Discover Old D'Hanis

Discover Old D'Hanis is an educational experience about exploring the history of the old town of D’Hanis, Texas. Based on the Old D’Hanis Archaeological Mapping Project, which examined the town’s ruins, stories and landscapes with community members in 2018, it has you collect fragments of the past and piece together the stories of the town and its residents.

Explore the town

You begin at the ruins of D’Hanis’ Catholic church, in a landscape with grass, wind and occasional birds but no people. As you walk the historic streets, you encounter virtual reconstructions of 19th-century white-walled cottages alongside 21st-century ruins scanned by archaeologists. The landscape and sound design draw on historical research.

Piece together its history

The fragments scattered through the landscape include a 19th-century photograph, archaeological field notes, an oral-history quote and a newspaper article. Each offers a snapshot of the town or the archaeological project; together, they tell a fuller story of D’Hanis and its residents. This includes the Alsatian and German migrants who founded the town in 1847, as well as the Black and Mexican families who made it their home following the Civil War and Mexican Revolution.

Archaeology and reconstruction

The experience includes interactive features, artistic reconstructions and an original musical composition based on old German folk songs. It offers a glimpse into a real archaeology project and shows how fragments can help build an understanding of the past.