Crosby County: History, Museums and the White River

The Crosby County Courthouse offers a distinctive introduction to the history of Crosby County: completed in the neoclassical style in late 1914, it is listed as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark. The region brings together a variety of historical traces—from architecture and collections to local histories and landscapes connected with early travel and settlement. You can choose the focus of your trip according to whether you are interested in exhibitions, sites of remembrance, or the connection between nature and history.

Local history and landmark buildings

Lorenzo was founded when the Crosbyton-South Plains Railway ran its first train there on April 10, 1911. Lorenzo Cemetery preserves the town’s community history; the first marked grave dates to 1918 and belongs to W. A. Greenhill. The railway connection and the cemetery tell different chapters of the town’s history.

Cotton farming is also part of Lorenzo’s history: cultivation was encouraged in the surrounding area in 1914; Lorenzo is now a center of cotton farming. Another date takes us back to the settlement history of the South Plains. In 1877, pioneer Henry Clay Smith had a two-story stone house built near the mesa; it was the region’s first permanent homestead.

The Mount Blanco Post Office opened in September 1879, with Elizabeth Boyle as postmaster. Together with the courthouse and the sites of remembrance in Lorenzo, this date shows the different ways the region’s history can be told: through buildings, early settlement, and the development of individual communities.

Museums and collections

The Crosby County Pioneer Memorial Museum preserves more than 45,000 artifacts documenting life on the South Plains, including objects associated with Comanche warriors and settlers. Exhibits include tools and works of art from Indigenous peoples, an early 20th-century Brush automobile, and a diorama of Blanco Canyon. The objects and diorama offer different ways to explore regional history.

The museum was established in 1958 in a replica of the Hank Smith House. The original house was in Blanco Canyon and was the first permanent house on the Llano.

The Ralls Historical Museum is housed in a historic former bank building. Its 16 themed rooms cover, among other things, agricultural equipment, military memorabilia, a barbershop, and an undertaking business. The exhibits are therefore not limited to a single topic, but are organized into different areas.

The Prairie Ladies Multi-Cultural Center features exhibitions about women from the region and transportation. The range of exhibits thus extends from collections and life stories to subjects related to regional daily life and mobility.

The White River and Blanco Canyon

White River Reservoir is 25 miles south of Crosbyton on the White River, a tributary of the Salt Fork of the Brazos River. Largemouth bass fishing at the reservoir is considered excellent; fishing quality and lake conditions can change.

Silver Falls is on the White River. The stone structures there were built in 1935 by the National Youth Administration as part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal programs. The river thus brings together a specific connection to the landscape and a dated example from the New Deal era.

Blanco Canyon is a scenic landscape associated with travel, early settlement, and military history. Together with the museum’s historical references to the canyon, it offers a distinct way to explore regional history: the stories of the South Plains are connected not only to individual buildings, but also to landscapes.

A local history with different perspectives

Emma has its own local history, too. The community became a ghost town after its residents moved to other communities. Emma Cemetery is now the only remaining connection to the people who once lived there. Those interested in Crosby County will find a variety of perspectives: museum rooms and collections, architectural and local history, and landscapes with historical connections. Fishing is another activity at White River Reservoir, where quality and conditions can vary.

Discover more destinations

Discover more destinations: Lorenzo, Trinity, Navarro County, Fort Bend, Denton, Comal, Montague, San Patricio County

For the main travel overview: Texas.