Old Town Spring: Railroad Village & the Bandit Era

Old Town Spring feels like a village that time gift-wrapped: a cluster of century-old cottages and storefronts, now filled with shops and cafes, all within an easy walk. But behind the boutiques is a genuine railroad town. Spring was platted by the Houston & Great Northern in 1873, drew a wave of German settlers led by the Wunsche family, and grew into a busy rail center with a roundhouse and shops where crews serviced the locomotives that made the town matter. That railroad past is what gives Old Town Spring its bones — the depot, the saloon that put up railroad workers, the German family names still on the buildings. It also gave the place its most colorful legends: like many railroad towns of the era, Spring collected stories of outlaws and desperadoes passing through in the wild years around the turn of the century. This short loop walks the old village, sorting the solid history from the tall tales. Bring comfortable shoes and a sense of humor about the bandit yarns.