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Tokio, Texas

Everything Tokio is known for

1 song mention this city 1 artist from here

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Music in Tokio

Songs About Tokio

Shadows Where The Magic Was
James Hand
30%

Artists From Tokio

J
James Hand
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Tokio

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

Interstate 35 45 songs Brazos River 43 songs Chisholm Trail 8 songs Interstate 45 8 songs

Musical Heritage

West's Labor Day Czech Festival RoadyGoat

You're about a mile south of downtown West, at the West Fair and Rodeo Grounds, home every Labor Day weekend to Westfest. The three-day festival has run since 1976, when the West community started it to raise money for local projects — a library, senior citizen activities, and athletic facilities for the town's youth. Decades later, it's grown into a full celebration of the area's Czech heritage: polka bands playing across the grounds, Czech food and drink, and activities for the whole family. The festival still runs every Labor Day weekend, three days of music and dancing at these same fairgrounds south of town. What started as a small-town fundraising idea back in 1976 is still bringing people out to these grounds decade after decade, one polka step at a time.

RoadyGoat → · 4.4 mi away

The Honky Tonker from Tokio RoadyGoat

A few miles from here, in the little community of Tokio, lived one of the last old school honky tonk singers, James Hand. He went to West High, and he later said he used to drive to school with a shotgun in his truck and nobody thought a thing about it. As a boy he'd go lie on his back in an old dry cistern in the back yard and sing Dean Martin's Houston, for the echo, dreaming he'd be a singing star someday. He worked as a horse trainer and a truck driver, and he played Central Texas dance halls for forty years before Rounder Records put out his first nationally distributed album in two thousand six, when he was fifty three. Willie Nelson called him the real deal. After he died in two thousand twenty, Charley Crockett put out a whole album of his songs and called him the greatest living country singer in the old school style, somewhere between a Hank Williams and a Willie Nelson.

RoadyGoat → · 4.7 mi away

The Westminster Chimes Came from Cambridge RoadyGoat

Here's a west story that isn't about West at all. The famous quarter hour chime you hear from Big Ben, and from grandfather clocks and doorbells all over the world, is called the Westminster Chimes. But it wasn't written for Westminster. In seventeen ninety three, the Reverend Joseph Jowett composed it on the five clock bells of Great Saint Mary's, the university church in Cambridge, England, and it was known as the Cambridge Chimes. Decades later the tune was copied for Big Ben, and the Westminster name stuck. The church in Cambridge still rings the original, and points out that it is often misnamed.

RoadyGoat → · 4.7 mi away

West Side Story Started on the East Side RoadyGoat

West Side Story almost wasn't on the West Side. In nineteen forty nine, Jerome Robbins had the idea for a modern Romeo and Juliet set on New York's Lower East Side at Easter and Passover time, and one working title was East Side Story. The project stalled for six years. Then Arthur Laurents and Leonard Bernstein, both working in Hollywood, met to talk it over while the newspapers were full of reports of street riots in Los Angeles, and the story turned into two New York street gangs. The setting moved to the West Side, and a young Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics. West Side Story opened on Broadway on the twenty sixth of September, nineteen fifty seven, ran for more than seven hundred performances, and the cast recorded the album just three days after opening night.

RoadyGoat → · 4.7 mi away

History of Tokio

The Day the Earth Shook RoadyGoat

On the evening of April 17, 2013, a fire was reported at the West Fertilizer Company plant. Volunteer firefighters from West and surrounding towns rushed to the scene. What happened next shattered the community. A massive stockpile of ammonium nitrate inside the facility detonated with the force of a small earthquake, registering as a 2.1 magnitude tremor. The blast obliterated the plant and a huge swath of the surrounding neighborhood. Tragically, ten of the first responders who had bravely gone to fight the fire were killed in the explosion, along with five civilians. The West Volunteer Fire Department lost five of its own members that night. Today, a memorial park with 15 granite markers honors each victim. It stands as a solemn tribute to the sacrifice made by ordinary people who ran toward danger to protect their neighbors, a defining, heartbreaking moment in the town's history.

RoadyGoat →

The Kolache Capital of the Highway RoadyGoat

As you travel along Interstate 35, you'll see signs for something West has made famous across Texas: the kolache. This small pastry, a pillowy dough topped with a sweet fruit filling, is a direct link to the town's Czech heritage. It went retail here first: the Village Bakery, opened by Wendell and Georgia Montgomery in the early 1950s, is billed as the first Czech bakery in Texas and the first place you could simply buy a kolache over a counter. But it took the highway to make it an icon. In November 1983 the Czech Stop opened right at Exit 353, a deli-bakery-convenience store aimed squarely at the traffic streaming past, selling kolaches and their savory cousin the klobasnek around the clock. It was a stroke of genius. Today it moves hundreds of customers a day, and the kolache has become West's ambassador to the world — a simple pastry turned into a powerful economic engine, and this small town into a landmark for millions of drivers a year.

RoadyGoat →

The Chemistry of a Catastrophe RoadyGoat

The 2013 West explosion was a tragic lesson in industrial chemistry. The catalyst was ammonium nitrate, a simple salt-like compound with a dual identity. As a fertilizer, it's incredibly effective because it provides a rich source of nitrogen for crops, which is why the plant stored tons of it. However, under the right conditions—high temperatures and confinement—it can also be a powerful explosive. When the fire broke out at the West facility, it heated the massive pile of ammonium nitrate granules. This heat started a rapid chemical decomposition, releasing huge volumes of hot gas. Trapped inside the wooden building, the pressure built up exponentially until it reached a critical point. The result was a supersonic detonation wave, a shockwave that traveled faster than the speed of sound, leveling buildings and creating a crater 93 feet wide. The disaster was a devastating, real-world demonstration of the thin line between a beneficial chemical and a catastrophic explosive.

RoadyGoat →

Pope, Lawrence Chalmous

1960

Lawrence Chalmous Pope, banker, robber, convict, and criminal-justice reformer, was born on July 5, 1918, at Trinity, Texas, the son of L. C. and Ellen Kenner (Jones) Pope. The family resided briefly in Alpine, Texas, after his birth, but his parents divorced, and when he was three his mother took him and his younger brother to Huntsville. There they lived with his grandfather, a local banker, and his grandmother. Pope, who attended the Methodist Church as a youth, was a member of the Boy Scouts of America and in 1934 gave a speech at a ceremony dedicating a new facility for Scouts in Huntsville. In an address heard by former governor William P. Hobby and other dignitaries, Pope praised prominent Huntsville citizens for their interest in the future of their community's young men. He graduated during that same year from a training and demonstration school located on the campus of the Sam Houston Normal Institute at Huntsville. Pope and his wife, Geraldine (Vaughan), whom he married on June 18, 1939, were the parents of a daughter. The couple divorced during the 1960s. After Pope's graduation, he moved to Dallas to live with an uncle who was a banker in that city. In 1935, through his uncle's assistance, he secured employment as a clerical worker with the First National Bank of Dallas. Except for an interval during World War II , Pope remained with the bank until 1948. From 1944 to 1946 he served with the United States Army at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and Fort Hood (now Fort Cavazos ), Texas; he attained the rank of staff sergeant. While employed by the Dallas bank he attended classes sponsored by Southern Methodist University, the American Institute of Banking, and the Graduate School of Banking at Rutgers University. From 1948 to 1951, Pope worked as an assistant national bank examiner for the Eleventh Federal Reserve District investigating banks in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Louisiana. He served as a cashier with the Farmers and Merchants National Bank in Abilene, Texas, from 1951 to 1953. From 1953 to 1958 he was executive vice president of the Security State Bank, which later became the Gulfgate State Bank in Houston. In 1958, supported by three other investors, he became part owner and president of the West National Bank in West, Texas, where he also served as president of the local chamber of commerce. Unknown to Pope, however, his partners sold their stock shares to a Dallas swindler and the West bank soon experienced serious financial difficulties. After bank examiners uncovered marginal loans and other questionable practices, the board fired Pope in 1960. After the scandal at West, he borrowed money to purchase the Star , a weekly newspaper in Giddings. Pope, who never prospered during his lengthy banking career, planned to use the newspaper's press equipment to print banking forms for sale to financial institutions. When his acquaintances in the banking business reneged upon what he had perceived as promises to purchase forms from him, Pope became enraged. Armed with a .38 caliber snub-nosed revolver, on successive Saturdays in October 1960 he robbed banks in Thornton and Schulenburg. During these robberies he read bank ledgers to ascertain the amount of cash on hand and forced female bank employees to disrobe while he photographed them posing in lewd positions. He locked the employees in the bank vaults and threatened to give the photographs to local newspapers if his victims identified him. The two robberies netted him slightly less than $7,000, but he later explained: "It was not so much a matter of me being desperate for money as it was just being real damn mad at banks and bankers." Disillusioned and angered at what he regarded as fraudulent and unethical practices, Pope argued that "bankers have stolen more than all criminals have stolen." Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrested him in San Antonio, Texas, in November 1960. After federal and state courts rejected his temporary insanity pleas in 1961, he

Tsha Handbook → · 4.7 mi away

West, TX

2013

West is on Interstate Highway 35 eighty miles south of Dallas in northeastern McLennan County. It traces its beginnings to a settlement at Bould (or Bold) Springs begun by Carey Boulds prior to 1852. In 1852 a post office was established at Boulds's cabin. In 1856 the family of Walter Wyatt Bennett moved into the cabin and became the first permanent residents of the community. In 1860 the United States census recorded a population of 311 in the town. The present townsite was established in 1881 and the name was changed to West, in honor of Thomas M. West, prominent businessman, landowner, and postmaster of the new post office established in 1882. The town was on a quarter section of land belonging to West, who opened a general store in 1883, the West Hotel in 1889, and West Bank in 1893. Construction of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad through West in 1881 was responsible for the early growth. The town was incorporated in June 1892. The West Crescent was published from 1889 into the 1890s. The West News began publication in 1891, and the West Times , first edited by William Baldridge in 1888, was taken over in 1891 by Fred B. and Abe L. Whipkey. The town's first educational institution was a private school called Allen's Academy, after founder William O. Allen. By 1900 West had a fire department, a weekly newspaper, a bank, a cotton mill, several cotton gins, a hotel, a school system, several churches, and a population estimated by some as high as 2,000. The town had become a station on the Texas Electric Traction Railway. By 1900 the railroad and available university lands began to bring large numbers of Czechs and Germans to the established Anglo-American community. Cotton and small grain production, along with cattle ranching, were the area's chief occupations. In 1920 the town had a textile mill, a mop and broom factory, and a sausage and chili plant. The West Independent School District was established in 1923. In 1989 West was known for its restaurants and bakeries that specialized in Czech and German foods. Nemecek Brothers Meat Market, established in 1896, is known throughout the state for its Czech hams and sausages. The Westfest occurs annually on Labor Day weekend and attracts around 50,000 people. This festival celebrates with music, dance, and food the rich heritage that the Czechs brought to Texas. In 1989 West had ninety businesses, a hospital, a combined library and museum, and a weekly newspaper. The population increased from 2,515 in 1990 to 2,851 in 2014. On April 17, 2013, ammonium nitrate exploded at the West Fertilizer Company storage and distribution facility. The disaster killed fifteen, injured 160, and damaged more than 150 buildings. On May 11, 2016, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives determined the explosion was an act of arson.

Tsha Handbook → · 4.7 mi away

West, Texas - Czech Heritage and Resilience

1882

Czech heritage community on I-35 between Dallas and Austin, famous for kolaches. Devastated by a fertilizer plant explosion on April 17, 2013 that killed 15 and destroyed much of the town.

4.8 mi away

The Crash at Crush

1896

A head-on collision between two locomotives was staged on Sept. 15, 1896, as a publicity stunt for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railroad. Over 30,000 spectators gathered at the crash site, named "crush" for MKT passenger agent William G. Crush, who conceived the idea. About 4 p.m. the trains were sent speeding toward each other. Contrary to mechanics' predictions, the steam boilers exploded on impact, propelling pieces of metal into the crowd. Two persons were killed and many others injured, including Jarvis Deane of Waco, who was photographing the event. (1976)

Historical Marker → · 4.9 mi away

Bold Springs Cemetery

1850

ISAAC BUTLER “DOC” CAUBLE (1820-1904) BUILT A CABIN IN 1850 NEAR ONE OF SEVERAL FLOWING SPRINGS THAT WAS HOME TO GENERATIONS OF NATIVE AMERICANS. CAUBLE’S YOUNG SON, JAMES, WAS A FRIEND TO A COMANCHE BOY WHO DIED AND WAS BURIED ON THE HILL NOW HOLDING THIS CEMETERY. OTHER EARLY SETTLERS INCLUDED THE FAMILIES OF CAREY BOULDS, JACOB CLOSNER, WALTER BENNETT, WILLIAM HURLOCK, AND THOMAS WEST. THE SPRING AND SURROUNDING COMMUNITY WAS KNOWN AS “BOULD SPRINGS” OR “BENNETT SPRINGS.” THE BOULD SPRINGS POST OFFICE OPENED IN BOULDS’ CABIN, WHICH SERVED AS A COMMUNITY GATHERING PLACE AND A PLACE FOR STAGECOACHES TO STOP AND CHANGE HORSES. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ESTABLISHED ROADS THROUGH BOLD SPRINGS LINKING WACO TO HILLSBORO, FROM HERE TO A LUMBER MILL ON AQUILLA CREEK AND ALSO TO A FAMILY GRAIN MILL ON THE BRAZOS RIVER. BOLD SPRINGS MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH, FOUNDED IN 1858, WAS THE FIRST CHURCH IN NORTHEASTERN McLENNAN COUNTY. THE POPULATION NUMBERED 311 IN THE 1860 CENSUS, MAKING BOLD SPRINGS THE SECOND LARGEST TOWN IN THE COUNTY. IN 1881, SETTLEMENT SHIFTED TO THE NEW TOWN OF WEST, ESTABLISHED ON THE MISSOURI-KANSAS-TEXAS RAILROAD. THE OLDEST KNOWN GRAVE MARKS MARY W. BAZE (JUL. 28, 1828 – JUN. 19, 1861). THE GENERAL LANDSCAPE IS TRADITIONAL, WITH GRAVES ORIENTED EAST-WEST AND THE OLDEST GRAVES IN THE CENTER SECTIONS. HERE ARE PIONEERS OF BOLD SPRINGS, MEMBERS OF FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS, AND EARLY BUSINESS AND CIVIC LEADERS OF WEST. VETERANS OF CONFLICTS FROM THE CIVIL WAR TO PRESENT ARE AMONG THE MORE THAN 2,400 INTERRED. GRAVE MARKERS ARE OF GRANITE, MARBLE, METAL, LIMESTONE AND SANDSTONE. VEGETATION INCLUDES OAK TREES, CREPE MYRTLES, IRISES AND BLUEBONNETS. THE BOLD SPRINGS CEMETERY ASSOCIATION FORMED IN 1892 AND CONTINUES TO CARE FOR THIS HISTORIC REMINDER OF THE ONCE THRIVING BOLD SPRINGS COMMUNITY.

Historical Marker →

Ross, Peter F.

1858

Peter F. Ross, Texas Ranger, cattleman, and Confederate Army officer, was born on July 27, 1836, at Bentonsport, Missouri, the son of Catherine H. (Fulkerson) and Shapley Prince Ross . In 1838 he moved with his family to Milam County, Texas. After attending Mount Vernon Military Academy in New York from 1853 to 1855 he returned to Texas, where he assisted his father, a Texas Indian agent, in his duties on the frontier. Peter was described as "a tall, wiry, youth, physically and mentally well fitted" for a military career. In 1858 he was commissioned captain in the Texas Rangers and raised and commanded a company that served for two years against the Comanches and other warlike tribes on the northwest frontier. In May 1860 he served as captain of the "spy company" of allied Indians that accompanied Col. Middleton Tate Johnson 's expedition against the Comanches and pushed into Indian Territory without encountering the enemy. With the outbreak of the Civil War he raised a company of cavalry in Dallas for Confederate service that was organized as Company G of Col. B. Warren Stone 's Sixth Texas Cavalry regiment. Ross was elected captain of his company but was soon elevated to regimental major. He served under Col. Stone until his brother, Gen. Lawrence Sullivan "Sul" Ross became regimental commander in May 1862, At the battle of Corinth, Mississippi, in 1862, he received two serious wounds. He was promoted to colonel of the Sixth Texas Cavalry Regiment in 1863 and he commanded that regiment during John Bell Hood 's North Georgia and Tennessee campaigns. After the war, as a cattleman, Ross made several trail drives to New Orleans. He married Laura Harrison, the daughter of Gen. James E. Harrison , on December 26, 1866; they had two children. In 1870 Ross moved to Los Angeles, California, where he farmed and engaged in trade. He returned to Texas in 1874 and served as deputy sheriff of McLennan County under his brother Sul until elected sheriff himself in 1875. After serving two terms as sheriff Ross bought a farm in 1880 on the Brazos River some ten miles below Waco. He died on March 26, 1909, and was buried in Waco. He was a Democrat, a Knight Templar, and a Baptist.

Tsha Handbook → · 3.3 mi away

Things to Do in Tokio

food 4.6 mi away
The Czech Stop

In 1983 Bill Polk opened a little convenience store off I-35 in West Texas and started selling kolaches he bought from a nearby bakery. The pastries moved so…
historical 24.7 mi away
Murder of the Disk Plow Inventor

Young Ole Ringness grew up on a Norse farm near Clifton watching mud cup inside a wagon wheel. That observation inspired the disk plow and disk harrow. In 1872…
historical 24.7 mi away
The 11000-Year-Old Shaman Burial

In 1970 archaeologists excavated a limestone overhang along the Bosque River near Clifton and found something extraordinary. The 11000-year-old remains of a…
food 14.5 mi away
Magnolia Market at the Silos

Chip and Joanna Gaines' Fixer Upper empire. Shopping food trucks and shiplap everything.
quirky 24.7 mi away
The Day Clifton Out-Snowed the Panhandle

On December 21 1929 a weather station near Clifton recorded 24 inches of snowfall in a single day. That is the all-time daily snowfall record for the entire…
historical 24.8 mi away
Norwegian Capital of Texas

In 1854 a band of eighteen Norwegian immigrants led by Cleng Peerson settled in the hills west of Clifton. They built homes from native limestone because rock…
historical 24.8 mi away
The Father of Norwegian Immigration

Cleng Peerson is buried near Clifton in the tiny Norse community he helped found. Known as the Father of Norwegian Immigration to America he first scouted New…
food 4.4 mi away
Slovacek's West

I-35 exit 353 in West, Texas — the rival Czech bakery to the Czech Stop across the highway. Over 35 kolache varieties, in-house smoked meats, and a full deli…

Everything Near Tokio

690 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

  • Bold Springs Cemetery · 2.0 mi · Historical Marker

    ISAAC BUTLER “DOC” CAUBLE (1820-1904) BUILT A CABIN IN 1850 NEAR ONE OF SEVERAL FLOWING SPRINGS THAT WAS HOME TO GENERATIONS OF NATIVE AMERICANS. CAUBLE’S YOUNG SON, JAMES, WAS A FRIEND TO A…

  • The Day the Earth Shook · 2.1 mi

    On the evening of April 17, 2013, a fire was reported at the West Fertilizer Company plant. Volunteer firefighters from West and surrounding towns rushed to the scene. What happened next shattered the community. A…

  • The Kolache Capital of the Highway · 2.1 mi

    As you travel along Interstate 35, you'll see signs for something West has made famous across Texas: the kolache. This small pastry, a pillowy dough topped with a sweet fruit filling, is a direct link to the town's…

  • The Chemistry of a Catastrophe · 2.1 mi

    The 2013 West explosion was a tragic lesson in industrial chemistry. The catalyst was ammonium nitrate, a simple salt-like compound with a dual identity. As a fertilizer, it's incredibly effective because it provides a…

  • Heart of the Czech Belt · 2.1 mi

    West is the anchor of Czech Texas, and the Legislature has said so out loud - it is the officially designated Czech Heritage Capital of Texas, and home of the official kolache of the Texas Legislature. Czechs began…

  • The Westfest Celebration · 2.1 mi

    Every Labor Day weekend, West throws a massive party called Westfest. It's a three-day celebration of the town's Czech heritage, and it's been a tradition since 1976. The festival was started as a way to preserve the…

  • Ross · 3.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Ross, a town with roots stretching back to the earliest days of McLennan County. Its story really begins in 1873, when a new railroad line bypassed the old settlement of White Rock. Residents…

  • The Crash at Crush · 3.2 mi

    About 15 miles north of Waco in McLennan County, a marker records the "Crash at Crush." On September 15, 1896, more than 40,000 people gathered at a one-day town named Crush, Texas, to watch a staged head-on collision…

  • Ross, Peter F. · 3.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Peter F. Ross, Texas Ranger, cattleman, and Confederate Army officer, was born on July 27, 1836, at Bentonsport, Missouri, the son of Catherine H. (Fulkerson) and Shapley Prince Ross . In 1838 he moved with his family…

  • Ross, TX · 3.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through McLennan County, just north of Waco, past the community of Ross. It began in the early 1870s as a stop on the Houston and Texas Central Railway. A post office arrived in 1880, named for the famous…

  • Engineering an Iron Artery · 3.5 mi

    The railroad that made Ross wasn't the Katy. It was the Houston and Texas Central, pushing track north out of Waco in the early 1870s, and Ross was one of the stops it put on the map - by 1884 the place had a steam…

  • Ross, TX · 3.5 mi

    Ross, Texas, might seem like just another blink-and-you'll-miss-it spot along the old rail line, but there's a certain grit to this place, built right into the Blackland Prairie. You can almost feel it in the land,…

Show all 200 nearby places
  • Edens, John Silas · 3.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through McLennan County, heading past the small community of Leroy. Back in 1868, this was the new home for John Silas Edens, a man who'd already lived a full life in Texas. He arrived in Texas way back…

  • White Rock Cemetery · 3.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past White Rock Cemetery, a final resting place for over 1,600 people. Local legend says it started with a drifter in 1855, but records show Elizabeth Bennett was the first buried here in 1856. This…

  • Former Site of Saint Peter's Church · 4.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through McLennan County, near the former site of Saint Peter's Church. Organized in 1887 by eight German families, it began as a meetinghouse on land owned by Jacob Closner. The congregation eventually…

  • West's Labor Day Czech Festival · 4.4 mi

    You're about a mile south of downtown West, at the West Fair and Rodeo Grounds, home every Labor Day weekend to Westfest. The three-day festival has run since 1976, when the West community started it to raise money for…

  • Slovacek's West · 4.4 mi · Things to Do

    I-35 exit 353 in West, Texas — the rival Czech bakery to the Czech Stop across the highway. Over 35 kolache varieties, in-house smoked meats, and a full deli…

  • Church of The Assumption · 4.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Church of the Assumption in West, Texas. This congregation got its start around 1890, right after the railroad arrived and basically created this town. In 1892, the Bishop gave them permission to…

  • Groppe Barn · 4.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Groppe Barn near West, a testament to German immigrant ingenuity. August Groppe, Sr. bought this land back in 1874, becoming a founder of the local German community. By 1883, he was ready to…

  • St. Mary's School · 4.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through West, Texas, a town with a rich Catholic heritage. Back in 1892, the local church saw a need for Catholic education. Father Sebik reached out to the Sisters of Divine Providence, and soon, four…

  • The Czech Stop · 4.6 mi · Things to Do

    In 1983 Bill Polk opened a little convenience store off I-35 in West Texas and started selling kolaches he bought from a nearby bakery. The pastries moved so…

  • Seven People in the Vault · 4.7 mi

    On Saturday morning, the thirty first of March, nineteen thirty four, a lone young gunman walked into the State National Bank of West and cleaned out a teller's cage. When he demanded more, he was told the rest was in…

  • No Home Runs All Year, Then the World Series · 4.7 mi

    Scott Podsednik was born here in West in nineteen seventy six, and his mother worked as an administrator at West High. The Texas Rangers drafted him out of West High in nineteen ninety four, and he spent nine long years…

  • The Mighty, Fighty Dragons · 4.7 mi

    In nineteen thirty six, a teacher named M. O. Robinson and his wife came to West to run the school for the town's Black children. It was a two room building with no running water, and Robinson and the older boys dug the…

  • The Day Leroy Died · 4.7 mi

    About six miles southeast of West is the little town of Leroy, and until nineteen eighty seven it had an old fashioned private bank. The Leroy Bank had been started in nineteen oh seven, in the middle of a national…

  • Pope, Lawrence Chalmous · 4.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Lawrence Chalmous Pope, banker, robber, convict, and criminal-justice reformer, was born on July 5, 1918, at Trinity, Texas, the son of L. C. and Ellen Kenner (Jones) Pope. The family resided briefly in Alpine, Texas,…

  • West, TX · 4.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    West is on Interstate Highway 35 eighty miles south of Dallas in northeastern McLennan County. It traces its beginnings to a settlement at Bould (or Bold) Springs begun by Carey Boulds prior to 1852. In 1852 a post…

  • The Honky Tonker from Tokio · 4.7 mi

    A few miles from here, in the little community of Tokio, lived one of the last old school honky tonk singers, James Hand. He went to West High, and he later said he used to drive to school with a shotgun in his truck…

  • The Printshop That Printed Czech Texas · 4.7 mi

    For nearly half a century, a printshop on West Oak Street here in West printed the weekly paper of Czech Texas. In nineteen thirty two, the SPJST, the big Czech fraternal society of Texas, gave the job of printing its…

  • The Gym Prague Helped Rebuild · 4.7 mi

    West's Czech roots run through its Sokol, a branch of the Czech gymnastics and culture movement. Sokol West was organized in nineteen eighty and built its gym in nineteen eighty nine, and for years it hosted gymnastics…

  • The Wine Room · 4.7 mi

    In the nineteen teens, a farmer named J. B. Gerard lived about a mile and a half from West. His son Charlie had served two prison terms for forgery, had sued his father for four thousand dollars from his late mother's…

  • The Farm Paper That Crossed the Iron Curtain · 4.7 mi

    One of the last newspapers in Texas printed entirely in Czech was published right here in West. Hospodar was founded in Omaha, Nebraska, around eighteen ninety, to advise Czech immigrants who wanted to farm in America.…

  • The Kolache Stop That Started Out Selling Liquor · 4.7 mi

    The Czech Stop, the kolache landmark by the interstate exit here, opened in November of nineteen eighty three. Its owner, Bill Tolk, had put everything he had into it. He sold his house in Waco and lived in a double…

  • The Town That Changed Its Name for the War · 4.7 mi

    Five miles southwest of West is the little community of Tokio, a stop on the Texas Central Railroad since eighteen eighty two. During World War Two, its name was changed to Wiggins, after one of the several local…

  • Champions from the Portables · 4.7 mi

    The two thousand thirteen explosion left West's middle school and high school, right next to the fertilizer plant, inoperable and structurally unsound, and the students went to class in portable buildings while a new…

  • Nobody Can Find Where Greeley Wrote It · 4.7 mi

    The town of West is named for its postmaster, Thomas West, not the direction. But the most famous advice about the direction is go west, young man, usually credited to the New York newspaper editor Horace Greeley. In…

  • The Westminster Chimes Came from Cambridge · 4.7 mi

    Here's a west story that isn't about West at all. The famous quarter hour chime you hear from Big Ben, and from grandfather clocks and doorbells all over the world, is called the Westminster Chimes. But it wasn't…

  • West Side Story Started on the East Side · 4.7 mi

    West Side Story almost wasn't on the West Side. In nineteen forty nine, Jerome Robbins had the idea for a modern Romeo and Juliet set on New York's Lower East Side at Easter and Passover time, and one working title was…

  • Slats on the Rails · 4.7 mi

    On the evening of the seventh of August, eighteen eighty eight, someone tore all seven slats out of a cattle guard on the Houston and Texas Central tracks, about three and a half miles from Ross, south of West, and left…

  • The Wolf Service Station · 4.7 mi

    On the eighth of June, nineteen sixty seven, two men were robbing the Wolf Service Station in West when a father and his nineteen year old son, Anton and David Kaska, drove in. One of the robbers told the attendants to…

  • The Night Watchman · 4.7 mi

    On a Saturday night in January of nineteen oh six, West's night watchman, A. P. Buchanan, arrested a farmer named T. Williams for being drunk and had a young man help walk him to the calaboose. Near the railroad tracks,…

  • Ruled Intentional, Never Solved · 4.7 mi

    Three years after the April two thousand thirteen explosion in West, investigators announced what they'd concluded about the fire that set it off. In May of two thousand sixteen, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,…

  • First Presbyterian Church of West · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through West, Texas, a town with a rich immigrant history. Back in 1875, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church started here. The first building went up in 1883, and the one you see today was finished in…

  • West · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through West, Texas, a town that owes its start to a man named Thomas West. Back in the late 1860s, he set up a stagecoach stop, a store, and a post office right here, calling it the Bold Springs…

  • Urbanovsky, Elo John · 4.7 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Central Texas, and right here in West, Texas, Elo Urbanovsky got his start. Born in 1907, he went on to become a landscape architect and professor. After graduating from Texas A&M in 1931, he…

  • The Tornado That Crossed Tokio · 4.7 mi

    Just before nine on the night of the twelfth of October, two thousand one, during a line of severe storms across North Texas, an F two tornado touched down just southwest of Tokio. It damaged homes, a church and several…

  • The Town with an Exclamation Point · 4.7 mi

    On the north coast of Devon, in England, there's a seaside village called Westward Ho, with an exclamation point, and it holds the record as the only place name in England that has one. It's named after a book. Charles…

  • The Safe Under the Brush Pile · 4.7 mi

    On the night of the fifteenth of March, nineteen thirty two, burglars broke into the post office at West and carried off its small steel safe, with stamps and blank money orders inside, each with the word West printed…

  • The Electric Train to Dallas · 4.7 mi

    West was a stop on the Texas Electric interurban, the electric passenger railway that was finished between Waco and Dallas in nineteen thirteen, and gave cheap, convenient passenger service for decades. At two hundred…

  • Two Tornadoes, One Town · 4.7 mi

    On the evening of the seventeenth of October, nineteen ninety three, West got hit twice in twenty five minutes. At seven twenty five, a tornado moved through the southern part of town, damaging houses, trees and a large…

  • West, TX · 4.8 mi

    West, Texas, isn't just another blur of roadside businesses along I-35. It's a place where the smell of baking kolaches hangs heavy in the air, a testament to its deep Czech roots. For generations, agriculture has been…

  • West, Texas - Czech Heritage and Resilience · 4.8 mi · Historical Marker

    Czech heritage community on I-35 between Dallas and Austin, famous for kolaches. Devastated by a fertilizer plant explosion on April 17, 2013 that killed 15 and destroyed much of the town.

  • Mynar's Bar · 4.8 mi

    Downtown West, Texas, a Czech town straddling Interstate 35 — and on one side of the street sits Mynar's. The Mynar family bought the building back in 1923, but don't let that fool you: it ran as a grocery store through…

  • Wolf's Sports Bar · 4.8 mi

    Across the street from Mynar's in downtown West stands Wolf's — and Wolf's leans sports bar over honky-tonk. The walls are painted up with Texas team logos, there's a University of Oklahoma logo hung in memory of an old…

  • Groppe Building · 4.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through West, Texas, looking at the Groppe Building. Built in 1892 by August Groppe, Sr., this was the first brick building in town. Groppe, a prominent cotton farmer and businessman, used local bricks…

  • The Crash at Crush · 4.9 mi · Historical Marker

    A head-on collision between two locomotives was staged on Sept. 15, 1896, as a publicity stunt for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railroad. Over 30,000 spectators gathered at the crash site, named "crush" for MKT…

  • Best Theatre Building · 4.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Best Theatre, built around 1890 by town founder Thomas West. It started as saloons, then a grocery store, before becoming the Best Theatre in 1923, showing vaudeville, local acts, and…

  • Trooper Richard Cottle Memorial Highway · 4.9 mi · Historical Marker

    The ten miles of Interstate Thirty Five just north of Waco, from mile marker three forty one to three fifty one, are named for Senior Trooper Richard Dale Cottle. On the morning of the ninth of May, two thousand one,…

  • First Baptist Church of West · 4.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through West, Texas, a town with roots stretching back to 1858. Right here, you're passing the site of the First Baptist Church, a community cornerstone for over 160 years. It started in a settlement…

  • West Brethren Church · 5.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through West, Texas, a community built by Czech immigrants. Back in 1888, Reverend Henry Juren held the first Moravian Brethren services here, baptizing a baby who would later become a minister himself.…

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: West (West) · 5.2 mi

    West (West, TX) placed on the 3A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Cade Simmons (2 HR); Logan Fiser (2 HR); Nick Holub (2 HR).

  • Gholson, TX · 5.3 mi

    In the 1840s, the area now known as Gholson was first settled and went by the name Sardis. It wasn't until the Gholson brothers, Benjamin and Samuel, became prominent early settlers that the area gradually adopted their…

  • Wiggins, the Town That Vanished · 5.3 mi

    Before there was a Gholson, there was Sardis. Settlers came into this stretch of northern McLennan County in the late 1840s and called their community Sardis. The first school went up in 1854. A post office opened in…

  • Aquilla Creek Truss Bridge · 5.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of an old iron truss bridge over Aquilla Creek. The original road here was built way back in 1875, but heavy rains often made it impassable. In 1887, the county hired a company to build a…

  • Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church · 5.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church, a focal point for this community since 1873. Methodist families here gathered during the Reconstruction Era to organize their church. Services…

  • Gholson Cemetery · 5.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Gholson Cemetery, a final resting place that started with a tiny tragedy. In 1871, the infant daughter of the Rozell family, early settlers here, was buried on this land. The oldest headstone…

  • Scott's Chapel Cemetery · 5.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Hill County, near the site of Scott's Chapel. This community was named for the Scott family, who settled here in the 1850s. One son, Palestine Scott, donated land for a school and church, while…

  • Gholson, TX (McLennan County) · 6.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Gholson, Texas, a farming community that actually started out with a different name: Sardis. Settled in the late 1840s, it got its first school in 1854 and a post office in 1858. The Gholson…

  • Elm Mott, TX · 6.4 mi

    The name Elm Mott has a unique origin. When residents applied for a post office in 1872, they were told the name Geneva was already taken. So they chose Elm Mott, in honor of a nearby elm grove.

  • St. Martin's Cemetery · 6.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of St. Martin's Cemetery, a final resting place for many German and Czech immigrants who settled this area. It all started back in 1874, when a wagon train from Illinois arrived on the feast…

  • Tours Community · 6.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Tours, Texas, a place that started life as Martinsville. In 1872, settlers arrived from Illinois, calling their new home Martinsville after St. Martin's Day, November 11. Just two years later, in…

  • Trooper Richard Cottle Memorial Highway · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker

    Honors Senior Trooper Richard Dale Cottle, Texas DPS Waco, killed May 9, 2001, in a fog-related crash on Interstate 35 in McLennan County while driving to Dallas to testify in court. Honorary segment covers I-35 mile…

  • Aquilla · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Aquilla, Texas, a town named for the Spanish word for 'Eagle'. Look around – this place really took flight when the railroad arrived in 1879. Suddenly, Aquilla became a major shipping point.…

  • Saint Paul's Church of Gerald · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Gerald, Texas, a town that once thrived thanks to the railroad. German farmers started settling here in the late 1800s, and by 1888, they had a post office and a bustling main street. But the…

  • Lebanon United Methodist Church · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Lebanon United Methodist Church. Land was deeded for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1872, with Reverend Floyd T. Wiginton serving as the first pastor. The church's name,…

  • The Bank Texas Was Not Allowed to Have · 7.6 mi

    Here is a strange piece of Texas law. Starting with the state constitution of eighteen seventy six, Texas flatly banned banks chartered by the state. The ban held for almost thirty years. Through the eighteen nineties,…

  • Aquilla, TX · 7.6 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Aquilla, Texas, a town that started life as Mudtown. Settlers moved here in the 1840s, drawn by the nearby timber, the closest source to Hillsboro. The community, and nearby Aquilla Creek, likely…

  • Eagle or Jones? · 7.6 mi

    Ask where the name Aquilla comes from and you will get two different answers, one about a bird and one about a man. The state historical marker for the town says Aquilla was named for Aquilla Creek, and that the creek's…

  • Chalk Bluff Baptist Church · 7.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Chalk Bluff Baptist Church, a congregation with roots stretching back to 1870. Originally called White Rock Baptist Church, it was founded by locals who wanted a Baptist church right…

  • Liberty Grove Cemetery · 8.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Liberty Grove Cemetery, a quiet reminder of a farming community that once thrived here on the McLennan and Hill county line. The first marked grave belongs to Mary Burton, who died way…

  • Spivey Crossing · 8.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the Brazos River Valley, near what used to be Spivey Crossing. This farming community got its name from Temple Spivey, a wealthy planter who settled nearby in the 1850s. The actual wagon trail…

  • From Mudtown to the tracks · 8.1 mi

    The Aquilla you see today isn't where it started. The original village, settled in the 1850s, sat a few miles north of here, and the neighbors called it Mudtown. Then around 1880 the Texas Central Railroad came building…

  • Taming Aquilla Creek · 8.1 mi

    Just north of here lies a massive piece of engineering that reshaped this entire region: the Aquilla Dam. The town's namesake, Aquilla Creek, was prone to the same flash flooding that plagues many Texas waterways. To…

  • The Day the Leroy Bank Closed · 8.1 mi

    For eighty years, Leroy, Texas, kept its money in its own little bank. The Leroy Bank was started in nineteen oh seven, in the middle of a national financial crisis, by a father and son, W. H. and D. T. Janes, and three…

  • Aquilla, TX · 8.1 mi

    Aquilla was settled in the 1840s due to its location as the nearest point to Hillsboro where timber could be found. The availability of this natural resource attracted settlers to the area.

  • LaRoy, Texas, the Movie · 8.1 mi

    Since you're in Leroy, Texas, here's a tangent with almost the same name. Leroy is real, named for Leroy Smith, who ran the land company and railroad that laid it out. But there is also a movie called LaRoy, Texas,…

  • Leroy, TX · 8.1 mi · Tsha Handbook

    Leroy is at the intersection of Farm roads 308 and 2311, fourteen miles northeast of downtown Waco in northeastern McLennan County. It was established in the late 1890s by the Smith Land Company and the…

  • Paving the Gumbo: Engineering I-35 · 8.3 mi

    Look at the ground around Leroy. You're standing on the Blackland Prairie, and the soil under this town is a clay called vertisol, known around here as black gumbo. It shrinks and swells dramatically with moisture. When…

  • The Whistle that Built a Town · 8.3 mi

    As you travel along I-35 you're following a path laid down long before the interstate. Look over at the railroad tracks running beside the highway — that line is the reason Leroy is here, and there's a name attached to…

  • Janes, W.H., Home · 8.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the W.H. Janes home, built in 1885. Look for the board and batten siding on this house, constructed by Janes himself, a Kentucky native and Civil War veteran. He and his wife Sue lived here,…

  • Carr Ranch, Old · 8.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the historic Carr Ranch, settled way back in 1854 by D. C. Carr. This spread covered land in both Hill and McLennan counties. D. C. and his brother J. C. were early pioneers, helping grow the towns…

  • Wortham Bend Cemetery · 8.5 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Wortham Bend Cemetery, a resting place named for a man who came to Texas around 1854. William Green Duke Wortham and his wife Charlotte settled right here, and their community took his name. This…

  • Moore, Louis · 8.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of a man who saw Texas history unfold firsthand: Louis Moore. Born in Missouri in 1817, Moore came to Texas around 1834, just as the winds of revolution were starting to blow. He enlisted in…

  • Moore Cemetery · 8.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Moore Cemetery, a resting place that began as a family burial ground. Louis Moore arrived in Texas around 1834, and his son John, who died in 1858, may have been the first person buried here. The…

  • Northcrest, TX · 9.0 mi

    The city of Northcrest derives its name from a combination of its geographical location and elevation. Situated 6 miles north of Waco, and boasting the highest elevation in the Waco area, the city's name reflects both…

  • Lacy-Lakeview, TX · 9.3 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving north of Waco on I-35, and you're passing through Lacy-Lakeview. The land here was granted way back in 1843 to Sarah Ann Walker, whose husband fought at the Alamo. Two communities, Lacy and Lakeview,…

  • Saint Mary's Cemetery · 9.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through West, Texas, and you're passing Saint Mary's Cemetery. This isn't just any graveyard; it's a testament to the area's rich Czech and German heritage. After Catholic immigrants, many from Bohemia,…

  • From Cold War Base to College Campus · 9.5 mi

    As you pass by the sprawling campus of Texas State Technical College, you're looking at one of the most successful recycling projects in Texas history. This wasn't always a college. This was once James Connally Air…

  • From Bombers to Brainpower: The Engineering of TSTC · 9.5 mi

    The campus of Texas State Technical College you see from the highway is a masterclass in infrastructure repurposing. When James Connally Air Force Base was built, it was an engineering project designed for one purpose:…

  • The Compromise That Created a City · 9.5 mi

    The city of Lacy-Lakeview was born out of a committee meeting. In the early 1950s this was a string of unincorporated neighborhoods north of Waco - no local police, no city water, no say in their own future. Two of them…

  • Lacy-Lakeview, TX · 9.5 mi

    Lacy-Lakeview isn't the kind of place that produces a lot of household names. It's more of a working-class town, a suburb where people are focused on family, work, and community. And that's really the point. The town's…

  • Walker, Sarah Ann Vouchere · 9.6 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising past the resting place of Sarah Ann Vouchere Walker, a woman who lived a life straight out of Texas legend. Born in Louisiana in 1811, she came to Texas in 1829 and settled in this area in 1844. She was…

  • Czech Settlers in Hill County · 9.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Hill County, Texas, where Czech immigrants found a new home. Drawn by fertile land and opportunity, they began arriving in the 1870s, leaving behind political and military pressures in…

  • Abbott Schools · 9.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the historic Abbott schools. The town's public education journey kicked off in 1885 with a simple one-room schoolhouse, serving 140 students and three teachers. Fast forward to 1911, and this site…

  • Bobbie Nelson · 9.9 mi

    Before Willie Nelson was Willie Nelson, there was his big sister Bobbie at the piano. She came out of Abbott, Texas, same as him, and for decades she was the piano in his band — Sister Bobbie, he called her. Willie…

  • Abbott, TX · 9.9 mi

    Abbott, Texas, has a rich history that dates back to 1871 when it was founded as a stop for the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. The city was named in honor of Joseph 'Jo' Abbott, who represented the area in the Texas…

  • The Shoeshine Franchise · 10.0 mi

    In his nineteen eighty eight autobiography, Willie Nelson wrote that as a boy in Abbott, he got one of his brilliant business ideas. He went to Frank Clements, the town barber, and suggested a shoe shine franchise in…

  • Thoroughbreds or Scrubs · 10.0 mi

    On an April evening in eighteen eighty seven, a young sheepman named Frank Blocker and a friend drove their wagon up to Brigman's store here in Abbott, on their way home from Waco. Blocker said something about his…

  • Willie Nelson - Abbott, Texas (Dolly Parton on Willie) · 10.0 mi · Quote

    Dolly Parton reflecting on her musical chemistry with Willie Nelson.

  • A Million and a Half in the Cave · 10.0 mi

    In March of eighteen ninety nine, a stranger who said he came from Mexico City turned up in Abbott with what the papers called a cabalistic chart. It showed, he said, a million and a half dollars in gold sealed up in a…

  • Fog at Abbott · 10.0 mi

    Before dawn on the seventh of January, nineteen eleven, two northbound Katy passenger trains came through Abbott in heavy fog. One had stopped because a freight train was ahead of it, and a flagman went back with a…

  • The Doctor's House · 10.0 mi

    On an April night in nineteen thirty three, Willie Nelson's cousin Mildred went to fetch the town doctor, Dr. Sims, who tromped across the field to the little frame house here in Abbott where Willie's mother, Myrle, was…

  • Two Birthdays · 10.0 mi

    Willie Nelson was born here in Abbott at the end of April, nineteen thirty three, and he celebrates twice. On a SiriusXM radio show in two thousand eighteen, he said he was born before midnight on the twenty ninth, but…

  • The Abbott Homecoming · 10.0 mi

    In November of nineteen seventy three, the Abbott PTA sponsored a homecoming show to honor its most famous son, and Billboard magazine reported that some ten thousand country music fans turned up in a town of three…

  • He Joined the Church Thirty Times · 10.0 mi

    Willie and Bobbie Nelson sang in the choir at Abbott's Methodist church, built in eighteen ninety nine. In his nineteen eighty eight autobiography, Willie wrote that when the preacher called for converts at the end of…

  • Every Phone in Town · 10.0 mi

    Before he was famous, Willie Nelson worked the Abbott telephone switchboard, sort of. He told Texas Monthly that his sister Bobbie was really the one with the job. Whenever the operators took a vacation, they'd hire her…

  • Songs by Willie Nelson, Waco, Texas · 10.0 mi

    In nineteen forty four, an eleven year old boy from Abbott finished a homemade book of his own songs. The cover says Songs by Willie Nelson, and under that, in cursive, Waco, Texas. There are tiny hand drawn cowboy hats…

  • Shots on the Troop Train · 10.0 mi

    About ten in the morning on the thirteenth of August, nineteen ten, a special Katy train was carrying Texas National Guard troops home to Dallas from maneuvers at Leon Springs. Just as it came through Abbott, two young…

  • Willie Buys Back His Church · 10.0 mi

    The Abbott Methodist church where Willie and Bobbie Nelson grew up eventually lost its congregation, which merged into the Methodist church in Hillsboro, and the white church building went up for sale. It might have…

  • Willie Hugh, Abbott High · 10.0 mi

    In the nineteen forty nine to fifty Abbott High School yearbook, The Panther, he's listed as Willie Hugh. He was five foot nine and a hundred thirty pounds, and he played a little of everything: basketball, football,…

  • The Cadillac in the Cotton Field · 10.0 mi

    Willie Nelson has told a story about how his music career really started, and it happened right along here. When he was a boy, he was picking cotton on a farm by the highway that ran between Abbott and Hillsboro. It was…

  • The Engine That Exploded · 10.0 mi

    At one forty in the morning on the twenty eighth of January, eighteen ninety seven, Katy engine number one seventy three was pulling a southbound freight train about a mile north of Abbott when its boiler exploded. The…

  • The Town That Kept Burning · 10.0 mi

    Abbott has burned and rebuilt more than once. The Handbook of Texas says the town suffered disastrous fires in eighteen ninety seven, nineteen oh three and nineteen oh four, and was rebuilt after each. In December of…

  • Who's on First, and Who Owns It · 10.0 mi

    The town of Abbott is named for Jo Abbott, a Hill County lawyer, judge and congressman. No relation to Bud Abbott, the tall half of Abbott and Costello, but since we're here. On the twenty fourth of March, nineteen…

  • The Monk Who Didn't Invent Champagne · 10.0 mi

    Abbott sounds like abbot, and one of the most famous monks in history ran the wine cellars of a French abbey. Dom Pierre Perignon was the cellar master at the Abbey of Hautvillers in Champagne in the late sixteen…

  • The Crosswalk the Government Protected · 10.0 mi

    Abbott sounds like abbey, and the most famous road with abbey in its name runs through northwest London. By the nineteen sixties, Abbey Road was home to the recording studios where the Beatles worked, and on the eighth…

  • Abbott · 10.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Abbott, a town born from the railroad. In 1881, the Katy Railroad laid tracks through here, naming the new town after Joseph Abbott, a local lawyer and Congressman. By 1891, Abbott was growing…

  • The Panthers Win State · 10.0 mi

    Abbott is one of the smallest schools in Texas, and its Panthers have won big. In two thousand seventeen, Abbott won the state baseball championship in its class. In June of two thousand twenty three they did it again,…

  • Trigger · 10.0 mi

    Abbott's most famous native, Willie Nelson, got his most famous guitar in nineteen sixty nine. The story goes that he'd laid his old Baldwin guitar on the stage between sets at a gig, and a drunk stepped on it. A guitar…

  • Dawson, Hubert McLeod · 10.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Hill County, the birthplace of Hubert McLeod Dawson. Born in Abbott in 1903, Dawson dedicated his life to education, serving as a principal, teacher, and coach right here in Texas. He even served…

  • Abbott Baptist Church · 10.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Abbott Baptist Church. It began in 1876 as the Liberty Grove Baptist Church, with 13 original members. They met in a schoolhouse a couple of miles south of here. The congregation got…

  • Abbott, TX · 10.0 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving through Abbott, a town born from the railroad. In 1881, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas line laid tracks, and this community sprang up around them, named for Jo Abbott. It quickly became a hub, with cotton…

  • Frank Hamer - Texas Ranger · 10.1 mi · Historical Marker

    Frank Hamer was born in Fairview in 1884 and joined the Texas Rangers when he was twenty-two. By the time he retired the first time, he had been in fifty-two gunfights, been wounded seventeen times, and been left for…

  • Concord Cemetery · 10.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Concord Cemetery, the last vestige of a town that vanished. Concord Baptist Church formed here in 1866, but the cemetery holds the real story. The first burials in 1869 were Elizabeth Boddie Parrish…

  • Abbott United Methodist Church · 10.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Abbott, and right here stands the United Methodist Church, a cornerstone of this community since its earliest days. The very first Methodist worship service happened way back in 1883, led by…

  • Bosqueville Baptist Church · 10.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're passing Bosqueville Baptist Church, one of McLennan County's oldest rural congregations. Organized way back in November of 1854 by the Rev. S.G. O'Bryan, this church has worshiped without interruption ever since.…

  • David Smith Kornegay · 10.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the resting place of David Smith Kornegay, a man who saw some of the most pivotal moments in early Texas history. Born in North Carolina in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1810</say-as>, he…

  • Alexander McKinza · 10.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site where Alexander McKinza settled in McLennan County around 1860. But his story started years earlier, when he moved to Texas from Alabama in 1834. During the Texas War for Independence,…

  • Bosqueville Cemetery · 10.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Bosqueville Cemetery, a final resting place with roots stretching back to the earliest days of Texas settlement. Burials began here around 1850, on land donated for a school and graveyard. In fact,…

  • Bosqueville Methodist Church · 10.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Bosqueville Methodist Church, a community that’s been gathering for worship for over 170 years. Before even having a building, folks met in homes, then the New Oakwood schoolhouse, and…

  • Willie and Bobbie's Abbott · 10.6 mi

    Abbott is more than just Willie Nelson's birthplace; it's the soil where his music took root. After their parents left, Willie and his older sister Bobbie were raised by their grandparents, known as Mama and Daddy…

  • The Only Mammoth Nursery Ever Found · 10.6 mi

    Right here in Waco, scientists uncovered something no one had ever recorded before: a nursery herd of Ice Age mammoths, frozen in time exactly where they died. A nursery herd is a family group of adult females and their…

  • Drought or Flood? A Fossil Detective Story · 10.6 mi

    Here is a real scientific mystery, still being argued over. How did this whole herd die at once? For years the leading idea was a sudden flash flood that swept in and buried the mammoths fast. It is a dramatic story,…

  • The Blackland's Cracked Foundation · 10.6 mi

    The reason Abbott is here is the soil, and that soil is a marvel of agricultural science and an engineering headache. You're on the Blackland Prairie, named for its dark, clay-rich 'vertisol.' This soil is incredibly…

  • Waco Mammoth National Monument · 10.6 mi · Historical Marker

    About 68,000 years ago, a nursery herd of Columbian mammoths, mostly females and calves, was caught in a flash flood along the Bosque River and buried in mud. Their bones lay undiscovered until 1978, when two teenagers…

  • Bigger Than the Woolly, and Nearly Bald · 10.6 mi

    Quick myth-buster: the mammoths buried here are not the famous woolly mammoth. These are Columbian mammoths, a different species, and in some ways a more impressive one. The woolly mammoth lived up north in the freezing…

  • How Do You Date a Bone Too Old to Carbon-Date? · 10.6 mi

    Here is a puzzle that stumps a lot of people. You have probably heard of carbon dating, the classic way scientists figure out how old something is. The catch: radiocarbon dating only works back to about 50,000 years.…

  • The Ghost of the Katy Railroad · 10.6 mi

    Every town has a pulse. For decades, Abbott's pulse was the rhythmic clack-clack of the Katy Railroad. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas line reached Hill County in 1881 and laid this town out along it that same year,…

  • The Czechs Who Tamed the Blacklands · 10.6 mi

    Look out at the fields surrounding Abbott. That rich, black earth is what drew thousands of Czech immigrants to Central Texas in the 1880s. Fleeing hardship in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, they heard stories of…

  • Erath · 10.7 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through what used to be Erath, one of McLennan County's earliest settlements. Settlers were drawn here by fertile land between the Brazos and Bosque rivers. At its peak, this community boasted churches, a…

  • The Waco Siege, Mount Carmel Center — Elk, Texas, 1993 · 10.8 mi

    Eleven miles east of Waco, on a flat stretch of land off a two-lane road, stood the Mount Carmel Center — home of the Branch Davidians, a religious sect led by David Koresh. On February twenty-eighth, nineteen…

  • Bosqueville High School — State Softball 2026 · 10.9 mi

    Bosqueville High School in Bosqueville, Texas qualified for the 2026 UIL state softball championships, reaching the state tournament (final four) in Class two A, Division One.

  • El Conquistador and a Half-Century of Family Tex-Mex · 11.2 mi

    If you want a Bellmead meal with real roots, El Conquistador at 901 North Loop 340 is the stop. It's a multigenerational Central Texas Tex-Mex business, started by the Gonzalez family in the Waco area back in 1969, and…

  • G. W. Carver High School · 11.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of G.W. Carver High School, built in 1956 to educate African American students in the La Vega district. It was named for the famous scientist George Washington Carver. The school's…

  • China Spring Tabernacle · 11.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the China Spring Tabernacle, a building that's been the heart of this farming community since about 1903. Lavantia Conger deeded the land, and the two-story structure quickly became a hub for…

  • Bellmead, TX · 11.5 mi · Tsha Handbook

    You're driving near Waco, heading into Bellmead. This town owes its existence to a railroad. In the mid-1920s, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad chose this spot for its locomotive shops, bringing hundreds of jobs…

  • Forty-Three Years, Then Two Titles and a Twenty-One Point Comeback · 11.6 mi

    China Spring waited forty-three years between football state championships, and then won two in a row, the second one from twenty-one points down. The first title came in nineteen seventy-eight, when the Cougars beat…

  • The Poison Berry Tree Behind the Name · 11.6 mi

    China Spring was not named for a country. It was named for a spring in a grove of chinaberry trees, and that tree has a story of its own. The chinaberry is not from around here. It is native to tropical Asia and to…

  • The Town the Railroad Built · 11.7 mi

    Imagine a factory complex so vast it was like a city unto itself. That was the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad shops, the very reason Bellmead grew. Opening in the mid-1920s, this wasn't just a repair depot; it was an…

  • The Railroad That Didn't Just Serve Bellmead, It Built It · 11.7 mi

    Bellmead exists because of the Katy. The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, universally known as the Katy, took control of the Texas Central Railway in 1910, and Bellmead became the site of the railroad's major Central…

  • The Wartime Airfield That Changed Bellmead Overnight · 11.7 mi

    Northeast of where you are now, Waco Army Air Field opened on May 5, 1942, built to train the Army Air Forces pilots the country desperately needed as it went to war. It later became headquarters for the Central…

  • From Locomotive Shops to the Vietnam-Era Bomb Plant · 11.7 mi

    Bellmead's industrial story took a strange turn in 1968. The former Warden Locomotive Shops, built decades earlier to repair steam engines, were converted into a plant that produced bomb casings. The company A.O. Smith…

  • The Smell of Money and Rubber · 11.7 mi

    For about 40 years, there was a smell in the Bellmead air that everyone recognized: the smell of curing rubber. It was the smell of the General Tire and Rubber Company plant, a colossal factory that opened in 1944.…

  • The Engineering of the Iron Horse · 11.7 mi

    The Katy Railroad shops weren't just a garage for trains; they were a high-tech engineering hub for their time. Imagine the science required to maintain a fleet of steam locomotives. In the boiler shop, workers used…

  • The Town That Started With an Absent Owner and Squatters · 11.7 mi

    The ground you're crossing here was once part of the enormous Tomas de la Vega land grant, and for years it belonged to a man who never lived on it. After the tract changed hands, it ended up owned by Colonel John W.…

  • The City That Had to Be Founded Twice · 11.7 mi

    Bellmead is one of those rare towns that had to be created twice. Residents first voted to incorporate as a city in 1939, but the new municipality collapsed almost immediately. The problem was brutally simple: it had no…

  • The Hidden Gas Network Under the Locomotive Shops · 11.7 mi

    The 1923 Bellmead railroad complex was really a coordinated heavy-engineering campus, and one tiny building reveals just how sophisticated it was. Repairing a locomotive took far more than a roundhouse. It needed…

  • Concord Cemetery and the Triplet Grave · 11.7 mi

    Near Bellmead's northeastern edge, out by the Texas State Technical College area, sits Concord Cemetery, the last surviving piece of a community that has otherwise vanished. The settlement of Concord once had a church,…

  • The Pride of the Pirates · 11.7 mi

    In Texas, Friday night football is a way of life, and here in Bellmead, it’s a source of incredible pride. This is the home of the La Vega Pirates. For decades, the community has rallied around its team, but in the 21st…

  • The Theater That Opened Four Months After V-J Day · 11.7 mi

    At 3008 Corsicana Highway stands the old La Vega Theater, which opened on December 21, 1945, right in the middle of Bellmead's postwar boom. The timing tells the whole story: soldiers were coming home, the railroad…

  • From Wartime Tires to University Research · 11.7 mi

    One Bellmead property has lived two completely different industrial lives. General Tire began producing tires here in November 1944, during the wartime years when rubber and tires were in critically short supply, and…

  • The Christmas Parade That's Run for Half a Century · 11.7 mi

    Every December, Bellmead pulls out one of its oldest community traditions. The Bellmead Christmas Parade began in 1972 and has kept going for more than fifty years straight, which in a town this size is no small feat of…

  • Bellmead, TX · 11.7 mi

    Bellmead, Texas, and the surrounding area, has long been associated with agricultural production, particularly cotton. The Blackland Prairie soil is deep and fertile, perfect for growing the crop that once defined the…

  • UIL 4A Football State Champions — 2 titles · 11.8 mi

    China Spring High School (China Spring, TX): Most recent: 24-21 over Boerne · 2022 4A Division 1 final.

  • The Man in the China Spring Cemetery Who Claimed Three Centuries · 11.9 mi

    A mile west of China Spring there is a headstone with a birth year that would make the man beneath it a hundred and twenty-two. Isaac Brock's stone gives his birth year as seventeen eighty-seven. He died in September of…

  • Birome · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Birome, a town born from the railroad. Founded in 1910, it was one of five International and Great Northern Railway stations serving southern Hill County. Birome quickly became an…

  • China Spring Cemetery · 11.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through China Spring, a community named for its chinaberry trees and a nearby spring. Settled around 1870, the early families buried their dead in private plots. But in 1902, locals banded together to…

  • Smith Bend-Coon Creek Cemetery · 12.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through the area near Meridian, where John Jackson Smith and his wife Margaret settled in the 1850s. They founded the Smith Bend community and gave land for this cemetery after their son Burton died in…

  • A.J. Moore High School · 12.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Waco, and right here is the site of A.J. Moore High School. Back in 1875, Professor A.J. Moore saw a need. He started teaching Waco's Black children in his own home because there just wasn't a…

  • Kellum Family Cemetery · 12.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the Kellum Family Cemetery, a quiet resting place for a family that helped settle this part of Texas. Edward Kellum, a veteran of the War of 1812, moved here from Virginia with his wife Karen and…

  • Camp MacArthur, World War I Training Camp · 12.3 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Camp MacArthur, a massive World War I training ground that dwarfed the nearby city of Waco! Founded on July 18, 1917, this camp was built to train the 32nd National Guard Division.…

  • Waco State Home · 12.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Waco State Home, established back in 1919 by the Texas Legislature. This wasn't just any orphanage; it was a dedicated home for dependent and neglected children, offering them care,…

  • Hogle Cabin · 12.4 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past a piece of Texas history, folks! This cabin, originally built in 1858, started its life over 100 miles away in Rusk County. It was constructed from hand-hewn yellow pine logs, a real testament to…

  • 2018 UIL 4A Division 1 Football State Champions · 12.6 mi

    La Vega High School (Waco, TX): Most recent: 35-21 over Liberty Hill · 2018 4A Division 1 final.

  • Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Axtell (Axtell) · 12.7 mi

    Axtell (Axtell, TX) placed on the 2A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Levi Leathers (0.512 avg, 2 HR).

  • Proctor Springs · 12.8 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Proctor Springs, a spot that's been quenching thirst and offering rest for centuries. Long before it was a city park, frontiersmen relied on these springs. Later, it became a favorite picnic spot for…

  • Toliver Chapel Baptist Church · 12.9 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Waco, and just ahead is the site of Toliver Chapel Baptist Church. It began in July 1895, organized by the Rev. I. Toliver, a respected minister and civic leader in Waco's African American…

  • Miller, Dorris · 13.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the birthplace of Dorie Miller, a true Texas hero. Raised right here in McLennan County, Miller was serving on the USS West Virginia at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. When the attack began, he…

  • Paul Quinn College · 13.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past Paul Quinn College, Texas' oldest liberal arts college for African Americans. It began way back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1872</say-as> in Austin as the Connectional High School and…

  • William Cameron Park · 13.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Waco, and you're passing through William Cameron Park. This massive park, now over 400 acres, started with a generous gift in 1910. The family of William Cameron, a prominent lumberman who died in…

  • Methodist Home, The · 13.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of the Methodist Home in Waco. Back in 1890, Bishop Joseph S. Key, fresh from helping orphanages in Georgia, saw a big need right here in Texas. He and Reverend Horace Bishop secured this…

  • First Church Building in Waco · 13.0 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the spot where Waco's very first church building stood, right around 1850. It was a simple log house where folks gathered to hear Reverend Joseph P. Sneed, an itinerant Methodist preacher. His…

  • Greenwood Cemetery · 13.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Waco, and right here is Greenwood Cemetery, established in 1875. It was set up with equal land for both the White and Black communities. Decades later, in the 1930s, folks like Mrs. Emma Norwood…

  • Prairie Valley Community · 13.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Prairie Valley, a place that started life in the shadow of the Waco Indians. Look around – this area saw some of the very first land grants in the region, including one to Dr. Levi Jones,…

  • Earle-Harrison House · 13.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're cruising through Waco, and right here stands the Earle-Harrison House. Built between 1858 and 1859, this Greek Revival beauty was meant to be a symbol of culture for the growing town. Interestingly, only half of…

  • Saint Luke African Methodist Espiscopal Church · 13.1 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Waco, and just ahead is the site of Saint Luke African Methodist Episcopal Church. According to local lore, this congregation started way back in 1886, meeting as an evening Sunday school. By…

  • Texas Christian University, Old Site of · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the original home of Texas Christian University in Waco! Imagine this: a hundred faculty and students, fresh off the train on Christmas Eve 1895, marching three miles to this very spot. They were…

  • Butler, George Harrison, House · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the George Harrison Butler House in Waco. Built in 1869, this was one of the very first brick houses constructed east of the Brazos River. George Butler and his wife Emiline built it just two years…

  • Johnson-Taylor House · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving through Waco, and just ahead, you're passing the Johnson-Taylor House. Built between 1873 and 1879 as a modest pink brick home for merchant Sanford Taylor, this place got a serious glow-up after it was…

  • Waco City Waterworks · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker

    You're driving past the site of Waco's historic waterworks. Back in 1849, Waco's main street was laid out near natural artesian springs. For years, private companies supplied the city's water, but by the turn of the…

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