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

Rivers & Roads in Song near Cross Plains

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

Interstate 20 13 songs Texas Colorado River 6 songs

History of Cross Plains

Cross Plains, TX RoadyGoat

On December 27, 2005, a devastating grass/range wildfire destroyed 116 homes in and around Cross Plains. The fire started 5 miles west of the city along Highway 36 and spread into town, fueled by westerly winds of up to 30 miles per hour, burning a total of 7,665 acres of land. Tragically, two people died after being trapped in their houses.

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Cross Plains, TX RoadyGoat

The nearly century-old house of Robert E. Howard, author of the Conan the Barbarian books, is a notable landmark in Cross Plains. Howard lived in the house from the age of 13 in 1919 until his death in 1936. The house, which was spared from a devastating wildfire in 2005, is now a museum.

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Cross Plains, TX RoadyGoat

Cross Plains sits where it does for a simple reason: water. In a land that can feel awfully dry, the early settlers found springs and creeks, enough to make a go of ranching and farming. It’s not on a major river or anything, but that dependable water source was enough to give it an edge over some of the surrounding areas, and folks started congregating. The railroad helped, of course, tying the community to the wider world and making it easier to ship goods. What really put Cross Plains on the map, though, was Robert E. Howard. The creator of Conan the Barbarian lived here, and his legacy is still a huge draw. People come from all over to visit his house, now a museum, and to soak up the atmosphere that fueled his writing. But if you ask the locals why people stay, they'll tell you it's more than just Howard. There's a sense of community here, a genuine friendliness that's hard to find in bigger cities. It's a place where folks still wave as you drive by, where Friday night football is a big deal, and where you can still see the stars at night. It’s a quiet corner of Texas, a bit off the beaten path, and maybe that's exactly what makes it special.

Home of Robert E. Howard

1906

Adventure and fantasy writer (and creator of Conan) Robert Ervin Howard (1906-1936) moved in 1919 to this homesite with his parents, Dr. Isaac and Hester (Ervin) Howard. Robert E. Howard wrote hundreds of stories, spanning several genres, and more than 700 poems in his bedroom at this site.

Robert began writing at an early age, when he was about eight or nine years old. Robert's mother enjoyed reciting poetry to him and encouraged his writing. He started working to get his stories published when he was fifteen. At the age of eighteen, Robert sold his first story, "Spear and Fang," to pulp magazine Weird Tales for its July 1925 issue. Shortly after the Howards arrived in Cross Plains, so did an oil boom. Robert observed the negative effects an oil boom can have on the townspeople, which contributed to his philosophies and many of his stories. Often his stories told about the corruption of civilization and the rise from and plummet into barbarism, with one moral man against a multitude of immortal adversaries. In his last few years, Robert left clues of his suicidal mood through his poetry, as well as making plans in the event of his demise. He had become primary caretaker for his mother, who had contracted tuberculosis. Just three days after his mother slipped into a coma, Robert committed suicide on June 11, 1936. His mother died the next day, and on June 14 there was a double funeral.
An internationally-known author and father of the sword and sorcery sub-genre, Howard's stories have influenced several generations. His works have been translated into 23 languages. Decades after his death, Robert E. Howard and his characters are still being studied, published, filmed, role-played, and enjoyed.

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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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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Everything Near Cross Plains

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

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