Basketball, churches and rodeo create community in Lipan
To get a sense of what’s important in Lipan, look no further than Lipan Cowboy Church. When adults, kids and dogs aren’t filling the church for worship, it hosts Monday night roping practices, a popular event in this part of Texas horse country. Meanwhile, the church is installing a basketball court, a welcome addition in a town where the high school has won five basketball state titles in less than a decade. Lipan is a small city of less than 500 people, but its success on the basketball court is known statewide, and its reputation as a place to raise horses and families draw new residents from other states.
Rural homes and a new subdivision
Lipan’s spacious tracts of land and location near Stephenville, called the Cowboy Capital of the World, make it attractive to anyone involved with raising, training or competing with horses. “You move here, and you either have a rodeo or jackpot or some kind of horse event going on within 30 minutes every day,” says Jade Addison, a Realtor at Clark Real Estate Group and a Lipan resident. Houses may sit on a few acres or come with dozens of acres, a barn and stables.
New homes are for sale in Wilson Bend, Lipan’s first new-construction neighborhood. Some locals, including Addison, initially opposed its construction, afraid it would change the character of the community. But as homes have been finished and families have moved in, Addison’s opinion has changed. “It’s been a blessing for young families moving in. You drive by there, and you see kids playing in the yard together and riding their bikes up and down the road,” she says. “It looks like a scene out of ‘The Sandlot’ every day when you drive by.”
How much homes cost in Lipan
Land often dictates prices in Lipan’s housing market. Houses on 2 or fewer acres usually sell from the mid-$200,000s to the upper $500,000s. Homes with 3 to 10 acres have recently sold from the mid-$600,000s to $1.1 million. Houses on lots of 10-plus acres can fetch up to $3.3 million.
Three schools on one campus at Lipan Independent School District
The highly rated Lipan Independent School District serves the community. The district’s elementary, junior high and high school share one campus in the heart of the city. Small Texas towns are often synonymous with high school football, but there are no Friday night lights in Lipan. Instead, Lipan High School basketball is the local obsession. The girls team captured state titles in 2021, 2023 and 2026, while the boys team won state championships in 2023 and 2024. Those are just the most recent state titles claimed by the school. “Our third and fourth grade basketball teams have more passion and love for it than most towns’ college teams have,” Addison says.
Driving to Dallas and Fort Worth
Interstate 20 passes Lipan to the north, and you can take the highway to Fort Worth, about 55 miles away. During rush hour, the drive can take up to an hour and 20 minutes. It’s a longer 85-mile drive to Dallas, which can take two hours or more. Other notable destinations include:
- Granbury, an upscale waterfront city with a historic town square, is 20 miles away.
- Arlington, where the Dallas Cowboys play home games at AT&T Stadium, is 70 miles away.
- Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, one of the nation’s most-traveled airports, is 75 miles away.
Hand-made cheese, local wine and the Kickapoo Festival
You can sample the fruits of Texas farmers’ labor at nearby businesses. To the south, Bluff Dale Vineyards pours wine at a hilltop tasting room. Eagle Mountain Farmhouse Cheese Co. in Lipan uses milk from a small dairy farm to hand-make its cheeses. The founder of the cheese shop opened Texas Flatbread House down the street to combine small-batch cheese with food-fired pizza.
One of the only parks in the area is Kickapoo Memorial Park, home to a playground and baseball field. In October, the Lipan Volunteer Fire Department turns the park into the grounds for the annual Kickapoo Festival, which features a car show and barbecue. Golfers play at Sugar Tree Golf Club, where members and nonmembers can play rounds.
Keeping connected in a rural town
Lipan’s country setting doesn’t come at the cost of cell and internet connectivity. Multiple cell phone carriers operate in the area, providing extensive coverage for calls and data usage. Similarly, internet service providers cover nearly the entire community.
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Written By
Alex Soderstrom
