The Cartoon Saloon in Toonstone, Texas, sits five miles east of Comfort on FM 473 and bills itself as a 24-hour photo op disguised as an Old West town, according to News Of Austin‘s travel column.
At a Glance
- Visitors find a weathered-wood saloon wedged between the “Not So OK Corral” and “Sal Men Nello’s Café”
- Inside, a bar made of bottles set in cement greets guests beneath beer-can insulation
- The attraction is always open and never charges admission
- Why it matters: The tongue-in-cheek stop offers a free, quirky detour for Hill Country travelers
Built from worn lumber with a tin roof, the saloon faces the ranch-to-market road and backs into a cedar thicket. Wind chimes crafted from beer cans and animal bones clatter in the breeze while hand-painted signs deliver one-liners such as “God Bless John Wayne,” “Remember the Alamo,” and “$5.00 fine for Whining.”
Despite the bar-top props, no bartender pours drinks. A half-empty bottle of Jack Daniel’s once appeared in defiance of a posted ban on alcohol and drugs, Brianna Q. Lockwood noted during a visit. The space welcomes all ages and never imposes a cover charge.
The faux town sprouted after J.P. “Cartoon Cowboy” Rankin and his daughter Ammeke Herrera decorated a cedar tree with Lone Star Beer cans for Christmas in 2013. Rankin, an insurance agent and award-winning cartoonist in the style of Ace Reid and Jim Franklin, later joined friends Paul Denmark, Brian Coyle, and Marc “Biscuit” Lafrenais at the real Cocky Rooster Bar in Comfort to hatch the project.
Rankin now serves as Toonstone’s fictional justice of the peace. Denmark claims the mayor’s seat, while Lafrenais acts as deputy because, as the story goes, Bob Marley and Eric Clapton “shot the sheriff.”
The installation stands as the 1,789th entry in News Of Austin‘s long-running “Day Trips” series.
