Skip to main content

The Leaning Tower of Texas - Britten Water Tower - Groom, TX

Image
By


Route 66 is full of landmarks - quirky, natural, or historic.  Many date to the highway's heyday of the 1930-50s.  However, one of the more well-known landmarks dates to the final days of the Mother Road.  Located in the small town of Groom, the Leaning Tower of Texas dates to around 1980 - the last few years of US 66's existence.

Truck Stops along the Interstate and major highways are a dime a dozen, and in the Western US, you will find them in every size imaginable, from small mom-and-pop operations to large corporate travel centers.  The former Britten Truck Stop is just one of many along Interstate 40 or old Route 66.


The story of the leaning water tower is that around 1980, truck stop owner Ralph Britten purchased the water tower as a water supply for his business.  When Britten realized that he did not have a need for the water tower - there was a better and simpler source - he decided to use the water tower as a way to market his truck stop.  Groom and his sons used a bulldozer to tilt the water tower 10 degrees.  Nothing structurally supports the tower, just two legs are buried in the ground.

The Town of Groom lights the star on top of the leaning tower at Christmas-time.

In 1980, Interstate 40 was completed in the area and bypassed Groom. The leaning tower was an instant success and a boon to the business.  The truck stop sign had a miniature replica of the tower on top.  Sadly, in 1985, an electrical fire destroyed the truck stop, and the Britten's decided not to rebuild.  The only remains of the truck stop today are the structure of the old highway sign, a small truck service shop on the old grounds, and of course, the leaning tower - which remains a popular roadside photo attraction to this day.

All photos taken by post author - April 18, 2010.


Site Navigation:


Sources & Links:

How To Get There:

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did Caltrans just kill the G26 cutout US Route shields?

By
The US Route System was formally created by the American Association of State Highway Officials during November 1926.  Through the history of the system the only state to which has elected to maintain cutout US Route shields has been California.  The G26 series cutout US Route shields have become a favorite in the road enthusiast hobby and are generally considered to be much more visually pleasing than the standard Federal Highway Administration variant.  However, the G26 shield series appears to have been killed off on January 18, 2026, when Caltrans updated their Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.  This blog will examine the history of the US Route shield specifications in California and what is happening with the 2026 changes.  The blog cover photo is facing towards the terminus of California State Route 136 and at a G26-2 specification US Route 395 shield.  In the background Mount Whitney can be seen in the Sierra Nevada range.   ...
2 comments
Read more

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

By
  Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ghost Town Tuesday; Nichols, FL

By
A couple years ago I spent a lot of spare time exploring phosphate mining ghost towns in the Bone Valley of Polk County, Florida.  One ghost town in particular called Nichols on Polk County Route 676 west of Mulberry caught my eye due to a relative lack of documentation on ghosttowns.com. Nichols was created in 1905 during the early phosphate mining boom in the Bone Valley region.  For the time Nichols was unusual since it had company housing in the Nichols Mine site and private residences outside the gate.  Nichols is only about two miles west of Mulberry which probably made it a somewhat reasonable commute even by the wonky standards of the early 20th Century.  Most of the Bone Valley region was relatively remote which made commuting or homesteading impractical which is why there are so many ghost towns in the area.  The company housing section of Nichols was phased out and abandoned by 1950. The Nichols town site is largely abandoned and could "possibl...
4 comments
Read more