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TENAHA,
TEXASShelby
County, East Texas
US 59/84, and 96
4 miles E of Bobo
10 miles E of Timpson
11 miles N of Center
16 miles S of Carthage
39 miles NE of Nacogdoches
Population: 1,046 (2000) 1,072 (1990) Book
Your Hotel Here & Save
Center
Hotels |
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Marker for Loop 168, the shortest highway
in Texas
Photo by John Troesser, July 2001 |
History
in a Pecan Shell
Founded as a shipping point on the Houston, East
and West Texas Railway in 1885, the community was named for Tenehaw Municipality,
the original name of Shelby County.
A post office was granted in 1886
and by 1890 the population was 200. By 1896 it was publishing it's own weekly
newspaper and had become a major shipping center for lumber and produce. The population
had increased to 680.
Lumber-manufacturing and a large canning operation
bolstered the local economy through the 40s and 50s. Toledo
Bend Reservoir and the fishermen that it attracts are now a permanent economic
mainstay. |
| | Tenaha
Welcome Sign
Photo by John Troesser, July 2001 |
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Early
1900s Tenaha street scene
Courtesy texasoldphotos.com |
Tenaha,
Timpson, Bobo, and Blair by Archie P. McDonald, PhD
Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo, and
Blair are communities in Shelby County whose names were appropriated for a plea
by crapshooters for good luck when seeking to roll double fives. Similarly, dice
throwers hoping for an "eight" would sing out, "Eighter from Decatur, the County
Seat of Wise." Later the alliteration in the sing-song phrase "Tenaha, Timpson,
Bobo, and Blair" helped a folk song recorded by Tex Ritter popular.
How did the communities become involved with dice and popular music?
... more
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| | Tenaha
City Hall
Photo by John Troesser, July 2001 |
| | A
ghost staircase in Tenaha
Photo by John Troesser, July 2001 |
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