a single breath and then it's over

today joe and i headed west to the town of thurber. located right off interstate 20, it's halfway between fort worth and abilene...about a 75 mile drive for us. once we got past weatherford it became a beautiful trek. even though it's essentially in the central part of the state, the landscape in this area is reminiscent of west texas. countless hills, buttes, and cliffs dot the horizon, and the sky goes on forever.

thurber was a mining town between the late 1800's and early 1900's. the entire town (all the land, all the homes, all the businesses, etc) were owned by the mining company, who rented homes out to their employees. when business dried up, so did the town.

thurber is said to have once been "the biggest town between el paso and fort worth," but looking at it today, that seems hard to believe. it's essentially in the middle of nowhere; hills rise up around the town in every direction. in a kitschy attempt to make money and "preserve the history," the town has two restaurants and an antique store, but the town itself appeared to only have two occupied houses.

several old structures remain. the antique store and one of the restaurants are in buildings decades old. an old fire house stands across the street, and beyond it, some sort of old two story house. by the highway is a slightly more recent, but no less abandoned, three story shop; and most impressive, the town still houses an original brick smokestack from 1904, several stories tall.

the town graveyard is worth a trip in and of itself. it holds over 1000 people, but most of these are unmarked. apparently the townspeople used to mark graves with wooden crosses, but a fire destroyed most of them. now, perhaps even more eerily, many of the once unmarked graves are marked with small crosses made of pvc pipe. most of the actual gravestones date back to the turn of the century.

the town was home to many ethnic groups, and the tension caused by this is represented in the cemetery. a monument near the entrance explains that the cemetery was divided into three sections: one for african-americans, one for protestants, and one for catholics. some of the intact gravestones show men born in ireland, and one stone is marked completely in polish.

we also found the rubble of a once grand hotel off the main road in a grove of trees.

on the south side of the highway stands the second restaurant, as well as a museum, a restored church, and a restored miner's house. we were far more interested in finding history for ourselves, so we didn't bother visiting them.

on a somewhat related note, at the top of a large hill just east of thurber stands a castle. it appeared to be private property, and since we were short on time, we didn't check it out. i certainly hope to learn more about it.


































































big, fancy hotel


pictures 12-24-08