Ghost Towns of Texas (C)

County: Milam
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Cain City, TX

County: WilsonGillespie
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Latitude / Longitude: 30°11’50″N 98°48’45″W
Elevation: 1,752 ft (534 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UCentral (CST) (UTC-6)TC-6)
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Comments: Cain City is a ghost town founded in 1915, 4 miles (6.4 km) southeast of Fredericksburg in Gillespie County, in the U.S. state of Texas. It was established to be a station stop of the Fredericksburg and Northern Railway Company, of which the city’s namesake Charlie Cain was a leading fundraiser. The town suffered an economic downturn within a decade of being founded.
Remains: Cain was educated in the public schools of Calvert, Texas, but he left school at an early age and went to Houston to seek his fortune. In 1902, Charlie (or Charley) Cain began his career as a stock room employee of the Peden Iron and Steel Company in Houston, a company established by Edward Andrew Peden in 1902. After a period as road salesman for Peden, Cain became manager of Peden’s San Antonio branch when it opened in 1910. In 1912, Cain was instrumental in raising $50,000 for the building of the Fredericksburg and Northern Railway. Cain died in Hondo, Texas, on September 12, 1970.
Current Status: In 1919, Gus Bausch opened a cotton gin, but prosperity was already waning in the town. The Mountain Home Hotel, opened by Mrs. Fletcher Hamilton of Illinois, was bought by J.C. Stinson and eventually sold to Mrs. Will Bird. When the town experienced an economic downturn, Bird razed the hotel. Edgar Tatsch and Theodore Keller opened a dance hall in 1927, but by that time the town was already in an advanced state of decline. Today Cain City is a ghost town, overtaken by residential development by Fredericksburg. What once existed as Cain City is gone.
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Calaveras, TX

County: Wilson
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Latitude / Longitude: 29° 13′ 20″ N, 98° 15′ 36″ W
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Comments: Calaveras, Texas is an American community located in Wilson County, Texas. The population is approximately 100. Calaveras is southeast of San Antonio.
Remains: The settlement was originally named “Wright” when it was founded in 1860, in Bexar County. A boundary change in 1869 put it into Wilson County.
Current Status: The community is located by the junction of US Route 181 and farm road 3444. The San Antonio River passes south of Calaveras.
Remarks: In 1885, upon the opening of a post office, the community received its current name. The arrival of the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway in 1886 brought prosperity and population growth. In 1900, Calaveras achieved its maximum population of 369. The post office closed in 1925, and after subsequent businesses closing down, the town slowly reduced its population to approximately 100.

Calf Creek, TX

County: McCulloch
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Latitude / Longitude: 30° 58′ 44″ N, 99° 28′ 8″ W
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Comments: Calf Creek is a small community located in southern McCulloch County, Texas on Farm Road 1311 approximately 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Brady.
Remains: Calf Creek has had three different names and been at three different locations. The first site was approximately two miles south of the present location and named Deland in honor of the original settler, Edward Elijah Deland. Deland was a farmer and also an inventor, being awarded a patent for an improved shepherd’s crook in 1883. His daughter Minnie was the community’s first school teacher and taught in a one room schoolhouse which was a quarter mile north of the creek in the Deland pasture. Edward’s son, Ira Deland, was the first mail carrier. The Deland Post Office operated from 1906 to 1909.
Current Status: From about 1970 through 2004 the historic schoolhouse was increasingly vandalized and frequently used by vagrants and transients. During this period some people with strong ties to Calf Creek still hoped to bring new life to the schoolhouse, possibly repairing it for use as a community center, however, the schoolhouse was demolished in late 2004 and early 2005. An interesting side note is that, (according to the terms of the original land deed), the school property reverts to the Huey family now that the schoolhouse is gone.
Remarks: Contrary to popular belief repeated in various other histories of Calf Creek, the land for the Calf Creek schoolhouse and cemetery were not donated by the Alexander family, but rather by the Huey family in 1902. The total amount of land donated by the Huey’s was 6 acres (24,000 m2). It seems that slightly over 2 acres (8,100 m2) of this land was dedicated to cemetery use sometime between 1902 and 1903 and the remainder of the land tract used for school grounds. It is very likely that a wood frame school building was used on this site between 1903 and 1921. The new school was built in 1921 from an $8000 bond project. The Calf Creek school was consolidated with Brady Texas Independent School District in 1949. The school building continued to be used as a church and for other community purposes for many years after the Calf Creek School was discontinued.

Callahan City, TX

County: Callahan
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Comments: Callahan City is a ghost town in Callahan County, Texas, United States.
Remains: Founded in 1876, Callahan City was envisioned as a center of commerce and government for the then quite sparsely populated Callahan County. Located along the Western Trail to Dodge City, the community hosted several merchants who served the trail drivers who passed through the area along with more than 100,000 head of cattle through the mid to late 1870s.
Current Status: Though a spot of some local importance, Callahan City’s relatively remote location hindered its growth; local merchants often had to wait a month or more for goods to be freighted in from Fort Worth. The community was dealt a severe blow in December 1877 when it lost the county seat to neighboring Belle Plain in a hotly contested election. In 1880, Callahan City was bypassed by the railroad, and the few remaining residents dispersed leaving the town all but abandoned. Today, the former cemetery is all that remains of the community.
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Calliham, TX

County: McMullen
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Latitude / Longitude: 28° 28′ 49.97″ N, 98° 21′ 1.04″ W
Elevation: 226 feet (69 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
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Comments: Calliham is an unincorporated community in northeastern McMullen County, Texas, United States, along State Highway 72 between Three Rivers and Tilden. Its elevation is 226 feet (69 m), and it is located at 28°28’50″N 98°21’01″W (28.4805479, -98.3502895). Although it is unincorporated, it has a post office with the ZIP code of 78007.
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Camey Spur, TX

County: Denton
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Latitude / Longitude: 33° 5′ 5.25″ N, 96° 51′ 22.47″ W
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Comments: Camey Spur (Camey) was a small town in southeastern Denton County, Texas, located at what is now the intersection of State Highway 121 and W Spring Creek Pkwy. It was established around 1852 and named after Capt. William McKamy. For a time is served as a spur on the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway. Not to be confused with Spur, Texas, a post office operated in Camey Spur from 1913 through 1925. According to a Dallas Morning News archive, in 1914 the community had a cotton gin that burnt down in 1925, two general stores, and a population of 30. During the 1930s and 40s, it had two businesses and a population of forty-seven.
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Camp Verde, TX

County: Kerr
Zip Code: 78010
Latitude / Longitude: 29°53’37″N 99°6’17″W
Elevation: 491 ft (150 m)
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Comments: Camp Verde is an unincorporated community in Kerr County. The town is approximately the halfway point between Bandera and Kerrville along SH 173 in the Texas Hill Country.
Remains: The town of Camp Verde came about from the Old Camp Verde military camp. The town grew around the old Williams community store (opened in 1857), which was built to serve the soldiers stationed at the base. After Williams died in 1858, German immigrant Charles Schreiner acquired the store. After the camp was abandoned, the store continued to operate as a post office to area residents. The first post office opened in 1858, running out of Screiner’s store. This post office closed 1866. When the post office reopened in 1887, Charles C. Kelly served as post master. However, this post office was also closed in 1892. Walter S. Nowlin re-established the post office and store in 1899.
Current Status: The Camp Verde General Store is still in operation to this day, having been in operation for over 150 years. The store has become somewhat of a tourist attraction in the area. The store also runs the post office and operates a restaurant.
Remarks: In 1854, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis (who later became the president of the Confederacy), pushed for the use of camels by the American Army. The initiative was passed by Congress on March 3, 1855 and the first camels arrived in the area in April 1856. After the fort was deactivated in 1869, the experiment died with it.

Canada Verde, TX

County: Bee
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Candelaria, TX

County: Presidio
Zip Code: 79845
Latitude / Longitude: 30°08’19″N 104°40’59″W
Elevation: 2,861 ft (872 m)
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Comments: Candelaria (/”kænd”‘l””ri”/ KAN-dih-LAIR-ee-a) is an unincorporated community in Presidio County, Texas, United States, with about 75 inhabitants. The town stands in the Chihuahuan Desert on the north bank of the Rio Grande, just across from the small Mexican town of San Antonio Del Bravo. The two towns were linked by a bridge across the river that enabled the inhabitants of San Antonio to buy groceries and supplies from Candelaria; some sent their children to school there. However, in 2008 the bridge was controversially removed by the US Border Patrol because of concerns that it had become, in the words of Border Patrol chief John Smietana, “a route for terrorists, drug traffickers and illegals.”
Remains: It is unclear when Candelaria was founded, but the area was occupied by Native Americans before farmers began to grow crops on the irrigated floodplain of the Rio Grande. It was known initially as Gallina (“chicken” in Spanish) before being renamed as Candelaria. In 1868, an entrepreneur named William Russell came to the area to establish a farm worked by the local people, selling the grain to the US Army at Fort Davis and Fort Stockton. Cotton was also grown locally. With the town’s population increasing steady, it became the seat of one of Presidio County’s three school districts in 1893. By 1911 it had grown to two stores, a church and a school, with 307 pupils in the school district and a general population of 1,842, though only a minority of these actually lived in the town.
Current Status: The remoteness of the area led to concerns about its security during the Mexican Revolution. The US Army responded in 1916 by establishing an army post, Camp Candelaria, that was garrisoned until late 1919. The town’s fortunes waned thereafter; with its poor transport links along a 50-mile dirt road to Presidio, its small-scale agriculture could not compete with the industrial farms elsewhere along the Rio Grande. The population fell steadily, from 250 in 1925 to 75 by 1940. By the late 1980s the town had shrunk to a two-room elementary school, a store, a Catholic church, and a cluster of adobe houses.
Remarks: Candelaria gained its first paved access to the outside world only as late as 1985 when Farm Road 170 to Presidio was surfaced.

Candlish, TX

County: Wilson
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Canyon City, TX

County: Comal
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Latitude / Longitude: 29° 52′ 26″ N, 98° 11′ 16″ W
Elevation: 2,516 ft (767 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established: 1925
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Comments: Canyon City is a ghost town located on the Guadalupe River in Comal County, Texas, United States, in what is now Canyon Lake.
Remains: Canyon City is said to be a small town on the Guadalupe River built in the mid-19th century in the Canyon Basin, north of San Antonio. The city is said to be fully intact and the use of SCUBA equipment can allow divers to see the remains of the city that was covered up by the construction of Canyon Dam in 1964.
Current Status: The city is an unverified “Cowboy Tale” that stems from locals who remember the story of the sunken city and the Army Corps of Engineers relocation of Canyon City to what now is Canyon Lake, population 16,870 at the 2000 census.
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Canyon Valley, TX

County: Crosby
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Latitude / Longitude: 33°24’04″N 101°20’07″W
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Comments: Canyon Valley is a ghost town in southern Crosby County, Texas, United States. Canyon Valley is located 25 mi (40 km) south of Ralls in southwestern Crosby County. Only one road passes through Canyon Valley, and it is unpaved and passes through a low-water crossing that is often impassable during wet weather. The nearest paved road is Texas State Highway 207, which passes to the west at a distance around 3 mi (4.8 km).
Remains: Canyon Valley lies below the Caprock, which defines the southeastern edge of the vast Llano Estacado. It lies within the physiographic region known as the Rolling Plains in the highly eroded valley of the Salt Fork Brazos River. In 1925, James A. Shoemaker brought his family to Crosby County where he bought a quarter-section of land three miles south of the small community of Cap Rock. A three-room house was built on the property while the land was cleared for farming. Water was hauled in barrels by wagon from the Salt Fork Brazos River until a well was dug with hand tools.
Current Status: Today, it has only a few farms and ranches scattered across the area.
Remarks: The community grew slowly, but by the early 1930s, Canyon Valley had a cotton gin and a general store. The Valley Gin ginned a total of 2,230 bales of cotton in 1934. In 1953, the Commissioners Court proposed a 5 mi (8.0 km) paved road that would have connected the Valley Gin to the “Ralls and Post Highway” (now known as Texas State Highway 207). Unfortunately, the proposed road was rejected by the district highway engineer. Although a paved road was never completed, two steel pony-truss bridges were constructed to span Lake Creek and another unnamed dry creek that intermittently becomes a tributary of the Salt Fork Brazos River. The lack of a paved road leading to the community limited the growth of Canyon Valley, and in the late 1950s, the Valley Gin shutdown and consolidated with the gin in nearby Kalgary, Texas.

Cap Rock, TX

County: Crosby
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Caput, TX

County: Gaines
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Carlton, TX

County: Hamilton
Zip Code: 76436
Latitude / Longitude: 31°55’06″N 98°10’19″W
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Comments: Carlton is an unincorporated community located in Hamilton County in Central Texas. It lies in the northeastern part of the county and has an estimated population of 70.
Remains: Carlton was founded in 1877 by a man named H.H. Armstrong on land owned by two local settlers; rancher J. M. Evans and Dr. F. M. Carlton, the town’s namesake. With growth stimulated by its location on the major area stagecoach line, Carlton prospered through the late 1870s and by 1878 possessed its own school and several churches. In 1879, the post office at nearby Honey Creek was moved to Carlton and renamed for its new location. In 1900 the community had a reported population of just over 160 and several business, including a large cotton gin. The Stephenville North and South Texas Railway part of the historic Cotton Belt Route was built through Carlton in 1907 on its way from nearby Alexander to Hamilton. Carlton reached its peak population of 750 residents by 1910. During this time, two small weekly newspapers had served the area; the Courier, which ran from 1907 to 1909, and the Citizen, which ran 1910-1936.
Current Status: Prosperity came to an end in the 1930s, however. Effects of the boll weevil blight of the 1920s and the Great Depression had dire effect on Carlton. The railroad was abandoned in 1934, and by 1940 the population had fallen to 400. The declining population led to the closing of the Carlton schools in 1969 and by 1980 the reported population had dropped to seventy, a figure it maintained through to the 2000 Census.
Remarks: Portions of Carlton’s ZIP code: 76436 extend into neighboring areas of Comanche and Erath Counties in Central Texas. Carlton has one large historic town cemetery located on the north side of Fm-2823 going from Carlton west towards the Comanche County line.

Carpenter, TX

County: Wilson
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Latitude / Longitude: 29° 22′ 42″ N, 98° 11′ 5″ W
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Comments: Carpenter is a small unincorporated community in western Wilson County, Texas, United States. It lies between the towns of La Vernia and St. Hedwig on Farm to Market Road 1346. The community is part of the San Antonio Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Remains: Carpenter was named for a local land owner and was founded in 1893 as a stop on the San Antonio and Gulf Railway. In the early 1900s the community had a cotton gin, store and post office with Joseph Winkler as the postmaster, but the post office was discontinued in 1928. The town steadily declined after the rail line was closed and today only a small cluster of homes remain.
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Carta Valley, TX

County: Edwards
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Latitude / Longitude: 29° 47′ 37″ N, 100° 40′ 29″ W
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Comments: Carta Valley is a small unincorporated community in southwestern Edwards County, Texas, United States, in the western part of the state. Carta Valley had a population of 12 in 2000. It is located on U.S. Highway 377 32 miles (50 km) southwest of Rocksprings, Texas.
Remains: The town is named after Ed Carta, an early settler. The town became populated in 1898. A post office was established in 1907, a year after W.A. Varga opened a store and became the postmaster. Some time before 1913, a local school was opened.
Current Status: The height of the town’s population was in the 1960s when the population reached an estimated 150. At that time, there were five businesses. The town currently has a population of 12. (2000).
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Carter, TX

County: Parker
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Casa Blanca, TX

County: Jim Wells
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Latitude / Longitude: 28° 0′ 3″ N, 97° 54′ 14″ W
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Comments: Casa Blanca was an unincorporated community two miles (3 km) southwest of Sandia and twenty miles (32 km) northeast of Alice in extreme northeastern Jim Wells County, Texas, United States.
Remains: The Casa Blanca or White House was part of a settlement established at the site around 1754 by Tomás Sánchez de la Barrera y Gallardo, captain of Laredo, who was ordered to find a suitable site for a new settlement. After surveying the country Sánchez selected a site on the banks of Peñitas Creek. A settlement was established there, and the White House was constructed of caliche blocks known as ciares. The house was built in the shape of a square with a courtyard in the center; the well in the courtyard also served as the end of a tunnel out of the building. Toward the end of the eighteenth century the house was used as a mission.
Current Status: The Wade Ranch was actually in operation from 1898 (Upon John Wade’s death in 1898, the land was divided among his family. Wallis inherited the land. Wallis and Lou Ella married in 1894.) until Lou Ella Wade’s death (96 years) in 1973. At that point it was broken up and most of the property became owned by numerous heirs through joint tenancy. The last heirs were bought out in about 2004, which meant that for the first time since about 1864, no Wade heir owned the property. Records from the ranch currently reside at Texas A&M – Kingsville and are only open by appointment.
Remarks: The first dam created was called Las Frutas in 1929. In 1945, the state attempted to eminent domain to dam more of the Nueces River which was fought until 1955 at which point the state prevailed and was able to dam the river to become the water supply for Corpus Christi and thus flooding and making unusable a little over 2,600 acres (11 km2) of the 10,000-acre (40 km2) Wade Ranch.

Casa Piedra, TX

County: Presidio
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Castolon, TX

County: Brewster
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Latitude / Longitude: 29°7’48″N 103°30’47″W
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Comments: Castolon, also known as La Harmonia Ranch and Campo Santa Helena, was a small community in southwestern Texas, located in what is now Big Bend National Park along the Rio Grande. The location was first settled in 1901 by Cipriano Hernandez, who farmed the area and built the original Castolon Store, now known as the Alvino House.
Remains: The area began to attract refugees from nearby Mexico who were fleeing the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The Castolon area was the site on a U.S. Army encampment, called Campo Santa Helena, to house units patrolling the Mexican–American border. However, by the time the camp was complete in 1920 the border was quiet and the camp buildings were never used by the Army. In 1921 the La Harmonia Company was established in the barracks, operating a trading post and farming cotton. The La Harmonia Company was established in 1918 by Howard Perry, who owned the Chisos Mining Company in Terlingua, in partnership with Wayne Cartledge. Cartledge and his son Eugene chose the name and managed the company. The La Harmonia Company lasted until 1961, when it was sold to the National Park Service. The store continues to be operated by a park concessioner.
Current Status: Castolon was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 6, 1974.
Remarks: Castolon is divided into two areas. “Old Castolon” comprises the Old Castolon Store, a cafe-residence and a shed. The Army Compound includes a barracks, now the Castolon Store, a recreation hall, latrine, two officers’ residences, a granary and tack room, and the Magdalena, Garlick and Alvino residences. The Magdalena and Garlick houses post-date the Army construction and are associated with La Harmonia Ranch, while the Alvino house pre-dates the Army. All of the buildings are built with adobe walls, and most are roofed with corrugated metal roofing. A few use traditional vigas, latillas and a soil roof covering.

Chalk Mountain, TX

County: Erath
Zip Code: 76649
Latitude / Longitude: 32°09’16″N 97°54’39″W
Elevation: 1,204 ft (367 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
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Comments: Chalk Mountain is a small unincorporated community in Erath County, Texas, United States. It lies along U.S. Route 67 near the Somervell County line, about 12 miles southwest of Glen Rose. In 2009 Chalk Mountain was the site of a meteorite hoax. United States Navy SEAL Sniper Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield were murdered at a shooting range near Chalk Mountain on February 2, 2013.
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Current Status: In May 2009 Manfred Cuntz, a professor of physics and the director of the astronomy program at the University of Texas at Arlington, was called in to investigate a supposed meteorite impact. Cuntz along with other experts, a Fox TV film crew and the property owner met at the site. They found a refrigerator-sized gray-white rock at the end of a trench. A few smashed trees were nearby, but no signs of burning could be seen. Arthur Ehlmann, a professor of geology at the Texas Christian University and an expert in meteoric research, chipped off a piece of the stone and pronounced it to be made of limestone, which was plentiful in the area. Generally, meteorites are not composed of limestone. Local newspapers, TV and the Texas Mutual UFO network sensationalized the story trying to explain how it could be a meteorite despite its composition, lack of burning as it would have had if it zipped through the atmosphere. A meteorite of this size would have “caused widespread devastation”, yet nothing of this sort occurred. Later on, Cuntz received an email that linked the property owner to being the owner of an earth-moving equipment company. His website mentioned that their equipment could move rock of any size. Cuntz made the Fox TV station aware of his conclusion that this meteorite impact was probably a hoax, and the TV station took the news clip off their website.
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Cheapside, TX

County: Gonzales
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Latitude / Longitude: 29°16’42″N 97°24’11″W
Elevation: 299 ft (91 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
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Comments: Cheapside is a ghost town in Gonzales County, Texas. It is located 21 mi (34 km) south of Gonzales. Once a thriving community and commercial center for cotton, only a church and the crumbling remnants of the former settlement remain.
Remains: The first settler was Thomas Baker, who built a log cabin in the area in 1857. The settlement was named after Cheapside Street in London, England, perhaps via Cheapside, Virginia. A post office was established in 1882.
Current Status: As well, during World War II, the war effort created work in the cities, and returning soldiers were less willing to return to small communities. With the rise in consumerism, “places like Cheapside…were casualties of an upwardly mobile society”. Cheapside’s school was consolidated with the Cuero Independent School District in 1949 due to low enrollment, and by 1960, the only remaining business in Cheapside was a small grocery store with a post office. It closed in 1989. The Victoria Advocate wrote in 2012 that in Cheapside there are “a few buildings teetering on collapse that become less and less visible through the trees and weeds, which have started to reclaim the abandoned town”.
Remarks: Some of the factors which led to Cheapside’s decline include a weakening in the price of cotton—a major commodity in the community—during the Great Depression. Soil in neighboring farmland had also lost its fertility due to over-cultivation. The gin closed during the 1940s, and most of the neighboring farmland reverted to open pasture.

Chinati, TX

County: Presidio
Zip Code: 79843
Latitude / Longitude: 29°49’27″N 104°36’21″W
Elevation: 2,694 ft (821 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
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Comments: Chinati is an unincorporated community in Presidio County, Texas, United States. It is named after the surrounding Chinati Mountain Range. The word “chinati” derives from the Apache word ch’íná’itíh, which means gate or mountain pass.
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Chinese Coal Mine, TX

County: Jeff Davis
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Comments: Chinese Coal Mine is a ghost town in Jeff Davis County (by some sources, Bandera County), Texas. It was named because the railroad tracks leading to the local coal mine were laid by Chinese workers. The railroad line was used only once to transport coal and was soon shut down due to a high amount of sulfur in the coal.
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Chispa, TX

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Cibolo Settlement, TX

Cincinnati, TX

Clairette, TX

Clairemont, TX

County: Kent
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Latitude / Longitude: 33°09’59″N 100°45’09″W
Elevation: 2,126 ft (648 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
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Comments: Clairemont is a ghost town in and the former county seat of Kent County, Texas, United States. It is at the intersection of U.S. Route 380 and Texas State Highway 208, 14 mi (23 km) southwest of Jayton and 43 mi (69 km) east of Post.
Remains: Clairemont was established in 1892 to coincide with the organization of Kent County with the understanding that it would serve as the county’s seat of government. The new town was located on land owned by local rancher R.L. Rhomberg, who named the new town after his niece, Claire Becker. In 1895 a sandstone courthouse and matching jail were constructed. By that time the town had several stores, a bank, a newspaper, and a hotel. Although the Stamford and Northwestern Railway had bypassed Clairemont to the east by 1909, the town continued to prosper. Cotton and cattle ranching dominated the economy, and oil later became important.
Current Status: Clairemont lies near the center of Kent County, and the estimated population as of the 2000 census was 15.
Remarks: By the 1930s the population exceeded 200. By the 1950s, however, the town had begun a steady decline and by 1954 had lost its title as county seat to nearby Jayton. The Clairemont courthouse burned shortly after the records were transferred to Jayton, but the bottom story was preserved as a community center. The remaining citizens soon began to move away, and the population dwindled to about 15 by the 2000s.

Clara, TX

Clareville, TX

Click, TX

County: Llano
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 30°33’48″N 98°34’26″W
Elevation: 1,043 ft (318 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
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Comments: Click is a ghost town in Llano County, Texas, on County Road 308, southeast of Llano and southwest of Kingsland. The community was named for settler Malachi Click. Many descendants of Malachi Click are buried in the Llano City Cemetery. Benjamin F. Lowe was appointed postmaster when Click got a post office in 1880. The post office was discontinued during World War II.
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Clinton, TX

County: DeWitt
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 33° 6′ 12″ N, 96° 14′ 9″ W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Clinton is a ghost town in DeWitt County, in the U.S. state of Texas.
Remains: Clinton was once the county seat of DeWitt County. A post office called Clinton was established in 1849, and remained in operation until it was discontinued in 1886.
Current Status:
Remarks:

Close City, TX

County: Garza
Zip Code: 79343
Latitude / Longitude: 33°12’39″N 101°29’14″W
Elevation: 2,933 ft (894 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established: 1906
Disestablished:
Comments: Close City is an unincorporated community in western Garza County, about 6.5 mi (10.5 km) west-northwest of Post, Texas. This small rural community lies on the high plains of the Llano Estacado in West Texas.
Remains: The rare motorist that happens to pass through the remote small town of Close City today may be unaware that, at the turn of the century, the town site was chosen as the original location of Post City, a model community and grand social experiment conceived by C. W. Post, an American breakfast cereal and foods manufacturer. In the early 1890s, Post developed a popular caffeine-free coffee substitute called Postum and later made a fortune on breakfast cereals such as Grape Nuts and Post Toasties. As Post’s wealth grew, his interests began to expand into other areas. One project that had always intrigued him was the creation of a planned community of model homes and industry. His success in the prepared foods industry provided the financial resources to make this dream a reality.
Current Status: The original town site was renamed Close City, named after Post’s son-in-law, E. B. Close (Edward Bennett Close), who married his daughter Marjorie Merriweather Post in 1905. Although some residents stayed, the town developed slowly and consequently remained a small rural community. Today, Close City is primarily a farming community and is surrounded by numerous sections of plowed land. The primary crop is cotton but lesser amounts of grain sorghum and winter wheat are also grown in the area. Crops are grown on a mixture of irrigated and dryland farms. Water for irrigation is pumped from the underlying Ogallala Aquifer and is applied using center pivot irrigation systems. The Ogallala Aquifer is quickly becoming depleted and, sometime in the future, all farms may have to revert to dryland agriculture.
Remarks: In 1909, Close City students attended school in a one-room wooden schoolhouse. In 1919, George Samson and Jimmie Napier built a new brick schoolhouse, which served the community well until 1965, when Close City School was consolidated with Post, Texas. The only paved road that passes through Close City is Farm to Market Road 399. Close City is 2 mi (3.2 km) north of U.S. Highway 380 and 3 mi (4.8 km) west of U.S. Highway 84. The BNSF Railway, which extends from Post to Lubbock, passes 5 mi (8.0 km) to the east.

Coker, TX

County: Bexar
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 29° 33′ 28.8″ N, 98° 29′ 27.6″ W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Coker was a community located in north central Bexar County, Texas (USA) now within the city limits of San Antonio, near Hill Country Village, along the present Loop 1604 between the San Antonio, Texas, streets of Nakoma Street, West Avenue, Bitters Road and US 281.
Remains: In the 1880s a Methodist circuit rider named Arthur Everett Rector visited the community about once a month; services lasted all day while horses, wagons, and oxen were tethered nearby. Mr. Rector once performed a wedding at the church and was paid $5 and a pig. The first wooden built church was constructed there in 1885. The people of the community made their living by farming. The present day rock church was constructed by the community members in 1937.
Current Status:
Remarks: The Coker Community was founded in 1841 by John Coker (1789–1851) on 1,920 acres (7.8 km2) of land he had been awarded for his service in the Texas revolutionary war. James Harrison Coker (1827–1892), son of Joseph Coker, John Coker’s brother, was the first teacher at the Coker School, and his daughter Sarah Jane Coker (1860–1930) was the midwife there. Sarah Jane was married to Zachary Taylor Autry who was a Texas Ranger and early settler of Northern Bexar County, Texas. A family member can be found under the name of Andie Coker, currently residing in Round Rock, Texas.

Coke, TX

Cold Springs, TX

Coles Settlement, TX

Co Line, TX

College Mound, TX

County: Kaufman
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 32°40’22″N 96°11’13″W
Elevation: 518 ft (158 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: College Mound is an unincorporated community in Kaufman County, located in the U.S. state of Texas. It is on the Wikipedia List of ghost towns in Texas.
Remains:
Current Status:
Remarks:

Coltharp, TX

Comyn, TX

County: Comanche
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 32° 4′ 23″ N, 98° 28′ 13″ W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Comyn is an unincorporated community located in Comanche County in Central Texas. Comyn is located in the east-northeastern part of the county along Farm-to-Market (FM) 1496 and the Fort Worth and Western Railroad.
Remains: The area was originally settled in the mid-1870s, and was originally named “Theney” for W. F. Matheney, for a man who owned a trading post. Comyn was renamed “Comyn” for M. T. Comyn, who was the construction foreman for the railroad around 1881 when the Texas Central line part of the historic Katy Railroad was built through the townsite on its way from the Waco area to Stamford, with a branch from De Leon to Cross Plains. In 1909, a post office was established in Comyn. The town also had a lumberyard, a blacksmith shop, a cotton gin, a number of stores and a Woodmen of the World lodge. In 1918, the Humble Pipe Line Company built a pipeline connecting Comyn with the Humble company’s terminal at Webster. A large school complex was built in Comyn in 1924. Decreasing oil production in West Texas led to Comyn’s decline. Low attendance forced the Comyn public school to close in 1952, and its post office was closed in the late 1950s. Today, Comyn has a Baptist church, a cemetery, numerous homes, and the Golden Peanut Company, which is still in operation. Numerous storage tanks can be seen along FM 1496 at the Golden Peanut Company’s plant, which were once used by Humble Pipe Line Company to store oil, but have since been converted to store peanuts. Comyn continues to retain its rail service.
Current Status: The former Texas Central Katy Railroad line is still in use by the Fort Worth and Western Railroad from Dublin to Gorman and is still known as the “Peanut Line”. Comyn’s population was 30 in 1974 and 27 in 1990. However, in 2000 the population of Comyn was reported to have grown to 40.
Remarks: In 1969, a historical marker was erected in Comyn. Here is the text taken from the marker: “During the rapid settlement of this area following the removal of the Indian threat, about 1875, a rural community developed here. Besides a few homes and a school, it had a trading post-store, operated by W. F. Matheney. His name, shortened to Theney for business purposes also came to designate the town. Among the pioneer families was that of B. F. Barnes, at nearby Jones Crossing, 1876. His great-grandson Ben Barnes, Lt. Gov. of Texas, was reared in Comyn-Theney. During 1881 the Texas Central Railroad was built through here and a depot established. M. T. Comyn, a railroad official, succeeded in having the town and depot named for him, but the school remained Theney. Soon the settlement could boast several general stores, a post office, drug store, blacksmith shop, lumber yard, cotton gin, cafe, barber shop, and a hall for the Woodmen of the World. In 1918, when Humble Pipeline Company began building a tank farm here to store oil from new West Texas fields, a tent city of several hundred sprang up. But when construction ceased in 1919, the townspeople moved away. Theney Consolidated School, formed in 1924, soon built a new plant and became an outstanding high school. Declining attendance caused it to close, 1952.”

Concrete, TX

County: Wilson
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 29° 14′ 18″ N, 97° 17′ 35″ W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Concrete is a ghost town in southwestern Guadalupe County, Texas, alongside the present Farm Road 775, approximately 2 miles (3 km) north of La Vernia 6 miles (10 km) south of New Berlin.
Remains: The community was originally called “Bethesda” but was later called “Concrete” because of the old rock church built in 1852 that once stood on the site and was also used as a school and meeting hall for the Bethesda Masonic lodge. The New Berlin road ran past the old rock church, and on Sundays the road was lined with ox carts carrying both whites and blacks to the church. The church was the site of many old-fashioned camp meetings with both whites and blacks attending.
Current Status: In the early 1860s, the growth of nearby La Vernia and New Berlin led to a decline in population. After the old rock church was damaged in a hurricane, it was decided to rebuild in nearby La Vernia where it still stands and is known as the Brahan lodge site of the oldest Masonic lodge in Texas.
Remarks: The community was founded by James Henry Newton, who owned a plantation on the north bank of Cibolo Creek. The lumber as well as other supplies to construct the buildings were hauled by slaves with ox teams from Port Lavaca. Lumber was so scarce that the homes of the first settlers were built of logs and the floors were made of flat stones. The land for the Concrete Cemetery which is all that presently remains on the site was donated as a public cemetery by James Newton in 1856, and the first recorded burial was of his brother Joel Wooton Newton on January 16, 1856. Concrete Cemetery is also the burial site of Claiborne Rector, who fought in the Texas Revolution.

Cora, TX

Crisp, TX

County: Ellis
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 32°23’53″N 96°34’52″W
Elevation: 472 ft (144 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Crisp is an unincorporated community in Ellis County, Texas, United States. It was the birthplace of country music star Ernest Tubb. It is located 21 miles (34 km) east of Waxahachie.
Remains: It was named for a Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Charles F. Crisp. Crisp started to use the name when the post office opened in 1892; inhabitants had started living there a few years prior to that. The town reached its peak in population in the 1920s. It stayed that way until the 1960s, and then, the population plummeted to just under 100. The post office was discontinued in 1954.
Established: 1892
Disestablished:
Current Status:
Remarks: A nearby brickyard produced for a time bricks stamped with the name of Crisp. As with those produced in the nearby towns of Ferris and Palmer, these bricks can still occasionally be found, especially in hands of brick collectors.

Cryer Creek, TX

Currey’s Creek, TX

County: Kendall
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude:
Elevation:
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Curry’s Creek was a settlement located 3 miles south of Kendalia in Kendall County, Texas. The settlement was founded in 1850. In the 1850s Currey’s Creek had a population of 100 or more. Judge Samuel B. Patton moved to Currey’s Creek in 1847 when the area was still in Blanco County.
Remains:
Current Status:
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Curry, TX

Cuthbert, TX

County: Mitchell
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 32°28’53″N 101°01’55″W
Elevation: 2,251 ft (686 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established: 1890
Disestablished:
Comments: Cuthbert is a ghost town in Mitchell County, Texas, United States. Cuthbert was established in 1890 when the founder D. T. Bozeman built a wagonyard and store. The community and post office were named for Thomas Cuthbertson, a family friend of the Bozemans. By the early 1920s, Cuthbert had a church, two stores, a blacksmith shop, a cotton gin, telephone office, and a school.
Remains:
Current Status: Today, only a cemetery and a few scattered farms remain.
Remarks:

Caddo, TX