RURAL TEXAS: Almost Empty Towns With High Poverty and Near Worthless Homes

all right everyone I am in rural Texas let me show you on the map you see the blue dot so I'm north of Abilene you can see Dallas Fort Worth to the east Lubbock to the west and North a bit Waco over there South East I am in the town of looters I've already uh done a drive-through this is a forlorn place I don't know how else to describe it um in 1950 there were 750 people here today there are a little over 200. today is Sunday it's uh February 5th so we're in the first week of February two in the afternoon this is downtown looters that I'm driving into this beautiful day 75 degrees here in Texas let me get a look at this downtown um let's see I'll tell you a few of the numbers as I drive through here median age is 49. they're are the 55 of the population are females 45 are males 15 of the women who live here are widows uh that appears to be City Hall I expect to see a lot of um abandoned infrastructure buildings and homes given the population loss there's a house being taken by Nature let's see that per capita income here eighteen thousand seven hundred it's about 360 a week cool right off the bat there's the cat it's always good to get the cat right off the bat and right by this church too yeah see it there he is running off Church of Christ that is a healthy looking cat too anyway uh let me see let me get turned around here because the sun's in the wrong place for you to see well all right I'm coming back out on the Main Street there's Main Street the only car I've seen in a while just went by yeah exactly what I expected to see a lot of this let's see um some other numbers poverty levels 22.6 I'm not gonna lie that is better than I thought it would be here children 17 and under 5 percent live at or below poverty that's a bit of a surprise to as well folks 65 and older 19 percent live in poverty but with those numbers said uh here's the truly shocking number um median home value in this town as I show you this home right here that's probably abandoned anyway median home value in this town seventeen thousand five hundred that is the lowest I've ever seen by far I mean I've seen some in the 40s but median home value here is under twenty thousand dollars that's less than honestly uh just a so-so used car astonishing here's the race numbers 78 White 14 Hispanic eight percent mixed which I'm guessing is Hispanic and white mixed because there are zero black people zero Asians and zero Native Americans the numbers there look at this [Music] and check out this uh Cactus you can tell we're near in the desert of Texas I guess this is just a what a big junkyard do you think a lot of stuff piled up here uh let's see cost of living is 25 percent lower than the rest of the country I'm sure that's driven by the very low home values I say that rock house that's the kind of house that will last forever crime is uh well the number that was listed was seven per 1000 that's about twice higher than the US average the town this small what are you looking at one maybe two crimes a year if that you guys asked me to show you grocery stores and gas stations and gas prices none of those or neither one of those two things are here I've already driven around there's no store there's not even a Dollar General here gonna say surely nobody is living in that there's a car in front of it but the roofs caved in um yeah this is I hope uh nobody takes offense but this is the most rundown place I've ever seen and this is just the first town we've got three more that look like this coming up it's crazy making my way back into downtown um let's see if I can point the camera at the buildings here the way the Sun is it might be hard to see let me see what it looks like yeah you can see the storefronts just just Glass Broken Out hardware store um wow it's insane got a big junkyard here though foreign up here I'm not sure what it was I'm sure somebody can fill in I can see it right here the source of uh Commerce and revenue at one time I'm sure sets here empty now uh let's see I'd said there wasn't a store or gas station but it looks like there's something right here I just drove by it let's see if I can get a look at it I don't know if there's any gas there there's definitely a store though so there's some place you can get some stuff here in town yeah ice cold beer and uh other things it looks like a little mini Ranch going here there's a donkey there too but yeah you just drive down this Main Road here and you just uh look at all this everything's just falling apart it's like this everywhere in this town I've never seen anything like it I'm I'm not gonna lie I'm astonished wow okay well I'm driving out of town now so I'm just going to keep going uh head to the next town all right everyone I've just arrived at the town of Moran I am driving into downtown really rough roads uh this town in 1920 had over a thousand people today there's about 160. so it is fading fast into Ghost Town territory um median age here is 56. so it is uh an older town getting older uh females make up 57 percent of the population males 43 I didn't get the uh Widow numbers there's a gas station right there I don't know if that's open or not doesn't look like it just uh eyeballing everything um yeah it looks like that was a gas station at one time too and it is uh gone now looks like they do have a church I don't know if that's open though Apostolic Gospel Church it says let's see the per capita income here is 21 800. to see a lot of this poverty level is surprising 11.6 percent that's what the U.S average is says uh according to the numbers I saw zero percent of the children 17 or under 17 and under I'm sorry live in poverty oh I did have the Widow's number I'm sorry it's down here in the corner on my notes 19 of the women who live in this town are widows 19 percent that's pretty high I say I'm heading back into downtown now let me uh let me let me go a different direction many of the residential streets are just like this they're gravel well this looks like a city park of some sort actually got somebody over there playing on a swing let's see as I drive through these neighborhoods I'll tell you the median home values or the median home value for the town it's thirty seven thousand two hundred that'll be one of the lowest I've ever seen among the lowest let's see I'm trying to see what this is over here I guess this is a museum I don't think it's I don't think it's operating Moran Museum that looks like that's been empty a long time across the road here the building is just their home that's just disintegrating let's say should it go down this way see what's up here oh these roads yeah I mean I don't think that was fire I think the house is just uh disintegrating into the ground where it sits uh let's see uh here's the race breakdown 91 White five percent Hispanic four percent mixed and that's it zero on everything else I'm back out on the Main Street here not sure what this is BYOB is this a bar of some sort Maybe hmm let's look a little bit more so it looks like they do have some place they can get do groceries anyway that's right up here in this red building no customers at the moment I think it's called the Red Barn yeah there it is you guys want to see that or ask me to see that there I guess is the closest thing they'd have to a grocery store anyway uh yeah I'm going through downtown it looks like here again so I'm just going to uh end the visit to this town here yeah make my way to the next town so that's coming up next [Music] all right this next town that I'm about to visit is actually on the interstate that is I-20 right there but unlike most towns that are on interstates this one is dying this interstate has done nothing for it I've driven by this town several times and thought to myself one day I'm going to visit that this place and that day is today this town is called Putnam there were once over 600 people here in this town that was in 1930. today there are 86. and even more telling statistic is the median age 65 years what does that tell you uh that in a very short period of time there's going to be nobody here it is dying off and every time I drive by this town on the interstate I always see this downtown and think how amazing it looks I mean yes it's falling apart but you cannot miss it as you're driving by fascinating place um let's see I'm gonna drive around a bit show you the town doesn't appear to have anything open though there's a cafe there I don't think uh it's an operation we got an advertisement for a love down the road but uh or loves but yeah there's not much here well it looks like they have a liquor store at least have that I don't know if that well yeah it's not going to be open today though Sunday anyway uh I expect to see a lot of this in the town as I go explore it oh man you can already see it I'm just going to turn down this street and let's explore the residential area of Putnam that is a lot of stuff isn't it wow uh yeah that is a flea market waiting to happen right anyway uh oh oh we got a horse here too oh cool how you doing fella let's say some more about the town the per capita income is nineteen thousand dollars that's 366 dollars a week median households thirty seven thousand I looked up the median home value at sixty thousand dollars I don't know if there's any house here worth that we'll see poverty level is 32.6 for children it's worth 67 percent of the children who live here 17 and under live at or under poverty level 65 years and older the older folks 19 of them and uh 12 percent of the women who live here are widows zero men so there's not a single man in this town that has outlived his wife now here's the race numbers the town is 97 percent White and three percent Hispanic that's it no other race here another statistic that really stuck out though for me is the violent crime rate zero there were zero crimes reported overall crimes actually in this town last year um 86 people though median age 65 this will be a full on ghost town I don't know within 10 years that's what I'm thinking what's fascinating about that is it's right on the interstate you just don't see that very often as you drive by you can see this town die right before your eyes as you drive back and forth past it glad I got four-wheel drive anyway yeah yeah another horse is checking me out looks like we got a couple of um abandoned homes here though being taken by Nature almost gone there's another one right across the street this one is just uh collapsed it looks like foreign place like this in the 30s it was thriving I was reading a little bit about its history lots of stores restaurants barber shop it's all gone now ah people like me to try to find a grocery store when I come to these towns there isn't one here I don't even think you can buy gas here I think you gotta go to Abilene which is about 30 miles away I look at all this yeah see there's the busy interstate nobody here I'm gonna take a real slow drive that you see everything that building's just opened wow that might be open that store or it might be an operating business open Friday Saturday Sunday is Sunday doesn't look like there's anything happening there there's the post office beer wine groceries I don't think that's open either crazy well all right uh actually on the other side of the interstate there's more housing let's go check that out I've got a town park here it looks like whoa that's a recess I'm driving into on the road anyway let's get a look over here more of the same though to be honest with you a couple of dogs doing their job protecting the homestead yeah now see see those cars up ahead that's the interstate I have no idea what's going on here I don't know if this was a couple of houses maybe that caught on fire kind of looks like it doesn't it caught on fire and it was just left never cleaned up yeah see that tree is uh got suit all over it that tree straight out of a horror movie this is something a couple of cars here that are dead some mattresses always the mattresses laying around these places Putnam Church of Christ what do you think is it in operation today is Sunday but Church would be over probably let's see it looks like there's a house here that is being left to Nature that looks like it was a really nice house at one time I hate to see that it is gone now though a little [ __ ] back there maybe even a garage and we have a house here that somebody lives in there's a few here wow what a town well I think I've driven almost every street got some chickens here yeah a bunch of chickens um all right I don't know what to say surely nobody lives in this I hope not uh anyway um wow Okay so yeah that's gonna do it for this town one more town that's coming up next [Music] all right I'm about to enter the town of Burkett first thing I want to do is drive across this bridge one lane bridge it's quite the adventure from what I've read you gotta make sure nobody's coming the other direction yeah because there's no passing how cool though this town that is pretty much a ghost town or very close to it I was on the Texas escapes.com website and they're calling it a ghost town now there are about 30 people living here now in the 1940s it was a bustling town with several hundred people it had a blacksmith doctor's office drugstore cotton gin Cafe three churches three gas stations and a grocery store that's all gone now wow this is a pretty cool whoo driving across this old rusted Bridge that's why I do this folks I love this stuff now uh let's see the age of this town like the last one pretty old 65 years old so pretty safe to say that uh this town May slip into full Ghost Town status in the coming years um I'm gonna go down this downtown I think there's a remnants of a couple of the stores here poverty level is very high 82.4 percent I was looking at the housing I couldn't get a hard number on um home values but I do know that 80 percent of the homes here uh are worth less than a hundred thousand dollars I'm sorry less than fifty thousand dollars oh we got a post office it's got a kids toy out front median household income 22 375 dollars a year per capita income is really bad though ten thousand six hundred and fifty five dollars a week a year that's two hundred and five dollars a week that the people live here that live here live on yeah there's an old store from way back still here now everybody knows I'm here uh now here's the numbers on race it's 97 White three percent Hispanic that's it there's no other races here yeah this is what I expected to see just a lot of empty abandoned homes say right here across the street there's a house up here this house right here I'm I'd be willing to bet 100 it's uh built in the 1800s I mean picture that uh in better condition riding your horse up to it I could totally picture that tying it off going in for some vittles yeah another pretty much gone house and here's the town Church at least one of them Church of Christ crazy now let's see I'm gonna turn around and head back in here's the Town Cemetery more people here than actually live in the town Burkett Cemetery wow it's pretty big 82.4 percent poverty this is the highest poverty rate I have ever seen in my travels yes disintegrating a lot of these buildings yeah somebody does live in there wow this little car tucked in a little car seat car part Port there carport I should call that I'll get a spit out look at this house until this house is really old yeah here it is Burkett Baptist Church I know this one's still operating this way I would say one I've seen so far about 70 percent of the homes here are abandoned and empty including that one there's nothing right here it's a set and empty got the cheap setting in its carport and they've been doing here wow something well I'll be honest with you guys I've driven on pretty much every street there's not much left here all right you guys are always asking me to find shopping and gas stations and gas prices this is the gas station in town yeah it's a it's done for there is no store of any kind not even the Dollar General we're on the edge of town I'm not sure if it's an operation but there is a liquor store here it's got bars on the window today's Sunday so it won't be open if that is indeed operational this is the business next to it though I don't know what this is there's no sign it's got bars on the Windows too glass so maybe something's going on there interesting I wonder if the the people that live in that house owned owns these places could be hmm well I found myself back at this bridge so I'm gonna drive across it one more time one lane bridge has something put the camera in the other direction see down there look at the way the trees kind of hang out over it it's kind of spooky well all right uh yeah okay so uh that's gonna be it that's gonna be it for this video guys uh not sure where I'm gonna go next so uh but it'll be up in a couple days so be looking for that foreign

Channel: Joe & Nic's Road Trip

Views: 1,084,698

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Id: ZqeVkGvKkt4

Length: 38min 53sec (2333 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 09 2023