Azle, Texas

Everything Azle is known for

0 songs mention this city 2 artists from here

Music in Azle

Songs About Azle

No songs reference Azle yet.

Artists From Azle

A
Allan Peterson
country Pop: 1
J
Justin Slinkard
country Pop: 1

Rivers & Roads in Song near Azle

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Azle.

Texas State Highway 199 8 songs Interstate 20 10 songs Brazos River 16 songs Interstate 35 27 songs Trinity River 8 songs Chisholm Trail 4 songs

Musical Heritage

The Songwriter at Dido RoadyGoat

John Townes Van Zandt (1944–1997) — the Fort Worth-born songwriter behind 'Pancho and Lefty' and 'To Live Is to Fly' — is buried in the Van Zandt family plot at Dido Cemetery, northwest of Fort Worth. The Van Zandts were a founding Fort Worth family: K.M. Van Zandt donated land here in the 1890s for the school, church, and cemetery. Townes' headstone is inscribed 'To Live's To Fly,' a line from his own song.

5.2 mi away

History of Azle

Reno, TX RoadyGoat

Reno has spent the last few decades transforming from a sleepy farming settlement into one of the faster-growing corners of Parker County. The population, just a few hundred into the 1960s, passed 2,800 by the 2020 census and has kept climbing as the Fort Worth metroplex pushes northwest. State Highway 199 — the Jacksboro Highway — runs through town and is the spine of that growth, carrying commuters between Reno, Azle, Springtown, and Fort Worth, with widening work underway on the Fort Worth end of the corridor. The change has brought the familiar tensions of a Texas exurb: new subdivisions and heavier traffic set against the open, wooded Cross Timbers landscape and the small-town feel that drew people here in the first place. Reno is still working out how to grow without losing the quiet that has long been its appeal.

4.0 mi away

Reno, TX RoadyGoat

Reno exists, in its modern form, because of where it sits: close enough to Fort Worth to commute, far enough out to feel like the country. It began as an 1880s farming settlement in the Cross Timbers of northeastern Parker County, a community built around a school, churches, and the creek-fed land. For decades that was the whole story — a few hundred people getting a living from the soil. Then the metroplex came looking for room. As Fort Worth grew, Reno became one of the bedroom towns along State Highway 199, offering open space, wooded horizons, and a slower pace within reach of city jobs. That balance — connected but a little removed — is what keeps drawing people to this quiet spot in Parker County.

4.0 mi away

Reno, TX RoadyGoat

For most of its history, Reno's "industry" was simply farming — family operations raising crops and livestock on the Cross Timbers soils of northeastern Parker County. The town never built a manufacturing base or a downtown of its own; the country school, the churches, and the surrounding fields were the economy. These days Reno earns its keep mostly by being a good place to live. It's one of the bedroom communities that grew up around Fort Worth, and many residents commute toward Azle, Springtown, Weatherford, or the city itself by way of State Highway 199. What it offers is space and quiet within reach of a major metro — a trade plenty of North Texas families are happy to make.

4.0 mi away

Eagle Mountain Army Air Field — WWII Marine Glider Base

1942

In June 1942, the U.S. Marines established a glider training base on 2,500 acres east of Eagle Mountain Lake, 18 miles northwest of Fort Worth — the first inland glider base in the country. The base trained Marine pilots on Waco gliders inspired by Germany's capture of Crete, then shifted to dive bomber finishing school in 1944. Closed after WWII, the land was purchased by televangelist Kenneth Copeland in 1986. The runway, a cracked ramp, and a Quonset hut are all that remain.

Historical Account →

Nix, William Hoyle

1918

Hoyle Nix, West Texas fiddler, bandleader, and exponent of the Bob Wills sound, was born William Hoyle Nix to Jonah Lafayette Nix and Myrtle May (Brooks) Nix on March 22, 1918, in Azle, Texas. The family moved to Big Spring when Hoyle was one year old. His father was a fiddler and his mother a guitarist, and the couple often performed together at community gatherings. Nix was six years old when he learned his first fiddle tune. In addition to his parents' influence, the music of Bob Wills was also very important to his style. According to Nix, Wills was the finest fiddler he ever heard. Nix and his brother Ben formed the West Texas Cowboys in 1946 and patterned the band after Wills's Texas Playboys. In 1954 the Nix brothers built a small dance hall on the Snyder highway just outside of Big Spring and named it the Stampede . Nix had already established a dance circuit in the area and was making regular appearances in other towns, including Abilene, Lubbock, Midland, Odessa, and San Angelo. The West Texas Cowboys cut their first recordings in 1949 for the Dallas-based Star Talent label. The initial Star Talent release, Nix's "A Big Ball's in Cowtown," a folk-derived rewrite, proved to be an enduring standard. He continued to record for small Texas record companies-Queen, Caprock , Bo-Kay, and Winston -in the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1968 Nix started his own label, Stampede, named after the dance hall. During the late 1950s, the West Texas Cowboys grew to its largest size with nine members. The band at this time included former Texas Playboys Eldon Shamblin, Millard Kelso, and Louis Tierney. Nix had first shared a stage with Bob Wills in 1952 in Colorado City, Texas, and their two bands soon began touring together, splitting the playing time at each dance. After Wills disbanded the Texas Playboys in the early 1960s, he continued to appear with Nix on a fairly regular basis until his first stroke in 1969. The respect that Wills had for Nix was evidenced when he invited Nix and his son Jody to participate in what turned out to be Wills's final recording session, For the Last Time , in 1973. Nix's last recordings were made in 1977 and released on Oil Patch. He was inducted into the Nebraska Country Music Hall of Fame in 1984, the Colorado Country Music Hall of Fame in 1985, the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame in 1991, the Western Swing Hall of Fame in 1991, and the Northwest Western Swing Music Society Hall of Fame in 2013. He died after a short illness on August 21, 1985, in Big Spring, Texas. Nix married five times and had four children, Larry (1940), Jody (1952), Hoylene (1957), and Robin (1959). Larry joined his father's band in 1957 and played bass. When Jody signed on in 1960 as drummer and fiddler, the two siblings became the rhythm section of the West Texas Cowboys, a position they held for the next twenty-five years. Jody Nix took over leadership of the band as his father wanted, and with the younger Nix carrying on the show, Texans were assured of dancing to the music of a Nix fiddle well into the twenty-first century.

Tsha Handbook →

Rice, William M.

1834

William M. Rice first came to Texas in 1834 and settled in what is now Nacogdoches County, where he was involved in frontier defense and served as an Alcalde in the Mexican Government. He served in the Texas Revolution and was wounded in the Battle at San Jacinto. He and his wife, Mariah, later lived in Harris County, in Kansas, and in Dallas County, where he was a farmer and merchant. During the Civil War, he was active on the home front, making soldiers' hats and hauling supplies. About 1874, Rice moved to Tarrant County, where he lived until his death.

Historical Marker →

Ash Creek Baptist Church

1871

On September 9, 1871, the Rev. J.C. Powers led 48 charter members in organizing Ash Creek Missionary Baptist Church. Guarding against Indians, Rev. Powers preached with a gun beside his Bible and men kept rifles on their knees. A meeting house was erected at this site in 1891 under the Rev. T.H. Sturges. In summers, brush arbors were built and prayer meetings held on the grounds. The women sold all eggs laid on Sundays to buy Sunday school literature. In 1965 a new auditorium was built and the original structure used for a Fellowship Hall. (1979)

Historical Marker →

Kiowa Raid on Walnut Creek

1867

In April 1867 a band of about sixty Kiowa Indians, led by Chiefs Satank and Satanta, raided the home of William Hamleton on Walnut Creek. Hamleton was away when the Kiowas killed his wife, Sally, and captured two children, Lavina and Mary. Lavina was released from captivity after six months, but Mary was given to an Indian family and grew to adulthood among the Kiowas. Called To-Goam-Gat-Ty, she became an accepted tribal member and married another captive, Calisay. The site of the 1867 Kiowa Raid is now under the waters of Eagle Mountain Reservior (1.4 mi. E) (1983)

Historical Marker →

Azle, TX

1846

Azle is on State Highway 199 sixteen miles northwest of downtown Fort Worth in the northwest corner of Tarrant County; the town extends partly into Parker County. The first recorded settlement at the site occurred in 1846, when a young doctor named James Azle Steward moved into a cabin built by a Dutchman named Rumsfeldt. Other settlers came and established themselves near the local streams, Ash Creek, Silver Creek, and Walnut Creek. The first post office opened in 1881, and the town took the name O'Bar in honor of the man who obtained the postal service. Soon, however, the name was changed at the request of Steward, who donated the land for a townsite in order to have the town named Azle. The community's economy was based on agriculture. Several crops were grown, including wheat, corn, peanuts, sorghum, and cotton. Watermelons, cantaloupes, peaches, plums, and pears were also produced. Dairy farming became important in the early decades of the twentieth century, when local milk products were sold to creameries in Fort Worth. The population of Azle grew steadily, and by 1920 the census recorded 150 residents. By 1933 State Highway 34 (later State Highway 199) had reached Azle from Fort Worth, greatly improving transportation capabilities between the town and the city. Also, Eagle Mountain Lake was formed by a dam on the Trinity River east of Azle. In the late 1930s electricity was supplied to Azle and the surrounding countryside. The population grew between 1940 and 1960 from 800 to 2,696. It was 5,822 by 1980. After the 1930s agriculture gradually declined; fields were converted from wheat and corn production to housing developments. Manufacturing increased, and in 1984 Azle had twenty-six businesses. In 1985 the population was estimated at more than 7,000. The town's proximity to Fort Worth and its position as the "Gateway to Eagle Mountain Lake" have made Azle a popular place to live. In 1990 the population was 8,868. The population grew to 9,600 by 2000.

Tsha Handbook →

Things to Do in Azle

quirky 3.7 mi away
Chewbacca's Grave — May the 4th

May the 4th be with you — and with the Wookiee. Peter Mayhew the seven-foot-three British actor who brought Chewbacca to life in every Star Wars film from 1977…
historical 0.1 mi away
WWII Marine Glider Base at Eagle Mountain

In 1942 the United States Marines bought 2931 acres of ranchland on Eagle Mountain Lake for a purpose that sounds almost unbelievable now — training pilots to…
quirky 0.1 mi away
The Azle Earthquake Swarm

Starting in November 2013 the ground beneath Azle started shaking and it did not stop for 84 days. Twenty-seven earthquakes rattled windows cracked foundations…
quirky 3.6 mi away
Chewbacca's Grave

The seven-foot-three British actor who played Chewbacca in every Star Wars film from 1977 to The Force Awakens is buried right here at Azleland Memorial Park.…
quirky 8.8 mi away
Springtown Dinosaur Tracks

A family went out hunting arrowheads along Walnut Creek in 2017 and found something about 110 million years older than they expected. Pressed into the creekbed…
historical 13.8 mi away
Billy Bob's Texas

Billy Bob's opened in 1981 in an old cattle barn in the Fort Worth Stockyards and at one hundred twenty-seven thousand square feet it is the largest honky-tonk…
historical 13.8 mi away
Fort Worth Stockyards

Daily cattle drives down the street. Honky-tonks and rodeos in the old West.
food 15.0 mi away
Joe T. Garcia's

Joe T opened his little family restaurant behind the packing plant in the Fort Worth Stockyards in 1935. There was no menu. His wife Jessie served whatever she…

Everything Near Azle

798 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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