A kitchen-table game Texas made its own.

The Texas State Historical Association Handbook, in an entry by Dennis Roberson, places the beginning in 1887 in the tiny school community of Trapp Spring (now part of Garner), Parker County, about forty-five miles west of Fort Worth. Two boys, William Thomas, twelve, and Walter Earl, fourteen, liked cards but were forbidden to play them. They turned to dominoes, which were not treated as sinful, and worked out a bidding game with trumps for two teams of two.

Place-name spelling is not uniform. TSHA writes Trapp Spring. Pagat writes Trappe Springs. texas42.net uses Trappe Spring. We follow TSHA and note the variants.

The barn, the hayloft, and Auction Whist are part of the same lineage, not a scanned 1887 paper on this site. Christopher Evans of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram published that research on August 3, 1985 (TSHA bibliography). texas42.net notes that Evans drew on William Thomas's later interview with the Dallas Journal in 1927. House Concurrent Resolution 84 (2011) retells Evans: the boys found in a barn hayloft playing auction whist, disciplined because card games were considered sinful in their devoutly Baptist families, then devising a four-player domino game instead. Pagat (Joe Celko) tells the Auction Whist / Baptist story as well.

Exact ages 12 and 14, and a fall-1887 fine-tuning, sit in that Evans / Thomas tradition. We pass them along as tradition, backed by later testimony and 1985 journalism, restated in the Handbook and the 2011 resolution, not as a contemporaneous 1880s document we hold.

TSHA HandbookHCR 84 texttexas42.net origin notes

TSHA: Thomas delivered fruit from his father's orchard to nearby Mineral Wells and taught the townspeople. Later the Thomas and Earl families moved to Fannin County in Northeast Texas and introduced 42 again. The 2011 resolution and texas42.net name the Fannin town as Windom.

The Handbook says the game spread throughout the state, and that by 1940 folks were learning and playing 42 in every corner of Texas. During World War II, Texas military men took it overseas and taught fellow countrymen.

That is the TSHA spread story, fruit route, Fannin / Windom, statewide by mid-century, then overseas with the war. We do not add towns or years the Handbook does not give.

TSHA Handbook

The Evans / Thomas / Earl telling is the one TSHA and the Legislature followed. It is not the only story on file.

texas42.net notes a 1915 newspaper article claiming the game originated in Mineral Wells. That is a competing tradition. We do not discard it silently, and we do not pretend this site has settled the conflict. Mineral Wells sits on the fruit route in the usual telling; a 1915 claim that the game began there is a different claim.

Until a contemporaneous 1880s paper turns up, Garner / Trapp Spring holds the best-known tradition, and Mineral Wells 1915 remains a noted alternate. Read the origin notes; we are not hiding the disagreement.

texas42.net origin notes

For a long time the rules lived in kitchens, not in print. TSHA says 42 was passed down orally from generation to generation, and that only in the 1990s were the rules, strategy, and history published in book form: Dennis Roberson's Winning 42: Strategy & Lore of the National Game of Texas (Texas Tech University Press, 1997; TSHA also notes a 4th revised edition, 2009).

texas42.net notes an earlier 1977 book, Dominos Texas Style, attributing the game to W. A. Thomas. We cite those books' existence. We do not invent quotations from pages we have not set here.

TSHA bibliographytexas42.net notes

On June 17, 2011, Governor Rick Perry signed House Concurrent Resolution 84 of the 82nd Legislature, designating 42 as the official State Domino Game of Texas. The Legislature's bill history lists that as the last action: signed by the Governor.

“RESOLVED, That the 82nd Legislature of the State of Texas hereby designate 42 as the official State Domino Game of Texas.”

A concurrent resolution is a symbolic designation, not a statute that changes how anyone bids. The enrolled text recounts Evans's 1985 research and the Trapp Spring / Thomas & Earl story, including the hayloft and auction whist, so the official honor and the origin tradition travel together. We still label the hayloft as tradition.

Bill historyEnrolled text

TSHA: more than a century on, 42 is still played in homes, churches, and clubs, and at neighborly get-togethers. Weekend tournaments, many tied to local festivals, run throughout the year. Hallettsville hosts an annual state championship. The Texas Senior Games crown 42 champions each year.

The National 42 Players Association has carried the organized side of that culture since 2005, sanctioning straight 42, ranking members, and helping local clubs start. They earned more than a one-line link; their story is the next section.

TSHA HandbookN42PA on this page

San Saba did not invent 42. What it had, according to a San Saba News & Star community notice on Wednesday, August 23, 2023, were regular play groups, and no organized tournament designed to draw visitors. That piece is an organizer notice published in the Star. It is first-person organizer narrative, not independent third-party coverage.

The community piece Pecan Capital Texas 42 Tournament Sept 15–16 is that organizer 2023 notice. As of that article: a group met the 1st and 3rd Thursday at 6 p.m. at First Baptist Church for 42 and Mexican Train; another met Tuesdays at 10 a.m. at the Senior Center. Those hours belong to that coverage; we do not pretend to keep a live church calendar.

“But this year, we're putting San Saba on the Texas 42 map.”

As announced in that August 23, 2023 article (past, not upcoming), the first hoped-to-be-regular N42PA-sanctioned tournament in town was: director Jim Smith; venue Bard & Hallow, 404 E Wallace St.; Friday September 15 and Saturday September 16, 2023; straight 42 (no nelo, splash, plunge, or sevens). Membership was not required to win a prize. Fees went to winners. Spectators welcome.

Read the Star piece for the full local notice. We quote one line and send you there. We do not paste the article. That 2023 weekend is over; current N42PA dates live on n42pa.org, not on this page. More on the association itself is in the N42PA section above.

San Saba News & Starn42pa.org