TEXAS: Haunting Panhandle Towns That Are Slowly Fading Away

all right everyone I am in rural Texas now let me show you exactly where I'm in the Panhandle area you can see the blue uh dot with the arrow I'm about 40 miles or about 40 minutes south of Amarillo I'm in a town called Happy just the name alone makes you want to visit it doesn't it in fact the town's motto is the town without a frown [Music] now as I drive into downtown let me show you some of what they call Prairie skyscrapers here in Texas grain elevators you can see these uh from miles out like four or five miles out you could see these like the skyline of a big city anyway I'm gonna head into downtown happy right now happy has about 600 people living here Peak population was in 1930 there were 724 people here I do know that downtown is basically abandoned most of these buildings were built in the 1920s so really not much Happening Here except for the happy Bank and I'm coming upon it in just a second believe it or not there is a lot of happy Banks scattered throughout the Panhandle it's pretty big chain it's like an old theater um yeah there's the uh Happy State Bank yeah believe it or not that's a big chain here and that might be the only functioning business here in downtown happy but that's pretty much it so I'm gonna explore the town a little bit tell you about it looks like there's a church way down here at the End of the Street let me see I'll give you some of the numbers as I head that way the median age is 28. that's pretty young that's surprisingly young for a town like this the gender breakdown is 55 male 45 female interestingly of the 45 percent that are female 10 of them are widowed so uh yeah the women uh they got a few extra guys to choose from here race breakdown 62 percent White 34 Hispanic one percent black uh three percent other one of the statistics that kind of stuck out for me is that uh High School graduation rate 91.1 that's really high that's uh above the U.S average of 85. I don't know why that was a little bit unexpected for me but yeah it did surprise me per capita income 17 797. so that's about 342 dollars a week median household 41 750. uh poverty 18.9 percent for children 17 and under it's 35 so that's a little high folks 65 and older the poverty level is zero so that's another number that you really didn't expect to see a median home value 59 600. all the towns I'm going to show you the home values are really low so clearly the uh cost of living in these towns is very low let me see let me go find a neighborhood or two and I'll tell you some more now uh I was checking out the crime rates about 20 percent higher than the national average here so crime is a bit of an issue that looks abandoned doesn't it um the town has a pretty famous resident or at least at one time very famous guy named buddy Knox uh he was a pop rock star in the 50s in 1957 he came out with a song called party doll I went number one sold over a million copies made him into a star and the song is significant the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has listed it as one of these songs that shaped modern rock and roll another abandoned house there it looks like oh he's a big boy do not mess with him let's see I'm back in downtown going to make a another pass show you it a little bit in more detail now there was a movie that came out in 1999 called Happy Texas that was set here uh it was a independent film but it had some pretty big stars William H Macy Jeremy Northman Ron Perlman uh Steve Zahn basically it was about uh some convicts who escaped got themselves hooked up with some a couple of gay pageant organizers who came to town to run a beauty pageant here in Happy Texas of course hilarity ensues the movie was called Happy Texas sadly it wasn't filmed here it was filmed in California anyway you can see um much of this downtown has set empty for quite some time it looks like uh I'm gonna see if I can find a gas station and a grocery store now [Music] I just love those old gray innovators they're so cool looking all right let's see what I can find now I saw a guy a second ago getting gas at these pumps I initially saw this building thinking um that it wasn't in operation that it was closed but uh apparently you can get gas right there these very old gas pumps let's see credit card pump I'm pretty sure that the store itself closed I'm not sure let me see doesn't look like there's anybody here does it but you can get gas here it looks like I can't see what the price is I will say that we are in Amarillo you know again like 40 miles away and gas is about 280 there anyway groceries let me see if I can find something ah there he goes let's see if we could see him when we get up here the second star of these videos the cat he was like what are you looking at me for fella this is my domain uh that is an RV park I'm a tiny bit surprised to see that yeah got a few RVs parked there huh uh and there's a cafe not sure if this Cafe is open today this Saturday it's about 11 in the morning it's a late February in the last week of February actually so Saturday nearing lunch you might would think that would be open doesn't look like it now there's the interstate by the way we're not far off the interstate in these in this video well guys uh I can't find any kind of store to buy groceries and that one little gas station is it this is a church by the way Methodist Church that is a really modern looking Church anyway uh yeah I'll show you where I'm at here that's the whole town it's very small I guess people who live here go to nearby Amarillo interesting there's a high school football field by the way well I think uh that'll do it here it's a cool shot yeah I'm gonna head to the next town now okay everyone I am antulia Tulia Texas 1970 there were 5 300 people here that was Peak population today there is uh 4 400. it's cool old theater let's see the median age is 36. when heading to downtown here take a look it's the county seat for Swisher County there's the county courthouse it's got a art deco feel to it doesn't it it's pretty cool wow I like that they're in the middle of the street anyway some of the stats of the town let's see the gender breakdown 57 male 43 percent female take a look at this downtown uh interestingly of the 43 percent of the population that is female 15 of them are widows so a lot more males than females here let's see the race breakdown uh 52 percent Hispanic 34 White 11 black and then the rest is just other City Church look at the downtown here um let's check out this mural then I'm going to turn around and go back in the downtown this is worth a look at isn't it I shot it downtown for many years ago it looks like and I just showed you that looks like a monolith doesn't it huh that's pretty cool hey I'm gonna turn around a couple other numbers poverty level is 31.5 percent that's high that's two and a half times higher than the national average if you look at downtown this way children 17 and under it's 41 percent folks 65 and older 21 live at or under the poverty level oh that's all pretty high crime rate pretty high here too uh about twice higher than the national average looks like a nice little shop here uh antiques let's see uh the town has a pretty notorious event in its history it was called the uh Tulia 46. in 1999 uh this guy his name was Tom Coleman he would go to rural Texas towns and set up drug stings he came to this town set up a drug sting and uh accused 46 people mostly black of selling him drugs and many of them went to prison well if you leave a few years later they find out that none of it was true and uh well as you can well imagine that was quite an issue anyway there's several documentaries on it Coleman himself ended up being convicted of perjury and got 10 years probation to me that seems a little light I mean the guy put people in prison and like I said they were mostly African-Americans um I think he should have got a little prison time himself but that's just me now I don't think there's a Walmart in town there's a grocery store right there though a town this big there's probably uh more than one but anyway there's one there you can see it's right on the edge of downtown we're basically in downtown actually let's see what else is up here now the median home value here is 71 000 by the way um look at these guys just hanging out here loose in the streets foreign just a couple blocks out of downtown uh and you get out into residential you can really see the poverty uh like I told you the poverty level is almost three times higher than the national average see it in a lot of the residential of course uh these these are all abandoned empty houses quite a few of them here yeah I went over here that looks like that's been setting empty for quite a long time yeah see there's downtown right there you can see that white monolith maybe hopefully in the distance there all right just a couple streets out that's gravel there's another cat well I'm having a good day as far as uh cat sightings that's two and two towns another abandoned house here there's seven several more in that direction also yep that one's sitting empty there glass all broken out let's see I'm back out on the Main Street the Dollar General you knew that was going to be here there's an all subs up here see what the price of gas is what do you guys think looks like uh 299 yeah 2.99 for a gallon unleaded I guess you could see that guy's got a lot of stuff there doesn't he the dog protecting it no he wanted to come at me when he was chained up yeah there's just um abandoned houses all over here I want to say it's abandoned yeah it is that's say I saw a truck there but it that truck looks like it's been sitting there a long time as well beware of dog I guess maybe someone lives there sure um yeah there's a lot of this in this town a lot of these towns you find you know some big huge houses mansions almost I haven't seen any of that here yeah just a lot of this here it's a lot of stuff in that yard isn't there huh well uh that's gonna be enough here I'm going to head to the next town yeah as I'm making my way to the next town uh I saw this here at the side of the road got to show you this I'm not sure what this is I don't know if this is someone's junkyard Maybe junk might not be a fair word you know someone's treasure I'm thinking I'm thinking it's a business but anyway yeah so I just showed you that scene there now up here look at all the stuff no uh anyway so yeah I have a Statue of Liberty of some sort there and then as you go they've got the Ten Commandments posted here how about that right here at the side of the road in rural Texas that you shall not covet your neighbor's Goods I don't think it reads that way does it anyway wow isn't that something yeah uh yeah I'm in the town of Nazareth city limit 311. that's something oh all right back on the road uh just a short distance down the road there's something else here I'm not sure what the message is here wow uh looks like somebody's anti-mennonite what's this sign say you guys read that worst thing you can do marry a real Mennonite super producive as a rabbit mama wow that's something you only see in Rural America all right everyone I am arriving in the town of Dimmitt Dimmitt Texas wow these really uh dominate the skyline if you will these grain elevators so big um this sounds a little bit different than the last town terms of prosperity aside from the population loss of course 1980 was Peak population a little over 5 000 people here uh right now there are 4 100 people so the town is losing population but the other numbers are better per capita incomes 24 800 median household income is 55 300. that's over a thousand a week about a thousand seventy poverty level 8.8 that's low that's lower than the U.S average children 17 and under it's eleven percent and for seniors 65 and older it's three percent uh anyways I'm in downtown now here's the Castro County Courthouse it's beautiful uh moderna they call it very similar to Art Deco seems Art Deco to me um it's got an old theater over there gonna have to uh take a quick look at that Carlisle that's pretty cool setting empty of course and we got a Family Dollar here and I'm just kind of making a circle around the square and I'll tell you some more uh median age is 34. gender breakdown 52 male 48 female uh race breakdown let's see uh 73 Hispanic 24 white one percent black two percent Asian a median home value here is 88 000. so that's still pretty low um probably going to get lower I was looking at the uh U.S median average for homes uh it's starting to come out now for 2022 and um dropped a lot median home value in the U.S dropped to 383 thousand that's down from 428 thousand 2021 and uh the actual numbers it's pretty astonishing one of the biggest drops in home value in U.S history in 2022 uh in the trillions several trillion that's that's pretty crazy not really seeing the uh 2022 home values for or the estimates for small towns yet those numbers should be coming out pretty soon and I can start using those instead but uh yeah expect to see home values get even lower as I tell them to you in these little town visits well what's more American than the garage sale or a yard sale in this case yeah somebody having a yard sale well okay I think I've seen enough here going to head to the last town yeah so that's coming up next all right everyone I have arrived in Hereford Texas it's a bigger town uh it is slowly losing population though in 1980 there were 15 853 people here today there's just over fifteen thousand so the town is lost a little population over the last what 40 years not a lot a little very productive town I'll tell you more about that as we look around that's called train depot there anyway I'm heading into downtown here all right so the town is named after the one in England and of course after the cattle breed of which there are a significant amount of in this town in fact this small City calls itself the beef capital of the world on account of the huge feedlots here they feed over a million head of cattle a year here um another interesting thing about the town is that the local water supply has an unusually high level of fluoride and so the town calls itself the town without a toothache anyway uh median age here is 30. it's a pretty young town the population it's pretty young the gender breakdown 50 50. male female race break down 80 percent Hispanic 18 White one percent black one percent Asian per capita income 21 300. I'll turn down this way uh median household income forty nine thousand seventy poverty level is 14.4 percent a shade higher than the US average for kids 17 and under it's 19 percent for older folks 65 and older 16 percent crime here is about 20 percent higher than the national average also this is one of the most productive towns in the country I will tell you more about that as well I'm gonna go find that Courthouse first and I'll tell you all about it meanwhile uh there's some pretty houses here yeah that's Beauty there anyway oh yeah another one over here it's nice houses here all right let's go find that Courthouse now Hereford is the county seat of deaf Smith County I know I'm like deaf Smith what's that mean even uh turns out that def Smith was a uh partially deaf Scout and soldier who fought in the Texas Revolution and he was the first person to arrive at the Alamo after that famous battle so he's got a county named after him which is pretty awesome uh anyway here's the deaf Smith County Courthouse I'm gonna stop and get out on foot take a closer look well I'm here at the County Courthouse built in 1910 it is classical Revival architecture so it takes its cues from ancient Greece you can kind of see that of course you got the Big Texas Star there this County Courthouse is unusual and actually quite famous in that it's made of marble [Music] very few County courthouses are made of marble uh that's usually reserved for state capitals so this is pretty well known in architectural circles I think it's still in use uh I'm kind of surprised to see boarded up Windows I'm wondering what's going on with that [Music] maybe there's a refurbish going on yeah this was only the second County Courthouse ever built with marble [Music] like I said 1910 at a cost of a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars [Music] made it one of the most expensive ever built [Music] and there's a train so we got downtown over here while I'm on foot [Music] I'll tell you a little bit more about this town and it's uh how productive it is a windmill there I believe this was also nicknamed windmill city at one time because of the how many of these there were that sure is a beautiful Courthouse I just I hate seeing those boarded up Windows it's absolutely gorgeous but anyway about this town and its productivity this is what is produced in this town annually once a year 125 million gallons of milk 100 million pounds of cheese 47 million pounds of butter 125 million gallons of ice cream over 1 billion pounds of grain is produced here it's used to make bread tortillas and whiskey not only that one of the biggest pet food companies is here in town Merrick [Music] so they're making a lot of pet food here too it's astonishing the per capita income or the yeah the per capita GDP has got to be crazy in this town I didn't even look it up I should have anyway yeah another look at that Courthouse and I'm gonna show you the Bronco real quick still filthy from uh driving around Yuma On the Border there along the border fence it's looking pretty disgusting isn't it anyway uh [Music] [Applause] let's see there's a grocery store right there Food King that being said there's a Walmart here uh this town's big enough for a Walmart yeah just checking out the residential area here uh even though it's old and run down the architecture is really interesting there I kind of caught my eye can I say all right I could not show you this that's very eclectic shall we say I'm not sure if I told you the median home values here uh 90 100. all right everyone so that's going to be the end of this video um by the time you watch this we will have been to Dallas for our monthly visit you know check the mail get a haircut get the oil changed and we'll be on our way North uh we're gonna head into Illinois uh Indiana I'm going to visit the infamous Gary Indiana probably Ohio uh maybe even a little Kentucky and Arkansas so uh that's what's coming up in March be looking for those we'll see you then thanks for running

Channel: Joe & Nic's Road Trip

Views: 516,794

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Id: qJMug1Ss1WA

Length: 38min 52sec (2332 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 04 2023