Eastland County Ghost Towns - Eastland County Safety Rest Area - Ranger, TX - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

They're called "Safety Rest Areas" because there are storm shelters to be found, a change from the classical rest stops along the Interstates that are just facilities with picnic areas and vending machines. They are a good place for those on long drives to practice safe habits by taking breaks and taking in some local history, in the form of signs and exhibits for notable attractions in the area. When the two Ranger Safety Rest Areas (the other is just across the Interstate) were opened in 2016, the idea was to add some background for the old Bankhead Highway, once a major thoroughfare through the area, now absorbed primarily by I-20 and other roads, although some sections have been reclaimed by Mother Nature. A look at Google Maps from above will give the reader a nice view of a section of the Bankhead Highway that was just north of the parking lot. This sign stands under a mock-up of a service station, and it reads:

Eastland County has a fair share of the state's ghost towns. Among the most fascinating is the community of Thurber where much of the brick to pave the Bankhead Highway and the streets of Austin and Galveston was made. Initially, Thurber was a coal-mining town owned completely by the Texas & Pacific Coal and Oil Company. In the late 1800s, it had a population of about 8,000, had a 650-seat opera house, and a 200-room hotel. The company bosses surrounded the town with a barbed wire fence and employed armed guards to keep labor union organizers from gaining access. The miners, largely Italian, Hungarian and Mexican emigrants worked and lived in almost total subjugation. Eventually pressure from the labor unions, and the railroad's move away from coal to power locomotives with oil, shut the town down. All that remains is a huge smokestack that has been converted into a popular restaurant for travelers along I-20.

The settlement of Desdemona began around 1857. Its early economy was based on peanut farming, then in 1918, a driller struck oil and the boom began. At the height of the boom, it is estimated the town had a population of 16,000. With the onset of typhoid fever, a series of fires, lawlessness and the end of the oil boom, the town was reduced to little more than ghosts and ruins.

Mangum, Texas, was a farming and ranching community founded in the late 1800s. In 1915, the town had a population of 125 souls, a gin, a school, two doctors, a hospital and a flourishing mineral water company. By the 1920s it had begun to decline. The post office closed in 1929 and by the late 1980s Mangum was no longer shown on highway maps.

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The sign has inset photos of the smokestack at Thurber, the center of town in Desdemona, and the railroad station at Mangum. Of these, Mangum certainly belongs to the ages, but while neither Desdemona nor Thurber are what they were during their peak, there's still life today. Desdemona has plenty of photo opportunities, a few stores, churches, a post office, and even a few gas stations where you can see "Desdemona" on your receipt. The smokestack greets you as you drive I-20, but it isn't all that remains of Thurber. There are actually two restaurants in "town" (which is technically Mingus now, and it's in adjacent Erath County). There are a few historic homes, a couple of buildings, a museum, as well as some other relics from the town's heyday.

Group that erected the marker: Eastland County URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link] Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: Eastland County Safety Rest Area I-20 Ranger, TX USA 76470

Visit Instructions:
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Date Logged Log   05/21/2022 The Snowdog visited it 01/14/2022 KidWrangler visited it

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