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NEW
GEOGRAPHY
Remapping of the Lone Star State
& Place Name Tweaking
of Several Counties and County Seats
by Mike Cox
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Tired
of hearing and reading about the election? While the political dust
settles, let’s consider a bit of geographic fantasy, a remapping of
the Lone Star State.
The Texas pledge speaks of this state as being “one and indivisible,”
but the act of Congress that allowed the Republic of Texas to join
the Union in 1845 stipulates that Texas could be divided into as many
as five separate states. In light of that, over the years various
individuals and groups have advocated either an East or West Texas,
or a North and South Texas.
Obviously, nothing ever came of those proposals and Texas likely will
stay just like it is, one and undivided. But some features on the
Texas map could use one of those makeovers you see on the cable channels.
For instance, let’s go ahead and face up to it: Houston
isn’t part of Texas and hasn’t been for a good while. As the fourth-largest
city in the nation with a multi-million metropolitan area population,
Houston is actually a city-state. In fact, its economy probably is
larger than some countries.
OK, map change No. 1: The State of Houston.
Closer to the center of Texas, Austin
isn’t in Texas, either. Singer Michael Murphy figured that out years
ago, observing, “I don’t live in Texas, I live in Austin.”
Let’s steal a page from the federal government and create the District
of Travis. Keeping Austin weird, a trendy local slogan, wouldn’t be
any trouble at all if it wasn’t really part of Texas.
Beyond Houston and Austin, several of the 254 counties need some place
name tweaking.
The county
seat of Caldwell County is Lockhart,
home to some of the best barbeque in Texas. But Caldwell,
Texas is the county seat of Burleson County. Clearly, a name switch
is in order. Burleson County needs to be moved to Lockhart and the
Caldwell County government shipped to Caldwell, where it rightly
belongs. The barbeque places would stay in Lockhart.
Out in far
West Texas, a lot of confusion could be eliminated if Reeves and
Pecos counties switched handles. As it is now, Pecos,
Texas is the county seat of Reeves County, while in adjoining Pecos
County, the county seat is Fort
Stockton. All it would cost taxpayers to adjust this is the
price of a few new signs and printing new county stationery.
Not quite as
troublesome, but bearing consideration, is why Terrell,
Texas should be the seat of Kaufman County, while Sanderson,
Texas is the capital of Terrell County.
In the Panhandle,
Stratford
is the seat of Sherman County, while in northeast Texas, Sherman
is the county seat of Grayson County. Since Sherman’s a fair-sized
city, the Grayson County name needs to be shipped to the High Plains.
But given that the Panhandle already has a Gray County, perhaps
a more evocative name is in order. Caprock County?
Johnson City, named after one of former President Lyndon B.
Johnson’s forebears, is the county seat of Blanco County in Central
Texas. Cleburne,
on the other hand, is county seat of Johnson County, south of Fort
Worth. Blanco’s a nice name, but the name would survive since Blanco,
Texas is alive and well. So, Johnson City as the county seat of
Johnson County, with the citizens of the former Johnson County having
the privilege of coming up with an interesting new name.
Tyler,
the Rose Capital of Texas, is also the capital of Smith County in
East Texas. But there’s Tyler County to consider. With apologies
to any of his descendants, the namesake of Smith County, James Smith,
was not Texas’ most storied hero. He was a wealthy planter who just
happened to be newly elected to the Legislature when Smith County
was created. Clearly, some changes need to be made in these two
counties.
Columbus
is the county seat of Colorado County, named for the river that
flows through it, but way upstream, in Mitchell County, is Colorado
City. (Of course, the locals pronounce their town Call-low-RAY-doh
City, so the confusion is minimal.)
Crockett County.
This one’s touchy. No one would deny that Texas needs a county named
for Alamo hero David
Crockett. That county is in West Texas, where Ozona
is the county seat. Over in East Texas, Crockett
is the county seat of Houston County. The city of Houston,
make that the State of Houston, is the seat of Harris County.
© Mike Cox
"Texas Tales"
November
4 , 2004 Column
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