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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 |
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