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Bug Tussle, Texas
The town of Bug Tussle, Texas has a population of 6 to 10 people and is at the junction of Farm Road 1550 and State Highway 34, ten miles south of Honey Grove and five miles north of Ladonia in southeastern Fannin County. You won’t find this town on the GPS, it can be found on Bing Maps and Google Maps.
In the 1890s the town was founded by John Settler and had a post office from post office in 1893–94. For some reason, the name of Truss, Texas was changed to Bug Tussle. There are three popular stories of how the town got its new name. They all involve bugs invading or fighting. For each story told the people involved were watching the bugs fight and using the term while looking the bugs and said “Look at those bugs tussle.”
By the early 1960s, only six residents were left in town. The David Graham Hall Foundation took a fifteen-year lease on the down area to restore it. The downtown area was commonly known as West Bug Tussle had a population of thirty and used its name to bring in tourists and money to the town. But by 1990, the population was down to fifteen.
When I drove through the area, I couldn’t find downtown or at least I didn’t know where to look. I did find the welcome to Bug Tussle, Texas sign.
The Abandoned Bug Tussle General Store
The only building left in town except for a few local houses scattered around is the abandoned Bug Tussle general store. It has been abandoned for years and in the recent past it was a hot spot for photographers.
If you look at older abandoned photos of the building, you will see hanging from the attic window a sign that says Bug Tussle, Texas. The sign was stolen or fell off several years ago. The windows are gone and all that is left is the old general store-style wooden counter.
I am planning to write a more complete article and document the town and the store at some point on the VanishingTexas.com website. In order to complete the article and to get a more complete history of the town, I’m looking for more information about the town, where the downtown area was, the current population, and Vintage photos of the town/general store that I can share it on VanishingTexas.net, and personal/ancestral accounts of the town and the general store that I can use in the article.
Sources: Texas Escapes, Texas State Historical Association
Article updated: 09/17/2023
About the Images
The images were shot by hand early in the afternoon on a gloomy day with my Sony Nex-3N and a Sony SEL16F28 16mm f/2.8 lens. I then edited the images in Adobe Lightroom. Next, I post-processed with Topaz Clarity to add texture, brighten, and bring out the details in the images. Then I removed the dust spots. Finally, I used Topaz DeNoise to remove the noise from the image.
About James
Looking on historicaerial.com; this site is little changed since 1956. There was a couple of buildings next to the general store, and that was it.