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BAIRD,
TEXAS"The
Antique Capital of West Texas"
Runaway Trains, Portable Jails and LollipopsCallahan
County Seat
I - 20
21 miles E of Abilene
35 miles W of Eastland
122 miles W
of Fort Worth
HWY 283,
25 miles S of Albany
Population:
1,623 (2000) |
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Aviation
cadets take a break in front of the T & P Depot at Baird in January of 1943
I found the [above] photo in my Dad's World War II album. He was an aviation cadet
on a transcontinental troop train that stopped in Baird in January 1943. Baird
was a rest stop for these guys after long train trips from the east. I am not
sure how long these troop trains stopped in Baird, but it must have been welcomed
by the thousands of GI's who were being transported long distances in crowded
conditions. In my Dad's case, he documented the trip through some great photos,
not just of Baird but pointing his camera out of the Pullman window to show the
steam engine chugging across the Mississippi River at New Orleans and entering
the Mojave Desert in California.
Most of the GIs in the photo were in
pre-flight training enroute to the Santa Ana, California training base. You can
see that the GI in the foreground is wearing the aviation cadet wings on his cap
or "cover". This was their uniform until they completed training and were commissioned
as Second Lieutenants and awarded their official wings. In WWII, Santa Ana was
both a pre-flight training base and holding area for aviation cadets until they
were ordered to advanced training bases. In my Dad's case, he was slotted to Bombardier
pre-flight training in Santa Ana (mostly academic non-flying work) and then advanced
flight training at Kirkland Field, NM. There was still two and one-half years
of tough combat ahead and I wonder how many men in the photo survived the war.
- David Schoeck, Dana Point, CA, January 09, 2008
See World
War II |
The
Naming of Baird and County
The County was named
after James Callahan, a survivor of the Massacre at Goliad. Baird
was named after one Matthew Baird, who various sources list as either a railroad
director, lawyer, surveyor, yodeling brakeman or any combination thereof. Maybe
he was a yodeling lawyer. |
| History
in a Pecan Shell
Still waters run deep. Don't let the town's current tranquility fool you.
This place has survived a fire (1884), a tornado (1895), cattle drives, hard winters
(notably 1884-85), long droughts (drouths) (1886-87) and a spectacular three locomotive
collision caused by a runaway engine in 1907. This incident may have given the
Katy railroad their idea for The
Crash at Crush. By the time the railroad in Baird was informed about the
loose locomotive, there was no time to wake people and sell tickets. Baird had
a roundhouse and maintenance shops for the T & P.
What goes around comes
around (unless it's a runaway locomotive).
Callahan County's Seat of Government was originally in Belle
Plain, about 3 miles south. They had it all: a college (Belle Plain College),
a courthouse and a spanking new stone jail.
When the railroad come through,
the newspaper and main businesses moved to Baird and the people then wished they
had made the jail out of something much lighter. They dismantled it, numbered
the stones, and then reassembled it in its present location (100 W. 5th Street
in Baird).
Ironically, it was Belle
Plain that caused the demise of Callahan
City, drawing away major businesses and population when Belle Plain became
the County Seat.
Callahan
City's cemetery is about all that's left of that town, while Belle Plain still
has ruins of the College buildings.
Callahan
County Courthouse - next page |
Baird
Landmarks & Attractions: |
| | The
old Callahan County Jails Originally in Belle Plain
When the railroad
come through, and Belle Plain businesses moved to Baird, the townspeople dismantled
their new county jail, numbered the stones,
and then reassembled it at its
present location. (100 W. 5th Street) Photo courtesy Charlene
Beatty Beauchamp |
| | The
Texas and Pacific Depot c. 1911
This
depot is one of the larger ones on the former T & P route.
The T &
P had depots from Marshall to
Sierra Blanca,
where it merged with the Southern Pacific.
Photo courtesy
Charlene
Beatty Beauchamp |
| | The
Baird Locomotive Mural
These three pickups conveniently provide scale for this well-executed mural. Trains
are freqently mural subjects - but seldom are they painted life-size.
Photo
courtesy Charlene
Beatty Beauchamp | |
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