Help finding real country ranch town in texas. (Austin, Fort Worth: living in, restaurants)

[debzkidz]

Stephenville, Comanche and Dublin were the first to come to my mind when I read the OP. Stephenville is home of Tarleton State University and lots of cowboy types. It would fit your request of being close to a big city also. I don't think its but about an hour or a bit more to Fort Worth. San Angelo, while itself is about 90,000 people, has lots of small towns around it, like Mertzon, Christoval and such, but they are really tiny. And it is a long drive to anything larger. I also thought about some really cool towns like Alpine, Marfa, and Marathon, but they are really remote. These are probably at least a 3 hour drive to a bigger town.

[joqua]

Originally Posted by debzkidz

I also thought about some really cool towns like Alpine, Marfa, and Marathon, but they are really remote. These are probably at least a 3 hour drive to a bigger town.

The OP qualified the search by saying they want a really small town, so being near a larger metro area may not be a consideration.

Certainly the Davis Mtn towns mentioned are "cowboy country" - with Sul Ross Univ. in Alpine having a long history of "cowboy academics."

There is a little-known college at Snyder that prides itself on it's "cowboy" culture, Western Texas College.

Just about any town west of Ft. Worth is going to have more of a "ranch" feel than towns to the south and east.

[johnsonstss]

thank you everybody. large places are okay, i just want the small town feel and a place to meet my cowboy. I've heard of North Ft. Worth around the stockyards being a good place and one of you had posted that as well - ? but have read the city is about 60% hispanic?

[doctorjef]

Snyder. Not excessively far from both Lubbock and Abiliene -- probably about equidistant between the two and also not all that far from San Angelo. Rather pretty around there and more ranch than farm country.

Spur might be another possibility. For a really small town, I'd suggest Dickens, which like Spur is located in Dickens County and is out in utterly desolate but hautingly beautiful ranch country. I used to drive through there frequently between Lubbock and Fort Worth. Dickens is only about 300 people or so.

[Salgal1113]

San Saba - about 45 minutes from Brownwood, 2 hours from Austin or Abilene. Definitely meets your criteria.

San Saba, Texas: The Pecan Capital of the World

[debzkidz]

Originally Posted by joqua

The OP qualified the search by saying they want a really small town, so being near a larger metro area may not be a consideration.

Certainly the Davis Mtn towns mentioned are "cowboy country" - with Sul Ross Univ. in Alpine having a long history of "cowboy academics."

There is a little-known college at Snyder that prides itself on it's "cowboy" culture, Western Texas College.

Just about any town west of Ft. Worth is going to have more of a "ranch" feel than towns to the south and east.

The OP also qualified her search by saying she would like it to be with in an hour and a half or so to a bigger city for shopping etc. That lets out the Davis Mountain area.

[debzkidz]

Originally Posted by johnsonstss

thank you everybody. large places are okay, i just want the small town feel and a place to meet my cowboy. I've heard of North Ft. Worth around the stockyards being a good place and one of you had posted that as well - ? but have read the city is about 60% hispanic?

Fort Worth is a big city, and the Stockyards are right in the middle of it. They are in an area referred to by some locals as the Northside. The Stockyards are a tourist attraction more than anything now. The old cattle bins are now places you can rent out for special events. I attended a wedding reception there this summer. I don't think you are going to find many real cowboys there. I'm not sure where you are getting your statistics about Hispanics but according to C-D Ft Worth is 34.9% Hispanic. The area around the Stockyards is a Hispanic neighborhood for sure, but the city as a whole is not.

You might find some real cowboys in towns north of Fort Worth, but not just outside the city, those are just suburbs, like any other suburb in the country. As others have mentioned, you should look to the west of Fort Worth, in towns like Eastland, Stephenville, Ranger, Mineral Wells etc.

You may have trouble finding an area in Texas that does not have a Hispanic population. The Hispanic/Mexican heritage is a strong and integral part of what makes Texas, Texas. Remember at one time Texas was part of Mexico.

[johnsonstss]

i didn't mean no hispanics, that sounds terrible, i simply meant not completely hispanic, a friend of our family is hispanic and moved here from texas and had always talked about the towns being all hispanic men (Which she was not a fan of) but those were around the border. I just didn't want to stick out like a sore thumb, just as other heritages want to be around their heritage.
does that make sense? Not racist.

[debzkidz]

Gotcha. Yes, along the border many of towns will be largely Hispanic.

[doctorjef]

Except for the South Texas ranch country - down around the King Ranch, for example - the population of the typical Texas ranch towns is going to be predominantly Anglo. And it's noteworthy that no one has been recommending anywhere in South Texas as typical cowboy-ranching towns. As close to that part of the state as I would recommend is some towns that are still in Central Texas but a little bit southeast of Austin. Likewise, some of the towns that are northwest of San Antonio and west/southwest of Austin. But not South Texas per se, i.e. due south of San Antonio.