The Fort Worth Gazette

Found: The Lost 1889 Cotton Belt Rail Yards On Panther Island!

2014-09-21T12:49:00.000-05:00

In 1889 the St. Louis Southwestern (Cotton Belt) Railroad arrived in Fort Worth and immediately started hauling the freight in and out as well as a few passengers. Not the first or even the second railroad in the city, the Cotton Belt however was known for its links to many great agricultural areas and the population centers that processed and consumed them. It was known as the "Cotton Belt" for a reason.

1889 W. B. King Fort Worth Map-Cotton Belt Yards <click to enlarge image>

The rails came down from Carrollton and Grapevine terminating in a reservation in the Trinity Bottoms along the eastern bank of the West Fork of the Trinity and extending past the confluence with the Clear Fork as the 1889 map above shows,. A small wooden passenger station and a separate freight station were built as well as maintenance buildings and a turntable. Yard access was by a small bridge just below the confluence and around 1892, the "Wire" suspension bridge. The steep North Main "Iron Bridge" was also used when it was available between repairs.

1922 Cotton Belt Yard House-Left Center-<click image to enlarge>

The Cotton Belt yard house is shown above at left center peeking between the large fuel tank on the left and the Fort Worth Light & Power smokestack base on the right. Taken in 1922 at the height of one of the frequent floods, this illustrates why this was not an ideal area for a rail terminal. In spite of that, these yards handled large amounts of freight traffic. And, until 1899 when the new T&P passenger station was built, boarded passengers for St. Louis, Memphis and other southland destinations.

USGS Flood Plain Map-1915 <click to enlarge image>

After World War II and with the expansion of the TESCO power plant, these original 1889 yards began to sink unnoticed into obscurity. The main freight handling had been taken over in 1915 by the large facility on East 6th street in downtown Fort Worth. The yards still served the warehouses and scrap metal dealers along the old main line and stored freight cars. The switching lead still existed to service the rails in Houston Street laid down by the Cotton Belt in the early 1930's as part of a business development program. The 1915 USGS flood plain map above still shows a large number of tracks, a turntable and other facilities including the yard house.

1932 T&P Switching Map <click image to enlarge>

Following the Trinity River channelization and levee building of the late 1950's most of the old yard and its facilities were obliterated. Literally covered over in the area near the TESCO power plant. The original 1889 main line as far south as SW 5th Street and a few spurs were still in existence as late as 2012 when the Trinity River Vision program began clearing the entire Trinity Bottoms area. Much of which was covered with rubble and had polluted the soil several feet deep.

Railroad Archeology & Preservation!

Cotton Belt Turntable Pit Artifact - 2014- <click image to enlarge>

In August, 2014 I received a call from the site manager of a company that was decontaminating and cleaning a 100 foot wide pit just off of SW 5th street close to the levee. It was in reference to something they found during their excavation. After some discussion, we both felt that this was probably part of the old Cotton Belt turntable pit that shows on the maps. My guess is that it was a simple brick guard wall around the turntable and did not have any part in supporting the turntable itself. The excavation was about 4' deep and about 50' across. The brick wall showed about 2' above the excavation. A few days later, in a similar discussion with the Environmental Manager for the Union Pacific he reached pretty much the same conclusions. The UP acquired the Cotton Belt many years ago and still owns the land.

Cotton Belt Backfilled Excavation-2014 <click image to enlarge>

When asked whether it would be possible to save this historic pit wall, the UP Environmental Manager suggested that they could just as easily backfill the excavation with the pit wall intact instead of demolishing it. Which when I checked, they seem to have done. After hearing many horror stories, the professionalism and interest everyone showed in this historic artifact was very impressive. And much appreciated, since now there will be a chance for display and possible use at some future time. Thanks to the Union Pacific and TRV management for their consideration.

Not everyone will think that this old pit wall is worth conserving or even recognizing. After all, there are bigger TRV things in play. A simple descriptive marker to be placed at n appropriate spot as the development continues would be nice. Here is another suggestion that would be even better:

As the TRV develops, the 800+ acre Panther Island mass is too large to describe to visitors. Obviously it will have to be subdivided into districts of one name or another. What if.. the three blocks north of NW 5th to about 8th or 9th street were to be called the "Cotton Belt Yard" District? Historically appropriate, catchy, easy to say and remember. Just get on the Trolley and say "let me off at the Cotton Belt Yards".

Aerial TXU-Cotton Belt Turntable-Trinity River-Cotton Belt Yards-2014

As the TRV continues to clear the area north of the TXU power plant continues, more railroad history is coming into view. This is posted land. But driving on N. Throckmorton which is a public road, a large number of tracks embedded in concrete as well as laying on open ground may now be seen. These were invisible in the past. Some may be old historic yard tracks. Others industrial sidings that were covered by buildings. It would be interesting to know what they were.

Cotton Belt Yards - Looking North 2014

Cotton Belt Industrial Tracks - Looking West

2014 Aerial of Cotton Belt Yards-FWWR On The Northwest

The development of Panther Island will eventually obliterate the few artifacts that are left of the Cotton Belt Yards. It is to be hoped the TRV management and the developers will give some thought to making sure that this part of Fort Worth history is not left unmarked and forgotten.

Lost 1880's History: Fort Worth's Little Known Union Railroad Depot

2014-07-10T10:46:00.001-05:00

Fort Worth Railroad history note: The general histories of Fort Worth mention that when the Texas & Pacific railroad came to the city in 1876 their first passenger station was a small shed set on the north side of the tracks. This was in the 320 acre "T&P Reservation" that was provided to them as a gift by several of the early settlers of Fort Worth.

There was a 2nd T&P station that is often overlooked, or if it is remembered, the location is generally incorrect. It too was on the T&P Reservation but in a different location.

1885 Map of Union Depot Area <click image to enlarge>

In the 1880's when the MKT/MP railroads came in from the north and the Gulf Colorado & Santa Fe railroad came in from the south it became obvious that a combined or "Union" depot would be desirable. With the agreement of the railroads this new larger "Union Depot" was built in the northeast quadrant where the railroads crossed on the east sided of Fort Worth.

Unfortunately, this location had some problems. It was necessary for travelers moving to and from the city to cross multiple busy railroad tracks in what was something of a non-man's land since Front Street (Now Lancaster Avenue) really was not in existence. And of course there was no pavement. The depot area became a swampy bog in wet weather.

1891 Birds-eye View of Union Depot.<click image to enlarge>

The area marked in red is the approximate location of this old depot as seen on a modern satellite clip.

In addition, just across the tracks to the south was a large pond and even worse, next to it and a little to the east were the first stock yards in Fort Worth. And of course the pond received the drainage from the stockyards and the rail yards. So the air must have been pretty rank year round down by the Depot.

Fort Worth Union Depot <click image to enlarge>

In spite of the problems with the location, it solved the problem for a while. The Union Depot was much more elaborate than its predecessor. There was a small traveler's hotel and Ginocchio's restaurant. It handled the increasing passenger load until the huge new T&P station was built on the southeast corner of Front (Now Lancaster Ave) and Main Street in 1899 and the smaller Santa Fe Depot in 1901.

1899 Texas & Pacific Passenger Station <click image to enlarge>

1901 GC & Santa Fe Depot <click image to enlarge>

1903: Charles Swartz.. Views of Fort Worth

2014-04-05T16:45:00.000-05:00

Last year (2013), a great show featuring the photographic work of the three Fort Worth Swartz brothers was put together by Fort Worth historians Donna Donnell and Dr. Rick Selcer. It was first seen at the the Fort Worth Public Library. Titled "The Swartz Brothers, the First Family of Fort Worth Photographers", it got rave reviews and was also shown in a number of other venues.

While working on another project, I recently came across this little 20+ page album published in 1903 by the Albertype Co. that features the work of Charles (C.L.) Swartz, one of the famous brothers. Offering a different look at early Fort Worth, I thought a close look at a few of the pages might be interesting.

Printed on fine paper and bound by a colorful ribbon, using the Albertype method which is a gravure print and not a lithograph or half-tone process, the resulting quality is outstanding. A number of other fine photographers in other cities also used this format to present their work. I have another from Dallas. Instead of individual pictures, each page is a montage of several, often with a single theme. Many of these images are little known and seldom seen.

Railroads made Fort Worth. From 1876 when the Texas & Pacific limped into town at the last crucial moment, the the momentum of the city has been mostly fast forward. Built around 1898 in the center of the 300+ acre "reservation" donated to the railroad by a number of Fort Worth's founding fathers, the center image is of the classic T&P station.

Located just to the east across Main Street from the present T&P terminal building, it would burn and be rebuilt in 1909. Then, having become hopelessly obsolete as Fort Worth boomed, it was replaced in 1931 by the present tall building. At the upper right, Swartz captured the grand waiting room of the station. This image is one that is seldom seen.

At the upper left is the original freight house which was located about where the present T&P building sits. It was the backdrop for President Teddy Roosevelt's visit in 1905 which C.L Swartz also photographed. This building also was replaced in 1931 with the enormous deserted structure further west on Lancaster street which now waits for preservation and reuse.

The enormous locomotive roundhouse shown at the bottom center was located just west of South Main and south of the T&P railroad tracks. It was demolished after a new roundhouse, yard and shops were built further west of downtown starting at about where University Drive passes under the Union Pacific railroad today. This is also a rarely seen image.

Complementary images of a cowboy and an iron horse fill out the montage page.

In 1903 Fort Worth was a sizable, busy, growing city. The old cattle trail days had passed and new sturdy masonry buildings were rising. Charles Swartz took pictures of many of these buildings and many of his images are the only ones that we have of that period.

At the center is the monumental City Hall building. Located where the current nondescript city building now squats, it was a city landmark second only to the 1894 Courthouse on the bluff. It was demolished in 1938.

Surrounding the City Hall are 8 historic Swartz pictures of turn-of-the-century Fort Worth businesses. A few may have familiar names, but others are long gone and are remembered only in these images.

The hotels and resorts of Fort Worth dominate this album page. At the center, a familiar picture of the Arlington Heights Country Club built around 1902. This building replaced "Ye Arlington Inn" that was the centerpiece of the 1890 Arlington Heights development and which burned in 1894.

Above it, the Fort Worth Record building which housed a major competitor for the readership of Fort Worth until the Fort Worth Star-Telegram bought it from the Hearst syndicate in 1925.

Both the Worth and Delaware Hotels are fairly well known, however the Metropolitan has pretty well faded from memory. But who remembers the Hotel Rosen in downtown Fort Worth? A very scarce image.

Detail from back cover <click image to enlarge>

Let us know if you enjoyed these select pages. As time permits we may publish a few more images from the camera of Charles L. Swartz.

Taming The Trinity River - Where it All Began

2014-02-17T17:55:00.001-06:00

The taming began immediately after May, 1949 when a record breaking Trinity River flood inundated much of Fort Worth below the bluffs. Both the West and Clear Fork branches went way over in spite of the Lake Worth, Eagle Mountain Lake and Lake Bridgeport retention reservoirs. Fort Worth was mostly isolated for days. At least 10 people were killed and $11 million dollers in damage resulted.

1949 Fort Worth Flood Aerial - Portal to Texas History <Click image to enlarge>

Levees had been thrown up, strengthened and raised periodically as a result of overwhelming floods in 1908, 1915, 1922 and the years following. Lake Worth was opened in 1913. However, the rivers themselves remained narrow, brushy, winding, polluted ditches that would go over the banks at the slightest opportunity.

No matter how high the the levee, the ditch just wasn't wide enough. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had been involved from the beginning, but money was the problem. A good part of any protective improvements would require shared funding with local sources which meant bond elections. There was enough complacency in Fort Worth to make that very difficult. Until the 1949 flood...

Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce Magazine, March, 1950
<Click to enlarge image>

The business community was fed up. The March, 1950 edition of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce carried an aerial view of the Trinity Bottoms with the meandering streams with improvements highlighted in red. In addition, there was an entire page supporting a massive flood control project, urging community action and local money raising to get things moving.

Portion of the 1950 Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce Report
<click image to enlarge>

The result was an enormous dirt moving project that widened, deepened and rerouted the river. Benbrook Dam was built on the Clear Fork. Additional work was done during the construction of the interstate highways so that the flood plain became a sterile treeless corridor designed to pass the floodwater downstream to Fort Worth's neighbors as fast as possible. Most of the work was completed by the middle 1950's. Tucked down deep in the work were some overkill projects that would help to support the long planned Trinity River Canal to the gulf coast. The canal effort finally sputtered out in the 1970's but some of the remains are still in the dirt work.

The result totally altered the Fort Worth river view including the confluence of the two Trinity's.

Early Trinity River Vision Overhead Rendering
<click image to enlarge>

This moat worked pretty well as far as flood control was concerned, but Fort Worth was growing and plans for the development of the Trinity Bottoms into a unique new part of the city were offered after the turn of the century. The controversial Trinity River Vision which included further flood protection, came into being and work is under way on a 50 year build out plan.

It looks like the Trinity may finally have been tamed. But there are those that say climate change may just tip the balance again....

Fort Worth: Sky High On Airships ~ The Helium Center Of The US Dirigible Fleet

2014-02-15T18:34:00.000-06:00

Since 1918, the citizens of Fort Worth had been aware that the was a possibility the the U.S. Navy would establish a helium plant north of the city to service the huge airships or the rigid dirigible design that would soon be under construction. A strong source of helium, which unlike hydrogen won't burn, was the key to the new airship program. The best source was in the helium rich natural gas deposits around Petrolia, northeast of Wichita Falls near the Red River. After the field was proved a pipe line brought the natural gas to Fort Worth.

1919-1920 Greater Fort Worth Map Clip <click image to enlarge>

A Greater Fort Worth map by C.H. Rodgers published in 1919, shows a U.S. owned Argon gas production facility in the southeast corner of what is now Blue Mound and Terminal Road about a half mile east of Meacham Field. Like helium, argon is a rare gas that can be extracted from natural gas.

In 1922 the plant was completed and small scale production began pending the testing of the feasibility of using helium instead of hydrogen in large airships. This had never been done before and there was a question as to whether helium, which has less lifting power than hydrogen per cubic foot would really work or not.

In December of 1922 the U.S. Navy inflated their airship C-7 with Fort Worth helium for the first time and did a demonstration flight over Washington D.C (See above). It was a huge success and a proof of performance. It also revealed that helium had a number of other advantages over hydrogen including a faster loading or refueling time and less loss of gas at various altitudes and temperatures.

July, 1924 Dallas Morning News <Click image to enlarge>

In addition to the plant expansion, it would be necessary to be able to dock and service the airships passing through Fort Worth for refueling and maintenance. A tall 175 foot lighted mast with embedded mooring points in a radius around it would be necessary as well as a small building and parking places.

May, 1924 Dallas Morning News

The work was rushed and the facility began to take shape. The only question was when would the first airship visit to Fort Worth take place?

September, 1924 Dallas Morning News

By this time most of the construction had been done and the mooring mast and tine-downs had been placed in a field just across the road to the northwest of the plant.

1925 Greater Fort Worth Map Clip <click image to enlarge>

The new facility is shown on a rather well-worn 1925 Great Fort Worth map by C.H. Rogers. from the Electric Books Collection. The mooring mast is shown in the upper left red box and the plant in the lower right box just below what is now Terminal Road.

It was a great excuse for a Fort Worth party! Thousands turned out to watch the graceful ship maneuver in and out of its mooring as hundreds manned the ropes that dangled from the

1924 Airship Shenandoah In Fort Worth
From The Electric Books Collection
<click image to enlarge>

For several mores Fort Worth was a major part of the Navy airship fleet. In 1928 the Los Angeles came through to much acclaim. But times were changing....

August, 1928, Dallas Morning news

The Petrolia gas field declined to an unusable point and a new primary helium plant was built in the Amarillo area. Much of the Fort Worth equipment was shipped to that location. Some of the buildings eventually became a regional FAA center.

The large airships were slow, clumsy to maneuver, and could not withstand high winds and bad weather. Accidents happened. In 1937, the German owned Hindenburg Zeppelin which had never switched from hydrogen to helium partly due to U.S. government restrictions on the foreign sale of helium caught fire and killed 35 of its crew and passengers.

March, 1938 Dallas Morning News

The prospect of a global war was in the air in 1938 and it was becoming evident that the US needed many fast airplanes and a greatly expanded naval fleet. Although the Navy was still pushing for rigid airships, the general consensus was that they were outmoded.

As it has turned out, helium is one of the most valuable gases in use today and is becoming rare and very expensive. While still used in "blimps", its uses in industry are everywhere.

Airships and helium were a great and little known part of Fort Worth history in the first half of the 20th century...

An Old Fort Worth Letterhead With a Great Map & Bankhead Highway History

2013-09-06T17:14:00.000-05:00

In 1925 Hugh H. Lewis Jr. owned an auto garage in Fort Worth that was doing booming business. I collect a few Fort Worth letterheads and had never gotten around to scanning this particular sheet. Other than the fine letterhead, the face of the letter is not terribly interesting. It is simply an authorization for an attorney to do some land work for him. In 1925 Hugh Lewis had ranching interests in West Texas and as would be expected, was into the oil play of the era..

In the process, I did a little historical review on Mr. Lewis and found that he was an interesting, well known person.

02-09-1909 Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Lewis was one of the earliest Fort Worth auto enthusiasts and by 1909 had his garage in operation and was selling automobiles. He was a friend of Weatherford banker H. W. Kuteman, another enthusiast who was promoting good roads in North Texas. Kuteman was instrumental in getting a more direct route from Fort Worth to Weatherford and a section of the earliest Tarrant County portion of the Bankhead Highway was eventually named the "Kuteman Cutoff".

The Lewis family was socially prominent and as the clip above shows, he sometimes acted as an ambassador for the city when prominent people visited.

08-08-1909-Fort Worth Star-Telegram

In 1909, Hugh Lewis was selling both Peerless and Franklin automobiles. One of the best ways to sell cars in those early days was to be a little bit of a daredevil and push your vehicle out into the wilds to test its road worthiness..

Later, in 1912 he was involved in the notorious Rev. Frank J. Norris shooting trial as he apparently was one of the first witnesses that accompanied Norris back into the church after the gunfire. Norris was acquitted after a spectacular trial.

1925 Fort Worth Map <click image to enlarge>

Perhaps the most interesting part of this piece of Fort Worth ephemera is the 1925 city map that I found on the reverse. The map was published just before the Federal highway numbering came into effect in 1926. It is very well done with with good, automotive related captioning. Because of its detail, it would have been very useful to any city visitor that was using either the Bankhead Highway or the north-south Meridian Highway.

The practice of placing maps or illustrations on the back of letterhead paper has long ago been abandoned. But they are very valuable in producing unique history when they turn up.

The Fabled Dallas Pike: Where Is It Now? This Post Card Has a Story..

2013-08-18T17:26:00.000-05:00

A little Fort Worth Bankhead Highway/Broadway of America/US-80 Tourist Court nostalgia:

Harrow Court <click image to enlarge>

I recently picked up a linen PC showing the Harrow Tourist Court. The PC shows an address of 5800 E. Dallas Pike and in the picture is what appears to be a late 1940's or maybe early 1950's car. For many years, East Lancaster Avenue was also known as The Dallas Pike

Court description <click image to enlarge>

The paragraph on the back tells use more about it.. Air cooled with ventilated heat and operated by Mr. & Mrs. L.E. Stubbs.

Curiosity grabbed me. I looked up the address on Google Earth, and it turns out that the place is still operating, now known as the Central Court.

5800 E. Lancaster <click image to enlarge>

The property is on a more or less triangular plot in between E. Lancaster and Dallas Avenue.

Recently, I went out there and took some pictures showing the sign and the main building and the backs of the courts facing south on Dallas Avenue. As you would expect from the area, the court is pretty well beaten down but still has customers.

Central (Harrow) Court - Office & Main Building <click image to enlarge>

This was a pretty substantial operation at one time. I assume that there was probably a cafe or restaurant in the main building along with the Office and maybe someone lived upstairs.

The Old Courts.. Backing on Dallas Avenue <click to enlarge image>

Here are the little courts on the back row of the compound or enclosure which has security fence all around it.. They back on Dallas Avenue..

1945 Fort Worth Ashburn Map <click image to enlarge

Above is a clip from a 1945 Fort Worth map by J. Foster Ashburn that still shows the Dallas Pike picking up from Lancaster just on the east of the Meadowbrook area. The name was still used on some maps even later..

One of the most interesting things is the persistence that the name "Dallas Pike" has had historically. In general, most old Fort Worth maps start showing the Dallas Pike as beginning after Front Street (Lancaster Avenue) hit the city limits, which of course changed several times as the city grew. However, it was also called Handley Road on some maps as well.

By the early 1920's, the Pike became part of the Bankhead Highway, then part of the Broadway of America promotion and of course US-80. In Dallas, the same road predictably, was called The Fort Worth Pike as it headed west. A very busy road until the turnpike and the Interstate highways took over in the 1960's.

Down the Brazos In The Late 1950's.. What If John Graves Had...

2013-08-01T16:06:00.000-05:00

The news of John Graves death at age 92 did not make me particularly sad. He had a long interesting life that was traversed mostly on his own terms. He had a life that succeeded in moving many people and apparently made very few unhappy or mad. We should all be so fortunate.

Old Brazos bridge near Newcastle, 2009 <click image to enlarge>

In the middle of this morning a whimsical thought came to me that brought a minds-eye vision that made me chuckle. I did not know John Graves at all other than through his writing, but being the man he obviously was, I wondered to myself if he too would not give a little bark at the preposterous vision in my mind..

What if.... Back in the late 1950's as he was getting into his canoe on the Brazos along with his little dog he...

Grabbed his MP3 player...turned it on.. tucked it into his pocket.. inserted his 'buds into his ears.. and then cast off downstream into the muddy Brazos!

Don't laugh! Think about the probability that a lot of the Brazos canoe trippers below will do exactly the same thing this weekend ....

Old US-80 1934 Brazos Bridge Near Millsap Exit - 2009

It's cinch that the Goodbye to A River wouldn't have jelled into a mind that was consumed with music. The perceptive descriptions of the river, the wildlife and the history of the place would have had a hard time getting into a mind filled with Eddie Fischer, Rosemary Clooney, Nat King Cole, Doris Day, Frank Sinatra and maybe Bob Wills..

What a loss to literature and Texas that would have been...

Abandoned Brazos Suspension Bridge Near Woodson <click image to enlarge>

Just a whimsical thought.. But I'm really glad that John Graves took the Brazos straight on, stored it in his powerful mind, turned it into simple but compelling words and then eventually wrote..

Goodbye to A River

The Battle For the Trinity Bluffs: An Historical Retrospective..

2013-07-17T15:02:00.000-05:00

During 2007 and 2008 the controversy over the devastation that the Tarrant County College District was wreaking to both the historic Trinity Bluffs and by extension to the Trinity Bottoms at the base of the Bluffs which included the old TXU power plant buildings was under consideration. The TXU controversy which is still in play, as well as some of the history was covered in a previous Fort Worth Gazette blog.

Early Painting Depicting the Fort On the Trinity Bluffs <Click to enlarge>

As one of the attendees at the meetings helping to represent one of the involved parties, I went through my map collection and put together an historical map booklet of the Trinity bluffs and Bottoms as they were published from the earliest Fort Worth and Tarrant County maps to the present day. These informal booklets were distributed to those at the meetings and some other interested parties and seemed to be helpful to some.

1929 FW Skyline From the North <Click to enlarge image>

During that period I became intrigued with the history of the Fort, the old Market Square, the Bluffs and the area around it. In the early 1900's, after a long period of neglect after the Fort was abandoned and some ill-considered commercial development took place, a group of influential Fort Worth women decided that the destruction had gone far enough. Militant was a mild word for their efforts. They were "Park Guerrilla's" and pretty fearsome if you were on the other side.

To document a little of this and to underline how important I felt it was to preserved the Bluffs, in 2008 I wrote a little article available on-line (PDF) called "The Battle For The Trinity Bluffs".

Once Again.. Tarrant County College Shows Its Contempt For The History Of Fort Worth

2013-07-12T17:00:00.002-05:00

The sad condition of the historic old 1912 TXU/Tesco/FWPL power plant at the base of the Trinity Bluffs under the Tarrant County Courthouse is the direct result of the utter contempt that Tarrant County College District holds for most aspects of Fort Worth and Tarrant County history.

TCCD is supported by the tax dollars of Tarrant County residents and supposedly operates for their interest and benefit.

TXU Windows At Sunrise.. Courtesy Brian Luenser

The iconic old TXU plant which was originally built by the Fort Worth Light & Power Co., has been universally praised for its classic design since it first went on line in 1913. It quickly became a showplace of Fort Worth. Thousands of postcards were printed and sent all over the world. The juxtaposition of the TXU plant and the Paddock Viaduct were impossible for photographers and artists to ignore.

1929 North Main Power Plant <click image to enlarge>

The plant grew and added capacity & smoke stacks to a total of four. The land to the east of the Paddock Viaduct was also part of the property, all of which touched on the Trinity River or its levees. But technology changed and TXU, the final owner, mothballed the plant and then abandoned it around 2000, putting it up for sale. The buildings ceased to be maintained and all the gear that was movable was sold or scrapped. The smoke stacks, which visually defined this part of the Trinity Bottoms area began disappearing without much notice for what were called "safety" reasons. The plant property, while historic, had serious soil contamination problems that made preservation much more difficult. As a private corporation, this didn't bother TXU much because there was very little that the public could do about preservation or restoration in the face of private property rights.

In about 2004 the TCCD made the decision to build a downtown campus on Bluff Street east of the Courthouse on property that ran from that street all the way down to the Trinity. The grandiose plans envisioned a bridge from the main site to another set of buildings across the Trinity and to the north of the existing levee. They apparently wanted this over-the-river property enough that they let TXU, by this time in serious financial straits, blackmail them into forcing the College District to take the west side land and buildings as well.

1924 TXU & Paddock Viaduct <click image to enlarge>

While it was not widely known, the original plans for the College buildings on Bluff Street essentially called for ripping out the entire archaeologically significant Trinity Bluff area from the south front of the main building down almost to the river level. Inserted in this deep cut were to be structures that were self-described as "world class architecture". But which later turned out to be among the most expensive classrooms ever built anywhere, encased in a dull concrete container that some have called "The Alcatraz on the Trinity".

Since all of this construction involved the Trinity River basin and floodway, both the Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD) and the US Army Corps of Engineers (COE) had to be dealt with. This involvement added a lot of regulations and guidelines that would not have been a factor in building off of the waterway. This led to extra expense and redesign. And ultimately, because of problems crossing the levee on the north side, destroyed the idea of the little bridge.

It also led to the designation of the entire Trinity Bluffs, for the 1st time, as historically significant in the view of the federal government.

Time passed. Along with the remaining smoke stacks many of the outbuildings which were deemed unusable,, unsafe, etc., just disappeared. And the main old generator building just sat, the basement filled with water, the roof leaking, masonry falling and with many of the windows knocked out.

Unlike a private business, TCCD is public institution. It is accountable to, has a responsibility to Tarrant County and its citizens. And if nothing more than being just the owner of the power plant buildings, it has the responsibility to maintain them so that the district can sell them and so that they do not become a public nuisance. even if they have no interest in history.

In the period when the Trinity Bluff was being desecrated, public meetings were going on, chaired by the COE & TRWD in the main construction offices which had been located just to the north of what remained of the TXU buildings. These meetings were comprised of what are termed "stakeholders", and were to receive progress reports and to answer questions about any possible irregularities. Eventually a number of serious violations were found by the COE and TRWD. The College District was required to "mitigate" these by performing offsetting tasks or functions since most of the violations could not be reversed in place. Negotiations began..

However..

Since 2008 there has been no public mention from the USCOE of what "mitigation" the College District was to perform or if any ever was imposed on the District. There certainly is no public record of the College District ever performing any mitigation of any kind.

So again, it looks like the TCCD got away free.

1927 <click image to enlarge>

During the meetings, the TCCD officials (most of which have since meandered on) were quite pious about their belief in the historicity of the old Power Plant buildings and that they truly wanted to find a buyer that would put them to good purpose. They implied that they knew that the only way that the buildings would ever sell would be if they were in good enough shape to restore. But it was also clear that the TCCD would not apply for any historic designation because they felt that it would stand in the way of a sale to private ownership.

Over five years has passed.... Its 100th birthday passed unnoticed...

In that time, the TCCD has not done one thing to protect the buildings...

It's very obvious that the TCCD is using a policy of not-so-benign neglect to allow the buildings to crumble and then declare them beyond repair. Which is a common practice in Fort Worth. This would conveniently allow the eventual demolition of this historic place and make way for an easier sale of the raw land during the TRV expansion to come.

This shows a great deal of condescension toward and contempt for Fort Worth, Tarrant County and its historical places..

What's the next piece of our history that will get in the way of the TCCD and be tossed aside without a thought?

-Thanks to Brian Luenser for his great picture of the windows in the power plant. All other images from my personal collection..

Early Fort Worth: The "Novelty Roller Mills" On the East Trinity Bluff

2013-04-05T18:07:00.000-05:00

I ran across an old 1880's bill head for Mark Evans' "Novelty Rolling Mills" and had remembered reading earlier that it was in an unusual place for a flour & feed mill. Not on the railroad. Not on a river. Instead, right on edge of the East Trinity Bluffs...

1880's Billhead <Click to Enlarge>

From the beginning, Fort Worth had many mills. It was essential that there be a way to produce flour and feed locally since importing from the east was expensive and difficult. Howard Peak mentions a mill down on the Trinity just below the confluence near the old ford that existed before the earliest bridges. And later, mills & elevators of all kinds grew up around the railroads. But Mark Evans, who later became a prominent investor and banker in Fort Worth, built his early mill on Bluff Street, just a few blocks east of the courthouse and the original jail.

1885 Novelty Roller Mills Fire Map <Click Image To Enlarge>

You can clearly see that it was built right on the bluff's edge, as were many other buildings at the time. Bluff street was blocked from further extension east past the mill until after 1912 when it was opened and paved by the city in a land swap deal with Mark Evans, Sr.

1885 Bird-eye view of the Novelty Roller Mill <Click Image to Enlarge>

The Trinity River and the bluffs were nasty in those days. Notice how rough the slope of the bluff is. It's obvious that anything and everything from the Mill as well as all the other buildings and dwellings along the edge, were just dumped into the river. There are stories of dumping of animals, and raw night soil and other sewage over the edge and of landslides taking buildings down the side on occasion. Look at the rough drain trench to the Trinity on the east side from the mill.

This image also shows the second Courthouse and the notorious jail which was new at this time. Look closely: There was no high bridge from north of the Courthouse across the Trinity where the Paddock Viaduct is now. That wouldn't happen until about 1892. The area around the Courthouse was a public or market square.

1889 Fire Map From the Courthouse East to the Roller Mill
<Click Image to Enlarge>

By 1889, the Roller Mill has increased in size with an elevator added for storage. The land in between the Courthouse and the Mill (which are each shown in the red blocks) has filled in as the city grows rapidly. A bridge has been designed and begun that would connect the Courthouse area to the Trinity Bottoms on the north and essentially combine the two places and make northward expansion possible.

1891 Birdseye Map Clip From the Courthouse East To the Roller Mill
<Click Image to Enlarge>

By 1891 the new "Iron Bridge" was almost finished (it didn't look much like the artist's rendering on the image). The area east of the Courthouse was becoming congested and there wasn't much room for expansion. Evans had tried to get permission to run a siding up Jones Street to the elevator, but that did not happen. There were a number of other local mills and elevators that did have rail siding locations which was a big advantage for them.

By 1900 the Mill and elevator was apparently abandoned and sat mostly unused for many years until parts of it burned and were torn down.

2013 Courthouse to East Bluff Street Roller Mill location
<Click Image to Enlarge>.

Today the area along East Bluff Street is nothing but a parking lot serving the unlovely slanty gray buildings erected recently by TCC. They add nothing to what should be a stunning overlook that was much admired by early visitors to Fort Worth..

The First West 7th Street Bridge: Who Owned It?

2013-03-18T17:41:00.000-05:00

Fort Worth is about ready to start on what may well be a spectacular grand entrance to the downtown and Sundance Square with the replacement of the 100 year old West 7th Street bridge or viaduct. There is considerable speculation and excitement about connecting the revitalized 7th Street and Camp Bowie areas with what may well be an architectural showpiece.

1907 Official Fort Worth Map - Clear Fork- 7th Street Clip <Click to enlarge>

Back 100+ years ago, the need to replace a rickety bridge that had been built back in the 1880's by Major K. M. Van Zandt as a way to get to his land across the Clear Fork was getting critical. Arlington Heights was growing and clamoring for a better bridge. There were two streetcar lines using the bridge by 1903 and pieces were periodically falling off unexpectedly. However there were some problems:

10-07-1899 FW Morning Register - City Council Meeting

As early as 1899 the question of who owned Van Zandt's original Clear Fork bridge was being considered. In spite of the recommendation that the city buy the bridge and clear its title, apparently nothing happened for a number of years.

Things dawdled along and the Van Zandt bridge became more of a bottleneck. Still, the ownership question wasn't settled. The Star-Telegram had a long but whimsical summary of the situation in a 1907 article:

06-27-1907 Fort Worth Star Telegram

By 1911 the 7th Street bridge and the old North Main "Iron" bridge that had been built in the early 1890's were both becoming an issue. The Fort Worth city fathers, Tarrant County and the businessmen and citizens were getting in a mood to finally spend some money. In 1911 this rendering was floated out for consideration:

04-16-1911 Fort Worth Star Telegram <Click to enlarge>

The reaction was good. The bridge ball was in play for both a new 7th Street viaduct and a North Main replacement which was to become the Paddock Viaduct. Bonds were voted and plans were drawn up. In its way, the Van Zandt Viaduct would be almost as spectacular as the North Main bridge.

Draft Plan - 08-14-1912 Fort Worth Star Telegram - <Click to enlarge>

Late in 1913, construction was finished and the new West 7th Street bridge which was wider and longer and stronger and built to resist the Clear Fork floods was done. It looked pretty much like the draft plan:

In the spirit of both parsimony and conservation, the old bridge, which does not seem to have ever had a picture or drawing published, was toted off and apparently used elsewhere on the Clear Fork.

The graceful and practical bridge aged well. The river bed was changed under it several times and additions were made to accommodate all that, but it carried the pedestrians, the wagons, the buggy's, the streetcars, the cars, the buses, the trucks and everything else until its time was up. A hundred+ years of good service.

We can only hope that the new bridge will do as well..

FW Star-Telegram Touts Portal To Texas History.. Ignores Its Own Denial Of Historic FW Preservation

2013-03-13T16:38:00.000-05:00

FYI: This story has been updated. Please see the UPDATE at the end of this article..

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram (FWST) did a fine front-page article on Wednesday, March 13th covering the on-line Portal to Texas History (PTH). It did a particularly good job of the work that the PTH is doing in digitizing and publishing old newspaper editions.

Saving Texas History One Image At A Time

Sounds great doesn't it? But in spite of all the bright, trendy acceptance that the FWST put into this article, there's just one little problem...

The 1922-1972+ DIGITAL BLACK HOLE..

The fact is that the FWST is one of the largest Texas newspapers to be undigitized, unindexed and unpublished from 1922 to the present. Sure, it's all available on microfilm if you want to burn the gas, pay the parking, as well as risk your eyesight and sanity at the FW Public Library.

But a big chunk of the FWST from 1922 on is not available anywhere on the internet. It's not the FW Public Libraries fault...

Anyone that has ever worked with indexed and digitized newspapers will tell you that they can get 10 to 100 times more work done if the newspaper is on-line than by doing the heavy lifting at a library table. Library work is traditional, with the image of the hunched-back wretch staring myopically into the film reader going through a billion words to find anything close to the subject matter under consideration. While we may admire the perseverance of those willing to do this, the fact is that it is unnecessary today and the sweat expended does not in any way make the end research product any better or any more worthy.

"Newspapers are the archaeological records of a town or city," said Ana Krahmer, supervisor of the digital newspaper unit at UNT Libraries. " Loss of one day -- one issue -- is a loss of that history."

How to get the FWST 1922-to fairly recent times digitized and available?

"While most of the information comes from small-town newspapers, adding major Texas dailies to the project is an ambition that is still evolving and while include working out copyright issues and getting funding to digitize the newspapers, Krahmer said."

Copyrights or intellectual property? This isn't impossible. The Belo Corporation, including the Dallas Morning News, have been completely digitized for years. Many other large papers are digitized through several sources. It's a matter of the intellectual property owner or owners turning over the rights. The old idea that newspapers could build profit centers by selling old clips has not worked out. Instead, thoughtful newspapers that have any regard for local history and its preservation have long been making arrangements to that their their old issues digitized by some institution like the PTH or by commercial subscription providers like GenealogyBank.

Funding? There are so many local North Texas historians that want and need this digital archive that the odds are pretty good that the funding would not be an insurmountable problem.

What is really needed right now is for the owners of the FWST, or if they do not have the rights, for the current owners to offer them to PTH or some other digitizer. Do the right thing, right now.

"We would really love to work with anyy dailies who would like to work with us" Krahmer said. "We are very interested in digital preservation of large daily newspapers because they represent such a large body of the population".

Can we wonder if Ms. Krahmer had any thoughts about why the paper interviewing her was not itself involved in the historic preservation they were describing so glowingly?

It's hard to believe that Diane Smith who wrote the article or her editors were unaware of this glaring paradox: An article promoting historical newspaper digitization from one of Texas' primary serial non-digitizers'... Go figure..

UPDATE Sunday March 24, 2013:

Word was received today from Senior VP/Executive Editor Jim Witt about the status of digitizing & indexing Fort Worth Star-Telegram archives including the newspaper from 1922:

"The Star-Telegram's parent company has contracted with Newsbank to digitize all our archives"

NewsBank is the parent company of GenealogyBank, a reasonably priced subscription service, which many of us use.

We appreciate the word from the Star-Telegram about their plans to digitize their archives. We look forward to using these new resources as they become available.

1917: Pre-Bankhead Highway Roads in West Tarrant County

2013-03-10T17:03:00.003-05:00

Recently I have been working on a 1917 Tarrant County map that is posted on the Portal to Texas History and is a part of the UTA Library Special Collections. On the Bankhead Highway History Group we tend to spend a lot of time on the 1919 and later period when the Bankhead began to become a reality.

Clip From A 1917 Tarrant County Map <Click to Zoom>

However, it is equally important to know what came before the Bankhead Highway. It all began with the with the advent of the automobile in the very early 1900's. A "Good Roads" movement began which was echoed in the other larger Texas counties as well. The Bankhead, the Meridian and other early interstate highways were the result.

In 1913 the Tarrant County precinct commissioners went to war with each other over which roads would be declared the main or "Cardinal" roads. The biggest fight was over whether the old Stove Foundry/Benbrook/Weatherford road would continue to get the improvement and money or whether the shorter and dryer connection off of Arlington Heights Blvd. (Camp Bowie Blvd.) would be selected. After a lawsuit and a lot of harsh words, the Arlington Heights Blvd. connection into downtown Fort Worth was selected. This was three or four years before World War I and the Camp Bowie base establishment.

This map was created about a year before the Great War over a standard Tarrant County landowners map by the well-known Tarrant County Surveyor John H. Darter. On the map he overlaid many of the more important county roads including the still-new "Cardinal Roads". The map exists in blueprint form, but for clarity I have inverted it to bring out the detail so that it is more readable.

The clip above shows a part of Precinct #1 from about Benbrook north to White Settlement Road with the red box focusing on the points where Arlington Heights Blvd connects with what will later be the Kuteman Cutoff headed straight west for Weatherford with a connection at the Parker County line. Also the north-south road at the same junction that drops down toward Benbrook and intersects Stove Foundry Road and finally, the Stove Foundry Road itself that follows the T&P railroad tracks from downtown Fort Worth to Benbrook.

1917 map legend

For the past several years there has been a question as to the exact way that the Arlington Heights connection headed west across Mary's Creek and on to Parker County. It's a niggling detail in the overall picture but no definitive answer has yet appeared in a County or Highway Department map. This map offers a few more clues.

The Cardinal road which we know as Chapin Road today connected with Arlington Heights Blvd just about where the traffic circle is today, although the circle was far in the future. It headed west, jogging a little at section lines until it slanted northwest just before Mary's Creek, then turned west again, crossed the stream and continued to the county line. Chapin Road, which does not go all the way west anymore, is still titled as the "Benbrook Cardinal Road" on current Tarrant County maps. Some of the abandoned right-of-way which became Bankhead Highway for a while is still visible on aerial maps. We are sill looking for a picture of this early bridge across Mary's Creek.

This 1917 map adds a little more to what we know about the early roads in this part of Tarrant County. The entire map has a number of other interesting features including some "lost" roads which will be covered in later posts...

Where Was "Stop 6" On The Fort Worth - Dallas Interurban?

2013-01-30T17:30:00.000-06:00

Small mysteries.. This one has bugged me for several years....

1925 NTT postcard

In 1971 I moved to the Fort Worth area and immediately began absorbing the history of the city. The fact that there had been a world-class street car and interurban system based in Fort Worth grabbed my attention right away. One of the references that periodically popped up in the Star-Telegram was to the "Stop 6" community in east Fort Worth which was once a prestigious place to live in the country with quick and easy access to the city.

As I began to pick up maps and other material on the Northern Texas Traction system, I began to try to chart where the lines went in the period from 1900-1938 as compared to the present day. Most mentions referred to stop names, not numbers, but for some reason, Stop 6 always was called by number and not its official name. There were a number of old Fort Worth maps that showed these lines, but only two that actually named the stops.

Click to zoom in

This clip from the great 1919-1920 Fort Worth map by C.H. Rogers showed the named stops clear out to Stop Virginia Place past Ayers Street at Mount View around the 3700 block. But the stops weren't numbered and I thought that Stop 6 was further east from there.

The interurban stops were initially numbered on their way to Dallas and referred to that way. But as the system grew this became cumbersome and in 1905 the NTT published this list of official stop names:

Click to zoom in

Even if the stops weren't numbered, you would think that counting the first six names would work. But it doesn't. Obviously in the period from 1902 to 1905 a number or new stops were added as the city grew and that fouled up the math.

No one I talked to seemed to know what the official stop name and location was, they just knew that it was somewhere around the 4000 block of East Lancaster which was originally Front Street, or further out it was called the Dallas Pike. The mentions I found in the old newspapers generally mentioned the Edgewood, Tandy Lake, Virginia Place and Sagamore Hill stops as being generally within the Stop 6 area.

Click to zoom in

Finally, I found the 1909 clip above that solves the little mystery. In the text it reads ".. at Edgewood Stop just beyond Stop 6, or Sagamore.". So it turns out that we can place Stop Sagamore Hill as Stop 6 with good certainty. Sagamore Hill road (It's Rand Street now) runs north-south and crosses East Lancaster at the 4400 block.

Click to zoom in

This 1925 Fort Worth map clip shows Stop Sagamore as the first on the left, followed by Stop Edgewood and then Stop Haines on the way to Handley.

An historic footnote: Stop 6 existed in two ways. North of the interurban, Front Street or the Dallas Pike there were a number of fine homes and sometimes luxurious living by white residents. South of the interurban and across the T&P (Now Union Pacific) tracks were the very respectable black neighborhoods of Stop 6.

Mystery solved..

Texas Cattle Drives BEFORE The Chisholm Trail

2012-12-01T14:19:00.000-06:00

Long before the Texas cattle trails turned north through Fort Worth, Red River Station and Indian Territory to a railhead in Abilene, Kansas, there was a solid trade in herding cattle from south of San Antonio eastward into Louisiana. This trade started as ear;y as 1830 long before the Civil War. It continued after 1865 and Harper's Weekly published a fine woodcut image and article in their October 19, 1867 edition.

Click to zoom

It's interesting to note that the cattle shown are not what we think of as traditional Longhorns. Pictures of the period quite often show cattle of this type.

The short article below, published on the next page of the article gives what I think is an interesting overview of this early trade and it comes from an different point of view, rather than the Texas view.

Click to zoom

In addition to the drives east, cattle had been driven up the Shawnee Trail through Waco, Dallas, Preston, into eastern Indian Territory and on up into southeast Kansas and southwest Missouri. Shortly after this article was published or maybe at about the same time, the long drives to Abilene began.

Whoa! Turns Out That Jesse Chisholm Really Blazed A Trail to Nowhere.. And It Ended Up in South Texas..

2012-05-24T15:10:00.000-05:00

How did Jesse Chisholm's name get on the great cattle trail from south Texas to Abilene, Kansas? Contrary to trail romanticists and current public opinion, the little wagon road from Wichita Kansas to the Wichita Reservation Agency store near today's town of Anadarko never really contributed a majority of the trail mileage in Kansas and Oklahoma.

A little math along with a look at a special map tells us so. And after that, it might be interesting and revealing to take a long view of the long Trail.

Over the last year or more I have been turning over the old pages of Chisholm Trail history and lore that I had neglected since about 2007, which was the last update of the The Great Texas Cattle Trails map. Since that time, primarily due to the information explosion on the Internet, more sources have come to light and several history groups have been taking a closer and more critical look at the subject. The result has been greater clarity and more reliable sources.

Chisholm Trail Log: To give a solid background, here is an 1880 map of the period with some trail mileage overlaid. Extended notes from the map Legend: (All mileage is approximate):

Abilene KS. to Wichita, KS.: 93 miles. This route was laid out and marked in 1867 by Joseph McCoy's surveyors. No part of this trail used Jesse Chisholm's 1864 wagon road which ended at Wichita.
Jesse Chisholm's 1864 wagon road from Wichita KS. to Caldwell KS: 62 miles. Only about 1/3 of the Kansas trail to Abilene used Jesse Chisholm's wagon road.
Jesse Chisholm's 1864 wagon road from Caldwell KS. to the Wichita Agency (Anadarko), OK.: 160 Miles. About 60% of the 275 (160+115) miles of the Abilene cattle trail theoretically used Jesse Chisholm's wagon trail.
The Wichita Agency (Anadarko) to Red River Station, TX.: 115 miles. Probably was never heavily used.
El Reno, OK to Red River Station, TX: 125 miles. Did not use Jesse Chisholm's 1864 wagon road. Part of the "official" Oklahoma Chisholm Trail.

Red River Station, TX. To Fort Worth, TX: 95 miles. The distance from Red River Station to Fort Worth was just about the same as the distance from Wichita to Abilene.

1880 Colton Map With Cattle Trails Overlaid ~Electric Books Collection

The "Official" Oklahoma Chisholm Trail Map: The highly detailed 1933-1936 "Chisholm Trail" map created from an Oklahoma Highway survey and with the aid of the Oklahoma Historical Society shows that the "official" Chisholm Trail path was mostly to the east of current US-81 from Red River Station north and would not have intersected Jesse Chisholm's wagon road until it reached the Canadian River at about Fort Reno. Using this "official" route, the last 40 miles of the Jesse Chisholm wagon road from Fort Reno to the Wichita Agency would not have been a part of the main Chisholm Trail.

1933-36 Official Oklahoma Historical Society Chisholm Trail Map

The State of Oklahoma has produced the best and most believable research on both the Chisholm and Western Trails. This work began very early and over the years has produced an almost unanimous agreement with the results. The heritage of the Chisholm Trail in Oklahoma is very strong.

Here is some more clarification of the Trail:

Jesse Chisholm's Trail ended at Abilene, Kansas. This is not true. His road ended at the Arkansas River where Wichita now is. Although Chisholm may have driven a few cows from Wichita to a trading post in Fort Leavenworth, it was Joseph McCoy who hired civil engineer T. F. Hershey to survey and mark a direct path to Wichita from Abilene.
Jesse Chisholm's Trail started on the north side of the Red River. This is not true. The closest that Jesse Chisholm's old wagon road came to Texas was at the Washita River crossing where the Wichita Reservation Agency was located. The first recorded drive went from the Texas line went up to the North Fork of the Canadian River before hooking up with Chisholm's trail several miles north and east of the Wichita Agency.
Jesse Chisholm's Trail never was in Oklahoma or Indian Territory. This is not true. However, the Trail Log and maps reveal that only about 120 Miles of the 275+ mile Chisholm Trail in Oklahoma had anything at all to do with Jesse Chisholm's wagon road. The other 155+ miles of the Trail was on newly broken land or previous unnamed trails that already existed.
Jesse Chisholm's Trail never existed in Kansas. This is not true. However, there are only about 60 miles (Caldwell to Wichita) of the 150+ mile Trail to Abilene in Kansas. The 95+ miles of Trail from Abilene to Wichita was surveyed and marked by Joseph McCoy.
Jesse Chisholm used his 1864 wagon road for Texas trail drives. This is not true. Although Chisholm, his sometime partner J.R. Mead and others periodically did move cattle from Wichita to the North Fork of the Canadian and back for trading purposes.

A bridge on the Trail. Taking what we now know, it is pretty clear that part of Jesse Chisholm's wagon road was just a bridge between two other sections of what now is known as the Chisholm Trail. This takes nothing away from Chisholm himself or the wagon road. He was one of the great pioneer figures of the west and his trail from Wichita to the trading posts in Indian Territory was very important in its time.

Why "The Chisholm Trail"? How did the long cattle trail from the the Red River to Abilene become almost universally known as "The Chisholm Trail", when less than half of Jesse Chisholm's wagon road was actually a part of the Chisholm Trail itself? Joseph McCoy didn't name it. In fact, if McCoy had been more of promoter, he probably would have named it after himself and it would have been called the "McCoy Trail" without question. Other names like "The Abilene Trail" and the "Texas Trail" were used both as common terms and trail titles, but just didn't stick or became attached to later trails.

The answer is simple and uncomplicated: Jesse Chisholm's wagon road was the only "named" trail in existence when the drives started from Texas. The rest were mostly generic with the name of the departure point or the destination. As the Trail developed, the use of Chisholm name became a simple and recognizable term for the whole trail. It became a generic "brand" that was easily recognizable and became the most commonly used name.

The Old Trail Drivers Agree: Interestingly enough, in 1931 at the conclusion of the Old Trail Drivers Association meeting, George Saunders who had been up the Trail more than a half-dozen times, was quoted in a newspaper that "The Chisholm trail was marked from Abilene Kansas to Red River Station and no further". This obviously includes the extensions on the north and south of the old wagon road. But for some reason Saunders was quite clear that the Trail went no further south.

SA Express-10-16-1931~George Saunders~Pres Old Trail Drivers Assoc

Note: The historical record is explicit that Joseph McCoy really only "marked" the new trail from Abilene to Wichita and simply sent agents out to the most popular Red River crossing points and further down into south Texas. Saunders also said in the same article that "McCoy hired Chisholm to lay out the route". McCoy does not mention Chisholm at all in his book and there seems very little basis to the suggestion that McCoy & Chisholm had a business arrangement in the short time before Chisholm's death in 1868.

* Not an issue: The historical and public community involved with the Chisholm Trail in Kansas and Oklahoma today is almost entirely unconcerned with the idea that large parts of what is known as "The Chisholm Trail" in both states were not really ever a part of Jesse Chisholm's original wagon road. These two Trail states have avoided controversy and have expended their energies on creating cattle trail documentation that far exceeds that of Texas. They have been polishing their heritage..

No Chisholm Trail in Texas! South of the Red River, there is a pocket of historical quicksand located mostly between San Antonio and Fort Worth. For almost 100 years there have been contradictory pronouncements from several sources that have managed to tarnish the deep heritage of the cattle trail from south Texas to Abilene, Kansas. Several theories are offered as proof. They contradict each other, but no matter:

"Nothing But Feeder Trails To the Red River": This is a brush-fire issue that is generally used to take the focus off the weakness of the "Not in Texas" position. It also lingers in some Oklahoma references. The idea might seem to have some credibility until you consider that the three earliest maps (1872-1873-1875) used exactly the same line width and colors for both feeder trails and the main stem from San Antonio through Fort Worth. This of course gives the impression that each trail carried the same number of cattle per year. Which is dead wrong. These maps give us absolutely no information about the sheer number of cattle that passed through the main stem towns compared to the feeder trail traffic. Sadly, this thoughtless cartography was copied onto later maps that spread the confusion.

1875 Kansas & Pacific RR Trails Map ~ Feeder Trails in Texas

Cattle Count: As an example, in 1868 Fort Worth estimated 75,000 head and in 1871 360,00 head passing through with some estimates doubling that. In comparison, did Weatherford, which was on a northern feeder trail connecting to Red River Station ever pass even a fraction of this number in a year? Or how many cattle crossed the Brazos between Fort Graham and Cleburne compared to any of the feeder trails to the west? There don't seem to be any statistics available for the feeder trails, but it seems reasonable to estimate that most of them passed a few herds of 1000-2000 head once or twice a year or maybe a little more. And that most of those herds joined the main trail stem at some point along the way as the maps show.

May 22, 1875-Dallas Weekly Herald

Twenty five herds on the main stem road between San Marcos and Fort Worth does not sound like that route was a "minor" feeder trail. A later newspaper report in August of 1875 says the the total Texas cattle driven for the season was around 166,000 head. Even allowing for overly enthusiastic reporting by local newspapers, it is easy to see that the trail from San Antonio to Fort Worth probably accepted 2/3 of the total Texas cattle traffic for 1875, which was the last before the railroad came to Fort Worth and also a year that saw the drift toward the new Western Trail continue.

Out West: The later Western or Dodge City Trail also began in south Texas just about where the Chisholm Trail began, building its main stem up through Fort Griffin and Doan's Crossing with extensive feeder trails as well. History does not seem to record any strident outbursts claiming that the real Western Trail was only in Oklahoma and Kansas and that there were only unnamed feeder trails in Texas.

Flip-flop: If the feeder trail theory was valid, then why do the many later maps show names like the Abilene, McCoy, Texas, Northern, or Eastern Trail running up the main stem to Red River Station from South Texas? One cancels the other. You can't have both.

"Jesse Chisholm's Trail never was in Texas": Very true. The old wagon road never came close, just like it never came close to the Red River or Abilene. This is the major issue that has always clouded the Texas heritage to the Chisholm Trail. It is worth some serious consideration because there are a fairly large number of those who feel that this is important.

The Trail extensions from Wichita to Abilene and from Red River Station to Fort Reno have been accepted by the states of Oklahoma and Kansas as part of the "Chisholm Trail" for over 80 years. More important, George Saunders, the early and respected leader of the Texas based Old Trail Drivers Association also agreed that the Chisholm Trail ran from Red River Station To Abilene back in 1931.

The reasons for the adamant refusal to include Texas as part of the Chisholm Trail may have been partly personal, partly a misunderstanding of the true development of the Trail or just sheer hard headed thinking. Whatever the reasons, they are all pretty irrelevant now.

The Chisholm Trail IS a part of Texas History: Given all this background, what logic keeps the southern Chisholm Trail extension out of Texas? The route from the North Canadian to south Texas along the main stem from Fort Worth south past San Antonio is one long logical extension of the original Trail. Just as the route from Wichita to Abilene is the northern extension.

The Chisholm Trail didn't have boundaries defined by either the Arkansas or Red rivers.

Jesse Chisholm

* Ralph P. Bieber's long, exhaustively sourced footnote at the beginning of Chapter 6 of Joseph McCoy's "Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade of The West and Southwest" is one of the best and most reliable sources on the development and extension of the Chisholm Trail..

1849: Major Ripley Arnold Speaks Up In Defense of the New Fort on the Trinity

2011-12-07T17:44:00.000-06:00

It is 1849 on the Grand Prairie of Texas, just east of the Cross Timbers on a high bluff overlooking the the confluence of the Clear Fork and the West Fork of the Trinity River. A new U.S. Army outpost has just been established by young Brevet Major Ripley Arnold as part of a defensive picket to protect new settlements. The post which does not have a protective palisade, is named Fort Worth.

Construction work gets underway, scouts and patrols by the mounted 2nd Dragoon troops are begun. Contact is made with the few local settlers. Local Indian tribes as well as itinerant hunting groups are received at the camp and trading is begun.

Dragoons in field dress ~ From Ft. McKavett & The 2nd Dragoons

Supplies come in via Fort Graham to the south which also includes the mails. Newspapers of which the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the Galveston News are the most prominent, are eagerly awaited. The June 17, 1849 edition of the Times-Picayune arrived with this article:

Times-Picayune, June 17, 1849

This article, which contained no sources at all, was troubling. To most Americans of the time, Texas seemed as far away as Afghanistan is today. The newspapers of this era had found that the Indian wars were wildly popular with their readers and treated whatever news there was almost as a sporting event with the small US Army on one side and the native tribes on the other. As always happens in the media, if there is no current news, then there is sometimes a tendency by the less ethical to create some.

Times-Picayune ~ August 6, 1849

Much was riding on the effectiveness of this new chain of Forts and the protection it would offer to those who were coming into Texas. So Major Arnold, in the midst of setting up this forward post, took pen in hand and replied directly to the scurrilous article with good humor, precise information, a direct non-nonsense manner and a plea to come to Fort Worth to join the settlement.

This will not be the last we will hear from and about Major Ripley Arnold.

Note: The news articles above were the earliest I have found that mention Fort Worth.

1894: A Lost North Fort Worth Map Reveals a Tantalizing Hint ~The Old Road to Azle?

2011-11-06T18:06:00.002-06:00

I love a mystery. Even a little mystery. This lost map mystery is really little and in the vast scope of things, insignificant to Fort Worth history. It all started this way:

1894 North Fort Worth Plat ~ Oakwood Cemetery Archives

Several years ago a search of the Oakwood Cemetery archives turned up this fine old 1894 plat map of North Fort Worth done by Brookes Baker, one of the earlier surveyors in the Tarrant County. It was a "blue line" map on a very heavy weathered tan colored paper. The gray scale version is shown here to allow greater detail at a reasonable resolution. This is one of the earliest maps of North Fort Worth that I have seen. It is based on Nathan Barrett's original 1889 plat and extends north only as far as NW 23rd Street.

With permission, I have been allowed to examine this map in detail and to include it in my Lost Antique Maps of Fort Worth CDROM where a full resolution, zoomable copy is available. Close study of this map has turned up some interesting and sometimes unexpected additions to Fort Worth history...

1894 Old Azle Road ~ Click to zoom

One of the little mysteries that this map reveals is located at the point on North Main where it jogs to the the right or due north at NW 20th street as it does today. The clip above shows that there was a road that apparently was a direct extension of North Main named Azle (Graveled) Road that headed off to the northwest. Obviously that road no longer exists. It is not a part of today's Ellis Avenue. I thought for a while that it might be a shortcut to Clinton Street, but now I no longer think so. Just the other day, a quick look at a large 1955 Fort Worth map during another quest gave me a possible answer.

1955 Fort Worth Map ~ Click to zoom

If you look at the old 1955 Topo map above, you will see as I did, that there is a very definite relationship between this little stub off of North Main and the beginning of Angle Avenue where NW 26th and Refugio meet. The white line running diagonally from just north of NW 20th Street shows the approximate relationship of Angle Avenue to the little abandoned 1894 stub off North Main.

Angle Avenue and Cliff Street come together just past NW 28th street. Remembering of course, that none of the roads north of 23th Street nor Refugio existed until Rosen Heights was platted in about 1903. North Main was another mud track to the east of this line. Let's name this projection "Old Azle Road" or OAR.

Assuming that the angles were good and that a road was possible between the two points, the next question would be to figure out why it ran this way toward Azle, rather than some other direction, because there were options. Early roads were generally natural pathways that were animal or Indian trails and almost always followed the line of least resistance.

Current Aerial of Old Azle Road with elevations ~ Click to zoom

The OAR projection on the Google aerial above shows that the elevation above sea level as it branched from North Main was about 555', then rose to about 630' and then descended to about 576' where it joined 10 Mile Bridge Road. Headed northwest out of town, the road climbed about 75' in 6 blocks or about 1/2 mile. Coming into town from the northwest, the climb would have been about 50' in a little over 2 blocks and then a gentle slope down to North Main.

These elevations are very important since in the period before 1910 almost all Tarrant County roads outside cities were unpaved, rutted, dusty tracks that became mud bogs after it rained. All of the merchandise and farm goods had to be hauled by wagon using teams of horse or mules. The most useful roads were those that avoided steep grades or river crossings.

Angle Avenue north to 10 Mile Bridge Road ~ Click to zoom

Those familiar with North Fort Worth are aware that there is a line of bluffs that run from just west of North Main starting at about Northside Drive that continues on up to about where North 820 runs. It is the barrier ridge between Marine Creek and the West Fork of the Trinity. At some points the drop off from NW 25th or NW 26th Street to the Marine Creek banks is almost 100' and is very steep.

If you follow the elevation markers on the aerial it becomes apparent that there is what was probably a natural crease dropping from the junction of NW 26th and Refugio down to Marine Creek, which later became Angle Avenue. Note that they named it an "Avenue" rather than a street which might indicate its importance in the early days. As a comparison, drive down Lee Street from NW 26th and then do the same on Angle Avenue. The difference is very notable.

Why did this old road exist? After all, even in the late 1800's it was possible to to follow what is now North Main up to about NW 26th street and cut-off over what is now Cliff Street to 10 Mile Bridge Road with fairly easy grades. Marine Creek many be part of the answer, since any other route required either a river crossing. I don't think a bridge over Marine Creek existed until after 1890 when the first packing houses and stockyards were started. Even until the 1950's Marine Creek was crooked, flood prone and had steep banks that probably were difficult for wagon traffic to deal with.

Is this the reason Angle Avenue exists today? Did our OAR connect between 26th street and the jog on Main Street? It's something to think about.....

10 mile Bridge Road is named for the Trinity River crossing about halfway to Azle. The road starts at about where 28th street is today. It leaves Fort Worth running a little northwest along Marine Creek and rises to a crest about where Boat Club Road is today. Then it runs downhill through some very hilly county until it reaches the Trinity River bottoms just below where Eagle Mountain Dam is today. It was one of two main roads to the northwest from Fort Worth until Jacksboro Highway was completed in about 1932.

1917-18: A Hot Time In Old Camp Bowie's "Entertainment" District? Not!

2011-09-18T20:17:00.000-05:00

The moment in 1917 that the deal that cinched Fort Worth as the site of a huge new US Army training post was signed was a moment that changed Fort Worth and its residents forever. The post, which became known as Camp Bowie and was located across the Clear Fork just west of downtown, literally made the earth move. As the glow of success began to fade a little, one of the myriad problems that faced the Army and its host city was how to entertain the "Sammies" as they were called then.

This was no small problem. It was estimated that there might be as many as 30,000 recruits flooding into town. Almost all of them were between the ages of 17 and 21 and most were from small towns in Texas and Oklahoma. The testosterone levels in the area between Stove Foundry Road and White Settlement Road and along Arlington Heights boulevard would be off the scale. A situation that opportunist Rev. J. Frank Norris welcomed, but that presented a real logistical as well as moral challenge to the more level headed and less self aggrandizing.

1918 Camp Bowie Map ~ CH Rogers ~ Click to zoom

The Federal planners had already set up a War Service Commission that would deal with providing wholesome diversion and entertainment to the troops in the various camps that were building across the US. And of course the churches and YMCA's, etc. were all enlisted. In addition, concession rights were granted to some for the operation of on-base amusement parks and facilities. C.W. Parker of Leavenworth, KS. was awarded a two-year contract for Camp Bowie.

09-07-1917-Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Parker, a well known and respected operator of amusement parks and shows, decided to bracket the Post by refurbishing dilapidated Lake Como at the west end of the camp and by creating a "Joyland" park In the triangle just to the south of the West 7th and Arlington Heights intersection.

Lake Como & Joyland Entertainment Sites ~ Click to zoom

There was lots of work to do to get everything ready and as could be expected help was hard to find and expensive. Parker also was looking for investors and merchants for the sites as well.

Construction went along fairly rapidly and Lake Como was ready by the first part of October, announcing a complete reconstruction and the largest US flag in the world at 80' by 150'.

10-12-1917 Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Construction lagged a little at Joyland, but finally the moment came....

10-20-1917 Fort Worth Star-Telegram

As the 1917 season progressed carnivals, musicals and variety stage shows were booked and toward the end of the year the were both professional and amateur fight cards.

11-25-1917 Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"Dainty Girls?" It is a little hard to see how most of these traveling attractions would appeal to the young men that were training daily in ever more deadly arts. Looking back almost 100 years, it appears that many of these shows & events were aimed at the local population.

02-15-1918-Fort Worth Star Telegram

As the US moved into the European war the US Government ramrodded through a series of Draconian measures. One of them was to "protect" the morals and health of its its youth. This in spite of the fact that they were old enough to be sent into mortal peril to be used as cannon fodder in the muddy trenches of France. A military commission was set up and one of the first emergency rules that came down made keeping houses of ill fame a Federal offense.

02-08-1918 Forth Worth Star-Telegram

The idea was to inhibit soldier visits to districts like what was left of Hell's Half Acre in lower downtown Fort Worth. The local news media pretty well put a damper on the reporting of any kind of ex-curricular activity like this or bootlegging which was of course rampant during Prohibition. However, the fact was that any soldier on leave could get on the streetcar on Arlington Heights Boulevard and be anywhere he wanted to be in minutes. There were plenty of stories of bootleggers and shady ladies in cars circling around the perimeter of the camp after dark providing drive-by service.

C.W. Parker's amusement concession seemed to start off well in the fall of 1917 as the troops were arriving. However, after the first of the year 1918, almost nothing is found about his operation. It seems to have dwindled away. There are several probable reasons: The troops were training very heavily with a target embarkation to Europe in the middle of the year. Devastating epidemics including Spanish Flu and meningitis were flowing through the camp and the community and quarantines were common and long. Although not reported very openly, hundreds and perhaps thousands of troops died at the camp. After the first divisions left to heavy fighting, the war came to an end sooner than expected and operations at Camp Bowie were cut back.

09-17-1917-Fort Worth Star Telegram

After the armistice, Joyland just disappeared as the lease was relinquished. Lake Como, which had been a part of the Camp land agreement, settled back into its slumber. There would be another attempt to resurrect it in the 1920's but Lake Worth had become the recreation place of choice.

In spite of its enormous effect on Fort Worth which continues even today, Camp Bowie was really just a flash in the pan. It was begun in 1917 and effectively done by the end of 1918, with no hope of it becoming a permanent post. But while it was here, the Camp made the earth move..

The Stockyard Museum has large-format copies of the 1918 Camp Bowie map in their Museum Store. This is the only good map ever published of the Camp Bowie area...

Images from the Electric Books Collection.

Up the Hill: Memories of Ranger Hill on US-80 and the Bankhead Highway

2011-08-31T18:03:00.000-05:00

Old time truckers have many tales of Ranger Hill in the days before Interstate 20 toned things down. It's still quite a hill to climb and there are remnants remaining of the earlier roads that took different, more difficult paths to climb the steep grade.

Ranger Hill really starts in Eastland County at about where IH-20 and SH-16 meet a few miles south of Strawn. It's on the flat plain skirting the lower Palo Pinto Mountains. For those headed west, the escarpment juts up steeply and is a real barrier to any reasonably straight approach to Ranger and the cities beyond it on the way to Abilene and El Paso. The 300 foot elevation change from the bottom to the top of the hill would have made it almost impossible for use as a wagon road without multiple switchbacks. In times past, Ranger Hill has also been called Thurber Hill, although that usage is not as common today.

Old Road From Strawn to Ranger Pre-1919 ~ No Direct Route From Thurber to Ranger

As far as is known, the earliest main road from Strawn and Thurber followed the Texas & Pacific Railroad as it stayed at water level through Wiles Canyon into what was Tiffin and then Ranger. The Texas and Pacific Coal Co., which owned the coal mines at Thurber and had the oil play around Ranger, seem to have pushed their own privately financed road up across the Hill in about 1919 after which it was taken over by the State Highway Commission as part of SH-1 and the Bankhead National Highway. By this time cars and trucks that could handle the climb were in more common use.

Ranger Hill From SH-16 to First Crest ~ Click to Zoom

We can see how really steep the Ranger Hill grade is by using the Google elevation display. Starting at about 1130' above sea level (Almost 600 feet higher than Fort Worth) a sweeping left hand turn ends up about 200' higher in a very short stretch. Still climbing, it's another 60' to the first crest at 1400' elevation. From this point it levels for a while and then climbs a little more than 100' to about 1530' at the site of the old Ranger Hill Station complex.

Just to the north of the main road is the old US-80/SH-1/Bankhead Highway route that attempts to cut the grade a little by circling wider around a hill and then pushes on up to the 1400' crest point where it rejoins the present highway on the way up.

Ranger Hill Station Today ~ Click to Zoom

For a place that was once known as a welcome landmark on the trip from Fort Worth to points west, Ranger Hill Station looks pretty sad today. However, in its day it was an oasis for those with steaming radiators, flat tires, burned clutches and useless brakes. A whole community grew up on the Hill, aimed entirely at needy travelers and their vehicles.

The Ranger Hill Community ~ Click to Zoom

The Ranger Hill Station is located about a half-mile up the hill after exiting IH-20 to Ranger. This is the old US-80/Bankhead route. To the west of the station, were other service stations and buildings and shops some of which are in use today for other purposes.

Interestingly enough, it has just recently been announced that much of the area north of Ranger Hill will probably be in the new state park which begins just to the west of Strawn.

Old Service Station-Now a shop ~ Click to zoom

The station itself had a coffee shop and there were at least two motels to shelter those who got caught at the top of the hill as well as at least one other gas station. There was a well-built field stone motel on the north side across from the station and it also appeared to have a coffee shop in the main building.

Motel Office and sign. Probably a Coffee Shop as Well ~ Click to Zoom

The shells of these buildings and their roofs appear to be in fair shape today. There is no name on what was once a lighted sign.

Stone Motel Office and Cabins ~ Click to Zoom

On the south side of the road to the east of the station and set back a little are the decaying ruins of another motel with cabins. There's no way to know how these might have looked back in their glory days..

Decaying Cabins On South Roadside ~ Click to zoom

Ranger Hill Station and the little service community that grew up around it was the stuff of legends among early truck drivers, oil men, commercial travelers and tourists. It's surprising that there hasn't been a song or two written about the wrecks and near misses and the shady things that may have gone on at the hilltop. Ranger Hill has faded now, baking in the hot sun or enduring the cold northers, but its a place that ought to be visited before it is no more.

From Ranger.. Looking West ~ Click to Zoom

Once past Ranger Hill Station, it's a few miles into Ranger itself where there are some interesting buildings, some history and some almost pristine remnants of the old red Thurber brick Bankhead Highway to Eastland......

Another time..

All images from The Electric Books Collection

A Little History is Passing: The Old Saginaw Airfield Is About Gone

2011-08-28T19:14:00.001-05:00

Things change around us in the blink of an eye. Last July I was headed into Saginaw to have breakfast at JR's. The sun was in my eyes, and as I moved east on McLeroy past Knowles Street I sensed something was different at the old airport. Something was missing. Something was new.

Hangar at Saginaw Airport East End ~ Click to Zoom

What was missing was the older yellow brick house, its garage and the outbuildings around what had been the airport center. In the space of a week, everything was changed. What was new was the hangar. Not really new, but you never could really see it before because of the clutter. It struck me as impressive, in a way. I stopped and pulled into the driveway for some pictures.

2001 ~ Looking north. McLeroy Street in foreground..

I have lived west of Saginaw since about 1997 and am into and out of the town several times a week, sometimes several times a day. I knew that the field had been built in about 1945 by a man named McNeil. The land had been sold for development several years ago. The paved runway had been plowed up and the T-Hangers on both sides had been taken down with one exception.

Hanger East Side ~ Click to Zoom

Now on this day there is just the big hanger. However, that hangar took on a whole new dimension without the clutter around it. The place almost becomes an Aerodrome in the classic sense. Built of common materials it still becomes a little stately in its appearance. Solid. It has seen the best and worst of aircraft and probably some that were unique or improbable. Just picture a stagger-wing Model 17 Beechcraft in front of it, or a big radial engined Cessna 195.

West Elevation ~ Click to Zoom

I talked to the man who rents the hanger and he told me he thought the owner had the rest of the buildings pulled down and plowed under because they were in bad shape and there were some liability problems. He said he had no idea of what was in the future for the old hanger, but that it was serving his purposes nicely.

There is one old building remaining to the west of the big hangar. It's a closed shed hangar that has been used occasionally for "estate sales", but everything else around it is gone.

Old Hangar Facing McLeroy ~ Click to zoom

I suppose it it hopeless to think that someone might come up with some way to save the big old hangar and use it without too much change. At 65+ years old it could be considered historic in a technical sense, but I have an idea that the land is probably zoned commercial and if the economy ever turns around, then we'll see it disappear overnight as well.

I'll enjoy it while I can..

Here's' the whole story on the airport history from the Abandoned Airfields website...

All images from The Electric Books Collection

A Macabre Mansion~Edwards Funeral Home in Strawn Has a Creepy Mascot~I Wonder If They Know?

2011-08-21T13:19:00.003-05:00

I was returning from a scout through Ranger Saturday when I decided to take a quick run up to Strawn in hopes that I might be able to get into Mary's Cafe for lunch. I was a little early so I ran up SH-16 to the north end of town and took a right just before the river onto Watson Place a street that runs in front of the abandoned water pumping plant and Edwards Funeral Home.

View From the West ~ Check the East Chimney ~ Click to zoom

The funeral home is in a magnificent old mansion style building. Local history says the business was started in 1963 by Jerry & Pat Edwards in the 1919 George J. Watson home. The home was modeled after a West Virginia mansion and has double-brick walls, 7 fireplaces and elaborate decoration.

What's that thing on the east chimney?
As I was admiring the building, my eye caught something on the east chimney.. Big pigeon? Hawk?

View From the East ~ Click to Zoom ~ Bird Looking At Me?

I drove over to the east side and got a little closer. It certainly was a bird of some kind... The evil little kid in me started thinking... What if it was a .... Naw!.. it couldn't be. Perched on a funeral home?

The sentinel of the east chimney ~ Click to zoom

I racked the zoom up to the max to get closer. No doubt about it. A good size buzzard doing its best to look buzzardly on that fine chimney crown. Probably the highest point, other than the old water tower, in all of Strawn. The murky bird was just sitting, totally unaware of those of us that harbor quirky thoughts.

Just carrion on ~ Click to zoom

What, other than hunger, do you suppose is motivating this big guy? Is there something significant about the vista to the north?

We are not to know..

Maybe it's prophetic that Halloween is not too far away.

North Strawn ~ Click to zoom

A final note: The old house is anything but "macabre". It's just that I've always wanted to write the word in a sentence and this was an opportunity..

I never did get into Mary's. By 11:45 AM every bit of parking within 1/4 mile was crammed and it was way too hot to walk very far..

All images from The Electric Books Collection

Gordon: The Lost Town On A Bankhead Highway Map ~ Twists and Turns Between Ranger & Fort Worth

2011-08-14T17:16:00.006-05:00

The Bankhead Highway History Group has become very active on Facebook. It is open to anyone with an interest in this historic old highway. Some interesting topics have been posted lately. One of them revolves the development of the Bankhead Highway around the area west of Fort Worth to about Ranger. Much of this area is in the rugged Palo Pinto Mountains. I found some old maps of the 1919-1922 era to show how the routes developed..

By 1920 Rand McNally had established themselves as one of the major road map publishers and their Auto Trails series were widely considered one of the best and most accurate. They were updated often.

Click to zoom

When the State Highway Commission finally set the routes and alternates for State Highway #1 in 1919 they also adopted the Bankhead Highway designation as well. For several reasons alternate routes were often established sometimes for political reasons as well as to offer choices when another route was impassible.

Click to zoom

The Bankhead Highway from Weatherford to Mineral Wells passed through Millsap at this time. Our 1922 map is one of the few to show the very rough northern alternate route which more of less followed the rails of the Weatherford, Mineral Wells and Northwestern railroad and passed through Garner and the Rock Creek mining community. If you will check the map legend above you will see that this route was part of the Dixie Overland Highway at this time.

On past Mineral Wells the terrain becomes very rough and the Bankhead became a challenge to build and later to drive. Here is where we find some surprise destinations on this map and the verification of an obscure mountain valley pass that the Bankhead Highway used for a short time.

Click to zoom

The Orange box shows that at this time, on this map that instead of dropping south a few miles out of Strawn the highway went straight west following the T & P railroad into the rugged Wilde canyon then west to Tiffin before entering Ranger from the north. Very few maps show this pass as part of the Bankhead Highway but since Rand McNally was a respected map maker and motorists depended on them, we have to assume that the route was used as least for a short time at least.

Wilde Canyon West of Strawn ~ Click to zoom

The Red box brings another map surprise: After leaving the city of Palo Pinto, the Bankhead Highway is shown as dropping south to Gordon rather than continuing on west to Metcalf Gap and then down to Strawn as most maps of the period do. There is almost no documentation of this Gordon route but it also shows it on the earlier 1921 Fort Worth Auto Club Texas Map below:

Click to zoom

Were these two maps showing the little town of Gordon as a destination on the Bankhead Highway a regrettable mistake on their part? If so, why do two maps published 3 years apart still show the same route? A map maker would certainly have changed it if it was reported as wrong, wouldn't they?

For now, it's a small mystery. Perhaps someone on the Bankhead Highway History Group can come up with an answer....

Balaam's Gotta Lotta Gumption ~ I Found a Book That's a Jewel..

2011-07-26T20:38:00.002-05:00

I am a voracious reader, but this 2004 novel by Fort Worth's own Mike Nichols totally escaped me at the time. That may have been the year I was running from myself or more likely I had my nose in the bag of worms that is the Chisholm Trail story trying to make some sense out of the printed mutterings of aging but arrogant old cowboys. Anyway, I entirely missed it until a friend of mine loaned me her copy and said "you gotta read this". Thank goodness for friends...

Click for Review

This is a true Texas book. Mike has written a funny, sad and smart book about the Texas a lot of us know. A Texas that still exists in more places than you'd think. Having lived in many small towns including Ralls & Floydada out on the Caprock, I know all these people. I are one. They are the people that show up with me at JR's Cafe in Saginaw at 6 or 7 AM every morning for breakfast. Not all good people, but real people.

Mike's story of a few months in the life of the one-blinking-light town of Willoughby down near Waco, is a gem. He has successfully written the hardest kind of fiction to create. It was named the "Funniest Texas Book of 2004", but it's a lot more than that. Gumption has a lightness of spirit coupled with genuine humor and heart that never gets gooey. He successfully walks the fine line that keeps everything together.

Ten minutes after I opened the book, I was hooked. Click on the review link for the story, but better than that get online or start looking for it in your bookstore.

See you at JR's..