The Ongoing Controversy Around the Buc-ee’s Fire

The real original Buc-ee’s is not destroyed, despite media reports

As the self-proclaimed preeminent Buc-ee’s journalist and scholar East of the Mississippi, I pride myself on keeping up with the latest in the world of Buc-ee’s business. And so, I was shocked by the recent headlines proclaiming the original Buc-ee’s had burned to the ground. My co-worker and fellow Buc-ee’s authority has written about the original Buc-ee’s which opened in Clute, Texas in 1982. The original Buc-ee’s has burned? My friends, that is a loss of historic proportions. Or is it?

In this article I’ll delve into some of Buc-ee’s history and the perils of internet journalism and why you should always read past the headline. It seems reports of the demise of the original Buc-ee’s building were greatly exaggerated. Internet journalists connected to a local story about the “original Buc-ee’s” burning to the ground and were quick to assume it was the first Buc-ee’s building ever. However, it was not. 

Where is the original Buc-ee’s?

The actual first Buc-ee’s opened in Clute, Texas in 1982. Other than the signage, you would be hard-pressed today to recognize it as a Buc-ee’s at all. At a minuscule 3,000 square feet, it’s about the size of an average gas station. So there are not dozens of pumps and bathrooms. No massive chop station for the barbecue. It’s just a little old Buc-ee’s. To illustrate, you could fit roughly 24 of these little guys in the new world’s largest Buc-ee’s in Luling, Texas.

Speaking of which…

How was it demolished?

It wasn’t. The real original Buc-ee’s is fine. Just hanging around, doing fine. It’s the runt of the Buc-ee’s litter, but otherwise, it’s just fantastic. The “original” Buc-ee’s in question was the former Buc-ee’s in Luling, Texas. Ring a bell? That building had been made obsolete by the opening of the new facility across the road – the world’s largest. You can read more about that enormous behemoth of a gas station here. So the old building had closed to make way for the new and was undergoing demolition. The building, which opened in 2003, caught fire and burned. Local reporting and social media called it the “original” Buc-ee’s. However, it was the original Buc-ee’s in Luling, Texas roughly three hours away from the actual, original and first Buc-ee’s in Clute.

What happened next was predictable. Media outlets all over saw the “original” Buc-ee’s burned and just ran with it. It quickly became clear that many of these outlets were not overly familiar with the chain, its mascot or its history. It’s misleading to say the least. Did any of the stories have some paragraphs that sounded a lot like stuff we’d written already here on this site? I’d rather not comment.

Where is the oldest Buc-ee’s?

Same as it ever was. When, eons from now, archaeologists of the future study the great Buc-ee’s cult of the late 20th and early 20th centuries. They will argue over where the origins of the mighty beaver began. Some poor scholar will unearth a microchip or something and find fragments of data referring to the great fire at the original Buc-ee’s. There will be papers written. Symposiums. Debates, possibly fisticuffs. The only hope for humanity is that some scholar digs a little deeper. He or she will tell them the distance between Clute and Luling. Also, he or she will tell them about the tiny bathrooms and no one yelling about chopped brisket on the board.

The best Buc-ee’s

The Buc-ee’s at Exit 407 in Sevierville (Kodak) is no longer the biggest in the world. However, it remains No. 1 in my heart. This location opened in 2023 to much fanfare. It is 74,000 square feet, has 120 gas pumps and an adjacent car wash. Though I was skeptical about traffic flow, it has been significantly better than I expected. I’ve certainly been in more crowded Buc-ee’s in my life – looking at you St. Augustine. There were rumors that a planned Buc-ee’s in Ocala would surpass the new one in Luling, but it appears the Buc-ee’s’ powers that be want to keep the world record back in Texas.

So the original Buc-ee’s is alive, well and small. A fire burned down a former Buc-ee’s building in Luling, Texas but no actual Buc-ee’s were harmed in the incident. Remember, kids – and scientists from the future – it’s always better to read past the headlines, even if you’re under incredible pressure from your Russian Oligarch ownership to be first on the scene with breaking gas station news.

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