True Stories of Amazing People and Places in Texas

This site contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. For Example: As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

"In November 1891, Castro County, which had been attached to Oldham County for administrative purposes was organizing, and the location of the county seat was being hotly contested. The two towns under consideration were Castro City and Dimmitt, separated from each other by two and one-half miles. Ira Aten was promoting the former, while attorney Andrew McClelland and his land speculator brother, Hugh, were supporting the latter . . . Read more Look inside

"For whatever reason Ira forwent establishing himself in Dickens or Crosby Counties, but he did opt for settling in one of those "Line of counties higher". In 1890 the whole population of Castro County was a whopping nine. Needless to say, the county was yet to be organized. There was no local regime, no county seat, no taxman, no sheriff, and no jail. There was plenty of space and solitude in Castro County, just the ticket for a former Fort Bend County Sheriff and ex-Texas Ranger looking for peace and quiet.  . . . Read more Look inside

by David Espinoza from Dimmitt Texas

"Raised in a poverty lifestyle, as a five-year-old boy, I was traumatized due to a life-changing accident. I was later confined to a hospital bed at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Amarillo, Texas. I lost half of my eyesight, but that was only the beginning of my challenging experiences. Growing up was a living nightmare as I discovered how lonely life could be. Kids made fun of my appearance. The jokes continued throughout grade school, junior high, and even high school . . ." Read more Look inside

In Lone Star Justice, best-selling author Robert M. Utley captures the first hundred years of Ranger history, in a narrative packed with adventures worthy of Zane Grey or Larry McMurtry.

"After a term as sheriff of Castro County, he accepted the post of superintendent of the Escabarda division of the XIT Ranch, the huge spread of the syndicate that had built the state capitol . . . Read more Look inside

This book is the account of an ordinary person whose life experiences were atypical. He was the fifth of seven children born into the home of a rural minister and educator.

Found Inside: "In the summer of 1955 George and Annie DeLozier lived on their  farm located about fourteen miles from Dimmitt near the western boundary of Castro County. The area was sparsely populated. Granted there were more people than a few generations earlier when  ... " Read more Look inside

The fabulous XIT Ranch has been celebrated in song, story, and serious history. This book of reminiscences of old XIT cowmen puts on record the everyday life of the individuals who made the ranch run. Found Inside: "Ira Aten's taste of rustling is more or less typical. A former Texas Ranger, he built a reputation for tracking stolen cattle while sheriff of Castro County, once returning more than three hundred head, plus the thieve, from the Washita River in Indian Territory . . . Read more Look inside

Against the flamboyant background of the “Golden Spread,” the oil-rich Panhandle of the late 1950s, Al Dewlen has poised a full-scale and truly original novel of one Texas family―the Mungers of Amarillo.

"Laska went into bargaining with several hillbilly bands, among them Red Wines and His Castro County Cavaliers, Billy Samples and His Texas Plainsmen, and Ernie Favors and The Gila Canyon Boys. Then, almost as a deal was closed with . . . Read more Look inside

Among the famous ranch brands of Texas are the T Anchor, JA, Diamond Tail, 777, Bar C, and XIT. And the greatest of these was XIT—The XIT Ranch of Texas.

"It had traveled over 950 miles to inspect all the land except that in Castro County and to find that Norton's re ort “as to soil, grass, water, timber, rock, and shelter” was correct. The party met the veteran hunters, George and John Causey, in their . . . Read more Look inside

Winner of the Belmont University Prize for Best Book on Country Western Music.

"The novelty of "FOUR COWPUNCHERS from Dimmitt, Texas" playing hillbilly music appealed to the management, audience, and media.8 The band was so well received that regular Hayride member Webb Pierce gave up his fifteen-minute . . . Read more Look inside

by David Espinoza

This is a must-read book for tearing down the walls of stereotyping, and battling discrimination based on skin color and poverty. Diversity is a reality in our current world. A very poor kid from Dimmitt, Texas (Carlos) is surprised by his large family packing up one day and moving to Oregon. He meets a very wealthy boy from Gervais, Oregon (Harv) in the berry field. Carlos is a very gifted quarterback, but when it comes to grades, well . . . Read more Look inside

They say that a child is a product of his/her environment.

"But in 1980, he brought her to visit me at (my grandmother's (El Mini) house in Dimmitt, Texas where I stayed during the summer. We talked about a lot of things, but it was so painful to hear about some of the horrible things that happened to . . .  Read more Look inside

by Andy Adams

 During the early 1880s Andy Adams went to Texas, where he stayed for 10 years, spending much of that time driving cattle on the western trails. Found inside: "The branding-irons had been altered en route, and about noon a vaquero came down the river and reported the second round-up of the day would meet just over the county line in Dimmit. He belonged at Los Lobos, and reported the morning rodeo as containing over five hundred beeves" . . . Read more Look inside

Synopsis: COCKFIGHTERS takes place in a lonely West Texas town where vengeance and violence come more naturally to the Fowler family than to the gamecocks they fight.

"... and bleeding not too far from here killed my sister, you little sonofabitch! (TAMMY JEAN WILKINS enters.) TAMMY: CD! CD, can we go back now? What are you doing? (CD glares at her. Light shift. The inside of an old barn in Dimmitt, Texas . . . Read more Look inside

Profiles more than 500 men and women, along with key events and geographical locations, who played out their lives as gunfighters, robbers, and peace officers in the Old West.

"He married in 1892, he and his wife living at a dugout ranch in Dimmitt, Texas. In 1893, he became sheriff of Castro County, organizing 20 local cowboys into a ranch police force". . . . Read more

While the tragedy of World War II played itself out in the cities and across the countryside of Europe, a different drama took place in the Texas Panhandle, where three thousand Italian prisoners of war were interned in a camp at Hereford. "The information exchange and visits between the Italians and the people of Hereford and adjacent Castro County have continued in the years since. Clara Vick of nearby Dimmitt has attended all the Italian reunion but one since 1988. Small parties of Italians visit . . . Read more Look inside

Herbert Eugene Bolton, who was well-known for his books on the Southwest and Spanish Americas, here recounts in detail Francisco Vasquez de Coronado’s sixteenth-century entrada to the North American frontier of the Spanish Empire. Found Inside: "Going back to Castro County we retraced the route of Coronado's army past the salt lakes on its return from Tule Canyon to Pecos River . . . " Read more Look inside

We arrived in Hart, Texas, on a cool morning. I noticed that the grass was brown from a long, hot summer. I wanted to pour endless water on it to give it life. Nothing should have to starve for what it needs the most. Matt and Lindsey woke up . . . Read more

Featuring a side of Tejano history too often neglected, author Arnoldo De León shows that people of Spanish-Mexican descent were not passive players in or, worse, absent from West Texas history but instead were active agents at the center of it . . . Read more Look inside