RURAL TEXAS: Oddities & Incredible SMALL TOWNS Few People Know About - FAR OFF THE INTERSTATE

all right everyone I am in rural Texas let me show you on the map like I always do I'm sure you can see me there the blue dot with the arrow kind of uh squeezed in there between Houston San Antonio and Austin there's no Interstate anywhere near here so we're definitely off the beaten path I am in the town of Washington very small town here in rural Texas uh population 265. this is downtown pretty much all of it but don't let its unassuming appearance fool you this is a sacred place in Texas it is here in Washington that Texas declared its independence from Mexico now let me tell you a little bit about today it is uh Friday December 30th uh that's right at 10 A.M it's 68 degrees no it just hit 70. I just looked at the top thermometer so it is very comfortable out here much of the country is still getting out of that storm or trying to uh dig itself out of that storm that happened around Christmas uh but here in Texas it's nice and warm t-shirt weather I got up this morning 7 A.M check the weather it was already 66 degrees I was like yes walked out of the hotel with a t-shirt on yes again perfect t-shirt weather that's a bit gloomy cloudy however the sun is supposed to come out later today and uh supposed to get up mid to high 70s so it's going to be a nice day to explore some rural Texas and I'm going to some interesting places wait till you see anyway I'm heading into this park because you can go to the very location where the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed gotta see that it's right up here anyway let's see if I come up here and Park I believe that building yeah I can see it the building where the uh Declaration was signed here let me uh swing over here and look yeah that's it right there so I'm going to park the Bronco walk over there and take a quick look I'm gonna do that right now okay yeah so this is it this is the site the place where the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed it is the spot where Texas declared their independence from Mexico in a building that looked exactly like this I was uh yeah I was a little bit surprised to find that this is a replica it's not the real one but it sits on the exact site uh and of where it happened in 1836 take a look inside why don't we apparently this is what it looked like let's take a little bit more of a look there it is a copy of the uh Declaration of Independence the Texas Declaration of Independence yeah they have the windows basically open with no glass apparently that's exactly the way it was they signed it in March and it was cold and very uncomfortable in here according to records of the account or yeah records of the event yeah it's really nice out here cool okay I'm leaving the grounds now um we'll take a look let's see what's over here I know there's a museum I don't think it's open yet yeah star of the Republic Museum but there's another yeah there it is there's a building there you can see it historic building so I'm gonna I'm gonna park and go check that out okay I read the plaque there and it says that this was a kitchen now you may not know this but in the 1800s kitchens were built separate from the main house because they tended to catch on fire so instead of burning the whole damn house down just the kitchen would burn down and that was a lot easier to replace [Music] this is a representation of what kitchens look like here in Texas see the huge fireplace not really much to see in there um I'll go ahead and put the camera just uh you can see the fireplace and let's see if I can show you what's going on in there [Music] anyway pretty cool it's beautiful out here okay I think we're done here time to head to the next town hey fella how you doing man that's really beautiful isn't it that's cool all right everyone I'm entering the town of Chapel Hill uh a lot of history here let me show you some of these homes driving in though little small homes but really kind of beautiful um this town was founded on Cotton farming and that was very prosperous in 1850 it was one of the largest cities in Texas in the top 20. but in 1867 the yellow fever epidemic struck this town hard killed almost the entire population um the town never recovered and today there is about 600 people here but it's a beautiful town this entire downtown is on the national register and in fact this is considered the best preserved town historically in Texas and you can kind of see it it's absolutely beautiful isn't it how about if I take a quick look out on foot what do you think uh I saw a building here yeah this Bank wow I want to see this old building here I saw this Carly gets passed I'll step out and get a look at it about that P lesser and Son general merchandise this has been here a long time see what the plaque says it just says it's on the rational register but didn't say what year it was built [Music] very old though wow what a great little town Chapel Hill Bank building 1878. Bank next door so those are what hundred and 40 150 years old in those buildings what a beautiful Old Town okay uh well I went ahead to the next town okay I am driving into the town of Brenham Texas now Brenham is most well known as being the birthplace and headquarters of Blue Bell ice cream Blue Bell ice cream sold in probably half the United States the southern half many of us especially Texans myself included consider Blue Bell the finest ice cream made on Earth but it's had its problems a few years ago they had a listeria outbreak so they had to pull every single container and jug of Bluebell off every shelf across the country and they had to start all over again which they did and then uh just a couple years ago this was in a national news so those of you who live up north probably remember this story but these dumb kids would take Bluebell off the shelf in supermarkets lick it then put it back in a supermarket it was some kind of stupid challenge that these uh kids come up with of course dumb what these kids don't understand apparently is that there are surveillance cameras everywhere uh wow I've seen some beautiful sights anyway so they were caught quickly and uh appropriately punished but anyway none of that is good news for a company like Bluebell but they have survived it and uh [Music] they're going back strong I read an interesting article about Bluebell recently that said that whenever Bluebell moves into a market within six months to a year it's the number one seller I found that really interesting anyway I'm gonna turn around and go through the other part of downtown all right downtown Brenham cool authentic Texas anyway there's a little bit more of downtown here this is a pretty good sized town Uh current population 2021 estimate is uh 17 385. it's a prosperous town poverty is low just over 14 percent median household income is fifty four thousand five hundred and uh median home value is 163 400. uh much of this downtown is on the national register it's really beautiful as you can see so yeah I'm going to take a little bit of a look around here and see what I can find and I'm gonna go out to blue bells headquarters but right now here in downtown got to see this astonishing Courthouse I guess that would be Art Deco wouldn't it how beautiful is that all right let me see if I can find a place to park another look at this beautiful County courthouse building um every building uh it's got businesses there are no empty storefronts here [Music] a lot of shops a lot of restaurants and pubs of every kind it is so cool what an amazing small City downtown really is love that old sign I wish it could be restored I bet it was amazing uh anyway you know you just walk down the street here and there's every kind of shop imaginable tribal trends board and brush creative studio art gallery there's all kinds of stuff down here this is what you do you know Walmart comes to town this is how you uh combat that support these small businesses here in these uh small City downtowns quite a bit of people walking around yeah this is not a dead downtown got a big mural here that describes the city I guess you could say birthplace of Texas Washington on the Brazos that's where I started the video you guys remember that is a painting of the building very first building I showed you of course the Blue Bell Ice Cream founded in 1907. and they are proclaiming themselves the baseball capital of Texas so there's that in addition to everything else uh this building was the old train depot built in 1869. but today it's a bar how awesome two dollar special on bud I can get down with that it's what I love about um neighborhoods close to downtowns uh no two houses look anything like the other look at that beauty and right across the street completely different style kind of reminds you of English tutor doesn't it and then right next to it Frank Lloyd Wright inspired Maybe very different look at that garage the wet slow slung like that of something and it just got a classic home here all that woodwork around the porch which would cost you a fortune now and uh we got this green one here but look at this one this is a grand home that is wow Majestic what a house amazing architecture here all right well I'm going to head to Blue Bell now all right see ya the nerve center for what is arguably the world's greatest ice cream they have stuff you can see here there's already a ton of people I might try to get out if I can find a place to park it's not looking good though yeah Bluebell creameries they got a country store I'd at least like to go in that Super Center what a cool looking building uh plant operation building I don't know if we can go in that Visitor Center cool huh let me see I'm gonna get a place to park okay I'm out on foot here at Blue Bell Creameries let's take a quick look around what do you think see what they got going on here got a real old truck out here probably used to deliver Bluebell back in the day looks like a refrigerated back end how cool huh now it took my brain a minute to register this but this is a statue of the image that's on every tub of Bluebell all right this is the ice cream parlor and Country Store it says there is an observation deck here too could it be we could see the factory let's check well they got a real nice area up here A bunch of the ice cream on display and a place where we can get some ice cream observation deck I think I got to see this all right no videos or photos so scratch that well it was in fact a view of the factory floor and it was amazing [Music] it's sad they wouldn't uh let me video it that sucks anyway um yeah you want to head to the next town now all right everyone I am driving into the small town of Burton Burton Texas population 283 it's got a low poverty right 13.3 Town's got good numbers though average our median age is 38.9 so it's a little bit older town uh median household income 73 800. Ah that's up there and uh median home values here are 225 thousand dollars it's an Old Town I wanted to come here because the world's oldest operating cotton gin is here in this town so I'm gonna try to find it I'm cruising back into downtown I mean look at these old buildings seriously this looks I mean you could ride your horse up to that and that would not seem out of place how awesome is that uh man look at this house what a beauty wow that is something look at that big huge porch all right everyone so I found it this is Burton Farmer's cotton gin built in 1914. it operates to this day it is the oldest operating cotton gin in this country [Music] how do you like that beautiful building wow look there is a well there's a helicopter making a lot of noise but aside from that or is that a helicopter that might have been just a loud car anyway yeah they got a big cart here full of cotton sit there oh this is so cool all right everyone I am in the town of Round Top Texas this town the numbers defy reason I don't get it the population of this town is 90. 90 people but check out these numbers the poverty level is 1.2 percent so that's population 90 that's one person maybe a 15 year old kid who mows Lawns and charges fifty dollars and declares his income I don't know what else it would be but you drive into this town of 90 people well I'm showing you what you see there's art galleries all kinds of stuff here there's something I don't know about this town because clearly it is some sort of destination somebody in the comments is going to have to fill us in because this is not what you expect to see in a town population 90. look at this Melissa Fine Art these art galleries are everywhere this is some kind of hoity-toity art town anyway yeah here's the numbers median household income 143 700. yeah somebody's making money in this town 144 000 a year that's pretty good money uh this is the post office I'm going to uh head back into the main part of the town here and see what else I can see but uh I'll give you a little bit more here median home value 590 900 dollars let's just say 591 thousand dollars over half a million that's the median home value I'm thinking what I looked up several different places uh places like Zillow and Redfin are listing homes here for are in the millions in fact here's a home on Redfin that just sold seven or eight days ago uh it's two million dollars I'm showing the picture I can't exactly remember exactly what the number was but yeah two million dollars for this home now it's an older town 59.2 is the age I'm gonna see or let me show you this other part of downtown it looks like a maybe a County Courthouse of some sort of beautiful little building but uh look I'm gonna come down here show you even more look at all this stuff what the hell's going on here look at this really cool cafe Royers Round Top Cafe that is so cool look at all these people I mean what I mean yeah I get it it's Friday afternoon about two o'clock by the way the sun was supposed to be out by now still isn't uh wow what a town huh I'm outside the elementary school here and look what it says Please be aware that the staff at Roundtop Carmine ISD may be armed and will use whatever Force necessary to protect our students hmm yeah let me back out of here that's interesting um can't say I disagree with it after what happened to Vivaldi anyway I'm going to drive into the town uh from this direction show you all the stuff here the shops and art galleries to come in right here on the left yeah these are all just little shops and it's it's kind of fantastic over here on the other side there's a winery at really interesting this is yeah this is some kind of uh destination I've lived here for what in Texas for 32 years I've never heard of this place look at that real cool Church the City of Refuge church awesome well I'm Amazed I didn't expect to see all this I saw the town on the map and I thought well maybe I'll go there uh I'm glad I did now I'm glad I got to see this and I'm glad I got to show it to you guys uh yeah I'm gonna head to the next town this town that I'm going to next I have always wanted to visit most of my life since I was a teenager anyway so I'm gonna head there right now I'm excited okay well I had to stop here historical world's smallest active warship Catholic Church you want to see it that's it got a little Cemetery here too uh I'm just trying to figure this church out yeah they claim this is the world's smallest Catholic Church I'm gonna pull on the door and see if I can get inside I'm gonna guess not it'd be cool if I could be cool to see the inside wouldn't it maybe we can [Applause] here it is guys the inside of the world's smallest Catholic Church see if we can get some light going how about that it smells old in here yeah and it's an active Church look oh I'll have to put my name down how cool is this huh all right well you know when you're driving down these rural country roads you never know what you're going to run into or run across it's things like this that makes driving them fun all right so there's that uh we are crossing the Colorado River on our way into this next town I'll give you a look down the side there beautiful rumors spreading round in that Texas town about that Shack outside LaGrange they got a lot of nice girls there come on sing it with me guys no you don't have to I'm a terrible singer but I'm guessing you know that song it is the heavily Mississippi delta blues influenced Rock classic written and performed by ZZ Top the song was called LaGrange it's about the town of LaGrange here in Texas and I'm driving into it right now I've always wanted to come to this town because I love that song and whoa look at that County Courthouse holy cow what a beauty uh anyway uh LaGrange it looks like has uh a Texas what you know the square that's what I'm trying to say and look at the downtown it's busy now of course the song by ZZ Top is about what this town is most famous for and that's the chicken ranch the chicken ranch is or was the longest running and arguably the most famous brothel in American history uh in addition to inspiring the song it also inspired a Broadway play and movie called The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas now the movie starred Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton and had Dom daily I got it that's tripping my tongue there and Jim Nabors what a cast huh anyway uh I'm gonna take a look around the town here and I'm gonna tell you some more about the chicken ranch how it got its name etcetra because it's an amazing story so yeah let's go look around this is the second time I saw this I'm just fascinated that they left a tree right in the middle of the road here yeah how cool is that huh anyway I'm gonna go out to uh the site of the chicken ranch here shortly but I'll tell you a bit about it of course it operated between 1905 and 1973 the brothel was doing good business and then in the 20s they started advertising additionally people started buying cars young men especially well men of all ages let's not get ourselves and because of that business boomed customers would come from all over then the Great Depression hit that killed business so Jesse Williams who ran the place at the time instituted what they called the uh what would she call it the poultry standard you or if uh 15 minutes with one of the ladies would cost you one chicken and uh again business business boomed and uh the place the chicken ranch had well it had a ton of chickens they used the money to run the place that they made selling the chickens and the eggs to stay in operation that's how I got the name chicken ranch by the way look at this cool little building it's beautiful the fun ended in 1973 when the Texas Department of Public Safety shut it down for good now before I look at anything else I'm thinking I'm going to go out to the location just for fun I know there's not much out there but I at least want to say I was there and then we're going to come back downtown I'm heading to uh 1629 Rocky Creek Road that is the address or was the address of the chicken ranch here real quick I'll show you that's where series Australian Siri has taken me I'm almost there ah what I've read is that it's been completely what's left of it has been completely torn down and carted away a mistake the destination is on your left 169 Rocky Creek Road okay so uh Australia series says I'm here right now it's on the left anyway um yeah it's a damn shame yeah right here is where it was at nothing here now that's you know that's history that was that is short-sighted of the you know the leaders of the town uh that would have been a big tourist attraction in my opinion much of downtown LaGrange is on the national register you can see why this architecture needs to be preserved get over here on or look at it over here on the other side there's the Texas quilt Museum it's one of the attractions here by the way anyway I'm making my way to the county courthouse it's right up here unbelievable building that's beautiful too though these cool old posts and this is the county courthouse what an unbelievable building so beautiful built in 1891 Romanesque Revival architecture and it's kind of like a castle top there it is so cool this is beautiful building breathtaking uh there's a lot of great architecture here over here too unbelievable as I drive by this Courthouse again it's beautiful anyway here's the numbers of the town real quickly uh populations 44. 07. a little over 4 400 people median age is 42.2 um median household income 48 500. the median home value is a hundred and eighty seven thousand four hundred driving into a neighborhood right now looks really nice though let's see one other thing poverty level is 12.3 I am approaching the town of Fayetteville it's named after the one in North Carolina population 246. it's a small town the entire downtown is on a national register but specifically I'm here to see the courthouse because it looks like a work of art yeah I like this downtown it's pretty isn't it um there's the courthouse I'm gonna swing around and see if I can get a front angle of it but let's just take in this downtown so old again you know coming to downtown like this uh you feel like you're transported back in time honestly these buildings are really old without question all right let's see here Fayetteville courthouse there it is I thought I needed to go the other way to get a front view but nope here it is and we just kind of pull up here get a look at it and that's something here let me let me get out and uh let's take a closer look uh it's built in 1880 at a cost of eight hundred dollars the clock was added a year later the women of the Town secured the funding for it you might understand the men of the town said no we're not spending the money on a clock we need sidewalks I think you can guess who won the argument the women of course uh let's see got a placard here Fayetteville citizens raised 600 in private funds received 200 in tax money and built it in 1880. how awesome huh and there it is the cat almost thought I wasn't going to get one that's what you guys thought wasn't it yeah took to the very end but I got the cat all right well that will be the end of this video uh we are heading to Dallas for a couple days got to check the mail stuff like that then we're heading Way East most likely Eastern Alabama first and then into Georgia and the Carolinas so those will be coming up next be looking for them [Applause]

Channel: Joe & Nic's Road Trip

Views: 254,450

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Id: 5oQIMdSNPZM

Length: 39min 36sec (2376 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 07 2023