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Loyal Valley is in Mason County about 21 miles north of
Fredericksburg.
It is just off of US 87 on Loop 2242. Baker's original (Ghost Towns of
Texas) book has two photos contemporary with his visit in the early 1980s.
Being close to a major highway, the town is not dead, but there are some
abandoned buildings.
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| Photo of the
old stagecoach inn appearing on page 89 of Baker's book. It
operated during the 1880s and was abandoned at the time of Baker's
photo. |
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| Photo of the same
structure taken by me in November 2004. It looks relatively
unchanged in the near quarter-century between the two photos.
Someone saw fit to put a picket fence around it in the interim.
However, it is in disrepair. It appears that someone must have
lived in (or at least cared for) the house in recent years but then
abandoned it again. |
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| Three more
photos of the old inn from different angles taken by me in November
2004. |
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| Photo of some graves in
the Loyal Valley cemetery. Herman Lehmann was a well-known
resident of Loyal Valley whose mother operated the stagecoach inn
pictured above. |
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| Photo of the same graves
taken by me in November 2004. It was not possible to get to the
exact same vantage point as in Baker's photo because to do so would have
required getting into the cemetery, which was behind a locked gate. |
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| Photo taken by me of
another abandoned building in Loyal Valley. I've no idea what it
once was, though it looks like it could have been either a church or a
school. |
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