This Tiny Texas Town With Cabins And Park Access Is Steeped In Caddo Nation History

It took 100 years for Caddo, Texas, to go from 60 residents to 40 residents, with a peak of about 1,000 in the middle. Founded on Caddo tribal grounds in 1870, the community grew to 60 by 1880, got swept up in the oil boom of neighboring Ranger in 1917, and expanded, but by 1940 was already back down to 600 people. At last count in 2000, 40 people lived there, the same as in 1980. But despite being a near-ghost town, Caddo still has a working post office. It's also got wrecked and abandoned houses, unused cars overgrown with grass, and a few souls hidden behind dog-patrolled fences. Meanwhile, Possum Kingdom State Park's numerous trails and 300 miles of shoreline sit within easy striking distance of 20 minutes. 

For those who want to avoid everything but nature and houses half-consumed by tall grass, all of the should be a ringing endorsement. Located a bit over 90 minutes west from Fort Worth along Route 180, Caddo is the kind of place that you wouldn't know you passed through unless a map told you. There are zero hotels, restaurants, or businesses of any kind besides an RV and boat storage operation. Visitors can swing through, snap some pictures of ruined sites and rusted playgrounds, and ponder the land once settled by the Caddo tribe that stretched through parts of modern-day Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. Then, they can head to Possum Kingdom State Park to hike its trails, admire its waters, stay overnight at its campsites or cabins, and duck into a neighboring eatery for food and drinks.

Folks in Oklahoma might be surprised to hear about Caddo, Texas, seeing as the Caddo tribal headquarters is located about 1 hour away from Oklahoma City. But the tribe occupied a large area that included east of Dallas between the Sabine and Sulphur rivers. That's still almost 4 hours by car from the modern settlement, meaning that Caddo's original 1870 tribal campgrounds must have been something of an outlier. Nonetheless, that settlement — now reduced to a near-ghost town — takes part in the entirety of the tribe's heritage. That legacy dates back to 700 to 800 C.E., when the people settled on their land, and includes a cluster of tribes with shared traditions and language that reached about 250,000 people at their mid-1500s peak.

None of this heritage — not a smidgen — is visible in modern-day Caddo. There's no big tribal-themed casino and adobe-brick cultural center like at Pojoaque Pueblo in New Mexico. There's no big tourist attraction like Grand Falls, the "chocolate waterfall" in the Navajo Nation near Flagstaff, Arizona (which is permanently shut down because of destructive tourists). There's also no local straggler trying to revive the area like at the Bagdad Cafe at Newberry Springs along historical Route 66. There's just the grass, the soil, and the sun overhead. This might sound like a disappointing prospect for would-be travelers, but not when combined with the sparse, deteriorated structures of post-tribal, current-day Caddo. Instead, your trip to the Texan ghost town, past closed community centers and broken bridges, might be cast in an even more moving, possibly profound light. 

After paying a visit to Caddo, travelers can make a brief, 20-minute drive to Possum Kingdom State Park to the northeast, referenced in the superb 1994 track, "Possum Kingdom," from the Toadies (who are from Fort Worth). Aside from this odd musical connection, the park is supremely self-contained and features a surprising amount of things to do for either solo travelers or the whole family. 

Possum Kingdom State Park is a triangular, wedge-shaped segment that spans one southwestern section of Possum Kingdom Lake's shores. That one area contains multiple, fairly flat and semi-rocky trails for hiking, the longest of which is Lakeview Trail at 1.4 miles. Those trails circle through a plethora of camping and picnic sites that include toilets, showers, a gas pump, a playground, swimming areas, a marina, a boat ramp, and more. Visitors can fish, snorkel, and even scuba dive in the water, while birdwatchers can use the park's extensive checklist to mark what birds they've seen. 

As for the bookable cabins, they're sparsely furnished and don't have Wi-Fi but have A/C, heat, electricity, stoves for cooking, and the largest accommodates eight people. If you really want to make the most of your time and not worry about making it back home that night, they're a good choice. And if folks want to explore further, the rest of Possum Kingdom Lake's shoreline outside of the state park is saturated with additional lodging and hiking options. There's even a handful of highly rated restaurants nearby, like Pie House x Hemmingways and 2 Old Crows.