Texas History for Kids

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Before Texans called it Bigfoot, it was known as Old Mossyback, the Hairy Man, and the Wild Man of the Big Thicket. Follow the footprints, eerie recordings, and eyewitness reports hidden in the East Texas woods—and decide whether they reveal an undiscovered creature or a Texas-sized legend.

Halloween Trivia Game Cards

Haunted Texas History Bundle

Would You Rather - Halloween Digital Slideshow

#TexasHistoryforKids, #Halloween, #BigFoot, #TexasLegends

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Step inside some of Texas’s creepiest museums and collections to meet Emma, Little Ricky, a pair of inseparable Raggedy dolls, and other toys surrounded by ghostly legends. From Laredo to San Antonio, Old Town Spring, and Yorktown Memorial Hospital, discover the strange stories behind these supposedly haunted dolls—and decide whether the real mystery is the dolls or the stories we tell about them.

Halloween Trivia Game Cards

Haunted Texas History Bundle

Would You Rather - Halloween Digital Slideshow

#creepydolls, #Halloween, #halloweendolls, #Texashistoryforkids

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A wedding dress blamed for generations of heartbreak. A horned lizard said to have survived thirty-one years sealed inside a courthouse cornerstone. And a shrunken head stolen from a Texas museum—only to reappear seven weeks later in a plastic bag beside a road.

In this Halloween episode of Texas History for Kids, I'll visit three of the strangest objects preserved in Texas museums.

Sources Used

Stockyards Museum  Official Website
https://www.stockyardsmuseum.org/

Fort Worth Star Telegram  Stockyards Museum and Bad Luck Wedding Dress
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article289744454.html

The Texas Bucket List  Stockyards Museum and Dress Exhibit Story
https://thetexasbucketlist.com/2017/09/the-texas-bucket-list-stockyards-museum-in-fort-worth/

Frieze  The Bad Luck Wedding Dress and the History of Cursed Clothing
https://www.frieze.com/article/peter-stricklands-demon-dress

Texas State Historical Association  Eastland County
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/eastland-county

City of Eastland  History
https://www.eastlandtexas.gov/history

Texas Historical Commission  Eastland County Courthouse
https://atlas.thc.texas.gov/Details/5507016983

Frontier Times  September 1936  The Jibaro Head Hunters of Ecuador
https://www.frontiertimesmagazine.com/ecomm/product/vol-13-no-12-september-1936

Bandera County Chamber of Commerce  Bandera History
https://www.banderachamber.com/history

Texas Historical Commission  Texas Hill Country Trail Region
https://www.thc.texas.gov/public/upload/publications/hillcountry.pdf

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A teenage girl in Georgia created a white silk flag with a single blue star and sent it hundreds of miles away to the Texas Revolution. Follow the remarkable journey of Joanna Troutman’s lost Lone Star flag from Georgia to Velasco and Goliad, where it became connected to James Fannin, the Georgia Battalion, and one of the most tragic chapters of the Texas Revolution.

Sources Used

Texas State Historical Association

Joanna Troutman — Handbook of Texas

Flags of the Texas Revolution — Handbook of Texas

Georgia Battalion — Handbook of Texas

Goliad Massacre — Handbook of Texas

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When Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart over Texas in 2003, thousands of pieces scattered across the eastern part of the state. Follow the clues investigators used to uncover what went wrong—and discover how Texans helped solve one of NASA’s most difficult mysteries.

Sources Used

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Remembering the Columbia STS-107 Mission. https://www.nasa.gov/remembering-columbia-sts-107/

Columbia Accident Investigation Board. Columbia Accident Investigation Board Report, Volume 1. August 2003. https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/caib/news/report/volume1/default.html

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. STS-107 Mission Archives and Crew Biographies. https://www.nasa.gov/remembering-columbia-sts-107/

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Columbia Chronology and Investigation Timelines. https://www.nasa.gov/remembering-columbia-sts-107/

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Columbia Accident Investigation Board Foam Impact Testing Resources. https://www.nasa.gov/remembering-columbia-sts-107/

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Space Shuttle History and Return to Flight Resources. https://www.nasa.gov/history/space-shuttle-program/

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 A faded quarantine card warned families to stay inside—but the danger was invisible. Discover how smallpox, cholera, yellow fever, an influenza reshaped Texas communities, from Spanish missions to early vaccination programs and the 1899 Laredo Smallpox Riot. 

Sources Used

National Park Service. “San Antonio Missions Spanish Influence in Texas.” Teaching with Historic Places. https://www.nps.gov/articles/san-antonio-missions-spanish-influence-in-texas-teaching-with-historic-places.htm

National Park Service. “Mission San Juan.” San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. https://www.nps.gov/saan/planyourvisit/sanjuan.htm

Texas State Historical Association. “Epidemic Diseases.” Handbook of Texas Online. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/epidemic-diseases

Texas State Historical Association. “Laredo Smallpox Riot.” Handbook of Texas Online. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/laredo-smallpox-riot

Texas State Historical Association. “Public Health.” Handbook of Texas Online. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/public-health

Texas Medical Association. Mike Cox. “Frontier Medicine Texas Doctors Overcome Disease and Despair.” https://www.texmed.org/Template.aspx?id=2012

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “History of Smallpox.” https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/about/history.html

El Paso Community College. “Flu Epidemic of 1918 Hit El Paso Hard.” Borderlands. https://epcc.libguides.com/borderlands/19

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People really did mail children—and one Texan helped put a stop to it. In this episode, we uncover why families used Parcel Post as transportation, how rural mail routes changed everyday life, and what this bizarre story teaches us about transportation, communication, and innovation. 

Sources Used

Smithsonian National Postal Museum. “Very Special Deliveries.” Documents known cases of children traveling through Parcel Post, including May Pierstorff and the early Ohio and Pennsylvania cases. https://postalmuseum.si.edu/very-special-deliveries

Smithsonian National Postal Museum. “1910s.” Timeline documenting May Pierstorff’s February 1914 trip and Postmaster General Albert Burleson’s March 1914 announcement concerning human beings in the mail. https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/250-years-of-stamps-and-stories-of-the-us-postal-service/1910s

Smithsonian National Postal Museum. “Precious Packages—America’s Parcel Post Service.” Information about May’s weight, postage, trip, and her family’s reluctance to pay the train fare. https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/reaching-rural-america-past-exhibits/precious-packages-americas-parcel-post-service

United States Postal Service. A Kids’ History of the United States Postal Service. Explains the 1913 introduction of Parcel Post, earlier package restrictions, first six months of parcel volume, and growth in mail-order business. https://about.usps.com/publications/pub100k.pdf

United States Postal Service. “Rural Free Delivery.” Explains how rural delivery connected farms and rural households, influenced road improvement, and expanded business markets. https://about.usps.com/who/profile/history/rural-free-delivery.htm

United States Postal Service. “Texas: Dates That First Rural Routes Were Established at Post Offices, through 1904.” Documents early Rural Free Delivery service in Texas, including Fate and La Grange in 1899. https://about.usps.com/who/profile/history/pdf/first-rfd-texas.pdf

Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas. “Burleson, Albert Sidney.” Biography of the San Marcos-born Texan who served as U.S. Postmaster General from 1913–1921. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/burleson-albert-sidney

U.S. House of Representatives, History, Art & Archives. “Burleson, Albert Sidney.” Congressional biography documenting Burleson’s Texas background, education, congressional career, and service as Postmaster General. https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/10207

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Travel back millions of years to prehistoric Texas and meet the enormous Alamosaurus of Big Bend National Park. Discover how fossils from this giant sauropod were uncovered, why its name has nothing to do with the Alamo, and how Sul Ross geology students helped continue a dinosaur mystery decades later. 

Sources Used: 

Sul Ross State University. “Sul Ross Geology Students Collect Vertebra from Alamosaurus in BBNP.” April 8, 2025. https://www.sulross.edu/sul-ross-geology-students-collect-vertebra-from-alamosaurus-in-bbnp/

National Park Service, Big Bend National Park. “Alamosaurus.” https://www.nps.gov/bibe/learn/nature/alamosaurus.htm

National Park Service, Big Bend National Park. “Alamosaurus Airlift” photo gallery and collection. https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery.htm?id=5DECF36E-155D-451F-6707A3766A994BE5

National Park Service. “Monster Hunters in Big Bend – a Ghost from the Past.” https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/monster-hunters-in-big-bend-a-ghost-from-the-past.htm

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🎧😊Podcast Listening Response Activities

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Charles Goodnight lived a life that sounds almost too wild to be true. Born just days after Texas declared independence, he had only about six months of formal schooling, but grew up to become one of the most influential cattlemen in Texas history.

In this episode of Texas History for Kids, I'll uncover 15 surprising stories from Goodnight’s life, including his frontier scouting days, his connection to the Cynthia Ann Parker story, his encounters with the Comanchero trade, the creation of the Goodnight-Loving Trail, the chuck wagon, Palo Duro Canyon, and his role in helping preserve Southern Plains bison.

Along the way, we’ll separate legend from fact and discover why Charles Goodnight’s story reaches far beyond cattle drives and cowboy hats.

Perfect for students, families, homeschoolers, and Texas history fans who want to learn the stories hiding just beyond the classroom lesson.

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🎧😊Podcast Listening Response Activities

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What was found beneath Waco, Texas at Waco Mammoth National Monument?

In this episode of Texas History for Kids, we explore the discovery of the Waco mammoths, learn how these giant animals lived, and uncover the mystery surrounding their deaths.

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🎧😊Podcast Listening Response Activities

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 Snag your Texas Flag Reading Packet—perfect for grades 4–7!
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Email [email protected]

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