HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
The downtown block where Texas Rangers killed outlaw Sam Bass on July 19, 1878, still marked by historical monuments in the surviving streetscape.
105 W Main St, Round Rock, TX 78664
Research updated September 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Public outdoor site with historical markers; no admission charged.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved downtown sidewalk and plaza; historical markers at street level
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1878 · Site of July 19, 1878 Sam Bass shootout · Death of Deputy Sheriff A.W. Grimes · Texas Rangers historical significance · Williamson County Bank (surviving period structure) · City of Round Rock Historic Preservation designation
By the summer of 1878, Sam Bass had built a reputation across the Texas frontier as a train and stagecoach robber. His gang had successfully held up the Union Pacific's No. 4 train at Big Springs, Nebraska in September 1877 — taking approximately $60,000, the gang's largest single score — and had followed that with a series of smaller Texas train robberies that kept the Texas Rangers actively pursuing him.
Bass chose Round Rock as the target for what would be his gang's first bank robbery. On July 17, 1878, Bass and several members of his crew rode into the Williamson County town to scout the bank. On July 19 they returned. According to the City of Round Rock's official historical account, Deputy Sheriff A.W. Grimes observed the men in a downtown store, noticed that one was armed, and approached to investigate. Bass or one of his men shot and killed Grimes. Other town residents and Texas Rangers — who had been tipped to the planned robbery by an informant within Bass's circle — opened fire. Bass was struck by multiple bullets, possibly three rounds according to contemporary accounts; he managed to ride out of town before collapsing.
Bass was found the following morning, critically wounded, outside of town. He was brought back to Round Rock and died on July 21, 1878 — his twenty-seventh birthday. He was buried in Round Rock Cemetery, where his grave remains a marked historical site.
Deputy Grimes, who was the primary casualty, is commemorated alongside Bass in the downtown markers. The Williamson County Bank building that Bass intended to rob still stands in the historic downtown district, making the area a coherent walkable dark-history site.
Sources
The Sam Bass shootout site generates a modest but consistent paranormal tradition compared to the grave, where reports are more concentrated. The primary accounts associated with the downtown block describe figures seen in the upper windows of the period bank building after business hours — a detail that shows up in both local lore compilations and the occasional Round Rock resident's report.
More formally, July 21 has become an informal commemorative date in Round Rock. Local historians and Sam Bass enthusiasts have marked the anniversary of the outlaw's death at both the downtown markers and his cemetery grave since at least the early twentieth century, a practice that has kept the story in local circulation for nearly 150 years.
The wikipedia entry on Bass and the city's own historical documentation treat him as a genuine piece of Texas frontier history — a 27-year-old who came from humble Indiana origins, rose briefly to regional outlaw prominence, and died in the town he'd chosen as his next target. That straightforward arc has proved durable in Texas dark-tourism culture, keeping Round Rock on the map for visitors interested in the Ranger-outlaw conflicts of the 1870s.
Notable Entities
Visit the site of the July 19, 1878 gunfight between outlaw Sam Bass's gang and Texas Rangers. Multiple historical markers in the downtown block explain the events; the Williamson County Bank building, which Bass intended to rob, still stands nearby.
Local tour operators include the Sam Bass shootout site on organized walking tours of historic downtown Round Rock. The tour connects the shootout site to Bass's grave at the nearby Round Rock Cemetery.
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