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BLUE
RIDGE, TEXASFalls
County, North Central Texas
FM 1771
10 miles East of Marlin
36
miles SE of Waco
Population:
672 (2000) 521 (1990) Book
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Waco
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History
in a Pecan Shell
According to information from the Handbook of
Texas Online, the name is derived from "low hills in the area." There were
two other Blue Ridge communities in Texas - one in Collin County and one that
had been in Fort Bend County.
Residents of the area objected to the boundaries
planned for the newly-formed Falls County around 1850 and thought that Blue Ridge
should be the county seat. All that they managed to accomplish was a one year
delay in the organization of Falls County.
The community had a post office
for a few years before the Civil War and it may have developed into a sizeable
town had it not been bypassed by the railroad in the 1870s.
During the
period of intense school-consolidation following WWII, Blue Ridge's school merged
with the Marlin Independent School District in 1948. |
George
Lester, who once lived in neighboring Spunky
Flat in the 1930s, wrote of his childhood disappointment when first "experiencing"
Blue Ridge:
"For what seemed like years I used to look at the rise
to the south of our farm that was called Blue Ridge. It impressed me as a place
you could go and look down at the beautiful view of the valley below. Then one
day my dad said he had to go see somebody about some business at Blue Ridge and
I was allowed to go with him.
With every mile I anticipated the thrill
of reaching that Shangri-La in the clouds. After a while dad stopped the car and
conversed with a man for a few minutes and then got back in the car preparing
to return home. I asked him why we didn't go to Blue Ridge and my dreams were
shattered by his answer, "Son, this is Blue Ridge". I got out of the car and looked
around and it didn't look any different than Spunky Flat....no panoramic scene,
no breathtaking view.
I told my wife this story and she looked surprised.
She had the same thing happened to her when she lived in Spunky Flat." |
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