Texan town on America's most famous highway was once packed with diners and motels. Then from 1975, suddenly everyone stopped coming, and today it is one of the best-preserved ghost towns

One little town, which was located bang in the middle of the Texas-Mexico border, became a rather busy place, filled to the brim with diners and motels, despite the residents never exceeding a few dozen. The Route 66 town, according to an article published in the The National Park Service, provided relief for travellers passing that route through the diners, western-themed motels, gas stations and dance halls during the 1940s and 1950s. Glenrio had its origins as a Rock Island Railroad stop.

The Transition From Railroad Town To Highway Hotspot

By the 1930s, Route 66 had been developed into a fully paved, two-lane highway stretching across Texas. As the new roadway attracted more travellers, a collection of businesses appeared along its northern edge, including several filling stations, a newly established eatery and a motel. Some structures from Glenrio’s earlier days as a railroad settlement were relocated closer to the highway, while many others were torn down or gradually deteriorated.

The community’s Texas side had no bars because Deaf Smith County prohibited alcohol sales. On the New Mexico side, motorists found no gas stations, largely because the state imposed a comparatively steep tax on gasoline.


Throughout the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, Glenrio benefited from the heavy flow of motorists using Route 66. The town became a busy stop along the highway. Former Glenrio resident John Paul Ferguson, who spent several summers working at local filling stations, remembered seeing a steady stream of vehicles throughout the day, with lines of five or six cars often waiting for fuel.

The 1950s brought another wave of commercial development to Glenrio. Among the buildings constructed during this period, a Texaco filling station and a diner located nearby remain especially noteworthy. Both structures incorporated elements of the Art Moderne architectural style. The station features distinctive curved vertical panels above its drive-through service area, while the diner is characterised by rounded concrete corners and a sweeping metal canopy. Remarkably, both buildings have survived in a well-preserved condition.

Fall From Grace

Glenrio’s fortunes dwindled when, in 1975, it was hit hard by Interstate 40. According to Atlas Obscura, this new highway promised quick transportation. By 1980, only two residents remained. Today, only one person resides in the town, and it has been abandoned.

The Joseph Brownlee House and an office at the Texas Longhorn Motel are the only two structures in Glenrio that are occupied. The remnants of forty years when Glenrio welcomed thousands of people, provided them with refreshments and entertainments and then sent them dafely on the way to Chicago or California can be seen in other buildings with overgrown sites, missing windows, or debris surrounding them.

According to Atlas Obscura, Glenrio has had some revival despite being a ghost town – it has become a haven for marijuana addicts.

In 2022, recreational marijuana became legal in New Mexico; however, because it is still prohibited in Texas, a dispensary called the Glenrio Smoke Stop has opened on the New Mexico side of the border.