Culture
Railroad Depot
If youre looking for the history of town, head to the renovated Railroad Depot. It sits just a stones throw from Main Street right on the tracks and takes visitors to the time when the railroad was king. Suddenly this outlying community was connected to the rest of the world and began to boom. Find relics of railroad days past and a model train at this museum.
Tomball Museum Center
The next museum you need to see is the Tomball Museum Center. Rather than one building packed with stuff, this is a collection of historic buildings each filled with artifacts giving visitors a glimpse into an era of Tomballs history. There is a log cabin, a schoolhouse, a church and many more. My favorite is the 1940s oil camp house commemorating the discovery of oil in Tomball which made this citys population triple in a few short years.
Commemorative Air Force Gulf Coast Wing
If you want to step into a flying museum, then contact the Commemorative Air Force Gulf Coast Wing to see Texas Raiders a restored B-17 Flying Fortress. Multiple times a year, they take this gal up in the sky giving riders a once in a lifetime experience.
Food
The Whistle Stop Tea Room
When youve worked up a giant appetite, Tomball has a number of giant options. For Texas tea room thats nothing like a grandma-inspired tea party, head to The Whistle Stop Tea Room. Here youll find amazing sandwiches (jalapeno pimento cheese anyone?), homemade soups and a dessert case thats worth the stop alone.
Mel's Country Cafe
For country cookin with a Texas-sized competition, head to Mels Country Cafe. It sits out in the country, but that doesnt stop folks from lining up to partake in the goodness. Both the chicken-fried steak and hamburger are considered the tops by Texas Monthly. But the burger that tops them all is the Mega Mel — a behemoth of meat, cheese, and bacon. It you can eat it in two hours, you get immortal glory on the wall and a T-shirt.
Outdoors
Spring Creek Park
Tomball has a number of great city parks. Spring Creek Park is massive with tall pines and open fields for playing frisbee or having a picnic. In the back corner, youll also find a historic marker for a Confederate gun powder mill that exploded on this site killing everyone inside. It left a crater so big that when it filled with rainwater it became a popular swimming hole that many say is haunted.
New Kentucky Park
This important park down the way from Tomball is the site of Sam Houstons famous fork in the road. During the Texas Revolution, he had to make a decision, turn left and run for safety in Louisiana or turn right and face the Mexican Army. Sam took a right and headed toward San Jacinto the rest, my friends, is history.
Kleb Woods Nature Preserve
Head into this nature preserve filled with acres of towering cedars and pines for a retreat from the busy world outside. You might even find the old cabin of the mystical “Old Kleb”, himself, who lived without electricity in these woods until the 1990’s! Spending some time in this peaceful nature almost makes you want to give up electricity too (I said almost…)
