin to describe what it's like. If you're ever in that area again it would be really nice to see some on the ground shots if you have the time and interest! Love your videos
Hi I live in Odessa! Tell me where it’s located by cause I would love to visit!
@@savannahjones4195 Just north of Grandfalls! I think they even share a school district. Like 5ish minutes north of Grandfalls on 18
There must of been a lot of brick factories around in the earlier days, there's little towns all over America that used a lot of bricks, wonder how many gazillion bricks they made and how many went out of business as the use of bricks declined, that's a story in itself.
It is actually its own story. Lots of these little towns made their own bricks. But they milled their wood, forged their hammers and nails, among other things as well.
If you drive through a bunch of the towns near Amarillo had brick baker ovens they look medieval with the gas pipes going out the sides but none have baked a brick since the 40s
Thank you for bringing back memories of time forgotten i to come from a small town in Texas . God Bless on your Travels.
So much interesting history comes from all these abandoned towns. Is very sad to see what were once bustling places full of people, children running down the streets, ladies shopping at the five and dime. Brings back so many beautiful memories of my own old abandoned hometown.