Ghost Towns of Texas (J-L)

County: Guadalupe
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Jermyn, TX

County: Jack
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Latitude / Longitude: 33°15’51″N 98°23’18″W
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Comments: Jermyn is an unincorporated community in Jack County, Texas, United States. It lies in the far western corner of the county near the Young County line. As of the 2000 Census, its population was estimated at 75.
Remains: Jermyn was founded in 1902; relatively recently by rural Texas standards. It was also among the last new settlements in Jack County. Named for the son of Scranton, Pennsylvania coal magnate Joseph Jermyn, the community was established as headquarters for local mining. The Gulf, Texas and Western Railroad reached Jermyn in 1909, and by the 1920s the town possessed a school, a church, a bank, several businesses and an estimated population of 213. As the use of coal subsided in favor of oil, Jermyn developed into an agricultural center for local ranchers and continued to thrive into the 1960s. The population high-water mark was reached in 1968, when Jermyn was reportedly home to 1,066 residents.
Current Status: In the 1970s, however, the community began a steep decline and by 1990 the population had fallen to 75, a number it maintained through to the 2000 Census.
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Jewel, TX

County: Eastland
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Jimkurn, TX

County: Stephens
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Jim Town, TX

County: Dallas
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Joinerville, TX

County: Rusk
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Latitude / Longitude: 32°10’41″N 94°54’03″W
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Comments: Joinerville is an unincorporated community in East Texas. It is located in western Rusk County, Texas, United States. Joinerville is seven miles west of the City of Henderson, Texas. It was originally called Cyril, and then Miller or Miller Schoolhouse until 1930, when the name was officially changed to “Joinerville” to honor a prominent oilman who discovered the world’s largest oilfield (the East Texas Oil Field) just a couple of miles away. The community is also located near the site of a former Cherokee Indian village.
Remains: During the oil-boom years that followed 1930, men and families flocked to East Texas to find work in the oilfields and Joinerville’s population shot up to 1,500. During the 1930s, the community that had been nothing more than a sleepy farm town, now had thirty-five businesses and a brand new post office (established in 1931 with Esther L. Berry as the first postmistress). However, by 1940, new oil production had already peaked and the town’s population quickly dropped to just 500. Over the decade that followed, the number of residents continued its downward spiral to 350 and the number of reported businesses dropped to just four. After a slight upswing during the 1950s and 1960s, the population again fell greatly. From 1980 through 2000, Joinerville reported just 140 residents and four businesses.
Current Status: Located in Joinerville, Texas, the Gaston Museum presents life in the East Texas Oil Field from the 1930s through 1960’s. The museum’s exhibit building, designed by Charles Croft, was dedicated and occupied in June, 2005. With the only known surviving Tent House, museum visitors may truly step back in time and see how people lived during the 1930 oil boom. The Gaston Museum has memorabilia from the boom era, family history, antique radio display with original equipment, original equipment from 1930’s radio repair shop, Gaston School, businesses, churches, and honors local veterans with a Wall Of Honor.
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Jonesboro, TX

County: Coryell/Hamilton
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Latitude / Longitude: 31°36’53″N 97°52’36″W
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Comments: Jonesboro is an unincorporated community in Coryell and Hamilton counties in Central Texas. The Coryell County portion of the community is part of the Killeen–Temple–Fort Hood Metropolitan Statistical Area. The United States Postal Service operates the Jonesboro Post Office.
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Jud, TX

County: Haskell
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Latitude / Longitude: 33° 16′ 56.35″ N, 99° 57′ 30.35″ W
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Comments: Jud is a ghost town in extreme western Haskell County, Texas, United States. It lies on FM 617, 7 miles (11 km) west of Rochester. The Double Mountain Fork and Salt Fork Brazos River merge about 3 miles (4.8 km) west of present-day Jud to form the Brazos River.
Remains: Jud is a farming community. Each summer, a music festival named JUD FEST takes place with performances by local and regional Texas country artists and a meat cookoff.
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Juno, TX

County: Val Verde
Zip Code: 78840
Latitude / Longitude: 30°9’7″N 101°6’55″W
Elevation: 1,706 ft (520 m)
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Comments: Juno is a small unincorporated community in Val Verde County, Texas, United States, in the southwestern part of the state.
Remains: According to legend, a restaurant in the town operated by Henry Stein served only frijoles (beans). When asked what was on the menu, the reply would be “you know”, which sounds like “Juno”.
Current Status: The Edmondson family built the original general store. Henry Stein operated a cafe that gave the town its name of Juno as the answer of “Ju know” (“you know”) was given as the answer when patrons inquired about the menu offerings. A hotel and a land office were opened in the first quarter of the 20th century. The community had telephone and stage service. The Cadena family ran the blacksmith shop, and George Deaton drove the stage. At its peak in 1964, the town had a population of 80. The town had one business for most years starting in 1931 until the last business closed in 1984.
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Juniper, TX

County: Coke
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Justiceburg, TX

County: Garza
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Latitude / Longitude: 33°2’31″N 101°12’11″W
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Comments: Justiceburg is an unincorporated community in Garza County, Texas, United States. It is located along the Double Mountain Fork Brazos River, 15 miles southeast of the county seat, Post.
Remains: Justiceburg is located at 33°02’29″N 101°12’12″W (33.042072, -101.202992), in southeastern Garza County. It is approximately 55 miles to the southeast of central Lubbock and 110 miles northwest of Abilene.
Current Status: The town once had a functioning schoolhouse and railroad depot; these have since been abandoned, as have several homes. The area of town to the east of U.S. Route 84 contains the town’s church; the area to the west has most of the buildings, inhabited or otherwise. Justiceburg has been featured in the book “More Ghost Towns of Texas” by T. Lindsay Baker. The dereliction of many of the buildings gives Justiceburg a ghost town feel, despite the fact that some still live there. Former Major League Baseball player Norm Cash was born in Justiceburg.
Remarks: In 1910, a rancher named Jefferson Davis Justice then bought the land, and granted the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad right of way. LeForrest became Justiceburg in honor of this development; the railroad was then completed in 1911. Justiceburg has remained a small village throughout its history, with the population fluctuating between 25 and 76; in the 1980s, many of these residents were reportedly descendants of Jefferson Davis Justice.

Kellyville, TX

County: Marion
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Kelm, TX

County: Navarro
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Kelsey, TX

County: Upshur
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Latitude / Longitude: 32° 43′ 54″ N, 95° 2′ 59″ W
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Comments: Kelsey is an unincorporated area in Upshur County, Texas, United States that was the longest-lasting settlement founded by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the state. Now a ghost town, it has been called the “mother colony” of Latter-day Saint colonies in Texas.
Remains: The origins of Kelsey go back to 1898. John Edgar—who had tried to settle in Mesa, Arizona, but had not succeeded—settled near Hopewell in Upshur County. In 1898, Edgar purchased land in what would become Kelsey. By 1901, there were nine Latter-day Saint families in Kelsey. On August 4, 1901 a Sunday School of the church was organized at Kelsey. This same year, James G. Duffin, president of the Southwest States Mission of the church, received approval from the First Presidency for the building up of this settlement. In 1902, Abraham O. Woodruff and Duffin laid out the townsite for Kelsey.
Current Status: Kelsey was a stop on the Marshall and East Texas Railroad. The railroad built a branch line to Kelsey to facilitate the loading of such products as strawberries, cantaloupes and corn that were grown in the community. During the 1930s, Kelsey farmers provided food to the oil workers in Kilgore and Gladewater, Texas. In 1943, the school in Kelsey was closed and after that students were bussed to Gilmer, Texas. In 1951, a new church was built in Kelsey.
Remarks: A post office was established at Kelsey in 1902. By 1906, Kelsey had about 400 inhabitants. In 1907, the Kelsey School District was formed. In 1911, a two-story brick schoolhouse was built. The first gymnasium in East Texas, named Bennion Hall after mission president Samuel O. Bennion, was completed at Kelsey in 1929. By 1910 the population had risen to 527. In 1923, the population peaked at 750. Families gathered to Kelsey from throughout the southern United States and even on rare occasions from other parts of the United States.

Kelso, TX

County: Deaf Smith
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Kent, TX

County: Culberson
Zip Code: 79855
Latitude / Longitude: 31°04’09″N 104°13’02″W
Elevation: 4,206 ft (1,282 m)
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Comments: Kent is an unincorporated community in Culberson County, Texas, United States. It lies just north of Interstate 10 at Exit 176, ten miles west of the beginning of Interstate 20 and four miles west of the eastern Culberson County boundary. It is sandwiched between the railroad, immediately to its north, and the interstate. As of 2005, its composition was a population estimated at 60 residents and three small businesses – a general store, a service station and a post office, as well as ruins of a public school and other businesses which flourished until the 1960s.
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Current Status: As of 2014, only the general store remained in operation; the nearest service station is in Plateau, 18 miles west along the Interstate. It therefore has had no medical, pharmaceutical, public educational, legal, police, fire or other governmental services beyond the post office within its boundaries, the nearest source of these being in Van Horn, 37 miles west. There are also no motels, hotels or trailer/RV parks, restaurants or other tourist services. The surrounding county area which it serves contains semi-desert land supporting large cattle ranches.
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Kicaster, TX

County: Wilson
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Latitude / Longitude: 29° 18′ 37″ N, 98° 12′ 31″ W
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Comments: Kicaster is an unincorporated community in northwestern Wilson County, Texas, United States. It lies along Farm to Market Road 3432 twelve miles northwest of Floresville. The community was founded near the Kicaster Creek soon after the Civil War. A one-room school was in operation by 1896 with an enrollment of forty-nine students. By the 1930s Kicaster had a school a church, a graveyard and a number of houses. Several stores were located in the small community. After World War II the school was closed, and by the early 1980s only a cemetery, a small store called Kicaster Corner and a few scattered dwellings remained. Kicaster Creek, a tributary of the San Antonio River, rises in the area.
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Kimball, TX

County: Bosque
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Kingsmill, TX

County: Gray
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Kirk, TX

County: Bexar
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Kirkland, TX

County: Childress
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Latitude / Longitude: 34° 22′ 45″ N, 100° 3′ 41″ W
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Comments: Kirkland is a ghost town in southeastern Childress County, Texas, near US-287 and 8 miles Southeast of the modern city of Childress, Texas. The population was 44 the last time the official state map was published.
Remains: The first townsite of Kirkland was actually in Hardeman county along a stage coach line from Wichita Falls to Mobeetie, but with the arrival of the Fort Worth & Denver City railroad in 1887, the settlement moved to its present location. At its previous location, it had “an inn, two saloons and a general store.”
Current Status: Located approximately half a mile from the Kirkland town site, the Kirkland cemetery is two long wooded savannahs of marble headstones along a dirt road, containing the last earthly remains of citizens all the way back to 1908. Why there are no burials before 1908, even though the present town site had been inhabited since the 1880s, is a mystery. 725 well-marked gravestones stand on this site, of which 45 belong to veterans, including 7 Confederate veterans of the Civil War and 22 WW2 veterans.
Remarks: Settler John Quincy Adams, along whose land the FW&D tracks were laid, platted a well-gridded townsite that soon became home to a mercantile store, a post office and a stockyard serving an ever increasing number of farmers. The panic of 1893 was a setback to Kirkland, but by 1900 growth resumed, and by 1905 Crone Webster Furr had established a mercantile store that became the beginnings of the Furr’s Groceries and Cafeterias corporation. Roy Furr worked those stores as a boy, and as a man would expand the business in to an empire. By the 1920s, “the Biggest Little City in Texas” had “three churches, a three-room school, and several businesses, including three grocery stores, two lumber yards, two barber shops, five filling stations, three hardware stores, and a bank”.

Kittie aka Kittie West, TX

County: Live Oak
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Knight, TX

County: Polk
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Knoxville, TX

County: Cherokee
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Kosciusko, TX

County: Wilson
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La Casa, TX

County: Stephens
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Latitude / Longitude: 32° 36′ 3″ N, 98° 41′ 22″ W
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Comments: La Casa was a small community in southeast Stephens County, Texas, United States, around 1880. Today it is considered a ghost town.
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Lajitas, TX

County: Brewster
Zip Code: 79852
Latitude / Longitude: 29°15’42″N 103°46’36″W
Elevation: 2,342 ft (714 m)
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Comments: Lajitas is an unincorporated community in Brewster County, Texas, United States, in proximity to the Big Bend National Park.
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La Lomita, TX

County: Hidalgo
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Langtry, TX

County: Val Verde
Zip Code: 78871
Latitude / Longitude: 29°48’31″N 101°33’31″W
Elevation: 1,289 ft (393 m)
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Comments: Langtry is an unincorporated community in Val Verde County, Texas, United States. The community is notable as the place where Judge Roy Bean, the “Law West of the Pecos”, had his saloon and practiced law.
Remains: Langtry was originally established in 1882 by the Southern Pacific Railroad as a grading camp called “Eagle Nest.” It was later renamed for George Langtry, an engineer and foreman who supervised the immigrant Chinese work crews building the railroad in the area.
Current Status: By the 1970s the population dipped as low as 40. Tourism to the Judge Roy Bean Visitor Center continues to keep the town alive.
Remarks: In 1884 the town was authorized a post office. In 1892 it had a general store, a railroad depot, and two saloons. Langtry began to decline after the highway was moved slightly north in the early 1900s for a more direct east-west route. Once bypassed, the town’s businesses lost revenue and jobs. When in the 1920s Southern Pacific moved its facilities away, more jobs were lost and the town population dwindled to 50.

La Plata, TX

County: Presidio
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La Reunion, TX

County: Dallas
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Latitude / Longitude: 32°45’33.22″N 96°51’24.8″W
Elevation: 429 ft (131 m)
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Established: 1855
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Comments: La Réunion was a utopian socialist community formed in 1855 by French, Belgian, and Swiss colonists on the south bank of the Trinity River in central Dallas County, Texas (US). The colony site is a short distance north of Interstate 30 near downtown Dallas. The founder of the community, Victor Prosper Considerant, was a French democratic socialist who directed an international movement based on Fourierism, a set of economic, political, and social beliefs advocated by French philosopher François Marie Charles Fourier. Fourierism subsequently became known as a form of utopian socialism.
Remains: Initially, plans for the colony were loosely structured by design as it was Considerant’s intent to make it a “communal experiment administered by a system of direct democracy.” The crux of the plan was to allow participants to share in profits derived from capital investments and the amount and quality of labor performed. La Réunion existed for only eighteen months with its demise attributable to financial insolvency, a shortage of skilled participants, inclement weather, inability to succeed at farming, and rising costs. On January 28, 1857, Allyre Bureau, one of the society leaders, gave formal notice of the colony’s dissolution. By 1860, what remained was incorporated into the expanding city of Dallas.
Current Status: The last La Réunion house collapsed in the 1930s, and its ruins are now obscured by thick vegetation. Reunion Tower, a Dallas landmark, was named after the colony and is located a few miles east of where La Réunion once existed.
Remarks: Shortly before the demise of La Réunion, botanist and pharmacist Jacob Boll arrived and taught Julien Reverchon. The latter man became celebrated in his own right as a professor of botany at Baylor University College of Medicine and Pharmacy in Dallas. The first brewery and butcher shops in Dallas were established by former colonists from La Réunion; Maxime Guillot opened a carriage factory that operated for 50 years.

Larissa, TX

County: Cherokee
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Latitude / Longitude: 32°3’31″N 95°19’29″W
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Comments: Larissa is a rural community and abandoned townsite in northwestern Cherokee County, Texas, United States. Larissa lies west of US Hiway 69, off Farm Road 855 and approximately halfway between Jacksonville and Bullard. Larissa is about 20 miles (32 km) northwest of the county seat of Rusk.
Remains: Larissa was originally settled by the Killough, Wood, and Williams families. Larissa was the scene of the Killough Massacre, possibly the worst single Indian incident in the history of east Texas. The settlers had moved there from Talladega County, Alabama, in 1837. Unaware, apparently, that the land made available to them was hotly disputed by the Cherokee Indians who lived in the area, Isaac Killough and his homesteaders began building homes and clearing land for crops. Only a year before, however, the area surrounding their settlement had been set aside to the Cherokee under a treaty negotiated and signed by Sam Houston and John Forbes. When the Senate of the Republic of Texas refused to ratify the treaty and then in fact nullified it, the Cherokee, who already thought they had conceded enough, became extremely agitated.
Current Status: The Civil War sapped much of the vitality of the community and decimated enrollment at Larissa College, forcing it to close for the duration. Reconstruction took its toll as well. The college resumed operations after the war, but lacking students and faculty, it never recovered. By 1866 the Presbyterian Synod had withdrawn financial support, consolidating its efforts at Trinity University, which opened at Tehuacana in 1869.
Remarks: As of 1990, little remained at the town-site to suggest Larissa had ever been there, much less of the promise it seemed to offer. There is an historical marker at the site of the college, placed there in 1936 on the occasion of the Texas Centennial. Another monument stands at the site of the Killough Massacre, and there are three cemeteries where are interred many founders of the town, including members of the Killough and McKee families. Otherwise, the homes and outbuildings of a typical farming community dot the landscape, all having little connection with what was once there.

Las Cabras, TX

Las Islas, TX

Laurelia, TX

County: Polk
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Comments: Laurelia is a ghost town in central Polk County, Texas, United States. The town was founded after Judge Claiborne Holshausen built a sawmill in 1880. The location grew into a town and was named for the laurel which dominatated the area.
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Current Status: The mill remained the nucleus of the town, and after the sawmill was burnt in 1913, the town evaporated.
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League Four, TX

County: Crosby
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Leesville, TX

County: Gonzales
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Latitude / Longitude: 29°24’25″N 97°44’42″W
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Comments: Leesville is an unincorporated community in Gonzales County, Texas, United States. Leesville is located at 29°24’25″N 97°44’42″W (29.4069038, -97.7449990). It is situated along State Highway 80 in southwestern Gonzales County, approximately 26 miles west of Gonzales and 19 miles south of Luling.
Remains: Although it is unincorporated, Leesville has a post office with the zip code of 78122.
Current Status: According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had an estimated population 150 in 2000.
Remarks: Public education in the community of Leesville is provided by the Nixon-Smiley Consolidated Independent School District.

Lemonville, TX

County: Orange
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Latitude / Longitude: 30° 12′ 52″ N, 93° 50′ 45″ W
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Comments: Lemonville is a ghost town that was the site of the Lemon Lumber Company in northern Orange County, Texas, United States, in the southeastern part of the state. Sometimes referred to as Lemon, it is located north of Orange and just east of Mauriceville. The town plat was filed in 1901 by a man named William Manuel, with the location chosen for its proximity to the tracks of the Kansas City Southern Railroad. In 1902, when the population was about 300, a post office was established, with Cornelius P. Ryan as first postmaster.
Remains: In 1900 the mill had a capacity of 30,000 feet per day. The lumber baron Alexander Gilmer purchased the mill in 1904, and by the following year production was increased to 100,000 feet per day with the addition of new equipment. After Gilmer’s death in 1906, the sawmills at Lemonville were owned and operated by others, including the Miller-Link and Peavy-Moore lumber companies.
Current Status: As the nearby lumber eventually became depleted, and as lumber prices fell, the operators eventually abandoned the site. The Lemonville post office was officially closed in 1928.
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Levita, TX

County: Coryell
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Lobo, TX

County: Culberson
Zip Code: 77591
Latitude / Longitude: 30°48’51″N 104°45’11″W
Elevation: 4,010 ft (1,222 m)
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Comments: Lobo is a ghost town in Culberson County, Texas, United States that was abandoned in 1991. Lobo is located in the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas, between the Van Horn Mountains and Wylie Mountains in southern Culberson County. It is situated along U.S. Highway 90, approximately 12 miles (19 km) south of Van Horn and 24 miles (39 km) west of Valentine.
Remains: The community’s history dates back to the mid-19th century when a bolson aquifer named “Van Horn Wells” was discovered in the area. These wells were the only known water sources within a radius of 100 miles (160 km). The springs became a stop on the San Antonio-El Paso Road, followed by emigrants travelling to the West. Later followed by the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line and Butterfield Overland Mail and other mail routes from 1857 until the railroads arrived.
Current Status: Although business was initially good, the sale of alcoholic beverages caused an increase in crime. The store was destroyed by fire in 1976. In 1988, Christ placed the community on the market for $60,000. By 1991, with no purchaser and faced with personal problems, Christ abandoned his effort to save Lobo. It became a modern ghost town with limited water and an annual rainfall of around 13.2 inches (340 mm) per year. On November 5, 2001, three residents from Frankfurt, Germany purchased Lobo. Their plans included fixing up dilapidated buildings and holding local arts and music festivals. The Desert Dust Cinema festival was held in Lobo in 2011, 2012, and 2016.
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Locker, TX

County: San Saba
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Lodi, TX

County: Wilson
Zip Code: 75564
Latitude / Longitude: 32°52’34″N 94°16’47″W
Elevation: 253 ft (77 m)
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Comments: Lodi is an unincorporated community in northern Marion County, Texas, United States. Its elevation is 253 feet (77 m). Although it is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 75564. The only business in Lodi, Texas is Lodi Drilling & Service Company Inc. It owes its name to the Italian city of Lodi.
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Loire, TX

Loma Vista, TX

County: Wilson
Zip Code: 78584
Latitude / Longitude: 26°25’1″N 98°58’53″W
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Comments: Loma Vista is a census-designated place (CDP) in Starr County, Texas, United States.
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Current Status: It is a new CDP formed from part of the North Escobares CDP prior to the 2010 census with a population of 160.
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Lone Oak, TX

County: Bexar
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Latitude / Longitude: 29° 22′ 1″ N, 98° 14′ 41″ W
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Comments: Lone Oak is a small Texas community located at the intersection of US 87 and Loop 1604 in eastern Bexar County, Texas, near the town of St. Hedwig.
Remains: Lone Oak was named for the large Live Oak Tree which once occupied the center of the town. In the early 1970s this tree died and was removed. The community now has a feed store, restaurants, Lone Oak Grocery, and several convenience stores. G. M. Smith moved his family from San Antonio out on the Old La Vernia Hwy., what is now Lone Oak, in the mid 1920s. Mr. Smith rented a building for $10 a month and made living quarters in the back and opened a store in the front. His business grew large enough that he later built a store and house on the corner while renting a house across Hwy 87. The store was named G M SMITH but they began to call the area Lone Oak because of the large tree. Mr. Smith was also a deputy sheriff and was credited for stopping two highway workers from crossing the Mexico Border with Spanish Gold that they had discovered while working on Highway 87. The family continued living there until the early 1940s. Their two children went to Adken and Sawyer schools but graduate from Brackenridge High School which was 18 miles away. In the mid 1940s Mr. Smith and his wife bought Barbee Hatchery in Yorktown, Texas and ran a successful poultry business until the last 1970’s.
Current Status: Several scenes of the 1974 Feature film The Sugarland Express directed by Steven Spielberg were filmed in Lone Oak. The scene where they stop at an old country store was filmed at the Lone Oak Grocery store. The scene where the news van runs off the road into the water was filmed along Loop 1604 a few miles south of Lone Oak. The character played by actress Goldie Hawn was said in the movie to come from the nearby town of Sayers, Texas. The town named “Rodrigo” in the movie is actually nearby Floresville, Texas.
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Longfellow, TX

County: Pecos
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Lookout Valley, TX

Los Ojuelos, TX

County: Webb
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 27°31’28″N 99°29’26″W
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Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established: 1810
Disestablished:
Comments: Los Ojuelos is a ghost town near Mirando City in the southeastern part of Webb County, Texas, United States. Before its establishment, Indians camped near the only dependable water source in the semiarid area. The local springs attracted Eugenio Gutiérrez in 1810 and attempted to settle in the area. Frequent Indian attacks forced Gutiérrez to abandon the site. in 1835, Eugenio’s son returned to the site and tried to resettle the area but Indian attacks drove him back. In 1850, a company of Texas Rangers were stationed on the site to protect the trade route Laredo, Texas – Corpus Christi, Texas. In 1857, José María Guerra, grandson of Eugenio Gutiérrez and an ancestor of Laredo businessman Joe A. Guerra, built an irrigation system and a wall around Los Ojuelos to protect from Indian attacks.
Remains: The National Register of Historic Places added the Los Ojuelos (#76002084) to its registered historic districts in 1976. Its historic significance includes information potential and its 1850-1874, 1875-1899 mission Spanish Revival architecture and engineering. Los Ojuelos main structures of significance are a Religious Structure, School, and a Specialty Store.
Current Status: By 1860, Los Ojuelos population grew to 400. In 1855 the Texas-Mexican railroad bypassed the town by a few miles. In 1904 the population declined to 174. In 1920 oil was found nearby, but Mirando City was established. The oil boom helped Los Ojuelos grow but in 1950 drilling for oil stopped. Today, Los Ojuelos remains a ghost town.
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Louetta, TX

County: Harris
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Latitude / Longitude: 30° 0′ 24″ N, 95° 33′ 40″ W
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Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
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Comments: Louetta is an unincorporated community in Harris County, Texas, United States that used to be a distinct community.
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Current Status: The town was dissolved in 1946.
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Lowell, TX

County: Erath
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Loyal Valley, TX

County: Mason
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 30°34’33″N 99°00’28″W
Elevation: 1,522 ft (464 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
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Comments: Loyal Valley is an unincorporated farming and ranching community, established in 1858, and is 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Cherry Spring in the southeastern corner of Mason County, in the U.S. state of Texas. The community is located near Cold Spring Creek, which runs east for 7.5 miles (12.1 km) to its mouth on Marschall Creek in Llano County, just west of Loyal Valley. The community is located on the old Pinta Trail.
Remains: Loyal Valley was settled in 1858 by German immigrants from Fredericksburg, including Henry and Christian Keyser, John Kidd, and a Mr. Gertsdorff. It was also a stagecoach stop on the route between San Antonio and the western forts. The community received a post office in 1868, and Solomon Wright was the first postmaster.
Current Status: Current population is 50.
Remarks: John O. Meusebach moved to Loyal Valley after the New Braunfels tornado of September 12, 1869 destroyed his home there. According to Meusebach’s granddaughter Irene Marschall King, he named the area for his personal loyalty to the Union that he had maintained during the American Civil War. He operated a general store and stage stop. Meusebach was appointed justice of the peace, notary public and served as the community’s second postmaster in 1873. His daughter Lucy Meusebach Marschall was postmaster in January 1887, and his wife Agnes became postmaster in August 1887.

Luckenbach, TX

County: Gillespie
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 30° 10′ 53.47″ N, 98° 45′ 25.96″ W
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Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
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Comments: Luckenbach (/’lu”k”nb”k/ LOO-kin-bock) is an unincorporated community thirteen miles (19 km) from Fredericksburg in southeastern Gillespie County, Texas, United States, part of the Texas Hill Country. Luckenbach is known as a venue for country music.
Remains: It consists of 9.142 acres (37,000 m2) between South Grape Creek (a tributary of the Pedernales River) and Snail Creek, just south of U.S. Highway 290 on the south side of Ranch to Market Road 1376. This location is roughly 50 miles (80 km) north of San Antonio and 69 miles (111 km) west of Austin. The Luckenbach website lists “412 Luckenbach Town Loop, Fredericksburg, TX 78624” as the physical address for GPS navigation.
Current Status: Today Luckenbach maintains a ghost-town feel with its small population and strong western aesthetic. One of its two main buildings houses the remnants of a post office, a working saloon, and a general store. The other is the dance hall. The post office was closed on April 30, 1971 and its zip code (78647) was retired. The general store remains active as a souvenir shop where visitors can purchase a variety of items, including merchandise featuring the town’s motto “Everybody’s Somebody in Luckenbach”. include postcards, T-shirts, sarcastic and humorous signs, and the local newspaper, the 8-page monthly Luckenbach Moon.
Remarks: Its oldest building is a combination general store and saloon reputedly opened in 1849 (1886 is more likely, based on land improvement records of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission) by Minna Engel, whose father was an itinerant minister from Germany. The community, first named Grape Creek (or more likely a poor transliteration in the records of ‘Gap Creek’, as Luckenbach comes from German ‘lucken’ = gap & ‘bach’ = stream), was later named after Engel’s husband, Carl Albert Luckenbach, who was then her fiancé. They would later move to another town which became Albert, Texas. Luckenbach was first established as a community trading post, one of a few that never broke a peace treaty with the Comanche Indians, with whom they traded.

Luxello, TX

Lyra, TX

County: Palo Pinto
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Lytton Springs, TX

County: Caldwell
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 30°00’17″N 97°36’45″W
Elevation: 614 ft (187 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
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Comments: Lytton Springs is an unincorporated community in northeastern Caldwell County, Texas, United States. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had a population of 500 in 2000. It is located within the Greater Austin metropolitan area.
Remains: The community was originally called Albade in the 1850’s when it first began to be settled. It’s post office was called Albade and was established in 1859. It was viewed as somewhat scattered. The nearby Lytton Springs caused the community to be called this in the early 1860’s, and was officially changed to that name in 1888. There was a cotton gin that was powered by steam, a Baptist church, and a general store in the mid-1880’s. Most of the community’s early settlers raised livestock. Ranching gave way to cotton in the 1900’s, but it was revived in 1930 as an important economic value. Oil was discovered in the community in 1925, but there were only a few wells producing it in the 1940’s. The post office closed in 1958, and mail was sent to the community from Dale. In the 1989 county highway map, there were three churches, two cemeteries, and only one business in Lytton Springs. The community had 125 inhabitants in the mid-1880’s. It then grew to 300 by the 1890’s.
Current Status: There were 131 people living in the community in 1900, and grew to 200 by the 1920’s. It fell to 116 by the 1960’s. It then had 76 inhabitants in the early 1970’s, and stayed at that number through 1990. The population then grew dramatically to 500 in 2000.
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Jakes Colony, TX