Our final stop on the first leg of our journey north on US 287 was Vernon, Texas. It's known as the Hibiscus Capital of Texas, the Birthplace of Roy Orbison and Bacon City USA. That's a lot for a small town in Texas.
Vernon was occupied by the Tankawa Indians back in 1858. Then Daniel Waggoner bought a lot of the land just south of town to establish his cattle ranch. After the Civil War, settlers like Robert Franklin Jones moved into the area. In 1880, he donated land for a townsite that would eventually be called Vernon. The town was named either for George Washington's Mount Vernon or (and I like this one better) a traveling whiskey salesman named Vernon Brown.
In 1885, the Fort Worth & Denver Railway came to town and the Vernon Depot was built. What was interesting is that it still shows up on Google maps as a landmark. So when we drove out here, this is what I was expecting.
This is what I found, a junk yard. Such a shame!
Vernon incorporated as a town in 1889 and in 1890, the Wilbarger County Courthouse was built. It's gorgeous. A tornado demolished the tower at some point and then by the early 1920s, it was determined that a new courthouse was needed.
In 1928, the new courthouse was built and it's still a functioning courthouse today. It's not as fancy as the original but it's nice. I'm just glad they didn't feel the need to "modernize" the design.
The old Wilbarger County Jail is about a block from the courthouse. It was built back in the late 1880s and included a residence for the sheriff, as most of these small towns do. the residence would have been in the front by the awning (on the left) and the jail to the back (the barred door on the right). The building ceased to be a jail in the late 1970s and became a museum. We drove 200 miles to check out this museum that, according to the website was open, only to find they had changed the hours to "by appointment only". Who makes an appointment to visit a museum?
The Great Western Trail was a cattle drive that started in South Texas and went all the way to Nebraska. Vernon was a stop on that trail bringing prosperity to the town. In 1886, when the railroad came to town, it replaced the cattle drives. Luckily, Vernon was part of that as well.
"Oh, Pretty Woman, walking down the street..." No! it's not Van Halen! It's the original, Roy Orbison! He was born in Vernon in 1936. He lived here until his family moved to Fort Worth in the 1950s.
Harvey Dean is famous in Vernon. He was an African American man who supported his family by selling tamales from a push cart. For 40 years, he was seen around town selling his wares and he made enough money to support his family and send his kids to college. An American success story.
In 1922, a few local men started a meat business in the back of their grocery store in downtown Vernon. They started wood smoking bacon and slicing it thick. The bacon became a big seller and Roy Wright had to find bigger digs to manufacture his product. They opened a plant here and started Wright Foods Inc. At one point the bacon packing plant employed 200 people! In 2001, the company was taken over by Tyson but the plant is still there and still operational. In 2022, they celebrated 100 years of business and the city officially renamed themselves Bacon City USA. This is called the "bacon strip" and it goes right down Main Street.
This is an interesting building. It's the Robert L. More Tire Company. It started in the mid-1930s as a tire shop and gas station. In 1942, the building was remodeled and More's extensive bird egg collection was housed on the second floor. I'm not sure when they closed but the building stands empty as a historic landmark. I wonder if those eggs are still in there. Too bad they don't make this into a museum or something.
This cool building on Fannin Street was built in 1928 by C.T. Herring, a local rancher. The first tenant? Montgomery Wards! I used to love that store.
The motif at the top in the green panels is the "Spirit of Progress" popular with Montgomery Ward. The whole chain closed in 2000 after 128 years in business. I'm not sure when this particular store closed.
About 10K people live here. They have a Walmart, a Brookshire's and a United Supermarket. There are no chain restaurants but they do have some chain fast food places. I imagine that when people need to "go into town", this is where they come for their grocery needs, etc. Tyson Foods, Walmart and Wilbarger General Hospital are the biggest employers in Vernon.
In addition to the Wilbarger Historical Museum, they have the Red River Museum. We were so intent on getting to the historical museum that we forgot about the other one. Vernon was a dusty old town that had a lot more history that I thought. Make an appointment and come check it out!
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