Texas Country Reporter

Nothing makes us sad quite like hearing that one of our favorite old TCR business stories has closed up shop. Some of our favorite bakeries and restaurants where locals would gather just aren't around anymore, but thanks to our archives, we can still visit them any time we want.

On this collection of TCR classics, we've put together some of your favorites so we can step back in time and visit them once again.

Local Texas Businesses We Miss the Most | TCR Collection This week, we're sharing some old TCR stories from beloved businesses that are no longer in operation. Though their doors may be closed, the impact they left...

This little gas station in McLean, Texas has been standing since 1928. According to Phillips company it was the first Phillips 66 station approved to be built in Texas.

I took the photo on a Polaroid, albeit a modern one. Edwin Land filed the patent that would eventually lead to instant photography the year after this station opened.

The first Polaroid went on sale in 1948 for $89.75, which sounds cheap, but it was the equivalent of about $1,200 in today's dollars. By then the McLean Phillips 66 station had been pumping gas for 20 years.

This cute little Tudor-styled station pumped gas for weary travelers for nearly 50 years before closing in 1977. A local group restored it in 1992 in hopes of drawing tourists off of the interstate that bypassed McLean. It certainly drew me.

Life before 70 MPH speed limits was just a little slower it seems. A gas station stop was a reprieve from a long bumpy road. An "instant" photo still took 60 seconds to reveal itself.

Great stories take time to develop. Thankfully for us at TCR, there are plenty all over Texas to capture.

I’ve been making a habit of stopping by old cemeteries I find as I travel across the state. I found this one in Alanreed, Texas; a town that was formerly along Route 66 in the Panhandle.

From the bit of searching I did, her name was Nancy Louisa Baker. She died in 1899 nearby, in a settlement that didn’t even have a real name yet. It hadn’t yet been named Alanreed, there was no railroad, no church and certainly no Route 66. According to the TSHA, some folks called this place “Prairie Dog Town” and others called it “Gouge Eye”, a name given to it after a nearby saloon fight. It sure sounded like a frontier town.

She’s the oldest marked grave in this cemetery according to the historical marker at the gate. It might make her the first person buried here, but I couldn’t confirm that.

The stone says Mrs. Rev. W.H. Baker, which was her husband’s title. Her actual name, Nancy Louisa, survived thanks to whoever thought to write it down in a county record years later.

She was born in 1841 when Texas was still a republic. She lived through the Civil War, through Reconstruction, and somehow ended up way out here in Gray County, which had fewer than 500 people total when she died. The Rock Island railroad that would put this town on the map was still four years away.

I don’t know what brought her or her husband out here. I assume his profession as a minister.

What I do know is she’s still here.

Rural Texas is full of people like Nancy. Folks who did hard things in hard places and didn’t get much credit for it. I think about that every time I find a stone like this one.

They’re the sorts of folks we love to feature on TCR. Ordinary Texans doing extraordinary things. “Back then” or on the back roads, they’re all interesting to me.

Our season finale is up! Hop in and travel with us as we follow the journey of making an all-Texas beer!

It’s like a relay race of Texas agriculture and ingenuity with refreshing finish!

Grab a coffee and come along for this epic season finale.

Watch it here: https://youtu.be/mRmbSxHw3tA

It’s not easy, but it is possible to make a beer out of only Texas ingredients. It takes a lot of collaboration from folks all throughout the Texas agriculture community.

We devoted our entire season finale to this story and it’ll premiere on YouTube in 2 hours. Subscribe to be notified!

Grab a cup of coffee and hop in as we see the magic happen all across our state.

Can You Make A Beer Entirely in Texas? I Texas Country Reporter Season 54 Finale Cheers to the Season 54 Finale of Texas Country Reporter! In this episode, follow the grain-to-glass journey of a local "Texas Country" craft beer. Meet the ...

I have an ask of all of you.

During last year's floods in Kerrville, my colleague Aaron Parsley and his family were swept away by rushing waters while still in their home.

Sadly, his nephew perished.
Miraculously, the rest survived.

Aaron wrote a reflection of the experience in the hours after, and it became one of the most-read stories Texas Monthly has ever published, and went on to win a Pulitzer last week.

He recently completed a podcast in which he interviews other flood survivors and reflects on their experiences. It will premiere on May 26th.

Please listen to the trailer and subscribe below. It'll help extend the reach of these important stories on the day it publishes.

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/where-the-river-took-us/id1896345297

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3iGFYRPImRDCpuJy7ZrxgE?si=912fe90332104218

It’s hard to take a bad photo in Palo Duro Canyon. That’s where one of our subjects of our storytelling this week shoots all of her portraits.

It’s the second largest canyon in the United States and it’s in the part of Texas most people consider to be the flattest.

If you’ve never been to Palo Duro before, you’ll want to tune in later this fall to take a ride through it with us.