Texas is chock full of ghost towns. Obviously, the most famous of them is Terlingua, but it’s a stretch to even call it a ghost town anymore because of all the tourism. If you do a little digging, you’ll find close to a hundred REAL ghost towns – towns with no more than a handful of residents, towns that make your hair stand on end and fear start to rise up from the deepest recesses of your mind the second you drive into their boundaries.
One such town is Barstow, way out in West Texas. It was founded by George Barstow (who’s buried in the local cemetery, by the way), a man whose life’s work was irrigation. He was so successful that he was able to swell the population to over 1,000 by 1900 and win a silver medal for grapes at the World’s Fair in 1904. However, that same year, the Pecos River Dam broke – droughts set in almost immediately and farming became a dream rather than reality. The population was down by over half just 20 years later and has steadily decreased ever since. Here’s what Barstow looks like today. Prepare yourself – this is what a ghost town truly looks like.
From far away, it seems like an ordinary little town - probably quaint and quiet, but still cheerful and lively with the spirits of country folk. That couldn’t be any more wrong…
Flickr/texasbackroads
You won’t find many people in Barstow. What you will find is the lingering echo of sadness and broken dreams. This abandoned house looks like something out of a horror movie.
Flickr/mattybravo
The insides don’t look much better. I wonder where that stairway leads…
Flickr/mattybravo
Dilapidated buildings are everywhere. It’s so sad that they never flourished.
Flickr/mattybravo
No praying, preaching, or congregating can be found in this abandoned church on Sundays. Just pure silence.
Flickr/mattybravo
This general store used to see customers daily, however few. Now, it sees its own four walls with nothing in between - emptiness.
Flickr/mattybravo
This was once the home of a family, I’m sure. Now it’s being ravaged by the earth’s elements.
An old masonic lodge building. The Brotherhood of Barstow is long gone.
Flickr/mattybravo
This barn once allowed a farmer the tools to prosper…that is, before the town was devastated and farming was just a distant memory.
Flickr/mattybravo
Anything could happen in the vast, remote desert of West Texas. You’d better sleep with one eye open while you’re out there.
James Stutzman via Flickr
Could Barstow be the next “Town that Dreaded Sundown”? Maybe.
Flickr/johnandketurah
Have you ever visited Barstow? What did you think of it? What are some other creepy ghost towns in Texas?
Flickr/texasbackroads
Flickr/mattybravo
James Stutzman via Flickr
Flickr/johnandketurah
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