Cross Plains, Texas

Everything Cross Plains is known for

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Music in Cross Plains

Songs About Cross Plains

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Artists From Cross Plains

C
Curtis Potter
country Pop: 16

Rivers & Roads in Song near Cross Plains

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Cross Plains.

Interstate 20 10 songs Texas Colorado River 6 songs

History of Cross Plains

MLK, TX RoadyGoat

Gilmer, Texas—or MLK, as some folks call it these days—has a way of holding onto its stories. You can feel it walking down the main street, past the shops that still smell faintly of the oil boom days. That early 1930s discovery was a shot in the arm for a town struggling through the Depression, though it couldn’t erase the hardship completely. But Gilmer always finds a way. It’s a place where sweet potatoes still matter, where Friday night lights shine bright on the Buckeyes.

16.5 mi away

MLK, TX RoadyGoat

Gilmer, Texas, owes its existence to a simple thing: being in the right place. Back in 1846, folks decided this spot, right in the heart of Upshur County, was ideal for a county seat. That put it on the map, but what really made Gilmer hum was the oil boom of the 1930s. Imagine a town built on sweet potato farms suddenly awash in black gold – it changed everything. The Depression hit hard, no doubt, but that early oil money gave Gilmer a leg up, a foundation a lot of other small towns didn't have. Today, you still see the sweet potato fields, and they’re more than just a pretty picture. They’re a reminder of the land and the people who worked it. And, of course, there’s the music. People come here looking for that small-town charm, maybe a glimpse of that hidden Confederate gold, or even just a taste of those famous sweet potatoes. But if you ask the locals, they’ll tell you the real reason folks end up in Gilmer is for the sense of community, that feeling of belonging you just can't find anywhere else.

16.5 mi away

Cross Plains, TX

Cross Plains, at the junction of State highways 36 and 206 in southeastern Callahan County, was established as a post office in 1877. The settlement had previously been known as Turkey Creek and Schleicher. In 1880 Cross Plains had twenty-five residents, a cotton gin, a gristmill, a wagonmaker, and a store; by 1885 it had a population of 175. In 1902 the short-lived Cross Plains Herald was published and edited by J. D. Grains. The Cross Plains Review , first published and edited by Belmont L. Shields, began publication in 1909 and is still being published today. By 1911, the year the town incorporated, the population had grown to 600. The Texas Central Railroad reached Cross Plains in 1912, and the town became a trading center for cotton and other crops. The discovery of oil in 1925 at Pioneer and adjacent fields set off a boom. The population in Cross Plains reached 1,229 in 1940 and remained relatively stable into the 1980s. Robert E. Howard lived in Cross Plains during his most productive writing period. In 1980 the town had a new high school and post office, two motels, four restaurants, and eight churches. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, which absorbed the Texas Central, had abandoned its track in Cross Plains by this time. In 1990 the population was 1,063, and in 2000 the population was 1,068. On December 27, 2005, a devastating wildfire swept across some 7,600 acres in Cross Plains and destroyed 116 homes and took two lives. In 2010 the population dropped to 982 and to 899 in 2020, with seventy-eight businesses reported in 2023.

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Cross Plains - Robert E. Howard

1906

Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian, lived and wrote in Cross Plains, Texas. His home is now a museum. He died by suicide at age 30 in 1936.

Historical Marker →

Robert E. Howard Home

1906

The small frame house in Cross Plains, Texas, where Robert E. Howard wrote all of his Conan the Barbarian stories and other pulp fiction before his suicide at age 30.

Fort Mason - Camp Cooper Military Road

1851

Route for U.S. 2nd Cavalry and supplies from San Antonio to Fort Mason (about 100 miles south of here) to Camp Cooper (about 65 miles north) in campaigns of 1851-1861 against Plains Indians. Great military men of American history traveled this road, including Robert E. Lee (later a commanding general, C.S.A.) and George T. Thomas, "Rock of Chickamauga." Callahan County Historical Survey Committee, 1967.

Historical Marker →

Williams, Jesse Wallace

1913

Jesse Wallace Williams, historian of southwestern trails, was born on June 3, 1891, in Cross Plains, Texas, the son of Robert H. and Mary L. (Ely) Williams. His father was a Baptist minister, and one of his ten siblings, Robert W. Williams, was a journalist, author, inventor, and rancher. Jesse Williams received his B.A. from Simmons College and his M.A. from Hardin-Simmons University. He taught mathematics at schools near Merkle and in Midland, Big Spring, Wichita Falls, and Burkburnett from 1913 to 1923. From 1923 to 1960 he taught at Wichita Falls Senior High School. He was a visiting professor of history at Midwestern University and at Howard Payne College. Williams was the author of numerous articles and four books: Great Moments With the Coyotes (1953), The Big Ranch Country (1954), Sizzling Southwest Football (1956), and Old Texas Trails (1979). He was the recipient of a Rockefeller grant in 1942. Williams was a Democrat and a member of the Baptist Church. He was active in various social and civic organizations, such as the Southwest Rotary Club and the Wichita County Historical Commission. He was also president of the West Texas Historical Association . Williams married Ruth Elizabeth Veazey on August 11, 1915. After her death, he was married a second time, on November 22, 1964, to Mrs. Agnes McCarty. No children were born to either marriage. On February 22, 1977, Williams died in Wichita Falls, Texas, and was buried there in Crestview Memorial Park.

Tsha Handbook →

Rising Star, TX

1876

Rising Star, at the intersection of U.S. Highway 183 and State Highway 36, fifty-six miles southeast of Abilene in southwestern Eastland County, had its beginnings in 1876 when six families moved west from Gregg County and settled on the site. When the post office opened in 1878 with Hendrick H. Osburn as postmaster, the settlement was called Copperas Creek. In 1879 Tom Anderson bought a tract of land from one of the original settlers, and in 1880, after the old post office had been closed, he opened a post office and general store in his home. D. D. McConnell of Eastland suggested a new name for the town when he said that the area must be a "rising star country" because it produced crops when other areas were barren. In 1889 Rising Star had five businesses and three doctors and by 1904 had added a bank, a hotel, a school, five churches, two newspapers, and dry goods and drug stores. The economy of the area was based on agriculture, primarily the cultivation of corn, cotton, oats, and fruit. The town's prospects were enhanced in 1911 when the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad built through from Cross Plains to De Leon. The town's first newspaper was the Rising Star Record , later renamed the Rising Star News and still later the Rising Star X-Ray . The Rising Star Signal was another early newspaper. Although the first oil found in Eastland County was discovered near Rising Star in 1909, it was not until 1920, close to the end of the Eastland County boom, that a major strike attracted attention to Rising Star. In an attempt to prevent the town from becoming a tent and shanty town, officials issued strict building regulations, but speculators and oilfield workers circumvented them by hastily building a town five miles to the west. In just over a year that town was gone and the boom finished. By the 1960s some oil was still being produced near Rising Star, and pecans and peanuts had replaced cotton as the main crops. The 1980 census found 1,204 people living in Rising Star. The town was incorporated and had a bank, a post office, and twenty-seven businesses. In 1990 the population was 859. The population was 835 in 2000.

Tsha Handbook → · 11.8 mi away

Everything Near Cross Plains

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

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