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Roaming Around East Texasby
Bob Bowman | |
Some
things we’ve learned by roaming around East
Texas.The log
gym:In the 1940s,
Newton had a gymnasium made of
logs--probably the last such structure of its kind in East
Texas. Those who remember the gym say it was cold during the winters and hot
as blazes during the summers.
The building was torn down and replaced
in the mid-fifties, but the gym’s floor, which had a beautiful Eagle painted in
the center of the court, was installed in the new gym. |
Bullard’s well:A
Bullard landmark, the town’s
old well, has been awarded a state historical marker. Inside a building at the
corner of Houston and Main, is the old well, which once stood in the middle of
the street. Local folks believe the well tapped into an underground water source. |
Ghost riders:Ghost
riders started haunting Texas in the 1870s when a
cattleman driving his cattle to market came across a new homestead blocking his
route near the Neches
River. He was so angry that he stampeded his cattle right through the farmhouse,
crushing everyone inside. The screams are still heard whenever the phantom longhorns
are sighted on the plains. The legend inspired the song, “Ghost Riders in the
Sky.” |
Crybaby Creek:In
Bowie County, they say if you drive to a bridge outside DeKalb,
you can hear the cries of an infant. The story goes that a mother driving a car
plunged into the creek and the baby drowned in the near-freezing waters. |
Vandalized
markers:
Why in the world do people deliberately tear down
or steal Texas State Historical markers? Some recent examples are a marker marking
a river crossing on the Angelina River between Lufkin
and Nacogdoches and a marker
that tells the story of the Fodice community school in Houston County. |
Bonnie and
Clyde:When
Bonnie
and Clyde were tearing across East
Texas in the 1930s, they hid out near Redland in Angelina County. As a child,
Pauline Haney remembered that the outlaws hid in the woods behind her house. Her
mother cooked and did laundry for the outlaws. When they left, they stowed a shotgun
in a hollow tree. Pauline’s father retrieved the weapon and sold it to a man in
Nacogdoches.
The Bonnie and Clyde Festival:
Each
May, the town of Gibsland, Louisiana, holds a celebration known as the Bonnie
and Clyde Festival. The events include a reenactment of the ambush that killed
the outlaws near Gibsland. The town also has a Bonnie and Clyde Museum.
Bob
Bowman's East Texas March 28, 2010 Column
A weekly column syndicated
in 109 East Texas newspapers
Copyright Bob Bowman | |
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