Texarkana - The ABANDONED Rail Town - State of Infrastructure 

It's actually a pretty busy & vibrant town, most of the action is on State Line, Richmond Rd, Summer Hill Rd, & New Boston Rd areas. Everything along the interstate, particularly the Texas side is new & developed, downtown is rarely ventured into except for some locals. Texarkana gets a lot of visitors from the small towns surrounding it, since it is in such an isolated area & has way more to offer than your typical small east Texas/southern Arkansas towns. That's mostly the reason why it is still growing despite the fact it can be a somewhat depressing city.

As a resident of resident of Texarkana I wish this man would've been able to talk to one of the locals to learn a little more about this town. Nothing on here is particularly wrong but there's so much that could use clarification.

I'm born and raised in Texarkana, Texas. While our downtown has been neglected, our growth has been along the I-30 corridor. Along I-30, where you see the Texas Roadhouse, Home Depot, etc, was all farm land in the 80's. We now have one way frontage roads with easy turn arounds at each overpass along I-30 for easier access to the businesses that line the sides. Like most cities along major interstates, you want people traveling through to have easy access to our businesses. If everything was downtown, they have to get directions and drive through town going through more traffic and red lights, etc. Most downtown areas aren't the "center" of commerce any longer. It's especially true when we have many smaller towns around us and most people drive to our city to visit the major box stores. Thank you for raising awareness of our city. Most people know it from Smokey and the Bandit or The Town That Dreaded Sundown.

My brother and I would fly down to Texarkana (flight into Shreveport) every summer to be with his grandparents, which lived on the Arkansas side. Some of my best memories came from those summers. I actually moved to Texarkana as an adult to look after my brother's grandfather, and began working for the State of Arkansas, but lived on Texas side. Seeing all those buildings downtown so empty is hard to see. I have to agree with others, I-30 is where everyone is. I left after a few years, I could no longer deal with the mindset of the people.

Texarkana downtown has been empty for the twenty years that I've lived here. The economic and residential center has moved to the West. Even the two major hospitals have moved (one) and is moving (the other) about 5-7 miles to the West. While the town has changed a lot over the past 20 years, it is really all about the growth along I-30 following its expansion years back.

Everyone that does videos on TK goes downtown and neglects to go to the other side of town. The north side of the interstate is where everything is being built and where the city is a bit nicer. You cannot form an accurate opinion on TK until you see it all. A lot of the population we are loosing are moving to the surrounding towns that everyone in TK considers part of the city. Nash, Wake Village, and Liberty Eylau are increasing I’m sure if you check the stats. It’s kinda ratchet here but it’s home.

This is more or less the vibes I get from those small towns that were bypassed by interstates back in the 50s and 60s

Pine Bluff has some SERIOUS competition in Texarkana when it comes to a city being abandoned.

Lived in Texarkana for about 15 years until 2008 but pass by through there every year. From what I can tell there has been some decline but also a lot of improvement. A lot of businesses have been built along I-30 and most have actually been there for a long time now. Where Target sits now I remember back in the 90s when there was a farm in that area. Downtown hasn't been the hotspot there in a long time or at least wasn't when I lived there. It shifted to elsewhere in town. Several areas that were woods decades ago are now occupied by apartments or businesses. Theft was very common when I lived there and the street that I grew up on has declined. So there is that. Overall the town seems much bigger and more active now than long ago. Traffic seemingly a lot busier than long ago. I noticed that there is an effort to renovate some historical buildings downtown also. So Texarkana is still thriving even though it has changed over the decades.

Sadly when driving on I30 East, Texarkana is the last semi developed city between Dallas and Little Rock. Greenville Texas has quite a bit more life due to the proximity of the college.

My man, you should seriously consider doing an ASMR channel. You have the most soothing voice I've ever heard. Love your videos. Thanks!

So much potential here … sad to see it so empty. One thing I remember about Arkansas when would visit my grandparents in Hot Springs is that you could really tell what areas they put money into to maintain vs which ones they didn’t. For your Chicago video(s) you HAVE to check out the Lower Wacker Drive downtown tunnel roads, and also Lake Shore Drive. As a Chicagoan I’m excited for you to check out the area!

What surprised me the most is they had electric scooters to rent. Would be interesting to see how much usage they get

The long pauses in between your lines is really creepy (in a good way!). It really sets the tone of the video: we’ve got what’s largely an abandoned ghost town here.

As someone from Texarkana, born and raised. There isn't much reason to go downtown. Some people are slowly working on restoring areas of it. The life is coming back slowly.

Awe man this was painful! I grew up in Texarkana but left in ‘77 when I joined the Air Force. I haven’t been back since my parents died. Downtown was vibrant in the sixties but began to die once I-30 bypassed the town north of the city center. Most of the retail businesses moved northwest of town for the traffic and newer suburbs, plus I believe the Texas side had a better income tax situation. The railroad town theme is interesting. I remember riding a passenger train to Dallas when I was a child with family members. Overall, the condition of downtown is very sad, but frankly it appears to be much improved-or at least cleaned up-from a few years ago as shown in another RU-vid video. Really enjoy your work. If you do Ohio, I’d like to hear your thoughts on US 33 running from SE to NW across the state. Are there plans to make it an interstate to link Columbus to Ft.Wayne/Chicago?

Every time I think there can’t be another niche channel for me to love on RU-vid I am wrong.

This truly shows that "everyone" lives on the coasts. Its crazy all this real estate that's ignored.

I'm at a Holiday Inn in TXK just passing thru. This is my first time here so I stayed a full day to check things out. The hotel is near Central Mall and that mall seems outdated and on life support. The downtown was in even worse condition.

Nice job stabilizing the camera even over speedbumps.

Hopefully you're enjoying your travels around Arkansas, safe travels and enjoy the views

Definitely the craziest part of Texarkana is that there’s a Chicken Express, Slim Chicken’s, Raising Canes, Chic fil A, and Golden Chick.

I love the small town vibes, but I hate seeing it without vibrancy! Maybe the movement towards WFH can bring life back to these smaller, more affordable, and more pedestrian friendly cities.

Surprised to see a face r this early in the series! You're the cool dude I pictured when your channel started. Really enjoyable and relaxing to watch after a long day of modern life.

Great Video/Information......I visit TEXARKANA many times and I love to still visit it......

Such an interesting video. It’s so unique to find a town like this as you usually don’t see mixed use walkable areas with almost zero people even during mid day. Thank you for sharing this unique town with us! Maybe if you included some more history about what went wrong it would appeal to the history buffs too! Haha

I visited a couple weeks ago and took some pics of the murals. I think there's a farmers market on the weekends and other activities to bring people downtown. I remember the many parades especially Four States Fair parade. TXK has potential...... Funny thing is the mall that "replaced" downtown is dead.

Texarkana isn’t empty as this video suggests. The business center just moved a little west. This area still has business though. And of course traffic is slower on weekends.

Your voice is super chill....almost relaxing. Was always wondering why houses were so cheap here.

We were just in Texarkana in early April traveling in our motor home, the downtown area is definitely apocoliptic, like some force came in and removed all the business and people, but it's waiting for everything to return, still lots of train traffic though, just not stopping inTexarcana anymore.

Based on the music, I was for sure there would be a reveal of shady government secrets or alien invasion. Oh well. The website of the metaphysical boutique on the street you walked down says that it’s located within the “entertainment district.” 😮. The coming of the Interstate away from Downtown and the demise of passenger rail probably hit this place really, really hard. It’s sad.

Excellent narration, use of maps displaying the status of highways being added to the Dwight D. Eisenhower Interstate Highway System!! 🇺🇸

When you make your way thru Ohio, I'm like to see videos of my hometown Youngstown-Warren area. I-680, the incomplete Hubbard Expressway (US-62/OH-7), the Madison Ave Expressway (US-422/OH-193), the formerly partially, now fully complete OH-711 connector, downtown, YSU, etc. Texarkana reminds me of Youngstown, with a healthy infrastructure and nice location in a heavy transit corridor, but economically struggling for decades after the closure of the steel mills in the 70's.

I have lived a large majority of my 71 years either in the Dallas, Tx. area or here in Arkansas, and where I retired 10 years ago. I cannot count the times, from as far back as the 1960's, that I have driven on I-30 back & forth and driven by Texarkana. I saw I-30 grow from just two lanes ( both sides ) as it passed by Texarkana ...."passed by"...being the important term, to the multi-level and very busy area that it is today. Many older towns were established along a well traveled route; quite often next to a river in the very early years, or a well traveled trail that may have been first traveled by American Indians that later expanded into many of today's roads and highways, and also those early towns that grew up literally next to the train tracks that eventually crisscrossed the country. These parts of the early towns became the first 'downtowns'. Towns and businesses will follow the people, and as the population starts to spread out from the traditional downtown area, the businesses follow. And so, the original downtown areas start to decline. It's just the way things always have been. There are always exceptions...and that's great for that town. Hopefully a town can have both an active and prosperous downtown and prosperous suburbs. Many towns are having great success in bringing businesses and people back to the downtown area: restricting cars & trucks making it walking friendly, bringing in entertainment, bringing in new businesses, etc. And still hopefully keeping some of the old buildings and architecture and charm of those by-gone years when buildings were built to look great and fun to look at. I personally love the "Art Deco" style. Texarkana just followed the inevitable growing population. But what is important about Texarkana is what many of the other commenters have already pointed out. The town expanded out to grow with the ever increasing traffic and businesses that have grown up near I-30. Texarkana is still there and still growing, just not where it first started. I think you missed an opportunity to balance things out by showing how Texarkana has continued to grow & prosper by showing this area around I-30. And people always like to hear a little bit of it's town's early history. I encourage you to do some research and include this in some of your journeys, it will add a dimension of professionalism to your videos.

A heavy ride and walk indeed. I like some of the locals’ comments about the area. I’d like to see you do Duluth/Superior, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and Montreal in particular. Also, your take on Burlington, Vermont, along with an update on poor Montpelier, where all the floods occurred, would be welcome. There is precious little RU-vid chatter and video on Vermont, which is one of the most picturesque and beautiful states in the Union.

he most of come to Texarkana on Sunday are around noon time.. on Friday night, the state line is full of people and cars I use to live in Texarkana for 30 years

Go through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is has beautiful geology and some cool small town scattered throughout. It is amazing and it would be an amazing video to introduce people to the relatively unknown place.

Montreal's Ste. Catherine Street is always packed. The new REM transit system opens July 29th.

There has to be a way to revitalize these old towns. With all the rail and highways it would make a great place for a fulfillment center. Thanks for the tour.

@Mileage Mike You will most likely be going through London Ontario (my home city) if you're going to Toronto. We've got a BRT system in development that you may be interested in checking out. Keep up the great videos!

Well, I checked the population makeup of the cities and it just clicks. There are tons of vibrant lively small towns all across TX (not counting the suburb "small town"), as long as the people who make up the population can sustain it. Nobody wants to admit or say it out loud but it's the truth, no matter where it is, big city or small town.

I am glad to note NO GRAFFITTI. Ya'll keep it nice, and that will bless you at the right time. Thanks for this visit.

I've visited Texarkana several times while I've lived in Longview, TX. My take on this town is, while it clearly has problems, it has a lot going for it. The CHRISTUS hospital on the north end along I-30 is amazing and that area is growing/developing. The downtown has great potential. Some of the architecture is wonderful. The oldest and tallest buildings need to be fully renovated. I know one is being turned into apartments. The other tall one should be too. The original train station building is fantastic. It would be great if that could be fully renovated and used as an Amtrak station, a train museum and maybe a mixed use facility. Then, something has to be done to get white collar businesses back in the downtown and it can't be just all lawyers. Short of that, maybe the city should wipe out a couple blocks or more of old, abandoned buildings and create a park, then surround that park with new housing...single family, condos, apartments. Get people living in the central city and you'll get other small businesses like restaurants and pubs. Are there any big festivals there? How about one downtown called the Tri-state Festival featuring the best in food, music and culture from the three states and more.

I’ve always been fascinated by this city as a Texan. The only city in 2 states (the Kansas cities are 2 separate cities) so it’s kinda sad to see how desolate it looks. 😮 maybe the I-49 project will help?

Drove through Texarkana back in April, I've been through some badly run down areas, like Cairo IL or Gadsden AL, but Texarkana was still surprising. Maybe because it is Texas, you expect something different

Amazing video.

I guess the beer Jerry Reed was talking about isn’t there anymore 😢

Awesome job

great video i like your channel alot

If you're passing through Quebec, you might want to give a tour of the historic Quebec City, the capital of Quebec and home of some of the few true castle like fortresses built in North America.

I’d quite like to see your take on Indianapolis. It is the crossroads of America after all.

I guess next will be the Twin Cities of South Fulton, TN, and Fulton, KY. 😉

@MileageMike to be fair the city has come far in some areas like Richmond rd and i30 area and west. Right now downtown is getting a face lift with some of the old buildings being turned into future condos downtown has become more of an entertainment district for late night. Also i do live in this boring town

I am SHOCKED at how dead the Texas side of downtown is. I thought the two cities would work together more for the benefit of the region, but I guess it's not that important to them.

Reminds me of downtown Meridian MS

2 states, 1 downtown, but 0 people. That's baffling. About 60,000 population combined, but where are they? You could use that for the set of a dystopian sci-fi film.

If you do NY, the Buffalo-Niagara Falls area might be interesting not only for the famous falls plus the connections to Canada. Albany has some interesting maybe unique highway design including how I-87 meets I-90 including this is where the New York State Thruway changes from a North-South direction along I-87 to West-East along I-90. Finally you do not have to drive it but there is the unfinished I-86 Southern Tier Expressway.

Interesting video. Hahaha you made the town look bad. @17:15 looks like something out of an Edward Hopper painting. This town reminds me of some of his paintings of desolation. My dad went down to Texarkana for work a couple of times times back in the early 70's for Texas Instruments. I'm not the most social guy, but even I would have talked to one of the locals you walked by for a few minutes about the town. You should do that in the next town you visit. I'm getting the vibe that you're not a people person hahah.

I used to be a conductor for Union Pacific in Arkansas from 2004-2014- I’ve worked that rail yard a lot on trains going to and from Texas. UP removed the old cottonbelt yard in 2019 I think but the big yard is still there working daily.

great video ...

I saw an interesting piece on "one of the neglected corners of Iowa" that looked much like Texarkana. There were entire small towns seemingly abandoned with nobody living there. As that's farming country there'd be a different vibe there so it's probably worth a looksee. Anyway what happened to a town that grew that big Texarkana and yet today it's the same thing - there's nobody living there?? What was there and why isn't it still there?? I enjoy your videos!!

I was born and raised in the Texarkana area. I moved out for good 20 years ago, but still have family in the area. Last I heard the old Grim Hotel was being rebuilt into apartments. Downtown Texarkana started dying off in the late '70s (or earlier) with most everything moving closer to the I-30 and over to Texas side north of the downtown area... The Arkansas side city government before I moved to TN, was busy annexing large areas to the east where folks had moved to get out of the city in order to build their tax base back up. My old family home is in the Genoa area east of Texarkana and when I left, there were a lot of folks moving from Texarkana into Genoa to get away from the city.

I years ago knew an old Blues singer named "Peppermint" Harris who was from Texarkana.

Downtown Texarkana is changing. A lot of bars and night life goes on down there nowadays and festivals are held down there during the day and evening. They are also building more of housing downtown. But as far as the town as a whole, it’s definitely not as live as a big city but it’s a lot busier than what you have shown.

You'll be so close to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, Mt. Washington, North Conway and the tourist railways, it might be worth a look.

That bigass building vacant, can sure help a lot of homeless. Sweat equity done by some help of the surrounding area, can really help those who can use some help.

Remind me of Bristol Tennessee/ Virginia got check that out VT Is on the Virginia Side the Bristol Motor Speedway is on the Tennessee side. Then there Beckley , WV, -VA another City as well

I got some Texarkana/report radio stations today in Austin, Texas on FM radio

Plenty of Parking Downtown! Great Set for a ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE Movie! I bet there’s plenty of “dispensaries” in town, especially the BMX and wife beater in the back pocket type!

Would love to see you do a beautiful port city like Savannah

Background music makes it trippy

Come to the Rockford, IL/state line area! I see extreme potential with the infrastructure and the location! It’s a unique place.. lol

interesting--thanks--i've just been looking at the streets of philadelphia, detroit and san francisco

Drove right through there a couple years back.

I went to a Halloween party in the Grimm Hotel around 85? It looked abandoned. I don't know how they were able to have a party there but the atmosphere was perfect. Seemed like the setting for a slasher movie.

I wonder if you are going to do Pine Bluff next. If not, you definitely should. Another interesting place that might seem weird is Conway, Arkansas and see what they have done there

Mike...Have you ever been to E. St. Louis IL?

Texarkana is on the essential I-30 New Boston to Arkadelphia corridor. This booming stretch of mercantile will revive Texarkana's dream of making it out of New Boston's shadow. It's only a matter of time before people will be saying Texarkana is the next New Boston.

There have been several attempts over the years to revive downtown. They've always failed because people just don't want to go there anymore. Sad. Now, just a block up from that tragic abandoned building you saw is a small success, the Grim Hotel, which has recently been renovated to be turned into apartments. It used to look a lot like the building you were looking at.

Meh. It's just the typical thing that has happened to hundreds of places that get bypassed by the interstate. The retail, industry and housing move to areas that are faster to access via interstates. The downtown was viable when the US highways were the main and often only routes through an area.

Mike, I know you're probably going to do Mansfield, and I know you'll do Sandusky and maybe Ashland and Norwalk. So, can you do US-250 West from Ashland to Sandusky? And also do US-30 East thru Mansfield while you're in Mansfield? Much appreciated. Thanks!

Texarkana is growing, this just seems like an unfortunately neglected part of the city.

currently here in tk, it seems like downtown might be lively soon again. buildings are being renovated and reused so that's a good thing. talks of maybe getting a new park but i doubt that.

That horror music in the background 🤣👍👍

You need to hit some cities along the Mississippi River from St Louis north. They are distinctly different from the rural parts and very interesting.

Are you filming on a Sunday or holiday or something? Cause State line is usually way busier than that, I live in Texarkana and we're not that dead

I have been through Texarkana several times coming and going between Arkansas and Texas.

Not a traffic signal downtown. Just the speed bumps and 4 way stops.

Trucked out of red river is army depot during desert storm..seemed busy then

Duluth, Minnesota and along the North Shore (of Lake Superior) is quite the place.

A lot of these small to medium Texas cities are dying. Lubbock, Amarillo, Abilene, Texarkana just to name a few. The only ones growing at a furious rate is the Midland/Odessa area where they're building houses as fast as they can yet downtown is vacant and infrastructure is not catching up any time soon. Nice job!

I remember when a football game was played there every year as a kid.

I remember this town from that film “The Town That Dreaded Sundown”.

I think youll find midwest infrastructure as being inbetween northeast and south. A bit more public transpory infrastructure than the south but smaller highways. And very few expresslanes. I80 in omaha needs some. I didnt know texarkana had a Gary like downtown

It's sad to see small towns in this condition. It did look like some of the buildings were being renovated. Someone must have an idea to put a spark of life into these rual areas.(?)

The abandoned hotel at 15:45 actually appears to be in the middle of refurbishment. Go back on Google Maps street view and you'll see it was a bank with a bland modern "marble" exterior cladding over the original exterior. FWIW, I'm not "Mr. Safety" or anything, but that rail-free edge of the landing at the end of the rail car at 7:48 is a concern.

So how are land and real estate prices now ? Up or down ?

Yes downtown is no longer the city center. after I-30 was put in the city operations moved to surround the freeway and capture that out of town business like most towns do when big roads move to the opposite edge of a town. I don't live there but I do know the area. you needed to check out the mall and other businesses at Richmond Rd and I-30.....

So sad to see th etown of my birth so abandoned.

Looks like a Sunday morning.