Disappearing Towns of Northwest Texas - Ghost Towns in the Making
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ย. 2024
- 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.
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
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 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.
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.
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
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.
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....
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 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.
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 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 :)
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 .
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.
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.
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
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 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.
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.
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 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
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!
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.
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.
Thank you for taking us to these towns. Magnificent to see. They could be restored to such beauty. Sooo much history.
Originally from Texas and I love going through small towns... if the walls could talk...wow!!!...
They can
Not a single property for sale in Mcadoo. They are consolodating these towns into mega farms. It's not as poor as it looks.
I drove through several on my trip from Colorado to Louisiana. Thank you for making this. Nostalgia gets to me like NOTHING ELSE CAN.
Very interesting! History is getting lost everywhere. It’s sad. But sharing the knowledge is so important. Keep up the good work.
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?
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 .
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
Thanks for sharing. You never hear about the other Texas.
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.
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 !! 😊
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Where is that refinery that laid off 700 workers in one day, was that in west Texas? Now that's sad too
Glad your documenting this!
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 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.
"Where are we?"
"The ass of nowhere."
~ Fandango
Love your channel and love your choice of music!! 👏👏👏
Thank you. 🤠
Outstanding video, monologue and history. I enjoyed this very much and hope you do more. Great job, thank you.
I grew up in this area...left as soon as I could
Why did you leave. I left my town in Connecticut because it was too small, no enough to do for a young person just out of college. I moved to Boston, then LA in then to NYC at age 41, after I was widowed. I have friends who stayed. I don't regret my decision. Neither do my friends who stayed. I think a small town is good place to be from. But that life just isn't for me.
@@markrichards6863 Pretty sure it's the same story all over: Better opportunities elsewhere. If your town has five jobs for twenty people, well fifteen of these people need to either wait for someone to die or move on.
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.
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
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 grew up in the panhandle. I left some fifty years ago. Chasing a paycheck. Made a good living in Houston but never stopped missing home. Home's just a pleasant memory now. Too old to go back.
I completely understand where you're coming from
There are ghost towns in New York State I'm waiting for someone to take notice of and make a video such as this. Oregon, Rough N Ready, Ohio, West Union, Hartsville, Haskinsville, New York are all ghost towns or ghost towns in the making. If someone wants a guide or directions to these places please let me know.
Would it he hard to get permits to film a movie in those towns?
I drove from Vermont to Lake placid NY and a ton of smaller dying ny towns with beautiful lakes by them
Ok, I've read a lot of these comments that say its all lost, these towns will never come back. Well, I know that in my little town of Turkey, Texas there are young people moving in because they are looking for an escape from the insanity of life in the big city. These new-comers can work from home on the internet - they don't have to be farmers. Most of the new folks moving to town are very high tech and bring new life into some of these old homes and buildings. Turkey is a quaint little town with lots of character - like most of these Panhandle towns. People are just now discovering the beauty, history and charm of these towns and the possibilities are endless. The Texas Panhandle is what the Texas Hill Country used to be before everyone discovered it (and basically ruined it).
yes - that is happening all over rural areas. This will make a NEW Texas, it is not going back to small town, it means growth and lots of it. Round Rock, Fredericksburg in Hill Country have explosive growth.
@@MTknitter22 Thank goodness we bought property in Blanco County in the mid-1990s. We couldn't afford it now. But at that time Austin was an hour away and San Antonio was about the same distance. Now both cities are knocking on our door step. The population has exploded in the Hill Country. My wife and I see the same trend in Turkey and surrounding Panhandle towns. Newcomers to these small towns bring new money and fresh ideas, as well as an interest in the regional history. We're investing in Turkey now while its affordable. We saw what happened in the Hill Country and we're way ahead of the "move to rural Texas" trend. Thanks again for a great video.
By the way, the still shot frame you used for your TH-cam video of the old Phillips 66 gas station - it's my station. I own the restored 1928 Phillips 66 Service Station on Main Street. We restored it and then applied for, and received a Texas State Historical Marker in 2019. I also own the 1948 Bob Wills tour bus parked on the property. We are in the process of turning the bus into a B&B. The building next to the bus is the original Phillips 66 office. My wife and I gutted the building and built a new B&B. I bought the historic Ham's Barber Shop on Main Street where Bob Wills was a barber from 1927-1928 before he became famous. We are in the process of restoring the barber Shop. I've applied for a Texas Historical Marker for the barber shop and hopefully my application will be accepted. I'll find out in a few months.
Technology made farming less labor intensive. Farmers quit having large families to work the farm. A large family meant that if 3/4 of the kids stayed behind and didn't go to the 'Cities" they would stay in the small towns having big families and continuing the process. Life.
Same with family farms in Ireland. The typical family size now is about 3 or 4. The sons of such farms usually have 3rd level degrees in STEM subjects or teach and advise in practical subjects such as transport, construction or engineering and do not want to work a small farm. Many farms are now rented out to full time farmers who work on a large scale for commercial gain, not subsistence. Depopulation in rural areas is a big problem with loss of schools, services etc accelerating the decline in numbers.
Just a shame. Such wonderful buildings and towns .
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.
The shame here in Texas is the one who owns some of these will only sell at a high retail amount. Not for helping the small towns.
The hell you say, only some in Texas want the amount they pay taxes for while others everywhere else is willing to take a loss?? Well that won't do, round up the mob. Meet at the town square the third Sunday of March, have everyone bring their pitchforks and torches. They'll sell before their assets become liabilities.
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.
drove through that area a few months ago ...kind of depressing honestly
i Cowboyed on my familys beautiful quarter horse ranch on fm 369 in Wichita Falls from 1970 to 1986 , loved the Cowboy life but was addicted to Euro Sports Cars ( kept my 1973 Lotus Europa in the barn ) surfing , fishing and Yachting , moved to Padre Island ( Corpus ) in 1986 , lived aboard my 3 Yachts over a 30 yr. span , lotta Euro Cars , now retired at beach front RV resort with Motor Coach , car trailer and F TYPE Jaguar , still fishin drinkin campfire and cook out all the time , still hard core COWBOY !!
Awesome footage and soundtrack. I really like Big Spring out there as well
This is a global issue. It's complex issue but one is technology. We are doing more work with less people. Globally, 1.5 million people a week are moving to cities. I ramble North Dakota looking at abandoned towns. In some small town cafe, there was a picture of the "old days" on the wall. Several men standing around a belt driven threshing machine and, suddenly, it was clear to me. Today, one man with modern equipment can do what several men used to do. I ride by a farm and see massive tractors with massive equipment. Those jobs are gone and will stay gone. What remains are low paying service jobs so a person has to move on. It's the dark side of the magic of technology. More work/production with less people. And there's a whole new wave of job loss coming in the next ten yrs.
Exactly. Well stated.
I agree.
Yes.... truckers, taxi drivers, lots of retail workers
There's already been a new wave of joblessness due to covid19. It's coupled with a whole new wave of homelessness, people living on the streets and in their vehicles. No end in sight.
We can blame some of it on stupidity, people not taking it seriously and spreading it around.
Try as might, there's still no cure for stupid
Absolutely correct - this is happening globally as people re-locate to where the jobs are, and right now those jobs aren't in small towns and rural areas.
I work in automation repair and have for 35 years.. What you have written is so true but no politician will tell the American people the truth. We live in a capitalist system and its extremely competitive. The old days are gone and they are never coming back. It killed me to hear Trump tell coal country in 2016 he was bring back coal, coal is done and if it comes back its with less people. I have walked into plants and seen were 36 people worked and now its four and the four are doing more production. If you don' t have a good education, trade or skill your screwed. Also you more than likely will have to move from your hollow. Just how it is.
One could argue that the biggest reason for a lot of these small towns to shrink so much is the advancement of farming technology. As the years went by, the amount of manual labor required to maintain a farm has drastically decreased from requiring multiple hands per 10 acres to 100 acres. The only course of action for those without work would be to move to where the jobs are.
Not only that. I'm 63, retired on investments and wouldn't be caught DEAD stuck in one of those small town socio-cultural wastelands, living at the mercy of local opinions driven by boredom, frustration and lack of anything better to do. Been there, done that...
What treasures these little towns were. I wish I could bring it back and live there.
I've got a fascination with these dying small towns - makes me wonder what used to be and how it got to where it is now. I'm from Amarillo and lived long enough to see change happening. For 5 years, I lived in Channing TX - I'd walk around main street and just check out the old abandoned buildings.
What's alarming is that even the larger towns such as Wichita Falls and Abilene have seen declining population. I don't think its entirely unfeasible that many of these towns in this area disappear within the next decade or two.
Abilene population is not declining.
As long as the Air Force Bases in Wichita Falls and Abilene are there those towns will not die. Don't know about WF but Abilene's population only fluctuates not decreases.
Grew up and lived in Abilene and graduated from Wylie back in 79. I remember the city council payed some clown $50,000 to come in and try and figure out why downtown was dying. I would've done it for $100. Simple answer was all the businesses moved out on Buffalo Gap Rd where the mall was. Didn't need an outsider to figure that one out. I drive a truck now and get thru some of these towns fairly regular.
@@kennypayne9259 They wasted thier $50,000 then. Went to Abilene about a year ago and man does it look bad. So many vacant businesses, especially in downtown. I think its part of the larger trend of dying rural America.
@Talon have you noticed where all the housing developments went to? Up the side of the hill out towards Jim Ned. Moved there in 68. Lived off of N 10th. Moved out to Maple in 72. Nothing out there til Victor Equipment and what is now Blue Cross i believe. Last place was out on fm 600 from 83-89. All the edges of town are building up but downtown not so much.
Agribusiness came in, and put the family farm out of business. Walmart came in, and put the various mom and pop stores and shops that used to sell to those small farmers out of business, and here we are.
Well, we all want low prices...
@@scottmac-cheeserae4531 Yeah, but at what price?
@@rodgerbane3825 Yeah, I get it. Towns like this make me feel nostalgic...sad...damn, everyone moved away...I wonder what it was like before.
Very good work! I appreciate this type of story-telling.
This reminds me of when we lived in Channing tx in 63 and 64
Dalhart here...
Oil, mining, forestry, cotton, cattle, all have created booms and bust periods in different areas of Texas. Also, rain vs no rain. Now, technology and outsourcing our manufacturing is impacting Texas as well. People always go where they get jobs or can survive. It is sad to see the changes, abandonment of a town, but it happens. Thanks for the video. I am in South Texas. We have areas going through the same thing. Rural Texas, it is becoming less populated. Corporate agriculture has a lot to do with that, all across the nation. I have seen it all through the middle of the country from Texas to Canada. Family farms are going away. That is so very sad.
This was really sad. The high school broke my heart. I love Texas.
Don't be sad when the Great State reclaims its land.
Which Texas, prosperous Texas near the big cities or down in the heels Texas.
The school's not in use did they bus them to larger schools larger towns and kill the town seems like they're good at that instead of teaching 1050 kids they buy some 50 miles and it kills the town is that what's happening in Texas
@@dorothymorrison388 no. Big corporate farms and big business is killing the small farmers and ma and pop businesses so the people move closer to places where they can get jobs at Amazon or another big corporation.
It's globalism.
@@williamesselman3102 that is so sad. I have small mom and pop farm, our problem is too small acreage to expensive equipment, to work it, so we lease out farm land.
That M.E. Moses building brings back a lot of memories as we had one of those in my hometown of Pampa, Texas when I was a kid. I loved that place and was very sad when it closed in the early 1990s.
Wat was the place? Like, what could you do there?
@@mokie723 it was an old five and dime store. Had a big toy section and a soda fountain in the back of the store. They made the best root beer floats. 😊
Wow. Shocking! I worked at an ME Moses in Canyon during high school.
I know the Texas panhandle well since the 1980's when I worked in the cotton industry. The problems of West Texas are complex, many are related to the weather that agriculture is dependent on, but some problems are of another structural quality.
Overall, I always loved the people that lived in the panhandle of Texas - straight-forward, hardy and self-reliant...and I am sure that people will re-discover the stark beauty of life there. I would definitely move my digital business there...
I drive on the 287 for work about once a month. I’ve walked around some of these empty towns. It’s a real shame but there’s not much you can do. Former boom towns where whatever boomed has dried up. No work, neglected homes and businesses. Too far gone. There are towns like it all over this country. Especially in the vast western states like Wyoming and Nevada.
I was born and raised in the Panhandle of Texas. My 85 year old mother lives in Dickens. I have lots of relatives all over N.W. Texas. I am 65 and remember some of these towns when they had a lil bit of life in them.
They say in the future everyone will live in big cities called mega cities. It's already happening. Mexico city 23 million, Bejine 28 million those are just a couple. India has some really big cities as well. I'm a OTR truck driver and when I drive through these small towns it seems like time has stood still. I love these small towns.
It's where the survivors live
They All have Ups and downs, give me the small towns but not the small minds that come with it.
@@OldSchoolOriginalGameDogs that's a small minded thing to say.
What fascinating in the last town featured is how flat and barren the landscape is, especially looking out past the old high school...not a "bump" or rise in sight, no trees, not even any bushes. There's really nothing appealing there, at least from the natural perspective. It was also interesting to see so many of the streets in the first clips, made completely of bricks...talk about laborious. And then driving on them on a regular basis?
I went through there in 2001, 2002 and 2004. It was in bad situation even back then. Can only imagine it has gotten worse. :(
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.
When I was in High School seemed like we always played Paducah High School in the playoffs. Seems like they always kicked our ass. The distance between Plain View, Texas and Paducah, Texas is 90 miles. You can stand on a tall ladder in Plain View and watch daddy drive all the way to work in Paducah. This is probably where the rumor of the Flat Earth got started.
It’s Plainview.
@@momofmanda Damn, they taught YOU to spell. Texas is coming up in the world.
What is most amazing is the bricks and the quality of work. The bricks in these towns are worth more than all the real estate values combined. Now we build with OSB and Masonite, sad times.
I find this town beautiful and could live in this town. These people have a better sense of community
People keep leaving for a reason.
Absolutely Mark, unemployment would be first. The young leave
I imagine critters out there at night and the greenery continues to grow where there are hardly any people. Love these vids. Ty!
Drop a starbucks and a tech company in there and you'll see that town come back to life in a matter of months.
that wont happen...not enough rainfall or water to support such a venture. there are towns out here who have had theyre town water wells go dry in the past years.
No-one wants to go live out in the middle of nowhere, even if it means getting their dream job. The only one that could pull it off, would be US government - similar to area 51, where they fly employees in every day.
My grandmother always referred to Borger as: "Borger in the day, Booger at night." A wild history indeed.
Give me a small town over a mega city. LOW crime, clean air, friendly you can go for a walk and not wonder if you are going to get mug. Might have to concern yourself about being run over by wild feral hogs. But if you do see one shoot it free food! Yea small towns in the Panhandle part of Texas. By the way I get anger when people miss call the people in the Panhandle of Texas and call it west Texas! Those people who do that must have failed geography! IGMOS!
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
Well, as someone who grew up in these little towns i can say most of us left not just for job security but to escape that old town mindset people cling onto. These just aren't towns we want to raise a family in. The town I live in is extremely racist. We got maybe one black family here lol. It's sad.
Yea probably us Mexicans aren't to welcome either😢
@@armandoayala446 there's a reason I don't vote republican. They're pretty much all racist.
@@armandoayala446 Texas has always been home to Hispanic people. Sadly, it's also home to lots of people with racist mindsets.
@@dbmorton1114 i know specially in small towns where they are no use to seeing outsiders more so if ur from a different race.
If they're so racist why haven't they lynched the black family you said lives there? It sounds to me like you're just overly judgmental which is ironic considering your complaint.