Jack Cook with Malinda Hill's Headstone

For decades, Jack lovingly cared for Lonesome Dove Cemetery. Malinda, his grandmother’s grandmother, was kin to Cynthia Ann Parker. MORE

Log House in Bicentennial Park

Learn what Home Sweat Home meant for pioneers who came to Texas with “their families, dogs, guns and religion.” MORE

Alno Bailey Shivers

Alno and her husband, Claude, left the farm for the city after marrying in 1927. They had been sweethearts at Carroll Hill School. MORE

Lonesome Dove Cemetery

Pvt. Eli Torian died in 1918 in France. In 1921, his remains were brought home. MORE

Girls Basketball Team

Girls at Carroll Hill enjoyed basketball with new friends from schools that were combined to form District 99. MORE

Bonnie and Clyde

The bank robbers, who had ties to our area, killed two state troopers at Dove Road and Highway 114 in 1934. MORE

Jones Auction Barn and Integrated Cafe

In 1949, Bob Jones sons Jinks and Emory opened an auction barn; their wives ran what may have been the first integrated cafe in Texas. Pictured are Jones family members. MORE

Carroll High Parking Lot

The first Carroll High opened in 1963 at Carroll and Highland avenues, next to the 1919 Carroll School. Both are still standing. MORE

There Will Be Dragons

By 1963, football was going strong at Carroll. But the district's first UIL state championship was won in 1975 by the girls basketball team, coached by Don Durham. MORE

Lake Grapevine

In the early 1950s, Wanda and Bill Stowe enjoyed checking on the progress of the lake. Notice the cars on the roadway over the dam. MORE

D/FW Airport

In 1940, the Civil Aeronautics Board ordered Dallas and Fort Worth to find a location for a regional airport. In 1968, an agreement was reached. MORE

Town Square

On July 3 each year, Town Square celebrates. Southlake's downtown, built between 1999 and 2006, also hosts Art in the Square and Oktoberfest. MORE

Welcome to our online museum.
Pull up a chair and come on in to explore Southlake’s rich history.

Founding of Southlake

Founding of Southlake

Thank you for attending our 2022 Hood Cemetery Tour on Saturday, Nov. 12.

And thank you to our wonderful volunteers! Re-enactors Shawn McCaskill (the horse thief), Caspian Dawkins (4:30pm Spencer Graham), Andrew Yeager (6pm Spencer Graham), Tad Schmidt (John Valentine), Abby Williamson (Mary Hood), Elizabeth Beamon (mother) and Ann Coleman (daughter). Also, thank you to our volunteers who manned the event ticket sales, Terry Messing and Darla Reed!

A special thank you to our cemetery tour director, Tamara McMillan, who did an excellent job recruiting our volunteers and coordinating the event details.

In our 2014 Hood Cemetery tour, Southlake resident Bruce McGaha portrayed Spencer Graham, who lived in the Dove community in now-Southlake. Pvt. Graham fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War.

Mark your calendar for our 2023 exhibit

Opens Monday, July 10, and closes Saturday, Aug. 19, in the lobby of Southlake Town Hall.

This exhibit of stunning photographs taken by Bill Wittliff during the filming of the “Lonesome Dove” miniseries isn’t to be missed.

The photographs come from the famed Wittliff Collections at Texas State University in San Marcos. The exhibit is sponsored by Humanities Texas.

In the meantime, we encourage you to re-read your dogeared copy of Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Lonesome Dove.” (If you’ve never read it, pick up a copy – you won’t put it down.) And watch the miniseries, too.

The Lonesome Dove miniseries stars Robert Duvall as Augustus McCrae (right) and Tommy Lee Jones as Woodrow Call (left). The Oscar-winning actors portray aging Texas Rangers who lead an epic cattle drive from Texas to Montana in the late 1800s.
“Gus and Call on the Mesa,”
© 1988, Bill Wittliff.

Crooked Lane at Southlake Boulevard in the 1960s.
Courtesy of C.M. Gordon family

The Southlake Historical Society is dedicated to archiving historical materials, gathering oral history interviews, presenting exhibits that showcase the events and lives of folks who came before us and working to preserve and protect Southlake’s history.

The society meets at 3 p.m. on the second Monday of each month. If you would like to join us, please email southlakehistory@gmail.com.

Winner, 2021 AASLH
Leadership in History Award for the “Bob and Almeady Chisum Jones: A True Story of Resilience, Courage and Success” exhibit.

Winner, 2013 Corey Award recognizing primarily volunteer-operated historical organizations that best display the qualities of vigor, scholarship and imagination in their work.

Recipient of the 2021 William E. Jary, Jr. Memorial Award given in recognition of exceptional efforts in preserving or collecting the history of Fort Worth and Tarrant County.

Winner, 2021 Award of Excellence in Preserving History for the “Bob and Almeady Chisum Jones: A True Story of Resilience, Courage and Success” exhibit.

Do you have history in Southlake?
We invite you to tell your story!

pRESERVE IT HERE