You can drive down Main Street in Turkey in 90 seconds flat, speed limit and all. From the east side, where State Highway 86 turns toward town at the Allsup’s, to the west side where a weigh station and a herd of John Deere tractors mark the end of town, you can put Turkey in your rearview mirror in about half the time it takes to listen to Bob Wills sing “Faded Love.”
But please don’t. Stay a little longer.
About 100 miles northeast of Lubbock, Turkey is in sparsely populated Hall County, a particularly scenic patch of rolling plains in the Texas Panhandle. The 2020 Census gave the town a population of 317—about the number of people that work in a typical Walmart Supercenter. The nearest Walmart of any kind is an hour away in Plainview. In Turkey, locals shop at Lacy Dry Goods, or at the Allsup’s.
Turkey was established as Turkey Roost (named for the prevalence of wild turkeys in the area) in the early 1890s and renamed Turkey in 1893 when a post office was established. Things really picked up in the 1920s. Turkey was incorporated in 1926, and the railroad came to town two years later. Right in between, the Hotel Turkey was established in 1927 and, remarkably, is still going strong.
“We joke that maybe there was once or twice when it should have closed, but we’re real thankful that it never did,” says Carley du Menil, a partner in the hotel with Pat and Tina Carson who became a Turkey resident in 2018. “As we operate it today, we try to pay homage to what it was originally, which was a railway stop.”
The hotel feels a century old. Though there’s modern amenities—air conditioning, private in-room bathrooms, satellite TV—the hotel doesn’t embrace the luxury that permeates some other historic Texas hotels.
Instead, it’s the kind of place where you can sit in a rocking chair on the front porch and watch rural Texas slowly and quietly do its thing. And the back patio, which serves beer and wine when open, is somewhere between a backyard barbecue and a vintage dancehall. The Hotel Turkey hosts live music every Friday and Saturday night, keeping the hotel’s 14 rooms booked and drawing musicians from Willis Alan Ramsey to Jamie Lin Wilson to William Clark Green.
“We have a lot of singer-songwriters that come through here,” du Menil says. “People ask me all the time, ‘What kind of music am I going to hear at the hotel?’ And I can’t guarantee what kind it’s going to be, but I can guarantee you it’s going to be good.”
The music is more than just a party. The Hotel Turkey has recorded a series of YouTube videos of performances at the Boot Shop—an event venue across the street—and released a live album featuring a show by Ross Cooper.
If that seems like a lot of music for a town of 300, well it all goes back to Bob Wills, the king of Western swing. The band leader grew up on a nearby farm, but claimed Turkey as his hometown, even working at the local barber shop in 1928-29 when he was in his early 20s. Turkey was more than happy to claim Wills in return and started hosting Bob Wills Day in 1971, four years before he died in Fort Worth at age 70. Apart from a COVID disruption in 2020 and 2021, it has been held the last Saturday in April ever since.
And if you can’t get to Bob Wills Day, the Bob Wills Museum in Turkey is the next best thing. At first glance, visiting a small town museum housed in the same former elementary school as the city offices, a medical clinic, and a library, sounds dubious. But the museum itself is top-notch, with exhibits that stand up alongside big city museums. A Bob Wills fan could spend serious time pouring through the photos and memorabilia, including an original fiddle Wills played onstage, but it’s worth a stop for anyone passing through.
Eat and Drink: Letty’s Cafe is the sort of small town restaurant where the western décor is extensive and portraits of Clint Eastwood and Wyatt Earp watch you eat. That said, they might be jealous of the chicken-fried steak, which is good. There’s also the Turkey Creek Winery, which does triple duty as a restaurant, winery, and happy hour bar for the locals.
Shop: Opened in 1916, Lacy’s Dry Goods is a family-owned department store on Main Street that sells everything from clothes and accessories for the whole family to wellness products and home décor items.
Explore: Caprock Canyons State Park is a short drive away, its trails showing off miles of Texas the way it looked when Coronado came through or when the Comanche ruled. In town, the restored Phillips 66 station—which opened in 1928 and was the first in Texas—and the restored barber shop are fun trips back in time.
Upcoming Events: Mark your calendar for the Hotel Texas Song Festival on Sept. 25-28, and next April’s 54th Bob Wills Day.
