My grandmother (born 1898) was born in Texarkana....her grandmother migrated from Ireland.....her father was railroad engineer for Kansas City Southern (KCS) between Texarkana and Port Arthur, Tx., where she met and married son of retired sea captain and lived through 60's. Grandmother's sister lived in house they were born in (Beech St.) until she died in 1983....house was sold and is now gone...only one rental property they owned is left across street still standing. Got to ride the KCS train to Port Arthur around 1960....beautiful huge train station...Texarkana was main hub of railroad for many years.....believe closed in 60's. ....the beginning of the end of downtown Texarkana. My great aunt would straddle the state line in her car for fun...visited her and her pharmacist husband several times when we lived in Dallas. Haven't been back since my uncle was buried in family plot at Calgary Cemetery in 1984. Ahhh, memories....

I lived in Texarkana 22 years ago. The downtown was even worse then. The cities have made efforts to clean it up and get things going. It is one of those places which succumbed to malls and big box stores taking over. The downtown has yet to comebackbut maybe it will, which would be great because it is a great place in many ways.

I am a Texarkana Native. Yes, our downtown has definitely went down since the 90s; BUT, they are currently working to revitalize and rebuild it. Unfortunately, You literally filmed some the worst residential neighborhoods in town. Back to downtown...There are lots of things that go on downtown at night. That area is being redone as an Arts & History district! You done your tour on a Saturday morning at 11am when its 100° out, lol. You should have came back down there Saturday night on Broad Street. Also, had you been there during the week, downtown is busy as there are lots of offices in that area. Yes, it looks bad now, but it's a work in progress and will be revitalized. Texarkana is a very busy town everywhere but downtown, lol. I'm not going to lie though, we could use more businesses besides hotels/motels and restaurants.

I remember when Texarkana was a booming town. The demise of the town is when the businesses moved into malls around Interstate 30. That is the story of many of empty towns around the country. The Texarkana metropolitan area is still thriving. The businesses just shifted to I 30. There are very nice neighborhoods in that area. It is sad. I love downtowns.

It's terrible that there are so many cities in this state and all the old beautiful architecture is being lost. I hope that at least some of the bricks and stonework will be saved and or reused and not just ploughed into landfill. The new suburbs don't have such good architecture as we can no longer afford the old quality of building, very sad.

As an Aussie streetcar/trolley/tram nerd, I enjoy watching videos from places where streetcars once ran. Texarkana had a system that was replaced by buses around 1934. The workshop and car barn/ carhouse still exists on the corner of East Broad St and Pecan St, indeed the tracks can still be seen, running out of the building, on the Pecan St frontage. Not bad for tracks that haven’t seen a streetcar in 88 years.

The demise of small town America is sad indeed. Your videos are like taking a trip back in time LS......thank you for sharing and please keep them coming!

I am truly shocked by the state of things in this downtown. It honestly looks like it’s been bombed. Absolutely post-apocalyptic. Damn.

I live here and can indeed confirm that this place sucks, it's depressing, high crime rate and nothing to do, I laugh at the ones that try to defend this depressing town.

As a Texarkana resident, it's really disappointing to see our town like this. Just driving around is often depressing. What's worse is that those who have great ideas to make the town better, bring life back to downtown or even purchase those big abandoned houses dont have the funds to do so. We are all broke. It seems like those who do have the ability to make a difference want to hoard their money or spend it on building more restaurants, banks and car lots. This town and it's people deserve more. Maybe one day a change will come but until then we all sit in this waste hole.

I grew up here. It is hard to explain to people who still live in Texarkana, how dead the town truly is, until they leave. I now live in Northwest Arkansas and the downtowns in Fayetteville and Bentonville (really anywhere up here) are real representations of a thriving city. Downtown Texarkana died because over the past 50 years, it has been a better business decision to build closer to the interstate than to redevelop downtown. Also crime outside of the loop around the city is significantly lower, so most families with resources moved out.

you walked right past all of the nice and very OPEN businesses downtown that people have been working hard to make happen. also all of the really nice restaurants and loft apartments. myself and many others live downtown, come back on a saturday night and then make a video about it.

I still remember the day Texarkana Arkansas began to fall. crack cocaine hit the town.. then violence and gang culture followed.. two parent households were destroyed, family values were destroyed, communities were destroyed.. I have such great memories of my childhood in the 80s but poverty, lack of jobs and shitty pay always had such a stronghold there..

Downtown Texarkana is mostly government buildings (I.e. post office, DMV, court house) Most of the city moved when they built a mall, which itself is an almost empty shell of what it was years ago.

When the I30 came through the down town areas of many cities started dying off. There are several new businesses and some restaurants downtown that you don't show and they are working on renovations to buildings downtown and the Grim hotel. If locals don't support them instead of going to big chain store businesses it's hard to keep them going.

Sigh. 77+, born & raised, lived other places alwacame home. Sad times for the "old" town, but lots of good people. The "Grand Old Building" was the State First National Bank. The unique white building with the unique architecture down close to the PO, was the Medical Arts Building, held doctors working in various fields. I've fond memories of the train station. As teens in the 50's & 60's, we would buy round trip tickets to area towns that had a train coming back to Texarkana in the evening or afternoon. Spend a few hours in a neighboring town, catch the train back. There was a hotel (Gone many yrs) across the street from the Train Station called the Ritz Hotel. Had a large Cafe on the ground floor called the White Owl Cafe. It had tables in the center, leather booths around the walls. It had a shelf that ran in a circle around the room, a few feet above the booths. It held a huge electric model train. Parents took us there as toddlers, & we ate there as teens after our train excursions to other towns. GREAT MEMORIES.

Interesting how you mentioned first hearing about Texarkana in "Smokey and the Bandit". I first heard of it in the lyrics to the old Huddie Ledbetter song, "Cotton Fields" (which has been covered by Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Beach Boys, among others): _"It was down in Louisiana, just about a mile from Texarkana"_ (even though it's not possible to be in Louisiana and still be "just about a mile" from Texarkana...) Showing my age, I guess 😁

Just discovered your channel. Good stuff. I like the way you don’t mince words. If a place is dead, you say it’s dead (and you’re right). I agree that you don’t like to say anything bad about a place but you’ve got to call out some places that need to improve a lot. Keep it up.

I have lived in Texarkana since 1996, coming from the nice suburbs of Chicago. When I came here, I thought it is so run down, it just needs a facelift. That's life. Everything gets old. People just have to realize the potential. I told my husband that and he began buying one house at a time and remodeling them, then selling. It just helps bring up the neighborhood. I lived in those kind of neighborhoods for many years. It made a difference. I saw a book in the library on the history of Texarkana. I was amazed how the "empty original downtown" you showed was a very busy place and awesome. Texarkana has many people interested and busy working on renovating old buildings there but it takes money, and a lot of time for that to come to pass. I was one of those people until my husband suddenly passed. But things are slowly coming to life all around. It will just take time. There are lots of offices and more in the remodeled buildings that you haven't seen. I've been down there hearing and seeing the noisy work going on. There's beauty all around Texarkana. I haven't given up on the vision of old things becoming new. It's just a process.

So sad! I just picture these places in the 40s,50s,60's...how they must have been bustling with people, shops, the sounds, life. Just so incredibly sad.

Many people have tried to revive downtown and I think the reason why it will never be up and going is because that’s where the police station, BiState justice building and the homeless shelter is. Years ago I had a music venue down there. People just don’t want to hang out and have a good time with cops and the homeless. Sad but true

Texarkana's life once centered around downtown. But when I-30 came through in 1961, the life of the city began to slowly gravitate toward that.The railroads were the main travel connecting commerce across America and Texarkana was sometimes referred to as little Chicago due to the centralization of the trains here. Just about all the life of the town now straddles I-30 or nearby access. When Texarkana Community College was built, it was criticized for being too far out of town and word was no one would go because it was so far out. Now it's in the middle of everything.

There is some neat architecture downtown. It's too bad so many of the buildings are empty and not kept up.

It is truly unbelievable how so much of this country is overpopulated,..and overpriced,...yet,...so many of these downtowns have been neglected,. and without a soul in sight.

Makes me homesick. Walked downtown a lot with my momma, and sister,Aunt and cousins. I have old pictures of my great Grandmother and great aunts there too. I have pictures of the town in the deep past. Sometimes I miss it. But when my nephew was shot in front of his own townhouse. I couldn't stay anymore. Looks like a lot of others have left as well.

Im glad you are doing a walk through , this is something. I never knew any of this info your speaking of. I appreciate the walk around and the tours.

All I remember about Texarkana back in the mid 70's, is that on the Arkansas side of State line street was lined with bars and liquor stores. On the Texas side of the street was lined with churches and no liquor sales allowed.

Texarkana has struggled with downtown for years but has actually made alot of progress and started alot of revitalization projects over recent years. Rome wasn't built in a day. We have great museums and the architecture is beautiful. Weekends are less busy than weekdays in all the downtowns I have been to across the country, and It's alot!

About 20 years ago I stayed at a motel in Texarkana. I was told by locals that car break ins at motels along the freeway were fairly common. I wasn't all that worried as it was a rental and I left nothing inside it. Sitting outside my motel looking at the grassy tree filled area between buildings I could hear a bird making a racket. I finally identified both the bird and the sound...it was a mockingbird perfectly imitating all the various sounds made by a car's security system...it was awesome as I knew mockingbirds could imitate other birds but had no idea their vocal imitations extended to electronic devices!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When you headed to the neighborhoods on the Arkansas side I couldn't help but laugh at the roads. The Truckers always say you can't fall asleep behind the wheel when you are in Arkansas.😄

Your tours of the smaller cities remind me of when I was a kid poring through the family Road Atlas looking at all the names of towns and cities and getting curious about so many of them with unusual names. Now I am actually seeing them for the first time (but they don't likely look like they would have in my Road Atlas days .. the sixties)!

I’ve been here all my life. They’ve been saying for years they’re going to save our downtown but I’m not so sure. But one of those empty buildings look like there was a woman in the window. Did anyone else notice?

I was just there a few weeks ago also on a Saturday but in the afternoon. Your video is spot on except there are a good handful of bright spots among the desolation. It does a disservice to the town that you didn’t point them out. A couple Mexican food restaurants were busy, a cool bar/restaurant - Hopkins (also busy- I had lunch there), the 804 Gallery is an amazing art gallery/thrift store and a few other new businesses. If you ever visit again, I highly recommend you seek out these cool businesses.

As an introvert this place seems both sad and magical. It would be interesting to find myself working within the downtown region of Texarkana. How surreal would it be to walk those streets? I really dig these videos and the commentary!

If you were there on a Saturday you would easily have caught footage of the Farmer’s Market, Pecan Point is busy as can be on Saturday at 11am. The windows are not busted out, they have been removed in renovation. I hope you will share your hometown so we can compare

I got hit by a tornado in this damn town, it was bad ass man !

Been living in Texarkana my whole life, when people ask me what I do for a living it usually involve driving to another state/city. Nothing here but banks and car dealerships.

If you ever decide to visit Texarkana again, I would love to give you a tour, the good, bad and uglyof it all

I grew up there. Moved to Oklahoma City in 2015 and then to Dallas in 2020. The residents have been claiming that the downtown area is being revived for years, but it’s a delusion. They do little things that don’t amount to much and almost nothing survives down there. There are a small few businesses downtown that have managed to make it, but the majority that go there fail. The Grimm Hotel is downtown. They’ve been trying to turn it into an apartment complex and it’s been under construction like 3 years now with little progress. The last time they tried to make nice apartments there the complex ended up basically low income housing. It’s sad that the residents can’t admit how dead the whole place is compared to a normal city the same size. My username here is a KZfaq skating channel and I’ve made quite a few videos in Texarkana’s downtown. Tons of my viewers always commented on how I’m “skating in a ghost town”.

You can thank the mayor's that didn't want bigger businesses moving into the area and made them go to places like Dallas

I'm from there and that post office is where John F Kennedy once made a speech. If you walk up the steps there is a plaque about that.

I am from Texarkana, Texas and I am going to agree. True there are businesses who are trying to help make it better, and I commend them. I have lived here all my life, and it is disappointing. Low pay, high costs and a lot of crime.

Hard to believe; last time I drove through that city, the whole area was booming, with all kinds of improvements and construction.

I must have just missed you I was down there around 7:30-8 am. I get Starbucks then drive down Stateline and cruise around the city once or twice and go. Sometimes I ride my bike from home and just cruise around downtown so I can check things out like you are. The train station is the saddest part because it’s big and was grand! I’ve been in there and it looks like hell now but you sure can tell it used to be amazing! I wish more would be done downtown but the buildings take too much money and there’s not enough of it here. 3-4 decent places to eat downtown

"I was born in Looziana just a couple miles from Texarkana in them old cotton fields back hom. Oh when them cotton balls get rotten you can't pick none of that cotten...." THAT'S an old song.

I currently live in Texarkana, TX. Downtown is definitely not nice but is alot busier during the work week. Texarkana also still serves as the major metro hub for alot of rural cities in AR, TX, OK, and LA. It is not uncommon to see people commute every day from these states to Texarkana. There are definitely nice parts of the city but they are located along the interstate. I really wish they would hurry up and renovate some of these older buildings for housing though. The rental and home market in Texarkana and surrounding areas is absolutely abysmal and way overpriced for median household incomes

WOW, I agreed with your statement about downtones (The heart and sole of the city should have a pulse) !!!

Texarkana native myself, still here. That grand building used to be an upscale hotel back in the day. It is currently being renovated for lofts/apartments. I'm just glad it didn't (randomly burn) over the past year and a half like a lot think it and abandoned hotels have. Other than that, downtown sucks and it's depressing!

Nice thing about Texarkana is if you like to street race, you can all day long,then when the cops show up you can just drive across the street to Arkansas and you're home free

I'm not sure why, but Texarkana has been in decline for quite a while. I drove through there in the '90s and it wasn't thriving even then. That large building with the broken windows was the Grimm Hotel (appropriately named).

Something about your videos is fascinating they are very melancholic and remind us our civilization is temporary.

I live in Texarkana growing up I was raised in Fouke Arkansas but back in the 60 s you could walk up an down main Street an all stores would be open an nice went down hill since the older people are no longer here you can sure tell the difference

Joe- I laughed when you said filmmakers could use the empty downtown to film post apocalyptic movies. That’s exactly what some filmmakers did in the 70s in downtown Los Angeles. The Omega Man was filmed on Sunday mornings in downtown LA which was virtually deserted without the Monday - Friday office workers.

I know your just saying what your seeing but Texarkana is great place to live the people are very friendly crime is very low. There is work here i personally think it's cheaper to live on the Arkansas side even with a state tax downtown is getting rebuilt

I love this show I watch every episode thankyou so much for posting!

Thanks to organizations like Main Street Texarkana, we are seeing more new businesses and events springing up downtown. As a musician, I am often hired for events there. Thanks to the many people who are working hard to help it be a fun place again.

Another reason for inner city decay is that the older buildings have outdated electric wiring, plumbing, heating, and so on. In many instances, it was cheaper to build new retail structures in locations closer to the money. Now the malls, and some box stores, that replaced the downtown businesses, are themselves becoming rundown things of the past.

If you’re ever in the area, I think you would be surprised how changed the downtown is now. Stop on by and do an update! It’s a bit more bustling downtown now.

To outsiders, they are surprised at the urban decay of Texarkana, but us lifelong residents of Texarkana are not surprised. There's just not enough people in Texarkana who care about the history of our city

Moved here about a year ago... thanks for the info. I've asked locals about the state of Downtown and they know next to nothing. Not as bad as Baltimore (hometown) but worse than I would have imagined being a smaller city.

The woman on the painted Dr. Pepper advertisement looks like she’s scared for her life lol 😂

Downtown Texarkana has serious ghost town vibes. Eerie.

I always passed thru Texarkana, on my way to my home city Dallas, and I thought so much of this town. Unbelievable. I always stop for gas in a little small town outside Texarkana.

Such an interesting place. Thanks for this excursion👍

They lost their ammunition storage plant and that hurt the town significantly

It’s been at least 30 years since I was in Texarkana. I remember it as quite different than this. Of course, I was so enthusiastic about that state line down the middle of the street, I might have not have paid close attention to anything else. I have to admit: I crossed the street multiple times, “ Now I’m in Texas/ now I’m in Arkansas “ Chronologically, I was an adult at the time

I live in Texarkana and I can confirm downtown is very lifeless but in other parts there are hundreds of cars.

The building your recorded is actually being fixed up and lofts will be rented. Some of the others unfortunately are definitely in bad shape and just rotting away but the grim hotel that looks like it’s being worked on is going to be used. Downtown is my favorite part of the city but yeah it’s dead down there unfortunately. Wish it would revive

Hopefully the Hotel renovation could be a catylist towards downtown revitalization but it has a long,long way to go.

Known as The Ark - La -Tex in the late 60's early 70's . Was in the military at that time and that was what it was called on the radio stations .

100 percent agree, every downtown should be the heart and soul of a city, and its VERY true, when its dying something overall is wrong. great video! thank you!

I grew up in Texarkana. The hotel you saw under construction is called the Hotel Grim. It once was a diamond in downtown Texarkana. It is now under construction to open in the fall of this year as condos.

Lived here my whole life and if u don't work at Cooper tire or the army depot u really don't have many choices for a higher income. Not a very family friendly place towards the evenings. Pay here is shit , 1000s of places to eat and get bothered by drunks and homeless following u around trying to bum something. Parks having dope deals done while ur kids swinging 20 feet away. Bad shit happens around this area hourly. Living here I just make the best of the situation n keep my eyes open for something popping off n pray I'm not the next one shot and I make it home to my family

These videos make me realise why the whole post-apocalypse genre has become so popular

This level of decay in the city almost seems deliberate, as if the people running the town decided to run everybody out for some future plans. That or they simply refuse any and all stimulus packages that come along out of sheer obstinacy.

“America is the single greatest country in the history of the world” - this is what American politicians like to say about this country. Well, we see in reality it’s the opposite of the great!

What a fabulous Post Office building! I also love the Scott Joplin mural. I looked up the Perot Theater and saw that it has been restored by the Perot family (as in Ross Perot's family), and the pictures of the inside are just gorgeous. I wonder if those who live there ever forget which side of the line they are on...Probably not...😅

This is a railroad town and with the decline of the railroads came the decline of the city, apparently. What you showed me is very sad. Presently they have I-30 from Dallas and Little Rock, I-49 from Shreveport which the state will extend to Fort Smith, and in the future there's going to be I-369 also, which will connect to Houston and the Mexican border via I-69. But all those roads serve or will serve suburbia!

good thing about TEXARKANA you didn't mention, there's plenty of PARKING.

Downtown looks truly depressed; I would not like to walk there at night, even if well armed. It looks like it was once a thriving community. Makes you wonder what industry they lest to cause such a shift in population. A real shame those luxurious homes nearby were abandoned. It is also odd that streets were shared by between different states. Seems like it would lead to arguments regarding revenue for maintenance. Also odd that someone is investing in a large hotel downtown. Who would ever want to stay there? Thanks for posting this tour; I will most likely never see it in person.

Came from California to Texarkana because my sister and her husband convinced us it was such a nice place! It's the worst place I could have ever moved to! It's poor, raggedy, and UGLY out here 😢! There are 4 decent restaurants and the rest is garbage 🗑 😕 😪, the ONLY thing good out here is you can get a job, but the pay SUCKS, and the people out here are SOOOOO SWEET and friendly, and there are a lot of believers here! There is nothing to do barely on a Sunday, the mall is a Major dud! I hate I left California, but I am glad to be with family and that makes up for all the CONS! I would leave this place in the dust if I could do it all over again! You can barely make enough to live decently! They DONT PAY YOU WELL AT ALL!

I really enjoy your videos. What a cool couple u two are. Stay blessed. Stay safe.

Great video, much more interesting than the big city tours

Honestly I don’t think you really gave Texarkana the proper rep they’re restoring the downtown part a lot has happened in Texarkana for things to stop they starting making other businesses in Texarkana that stopped the striving of downtown

I love texarkana texas. It’s my dad’s hometown. This is just a little bit of the city as you go more into it it gets a lot better there’s lots of people there and I really like to visit there there are lots of businesses opening up there

Grew up very close to Texarkana and spent a LOT of time there. The immense growth along I-30 has sucked the life out of a once vibrant downtown.

I haven't seen kids playing in anyone's videos touring through towns.. this is no different. Where are the kids?? Playing games on their screens?: it's kinda scary.

You would think retirees and people on social security from the rusted belt . Would be flocking to there,if only for a place to winter.

When I clerked for a judge in Arkansas we regularly visited Fayetteville, Hot Springs and Texarkana; we lived in Fort Smith. Texarkana's was definitely the worst downtown of those four; I remember there was no place to eat near the courthouse except a hospital cafeteria, and the hotels were all out on the suburban edge of State Line Avenue.

I appreciate u showing Texarkana . I was born there in 1952 on the Texas side . My parents were living on Arkansas side . They were raised in Arkansas. My mom was raised in the Ozarks mts . Of Northen Arkansas an my dad was raised in a small town of Saratoga which isn't that far from Texarkana. A few months after I was born we moved to Texas an was raised there . I don't think I have been back to Texarkana since birth. I'm in Alaska now so I liked you showing Texarkana . Lana 🍌

Hello. I’m born and raised in Texarkana. I’m the FedEx driver who covers all of downtown and the areas tour shown in this video. What makes me mad about your video is you walked right past all the great businesses we have. Yes our downtown is terrible. But it is currently going through a rebuilding stage and they are planning to make it better. Our downtown is dead on the weekends because all the businesses are closed. Come back Monday-Friday and you’ll see it flooded with people. Stop by on the Ark side an get you a famous TLC burger. Right in the middle of downtown. The Dr. Pepper mural. And the neighborhoods you drove through went the best yes. But there is still so much to this city you didn’t see.

Another fascinating video showing the sad decline of a city. Looks like it was once a beautiful downtown. The city politicians must be proud. I hope you are careful walking around these areas, stay safe.

@21:00 You are looking at the old Texas High School. The new high school is on Summerhill road, and these buildings on Pine St. were sold to a private party that never developed them into anything.

The grandiose level of urban decay...This is absolutely amazing.

I been watching you and your wife for awhile now. Do you think there's been a (rapture) and we haven't figured it out yet? Where are the people?? It's a little crazy. Am i wrong guys?

Texarkana is a small town and its people think the live in like a “small Dallas” but it’s simply a small country town with lots of Rich sims and even more poor sims. The narrow minded people with lack of vision have caused that this T Town has very little opportunity to grow. Too many businesses and too little industry. There is a dire need of industrial jobs In order for a city to boost its income per capita. Retail alone won’t do it. The people in charge have tried to keep this town small and ugly. My hometown has over 4 million of the hardest working people in the North eastern Mexico area and the strongest economy in Latin America thanks to the industrial jobs.

I love watching this videos, thank you bro, keep going ❤

Thank you for posting these videos.

My first thought was WTF is with all the multistory buildings in such a small town? I live in a city of nearly 200k and our tallest buildings downtown are FIVE stories, and what's crazier, we probably have a handful of them at best! I don't understand what the need for all that building space could have been for in a small town.

A huge business grew at the expense of downtowns nationwide started in Bentonville, AR.