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Back in the 1920s when the section of HWY 180 near Brad, Texas was still a gravel road near the Canty Ranch Bob and Eliza Jane Townsend purchased a small tract of land near HWY 180 and HWY 16 and opened the Canty Service Station and Café.
The Canty Service Station and Café
It wasn’t long before the Grey Hound Bus Service heard about this little country Service Station and Café just outside of Palo Pinto, Texas. It wasn’t long before Greyhound had secured a bus stop at this location.
The Canty Service Station and Café was then known as the Canty Bus Stop. The Canty Bus Stop serviced westbound Fort Worth buses as a rest stop. For a short time a bus pulled into the area behind the café where an add-on canopy was added where the riders could stop for food, rest and walk around for a few minutes. The buses ran continuously from 6 a.m. to about 10 p.m. with buses arriving about every thirty minutes and sometimes two at a time.
Bob Townsend died in 1944 and and Eliza Jane Townsend passed away in 1965 but the Canty Bus Stop and the Townsends continued to provide food drinks, rest stops and lodging for those traveling pass the old bus stop.
It is unclear to me and I can not find any digital records as to when the Canty Bus Stop closed its doors for the last time or if/when the bus stop was sold. But I do know the bus stop burned and the grandson of Bob and Eliza Jane Townsend, Bob Thompson, was on the second fire truck to help put the fire in 1984
The history that I could find on the old bus stop came from one article (sited at the end of the article). In the near future I will be writing an article for Vanishing Texas and plan to do so once I have more information about its history. I am looking for an opening date, if the bus stop was sold while in operation/after and when it closed its door for the last time. I would also like to share vintage photo the bus stop so the our will know what it looked like when it was open to the public.
Current Status: The Old Abandoned Canty Bus Stop in Palo Pinto County, Texas
About two months ago the old abandoned Canty Bus Stop in Palo Pinto County, Texas caught my eye for the first time as my wife and I traveled to Possum Kingdom Lake. I stopped by and took some quick pictures with my point-n-shoot during the rain.
I then came back in mid June with another photographer to reshoot, document, and reshoot the old bus stop. The Café is gone accept for a small section of wall and the foundation. Due to the overgrowth of vegetation and was behind a barbed wire fence we did not see what else was left of the bus stop. As for the old service station, all that’s left is the outer walls and debris from the collapsed roof.
Source: Remembering the Old Canty Bus Stop
About the Images
I shot the above images with a Canon EOS Rebel T1i and Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II SLR Lens during the late afternoon sun. I then processed the images with Adobe Lightroom and Topaz Clarity to bring out the detail of the building
About James
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