Glenrio, formerly Rock Island, is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in both

Deaf Smith County, Texas Deaf Smith County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 18,583. The county seat is Hereford, which is known as the "Beef Capital of the World". The county was created in 1876 and later organ ...

, and Quay County,

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

, United States. Located on the former

U.S. Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...

, the

ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...

sits on the

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

–

state line. It includes the Glenrio Historic District, which was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2007. The community was founded in 1903 as a railroad siding on the

Rock Island Railroad The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P RW, sometimes called ''Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway'') was an American Class I railroad In the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly k ...

. Its name is derived from Scots '' glen'' +

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

rio Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...

'' (meaning "river").

History

Originally a railroad town, the village was renamed from Rock Island to Glenrio by the Rock Island and Pacific Railroad in 1908, and began receiving motorists on the dusty Ozark Trail in 1917. Its original structures were adobe buildings. The ''circa''-1910 Angel House was in New Mexico. The Ozark Trail was formed into

on November 11, 1926. By the 1930s,

U.S. Route 66 in Texas U.S. Route 66 (US 66, Route 66) in the state of Texas extended across the Texas Panhandle from its designation in 1926 to its decommissioning in 1985. Route description The original US 66 followed an east-west line across t ...

was a paved, two-lane road served locally by several

filling station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasoli ...

s, a

restaurant A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

, and a

motel A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central lobby. Entering dictionaries ...

. The road was widened in the 1950s. A

Texaco Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American Petroleum, oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its Gasoline, fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an Indepe ...

station (1950) and a

diner A diner is a small, inexpensive restaurant found across the United States, as well as in Canada and parts of Western Europe. Diners offer a wide range of foods, mostly American cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and, characteristically, a com ...

(Brownlee Diner/Little Juarez Café, 1952) were constructed in Texas using the

art moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...

architectural style. The location of Glenrio on Texas and New Mexico border led to some interesting business practices. At one point, all fuel was dispensed in Texas due to New Mexico's higher gasoline taxes. The 1930s State Line Bar and motel were built in New Mexico because Deaf Smith County, Texas, was dry at the time. The railroad station was in Texas. The local post office, built around 1935, was in New Mexico. A water tank and windmill in New Mexico were constructed around 1945. The Joseph Brownlee House, constructed in

Amarillo Amarillo ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "yellow") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat, seat of Potter County, Texas, Potter County. It is the List of cities in Texas by population, 14th-most populous city in Texas and th ...

in 1930, was moved to Glenrio in 1950. Glenrio was the site of the "First Motel in Texas" / "Last Motel in Texas" (Homer Ehresman's family-run 1953 State Line Café and Gas Station and 1955 Texas Longhorn Motel, closed in 1976) and other businesses that straddled the state line on U.S. Route 66 for many years until Interstate 40 bypassed the community in September 1973. Three filling stations (the 1925 Broyles Mobil station, a 1935 Texaco, and the 1946 Ferguson gas station) once operated in New Mexico. It went in to decline during 1975 when Interstate 40 had bypassed the town. For years, a simmering dispute had existed over of which state the east part of Glenrio is lawfully a part: Texas or New Mexico? The straight north-south border between the two states was originally defined as the 103rd meridian, but the 1859 survey that was supposed to mark that boundary mistakenly set the border between too far west of that line, making the current towns of Farwell, Texline, and the east part of Glenrio appear to be within Texas. New Mexico's short border with Oklahoma, in contrast, was surveyed on the correct meridian. New Mexico's draft constitution in 1910 stated that the border is on the 103rd meridian as intended. The disputed strip, hundreds of miles long, includes parts of valuable

oilfields A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations. Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the presence ...

of the Permian Basin. A bill was passed in the

New Mexico Senate The New Mexico Senate ( es, Senado de Nuevo México) is the upper house of the New Mexico State Legislature. The Senate consists of 42 members, with each senator representing an equal number of single-member constituent districts across the stat ...

to fund and file a lawsuit in the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

to recover the strip from Texas, but the bill did not become law. Today, land in the strip is included in Texas land surveys and the land and towns (the east part of Glenrio) for all purposes are taxed and governed by the State of Texas.

Location

Glenrio sits just a few yards to the south of Interstate 40 at Texas exit 0 on Business I-40, a road which turns into a local gravel road at the state line. This was the original Route 66 alignment between Glenrio and San Jon until 1952, and was paved for many years until Quay County removed the paving due to maintenance costs. Mail was formerly served by a post office on the New Mexico side of the town. The town consists of the remains of the courtyard motel and related Texas Longhorn Café and

Phillips 66 The Phillips 66 Company is an American Multinational corporation, multinational energy company headquartered in Westchase, Houston, Westchase, Houston, Houston, Texas. Its name, dating back to 1927 as a trademark of the Phillips Petroleum Compan ...

service station, the post office, a few other buildings including the diner and adjacent Texaco service station, the old Route 66 roadbed, and the former roadbed of the Rock Island Railroad, whose tracks were removed in the 1980s. A few homes still exist in Glenrio; the Joseph Brownlee House and an office in the Texas Longhorn Motel were the last to be occupied.

Glenrio Historic District

Glenrio Historic District is a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

that was listed on the

in 2007. At the time of the listing, the district included 12

contributing buildings In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

and four other

contributing structures In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

Glenrio Welcome Center

On June 25, 2008, the State of New Mexico opened the Glenrio Welcome Center on Interstate 40 at the Texas state line. The center includes a pet walk, a livestock corral, wireless Internet access, a movie theater, and information kiosks. Built to accommodate one million visitors per year, it includes green features such as recycling of

greywater Greywater (or grey water, sullage, also spelled gray water in the United States) refers to domestic wastewater generated in households or office buildings from streams without fecal contamination, i.e., all streams except for the wastewater from ...

for grounds

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow Crop, crops, Landscape plant, landscape plants, and Lawn, lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,00 ...

, and a

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...

to generate 20% of the center's energy.

In cinema

Portions of ''

The Grapes of Wrath ''The Grapes of Wrath'' is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize ...

'' (1940) were filmed in Glenrio. An abandoned "Glenn Rio Motel" is depicted in the town of

Radiator Springs Radiator Springs is a fictional small Arizona town and the principal setting of the Disney/Pixar franchise ''Cars''. A composite of multiple real-world locations on the historic U.S. Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles, it is most prominently f ...

in 2006's animated film ''

Cars A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...

'', where the architectural design of Glenrio's Little Juarez Café is used for a vacant, abandoned building, which eventually becomes the Racing Museum. The opening scene from the movie ''

Daylight's End ''Daylight's End'' is a 2016 American action horror film directed by William Kaufman and written by Chad Law. It stars Johnny Strong as a drifter in post-apocalyptic Texas who agrees to help survivors, played by Lance Henriksen, Louis Mandylor, an ...

'' (2018) was filmed in Glenrio.

Photo gallery

Image:Glenrio4 (1 of 1).jpg , Closed café and gas station in Glenrio Image:Glenrio1 (1 of 1).jpg , Closed hotel in Glenrio Image:Glenrio NM Tex Motel 1.jpg, First/Last Motel in Texas, Glenrio

References

External links

*
The Grapes of Wrath revisited: Dust to dust for the ghosts of Route 66
guardian.co.uk, Chris McGreal—writer, August 28, 2009. (includes video)
Glenrio, TX/ from the Amarillo Globe-News12 of the Most Eerily Abandoned Towns in America
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Quay County, New Mexico Unincorporated communities in Deaf Smith County, Texas Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas Ghost towns in New Mexico Ghost towns in the Texas Panhandle Ghost towns on U.S. Route 66 National Register of Historic Places in Quay County, New Mexico National Register of Historic Places in Deaf Smith County, Texas Populated places on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico Populated places on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas Unincorporated communities in New Mexico Unincorporated communities in Texas