Eastland County Safety Rest Area
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Eastland County Safety Rest Area

Texas safety rest areas feature many benefits for travelers in Texas.

Our 76 safety rest areas feature 24-hour restrooms. Most locations have attendants on duty 24 hours a day. Other locations have attendants on duty from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.

Eastland County

Eastland County eastbound

Location

  • IH 20 - eastbound, just east of Ranger.
  • Latitude/longitude: 32.4569, -98.6483
  • Mile marker: 353

Eastland County westbound

Location

  • IH 20 - westbound, 8 miles east of Ranger (between Ranger and Thurber).
  • Latitude/longitude: 32.4906, -98.5492
  • Mile marker: 359

Features

  • Two sets of men's and women's restrooms.
  • Handicap access.
  • Air-conditioned lobby and restrooms.
  • Interpretive displays.
  • Diaper changing stations.
  • Picnic tables.
  • Drinking water.
  • Playground.
  • Family/assisted restroom.
  • Separate truck and passenger parking.
  • Group picnic facility.
  • Storm shelter.

Trivia

  • New facility opened Spring 2016. The building design with its simple form and earthly material in harmony with their surrounding, is a tribute to park buildings, constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930's, whose remnants were found nearby. The building's butterfly roof form is an expressive method of rooftop rainwater harvesting which underlays sustainable building practices found in many CCC's structures.
  • This part of Interstate 20 follows the route of the Bankhead Highway constructed in the 1920's and stretched from Washington D.C. to San Diego, California. A section of the old Bankhead Highway is located within the Westbound site, and is marked by a Historical Marker dedicated on April 13, 2016.
  • Eastland County is named for William Mosby Eastland, an officer during the Texas Revolution. Eastland was the first of the 17 captives, and the only officer, to draw a fatal black bean during the Black Bean Episode.
  • The eastbound facility is just east of Ranger (named after Texas Rangers) where oil well McClesky No. 1 drilled in October 1917 began a mammoth oil boom that led the oil industry to reappraise Texas as an oil producing area and allayed fears of national oil shortage which had been growing since 1900.
  • The eastbound facility is 16 miles west of Thurber which was a principal bituminous coal mining town in Texas in 1918.
  • Located in the "Panhandle Plains" region of Texas. Visit our Texas Highways Magazine to find out interesting places and events happening in this region.