Alamo Village
Built for The Alamo (1960) · Shahan Angus Ranch, Brackettville, Texas, USA
Photo: John Margolies / Library of Congress / Wikimedia Commons (public domain), border cropped, as published on Street Art Utopia (The Movie Ended, the Set Stayed (10 Photos), 31 October 2026).
Alamo Village is a permanent adobe movie town on the Shahan Angus Ranch near Brackettville, built from 1957 to 1959 for John Wayne’s The Alamo. It then served as a film location and tourist attraction until it closed in 2010; a 2018 sale dispersed its props, but the family kept the land and buildings. Source Source Source Checked
Seen Jan 2018 — The newest dated evidence is news coverage of the January 2018 liquidation sale: FOX 7 drone footage showed the Alamo replica still the focal point of the set, and Texas Monthly described derelict but standing structures. No dated photograph from after 2018 was found. Source Source Reported
💡 4 things to know
- No false frontsThe Texas State Historical Association says more than a million adobe bricks went into 200,000 square feet of permanent buildings, with no “false front” streets. Source Reported
- Wayne’s set, Shahan’s townWayne wanted authentic brick and adobe, while ranch owner Happy Shahan wanted concrete foundations and roofs so he would have a “real town” after filming, according to a historian quoted by MySA. Source Reported
- An Alamo for other filmsThe replica was reused for Viva Max (1969) and two later Alamo films, and the town appeared in westerns such as Bandolero! (1968) and Lonesome Dove (1989). Source Checked
- Props sold, buildings keptAt the January 2018 liquidation sale, wagons, cannons and memorabilia were sold, but FOX 7 reported that the land and buildings were not part of the sale. Source Source Checked
📍 Where it is
On the private Shahan Angus Ranch in Kinney County, north of Brackettville. Distances vary by source: six miles north (TSHA), about seven miles north (FOX 7), about ten miles northeast off Highway 674 (San Antonio Report). The site has been closed to the public since 2010. Source Source Source Source Checked
🗓️ Sightings
- 1957
Construction began (December)
- 1993
Margolies photographs the village stores
- 2004
Alamo chapel replica photographed
- 20093 Jul
Express-News photo of the replica
- 2010
Attraction closed permanently (August)
- 20118 Mar
Sunset photo of the Alamo replica
- 201413 Oct
KSAT: set “struggling to stay up”
- 20144 Dec
AP photo inside the saloon
- 201818 Jan
FOX 7 drone footage before sale
- 201820 Mar
Texas Monthly: derelict structures (January visit)
Green stamps mark dated photographs; amber stamps mark records or reports; red stamps mark loss. Publication dates are not camera dates.
🗞️ In the sources
“From SkyFox Drone you can see how the replica of the iconic San Antonio mission is still the focal point of the sprawling movie set.”
“Wayne wanted authentic materials such as brick and adobe used on the set, and James Shahan desired concrete foundations and roofing, so he could have a “real town” when the film was done”
✅ The facts
- Built for
- The Alamo (1960), directed by and starring John Wayne; construction supervised by the Batjac Company preproduction crew Source Checked
- Final closure
- TSHA: closed permanently in August 2010. MySA: closed in 2009 after Virginia Shahan’s death, then open three days a week for six months before closing in 2010. San Antonio Report: open 1961–2009. We lean to 2010 for the final closure. Source Source Source Conflicting
- Productions
- KSAT: 38 movies. MySA: nearly 40 major film and TV productions plus hundreds of commercials, documentaries and music videos. FOX 7: more than 70 movies, music videos and commercials in total. We lean to roughly 40 feature and TV productions. Source Source Source Conflicting
🔗 Related
- The Movie Ended, the Set Stayed (10 Photos) — Street Art Utopia
- Wikipedia: Alamo Village
- Texas Monthly: The Last Stand at Alamo Village (2018)
- All Artwork Files
All sources & image credits
- tshaonline.org: Handbook of Texas entry “Alamo Village” (Texas State Historical Association, revised 14 August 2025)
- fox7austin.com: “Alamo Village holding liquidation sale” (FOX 7 Austin, Rudy Koski, 18 January 2018)
- mysanantonio.com: “Wagons, movie set props up for sale at Alamo Village” (MySA, Kelsey Bradshaw, 6 January 2018)
- sanantonioreport.org: “It couldn’t last forever” (San Antonio Report, Shari Biediger, January 2018)
- texasmonthly.com: “Last stand at Alamo Village” (Texas Monthly, Christian Wallace, 20 March 2018)
- ksat.com: “Famed western movie set struggling to stay up” (KSAT, Bill Barajas, 13 October 2014)
- commons.wikimedia.org: John Margolies photograph, 1993 (Library of Congress, public domain)
- worldhistory.org: Alamo chapel movie set, photograph by Betsy Mark, 2004 (World History Encyclopedia)
- en.wikipedia.org: “Alamo Village” (Wikipedia, secondary source, coordinates)
- Image: John Margolies / Library of Congress / Wikimedia Commons (public domain), border cropped — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alamo_Village_Stores,_Brackettville,_Texas_LCCN2017708870.tif; as published on Street Art Utopia (The Movie Ended, the Set Stayed (10 Photos), 31 October 2026); a 16:9 share version was made from it.
Last checked: 31 October 2026. How we verify art