# Relocation: Is this place to close to the Highway?



## HELIXX (Jan 2, 2011)

We have found a couple places we like and can run cows on.
Although both homes sit 300 to 500 yards from a highway but not a major one.
For some of you your Valhalla of SHTF homes is in the middle of no where.
I still need to be no more than a hour and some change from a major city for some sort of social edification.

It's hard to find anything in Texas that isn't on a highway.
Please don't suggest relocation to a snowy cold belt. 
Been there. Done that. Won't go back.

Are these purchases a big mistake and we will be overrun with Zombies?
There's a lot of clearing between the highway and the homes.
Thanks


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## bigg777 (Mar 18, 2013)

What is your definition of a highway?


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## HELIXX (Jan 2, 2011)

One lane both ways on the Texas place.
Two lanes both ways on the AZ place North out of Phoenix


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## bigg777 (Mar 18, 2013)

The AZ place sounds like it's just off of a highway, the TX location sounds more like it's off of a county route. That comes from a guy who lives about a 1/4 mile off of a county route in SE Pennsylvania.

How close is the closest city/town in TX and what's it's population?


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## HELIXX (Jan 2, 2011)

8000 one way 8 minutes at 65 MPH
15,000 the other 15 minutes at 65 MPH
The TX place is a county road


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## bacpacker (Jul 15, 2011)

The Texas place don't sound too bad. Small towns on either end. Not a huge population. How much traffic travels the road? Towns on down the road that travel for jobs and such? Sounds more like the people you'll see will be folks that get stranded out and are trying to get home.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

Many people say (on the internet) that during end times people will flock out of the cities and logically they will follow roads. If that is true then those on the major highways will quickly figure out that they must follow smaller roads to escape the rest of the fleeing horde. So following that logic all roads reasonably close to bigger cities will have refugees on them. So the question then is not how big the road but how far from the cities. The farther away the safer you will be.


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## Marcus (May 13, 2012)

HELIX, if you'll PM me with the proposed location, I'll give you an better opinion.

In Texas, there is a hierarchy of roads. From best roads to worst:
Interstate: IH xx
US Highway: US xxx
State Highway: SH xx
Farm to Market: FM xxxx
County Road: CR xxx

The IH & US highways are maintained by funds from the US government.
SH & FM roads are built/maintained with funds from the state.
County roads are maintained with county funds. Generally these are old roads from the horse and wagon days. They tend to have lots of curves as they meandered around the edges of existing farms and ranches. These roads may or may not be paved depending on traffic and the wealth of that particular county.

FYI I live on a FM road which, while not ideal, is at least out in the country. It also has several chokepoints to possibly reduce or control traffic post SHTF.


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## oldasrocks (Jun 30, 2012)

We live on a off paved road in Missouri. Our hope is that the major roads will be clogged and no one can get to our road easy. We think people will bypass us as the road doesn't lead to a major city. On the plus side there isn't hardly a way to travel cross country down here except on horseback or foot.

Which location will have more traffic going by in an attempt to get to a city? Can they get to the place off road?


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## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

HELIXX said:


> We have found a couple places we like and can run cows on.
> Although both homes sit 300 to 500 yards from a highway but not a major one.
> For some of you your Valhalla of SHTF homes is in the middle of no where.
> I still need to be no more than a hour and some change from a major city for some sort of social edification.
> ...


What would concern me more then if you are on a highway is that since you need to be near a major city that means to me that you are looking at Eastern Texas. Texas has almost 30 million people living on the Eastern side of the state. Whether you live on a highway or not, one tenth of the total population of the country is within an hour or two. The odds don't look good for survival.


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## bigg777 (Mar 18, 2013)

HELIXX, does either location have a visual barrier between it and the closest road? Or is it possible to grow one?


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

One thing to consider is what the traffic will be like in 10 years. We bought our current home on a farm to market road almost 12 years ago. There was an average of two cars an hour. Now thanks to GPS on everyone's phones, when there's drama on the interstate, the traffic reroutes to our road. :gaah:

Like Big said, a visual barrier would be necessary & it would need to be evergreen so it's there year round. Red tips are evergreen & grow pretty fast. If the cows are seen, that's going to attract them to your home. 

There's land for sale that's not on a major road in Texas, trust me. If you're looking in east Texas, let me know & I'll keep my eyes peeled. Location is everything, if you can't protect it, no much else matters.


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## jimLE (Feb 25, 2015)

to me,the visual barrier along the property line is the only route to take.and that means.looking into the different tree's and other plants of the immediate area.and then plant them along the property line.while making sure that their off set.on account you wont see tree's growing in a straight line,in the wild..

i live on a county road.in which it runs from a 2 lane state hwy with no shoulders,to a farm market rd..with no shoulders.but yet the state hwy and farm market rd's get a lot of traffic.state hwy gets the most traffic.and people travel the road im on as a short cut from one to the other.so people not only know of this road im on.but they know whats along this road as well.i'm in deep east texas.in which hwy 69 pass's through the town im 6 miles outside of.it's a primary artiry for ALL sorts of traffic..and the 2 lane state hwy im close to,is a primary artiry as well..i live a half mile from it.and hear traffic on the road everyday.and that includes truckers making deliveries as well.


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## butch630434 (Sep 19, 2015)

HELIXX said:


> 8000 one way 8 minutes at 65 MPH
> 15,000 the other 15 minutes at 65 MPH
> The TX place is a county road


on the TX site are we talking U.S. or state RT or are these F.M. road an is this east or west TX also the road going to the 2 town is your road the one just off of that road or is it 4 or 5 road from it also does it cross over creek with deep bank


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## HELIXX (Jan 2, 2011)

bigg777 said:


> HELIXX, does either location have a visual barrier between it and the closest road? Or is it possible to grow one?


Most of it does with the exception of 20 yards in front of the house.


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## bigg777 (Mar 18, 2013)

If this is the TX location you're talking about, that sounds like the better of the two locations, all other things being equal.

Proximity to PHX is a serious consideration. As beautiful as the Valley of the Sun is, nearly 7million people live in the PHX area, with a growth rate of ~3% annually.


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## BillS (May 30, 2011)

I don't think the roads matter as much as how far away you are from major population centers. After it hits the fan you don't want those roads filled with vehicles running out of gas.


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## tc556guy (Apr 28, 2011)

I think it depends on the situation, but any location within eyesight of the road will be a target for anyone who gets stranded on the road within a mile of the place or at least within eyesight or earshot of the place


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## jimLE (Feb 25, 2015)

i think having the primary road to the driveway blocked after a shtf situation is a great idea..but yet,it pays to have other routes that can be taken when it comes to getting to the location,and leaving as well..in other words.have at least 4 or 5 alternate routes that can be taken as well as the primary route.so haveing broke down vehicles to fallen trees across the primary road or driveway after a shtf situation is a pluss.on account that'll keep others from driveing onto the property.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

> Proximity to PHX is a serious consideration. As beautiful as the Valley of the Sun is, nearly 7million people live in the PHX area, with a growth rate of ~3% annually.


If anyone looks at a map of Arizona then you will quickly see there are a very limited number of highways. If there ever was a mass exodus out of Phoenix those highways would be completely impassable very quickly (it happens just about everyday now when there is an accident). When a highway here is blocked outside of a city the detour is usually 100 miles out-of-the-way simply because there are so few roads to choose from. 
The roads here are almost always either a highway or a dirt road (except for city streets). After a rain most dirt roads need maintenance and it is not uncommon for them to be almost impassable until they receive that maintenance. If there ever is a SHTF situation the dirt roads will quickly become unusable except by horse or a real off-road vehicle.


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## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

bigg777 said:


> If this is the TX location you're talking about, that sounds like the better of the two locations, all other things being equal.
> 
> Proximity to PHX is a serious consideration. As beautiful as the Valley of the Sun is, nearly 7million people live in the PHX area, with a growth rate of ~3% annually.


7 Million in Phoenix shouldn't concern him if the 30 million in Eastern Texas doesn't bother him.

As a reference, there aren't 30 million people in entire great planes area. Chicago to Denver, from the Canadian border to Texas there aren't 30 million people. In fact there aren't 30 million people in Canada.


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## Marcus (May 13, 2012)

Tweto said:


> 7 Million in Phoenix shouldn't concern him if the 30 million in Eastern Texas doesn't bother him.


There aren't even 30 million people in Texas; there are 27.7 million. Nor do they all live in East Texas or even Eastern Texas.

There are 24.5 million in Metro areas spread throughout the state. The biggest ones are DFW (7.1 million), Houston (6.6 million), San Antonio (2.4 million) and Austin (2 million.) None of these Metro areas are in what is considered East Texas although Houston is close as East Texas (as a region) starts just north of Houston.

The only Metro areas actually in East Texas are Tyler (225,000), Longview (229,000), & Texarkana (93,000) while Bryan-College Station (251,000) borders it to the west (<100 miles away) and Beaumont-Port Arthur (417,000) borders it to the south like Houston.

The Piney Woods, a part of east Texas, is not heavily populated since most of the people live on the coastal plain or along the I-35 corridor. West Texas is even less populated with metro areas typically at least 100 miles or more apart except for Midland-Odessa.

https://www.dshs.state.tx.us/chs/popdat/ST2015.shtm


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## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

Marcus said:


> There aren't even 30 million people in Texas; there are 27.7 million. Nor do they all live in East Texas or even Eastern Texas.
> 
> There are 24.5 million in Metro areas spread throughout the state. The biggest ones are DFW (7.1 million), Houston (6.6 million), San Antonio (2.4 million) and Austin (2 million.) None of these Metro areas are in what is considered East Texas although Houston is close as East Texas (as a region) starts just north of Houston.
> 
> ...


I rounded up.

If you draw a line at the geographic center of the state and look on the west side of that line there is El Paso, Midland, and Amarillo, the rest of population in West Texas is small. A rough estimate of the population of those cities is 1.5 million. The rest of the population live East of that line. If just the population density of that East area is looked at it's 194 per sq mile. California is 246.

East Texas 194/ sq mile
California 246/ sq mile
Nebraska 24/sq mile
Wyoming 6/sq mile
South Dakota 11/sq mile
North Dakota 11/sq mile
Montana 7/sq mile

I have been to Texas at least 10 times in the past 10 years. West Texas is one of the most desolate areas in the country, But East Texas is one of the most populated areas of the country.


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

Tweto, according to your math, the 194/sq mile is based on population and acreage east of IH35. That means you're adding in Dallas/Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston to all areas east to the state line. This significantly overstates the rural areas. 

I'm with Marcus on this... those of us who live on this side of Texas know the population of the surrounding counties as well as the routes, miles, and drive times from the mega-cities. It takes about a tank of gas to get from Houston to where we live. Dallas is five hours away and San Antonio is six hours. That's driving, not stop-and-go traffic which would be the result of an event where people would do a mass exodus out of the mega-cities.

As with all of us, regardless where we live, the immediate risk would be from the small towns emptying to the countryside. This group could easily include relatives and friends who have chosen not to prepare and think they can hang out with folks who live in the country until it blows over.

Not meaning to sound snarky; however, visiting Texas is a whole lot different than living here. We live the demographics, not just read about them.


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

*The Road*

Have you ever used a GPS or similar app such as google maps? They offer you alternative routes. Maybe none of this will matter when SHTF. But if one route is plugged up, people will keep looking for alternatives.

I think of the movie "The Road" and how any house along the side of the road will have visitors. How far can a person walk in a day? How many people will end up close to your place at the end of the day, needing a place to hide and take shelter?

If you have never seen the movie, or haven't seen it recently, it may give you some ideas.


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## Marcus (May 13, 2012)

Tweto said:


> I have been to Texas at least 10 times in the past 10 years. West Texas is one of the most desolate areas in the country, But East Texas is one of the most populated areas of the country.


Bastrop County: 86,175 in 896 sq miles= 96/ sq mile
This is the county directly east of Austin. Many people commute to Austin for work.

The next county to the east/NE is:
Lee County: 17,880 in 634 sq miles= 28/ sq mile
This is roughly the same as Nebraska.

The next county to the NE is: 
Burleson County: 18,482 in 677 sq miles= 27/ sq mile

The last two counties are primarily farming/ranching areas with the largest towns in the 4000-5000 range. Even in Bastrop County, most of the population is in the western half closest to Austin. I will also note that Burleson County abuts Brazos County which is the location of the Bryan-College Station Metro area.

Once you get into the small towns in Texas, the population drops off rapidly since there isn't much employment. Once you get out of commuter range to the big cities, all you're left with are those who make a living by farming or ranching. There are a few exceptions like Fredericksburg in Gillespie County, but these places have become tourist destinations.

If you've just been to the big cities or even the urban sprawl areas surrounding the bigger cities, you don't know just how fast the population density drops off.


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## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

Marcus said:


> Bastrop County: 86,175 in 896 sq miles= 96/ sq mile
> This is the county directly east of Austin. Many people commute to Austin for work.
> 
> The next county to the east/NE is:
> ...


I have driven almost the entire state driving an 18 wheeler. In 2009 I was in Texas 2 days a week every week. I had to go into almost all the major cities. So I'm familiar with the urban, suburban, and rural areas of the state. I have also flown my on small aircraft to most places in Texas. I was in Dalhart for a day and the guy at the airport apologizes for Dalhart being a one horse town. Dalhart has 7900 people. If Dalhart was in Nebraska it would be in the top 10 biggest cities.

When I leave Nebraska to haul a load to Houston the first time I see any traffic is Oklahoma city and that lasts for 30 miles, the next traffic starts at Denton and continues till I'm 50 miles south of Dallas and then the traffic gets heavy again about 50 miles North of Houston. I can drive all over the great planes states and never see any traffic. Even Denver, Kansas city, and Minneapolis isn't near as bad as Texas.

I know that if you live there you get conditioned to the population and traffic but for the people that actually live in a low population area go to high population areas the people seem shoulder to shoulder.

The numbers in my previous post are very close to correct. Still with one tank of gas there are 26 million people that can invade the urban areas of the Eastern side of Texas if things get bad. That's the bottom line.


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

Adding to Marcus's post. The numbers below are population per square mile. The average number of people per square mile in Texas (2010 Census) is 96.

68 Nacogdoches County
30 Panola County
58 Rusk County
48 Cherokee County
32 Shelby County
17 San Augustine County (Angelina National Forest)
22 Sabine County

--------------------------
3,501 Houston (Fort Bend, Harris, Montgomery)
3,518 Dallas (Collin, Dallas, Denton, Kaufman, Rockwall)
2,181 Ft. Worth (Denton, Parker, Tarrant, Wise)
2,880 San Antonio (Bexar, Comal, Medina)
2,653 Austin (Hays, Travis, Williamson)
1,700 Tyler

Tweto, you're driving the major roads so of course all you would see are heavily traveled areas. 

When we lived in the mega-city, we'd sit on the loop stuck in traffic for an hour and think nothing of it. Now that we live in a rural county, we think the traffic is atrocious if we have to wait for a couple of cars to pass before we can get out on the state highway.

Now back to our regularly scheduled thread and let this specific topic take a rest.


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

I've lived in between Tyler & Longview for the last 12 years, I lived in Longview 10 years before that. I've lived in east Texas for almost 30 years. Tyler & Longview have a population of around 100,000 each, according to the US Census. There's a lot of rural areas around here. Around here, people leaving the city for more rural areas would go to their family/friends house, not a stranger's. Oh & we have water. Lots & lots of water. In private wells & private ponds. And grass in our yard. .


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## Marcus (May 13, 2012)

Tweto said:


> I have driven almost the entire state driving an 18 wheeler. In 2009 I was in Texas 2 days a week every week. I had to go into almost all the major cities. So I'm familiar with the urban, suburban, and rural areas of the state. I have also flown my on small aircraft to most places in Texas. I was in Dalhart for a day and the guy at the airport apologizes for Dalhart being a one horse town. Dalhart has 7900 people. If Dalhart was in Nebraska it would be in the top 10 biggest cities.
> 
> When I leave Nebraska to haul a load to Houston the first time I see any traffic is Oklahoma city and that lasts for 30 miles, the next traffic starts at Denton and continues till I'm 50 miles south of Dallas and then the traffic gets heavy again about 50 miles North of Houston. I can drive all over the great planes states and never see any traffic. Even Denver, Kansas city, and Minneapolis isn't near as bad as Texas.
> ...
> The numbers in my previous post are very close to correct. Still with one tank of gas there are 26 million people that can invade the urban areas of the Eastern side of Texas if things get bad. That's the bottom line.


1. Dalhart is in the Panhandle and not East Texas so your anecdote is pretty irrelevant.

2. Driving down the Interstate is *not* really exposing you to rural Texas. There is a *lot* more buildup around transportation corridors than there is along more rural roads. So it seems like there's more people than there really is. The other cities you mention are nowhere near as big as DFW or Houston so any comparison is moot.

BTW if I was you, I'd try taking 35W to I20 East to US 287 to I45 (or take US 287 in downtown Ft Worth to I45) and miss more of the Dallas traffic.

You seem to think *everyone* in a Metro area is going to head to East Texas when that is highly unlikely. They'll scatter to the 4 winds and *assuming* everyone leaves (which is unlikely in itself,) that's only 24 million people statewide.

Assuming half end up in East Texas, that's still a population density of 92/sq mile. That's still 7 acres/person.
Assuming a quarter end up in East Texas (which is more likely IMHO,) that's a population density of 46/sq mile or 14 acres/person.
Both of these are sustainable levels for crop production.

What I _think_ you'll see is people will try to head home, wherever that is. For probably 20-25% of the metro populations, home will be someplace outside the state. Some will stay put in these metro areas since home will be too far away to reasonably reach, but others will try to make their way back to other states or Mexico. Some will undoubtedly try to reach 'rural' places they've visited before, but I don't think too many will find a warm welcome. They may be fed, but they'll be sent on their way ASAP.


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## millertimedoneright (May 13, 2013)

I live in San Augustine county in east Texas. Very rural area well outside the big cities and not highly populated at all. I have seen evacuations from major cities and while we do get a rise in traffic it was not too major and was only people passing through. The mass majority of Houston headed straight north while many went east or west. Very few went to the rural north east. In my opinion most of Dallas traffic would head north or west because if they went south they would mix up with Houston traffic. City people look towards other cities for safe haven.


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## Marcus (May 13, 2012)

That's kind of how I figure it, millertime.
Some in Dallas would go east to the Athens/Palestine area due to the lakes while I see those heading SE stopping around the Corsicana area again due to the lakes. North Dallas would probably go NE towards Paris or north towards Oklahoma. I 'think' folks in Ft Worth would go N, NW, W, or SW rather than fight all the exodus traffic to go east, NE or SE.

I may be wrong, but I figure most people will seek water first since that is usually the limiting factor in survival situations. In inclement weather, shelter may trump water as the first need but that will make people want to shelter in place rather than hit the road.

During Ike, I45 was a parking lot NB. If major cities became untenable, I _think_ we'd see the same on every major highway out of every large city. If there was any civil unrest during the evacuations, I'd bet a substantial percentage (10-20%) wouldn't make it 50 miles.


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## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

The numbers in my posts are very reasonable. I would expect any residence of East Texas to rationalize their own situation as favorable.

If the yearly population continues to grow in East Texas as it has in the past decade, then the state population will double in 10 to 15 years in East Texas That should concern any serious prepper.


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## Cotton (Oct 12, 2013)

tsrwivey said:


> I've lived in between Tyler & Longview for the last 12 years, I lived in Longview 10 years before that. I've lived in east Texas for almost 30 years. Tyler & Longview have a population of around 100,000 each, according to the US Census. There's a lot of rural areas around here. Around here, people leaving the city for more rural areas would go to their family/friends house, not a stranger's. Oh & we have water. Lots & lots of water. In private wells & private ponds. And grass in our yard. .


Side note for tsrwivey&#8230; in 1980 the US steel industry was in freefall. I (a welder) along with 40K other steel workers lost their jobs in Birmingham AL. In desperation I drove to New Orleans then all the way to Houston putting in job applications (oil). I'd heard about jobs in Arkansas so I left Houston heading north.

One night, about 10pm, I was driving through Tyler TX, going a little fast, looking for a place to camp for the night, had no money for motels. I got pulled over for speeding (justly). After I explained my situation to the young officer&#8230; something amazing happened.

He had me follow him out to his uncle's farm east of Tyler. He woke up his uncle and talked with him at the door. Long story short&#8230; I pitched my tent in his uncle's pasture while the officer and his uncle held flash lights for me&#8230; Woke up the next morning with the Herefords staring at me!... The uncle and his wife fed me breakfast&#8230; Something I'll never forget! I have a fondness for folks around Tyler! :2thumb:

Oh, and he didn't give me a ticket...


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

During the time of the civil rights unrest, a bus carrying the all-black Grambling State University band to a contest in Houston broke down in Shelby County, Texas. There was no way the bus could be fixed in time for the band to make the contest. 

The (white) school superintendent found out about the situation and sent some school buses to take the band to Houston, ferry them around the town, and bring them back to a repaired (at no cost) bus. The superintendent's response to the nay-sayers.... "It was the right thing to do."


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

East Texas is a special place & well represented on this board. I suppose it could be we're all wrong


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

*Where the out-of-staters are moving in Texas - and it isn't East Texas*

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/lo...tate-residents-2014-6553741.php#photo-7157735



> Texas gained more than half a million residents from out of state, according to a new report, and *there seems to be some sort of under-the-radar exchange program going on with California*.
> 
> In 2014, 63,591 Californians relocated to the Lone Star State, taking the places of 38,990 Texans who headed out to West Coast, according to the 2015 Texas Relocation Report recently released by the Texas Association of Realtors.
> Taking into account departures, Texas had a net gain of 103,465 residents from other states last year, which is second only to Florida.
> ...


The top ten Texas counties invaded by the most out-of-state residents in 2014. (Slideshow in the article)


> Harris County - Houston - Total number of out-of state residents who moved in in 2014: 74,665
> Bexar County - San Antonio - Total number of out-of state residents who moved in in 2014: 42,472
> Dallas County - Dallas - Total number of out-of state residents who moved in in 2014: 40,259
> Tarrant County - Fort Worth - Total number of out-of state residents who moved in in 2014: 37,521
> ...


The people moving to Texas, and there is a big increase in population expected over the next 20 years, are moving to the big cities where there are jobs so it's a vast overstatement to lump the rural counties in with the mega-cities. During the recession, Houston advertised all over the U.S. there were jobs in Houston and that contributed to their growth as well as the other mega-cities.

Just for grins, I looked at the population change from 2010 to 2014 for some counties in the area we refer to as Deep East Texas along with their county seats.

County Change in population City Change in population
Shelby 67 Center 52
Panola 27 Carthage 43
Nacogdoches 777 Nacogdoches 798 (college town)
San Augustine 254 No city stats
Angelina 979 Lufkin 1077 (major employer closed in 2015)

Note: decreases in red


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## millertimedoneright (May 13, 2013)

Yea I can promise you there isn't a large population increase anywhere near me if the population increases at all. People aren't moving to a town where the only jobs are $10 an hour sawmill jobs.


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

Just an FYI, we're having a meet up/camp out this weekend in the Tyler/Longview area this weekend! MMM & Gypsysue are coming to school us on solar. If you're interested in coming, PM me & I'll get you the particulars.


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## jimLE (Feb 25, 2015)

This article is about the U.S. state. For other uses, see Texas (disambiguation).

http://us.wow.com/wiki/Texas?s_pt=aolsem&s_chn=3


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## millertimedoneright (May 13, 2013)

I would love to come to something like that but I will be working.


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

Cotton said:


> Side note for tsrwivey&#8230; in 1980 the US steel industry was in freefall. I (a welder) along with 40K other steel workers lost their jobs in Birmingham AL. In desperation I drove to New Orleans then all the way to Houston putting in job applications (oil). I'd heard about jobs in Arkansas so I left Houston heading north.
> 
> One night, about 10pm, I was driving through Tyler TX, going a little fast, looking for a place to camp for the night, had no money for motels. I got pulled over for speeding (justly). After I explained my situation to the young officer&#8230; something amazing happened.
> 
> ...


Were you able to find a job soon after you left Tyler or did it take some time?


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## Cotton (Oct 12, 2013)

Country Living said:


> Were you able to find a job soon after you left Tyler or did it take some time?


It took about 4 more months. I lived in my car until I drove it down to the bank and gave the keys to the guy who gave me the loan (2 months behind). Thankfully I'd bought a hatchback!

6 weeks later I got a job on a 100 ton boat running supplies to the oil rigs out of Sabine Pass, TX. For the first year I hitch-hiked from Tusc, AL to Sabine or rode Amtrak if I had money. I could write a book on those couple of years! 

It would include a drill rig explosion during a tropical storm, my first hitch. During the explosion people were jumping 90ft from the heli-pad of a jack-up drill rig. I was free swimming, pulling them to the boat, large objects were crashing into the ocean. If the storm winds had been a few mph faster it'd have been a category 1 hurricane. I was young and stupid&#8230; thank God I survived. I think it was Tropical Storm Danielle, Sept, 1980. When we got the crew to the dock in Sabine the eye came over, I remember looking up and seeing blue skies, until the other half of the storm got there.

In '82 the oil industry crashed. Tired of being without a paycheck every couple of years I joined the Navy. Best decision I ever made, they taught me to repair missile systems. Much safer!


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