Although the Emerald City only exists in the Land of Oz, Texas once had its own town called Emerald (also referenced as Emerald Grove). Established in 1889 as a railroad colonization project and the first settlement in Crockett County, Emerald is now a lost ghost town, with nothing remaining. Even the community’s elevation and exact geographic coordinates are without record, but local legend places it between the hills of the Edwards Plateau, roughly eight miles east of the town of Ozona.
Emerald lost its bid to be the county seat in 1891, after an election was held and the people chose the newly developing area that would become Ozona (named for the high quality of air or ‘ozone’). With this decision, the railroad bypassed Emerald and the township eventually disappeared, with many of its buildings moved to Ozona. The last building moved was the schoolhouse in 1897.
