If you've ever done the drive between La Grange and Round Top on State Highway 237, you may have noticed something unusual sitting in a field near Warrenton and kept right on going.
Stop next time.
It's a genuine Cold War Warsaw Pact fighter jet a Polish-built MiG-17 sitting completely unannounced in an outdoor antique market (The Bull Gate), between a rusty Rolls Royce and a row of decaying travel trailers. No placard. No admission fee. No gift shop. Just a fifty-year-old Iron Curtain fighter aircraft parked off a two-lane Texas highway, waiting for someone to notice it.
Where exactly: Warrenton, Texas State Highway 237, between La Grange and Round Top. You'll see it from the road. Coordinates: 30.026221, -96.724176.
What you're looking at: This isn't a replica and it isn't a warbird from World War II. It's a Lim-5 the Polish-built version of the Soviet MiG-17F construction number 1C-0003, nose number 003. Built in Poland in 1956. Flew with the Polish Air Force for thirty-four years. Made its last military flight in 1990, arrived in Texas in 1992, and has been here ever since. It's wearing faded Soviet-style markings but the real story a Polish Air Force veteran that outlasted the system it served is considerably more interesting than the paint suggests.
How it fits into a great day trip: This stretch of Fayette County is already worth the drive on its own. The famous Czech and German painted churches High Hill, Praha, Dubina, Ammannsville are within an hour, and they're among the most surprisingly beautiful things in Texas. Kloesel's Steakhouse in Moulton is worth the detour for lunch or dinner. Hruska's in Ellinger has kolaches. Round Top has galleries, antiques, and good food. La Grange has the Monument Hill state historic site and the Colorado River.
The MiG is the surprise in the middle of all of it the thing nobody put on the itinerary that ends up being what everyone talks about on the drive home.
We made a short documentary about it the plane's history, how it got to Texas, and an unexpected connection between a Cold War fighter jet and the Czech immigrant communities who built those painted churches just down the road. Twelve minutes, shot in the style of Texas Country Reporter.
If you make it out there, drop a comment I'd love to know what you thought of it.
Stop next time.
It's a genuine Cold War Warsaw Pact fighter jet a Polish-built MiG-17 sitting completely unannounced in an outdoor antique market (The Bull Gate), between a rusty Rolls Royce and a row of decaying travel trailers. No placard. No admission fee. No gift shop. Just a fifty-year-old Iron Curtain fighter aircraft parked off a two-lane Texas highway, waiting for someone to notice it.
Where exactly: Warrenton, Texas State Highway 237, between La Grange and Round Top. You'll see it from the road. Coordinates: 30.026221, -96.724176.
What you're looking at: This isn't a replica and it isn't a warbird from World War II. It's a Lim-5 the Polish-built version of the Soviet MiG-17F construction number 1C-0003, nose number 003. Built in Poland in 1956. Flew with the Polish Air Force for thirty-four years. Made its last military flight in 1990, arrived in Texas in 1992, and has been here ever since. It's wearing faded Soviet-style markings but the real story a Polish Air Force veteran that outlasted the system it served is considerably more interesting than the paint suggests.
How it fits into a great day trip: This stretch of Fayette County is already worth the drive on its own. The famous Czech and German painted churches High Hill, Praha, Dubina, Ammannsville are within an hour, and they're among the most surprisingly beautiful things in Texas. Kloesel's Steakhouse in Moulton is worth the detour for lunch or dinner. Hruska's in Ellinger has kolaches. Round Top has galleries, antiques, and good food. La Grange has the Monument Hill state historic site and the Colorado River.
The MiG is the surprise in the middle of all of it the thing nobody put on the itinerary that ends up being what everyone talks about on the drive home.
We made a short documentary about it the plane's history, how it got to Texas, and an unexpected connection between a Cold War fighter jet and the Czech immigrant communities who built those painted churches just down the road. Twelve minutes, shot in the style of Texas Country Reporter.
If you make it out there, drop a comment I'd love to know what you thought of it.