Bogus
Springs, Texas is now a ghost town. On FM 125 in southeastern Cass
County about three miles west of McLeod
and ten miles from Tri-States. Tri-States is known by some as Three
Corners, the place where three state lines meet. The larger region
known as the Ark-La-Tex includes Three Corners and as the name suggests,
portions of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.
Although, I was born and raised very near Tri-States, I have never
gone there and placed my hands and feet in three states at the same
time. Many friends and others I know have done the "spread eagle"
there, especially area high school kids. Reportedly there are hordes
of people that have traveled many miles to do just that.
They say that I was born under a giant walnut tree in a run-down old
farmhouse. It was near the banks of Moss's
Mill Pond. That old millpond is another story that I will write
about later. My actual birthplace was two and half miles north of
McLeod just off an
old, sandy county road, on my grandfather's farm. The Louisiana state
line is just a stone's throw away. My father was a native Texan and
my mother was a native Louisianian. Having deep northeast Texas as
my native turf, in my youth, I wasn't sure if I was a Texas mockingbird
or a Louisiana pelican. My doctor came by horse and buggy out of Rodessa,
Louisiana and when he filled out my birth certificate, he put that
I was born in Rodessa, Texas. That certificate proves that I am a
Native Texan.
Several high school friends, however, had problems. When they went
off to big Texas State universities after high school, those schools
attempted to charge them out-of-state tuition because they had an
out-of-state address, even though they physically lived in Texas
on a rural mail route out of a Louisiana post office. Those students
were required to get a signed affidavit from the Louisiana postmaster
verifying that they actually lived in Texas. Then they could rightfully
pay (the considerably cheaper) in-state tuition. |
The
Ark-La-Tex area is a unique world apart from any others. East
Texas lingo is spoken there in the "Lap Lands" where Louisiana
laps over into Texas. Cajun has a strong
influence there. Some people living in Texas
are native Louisianians and some people living over in Louisiana are
native Texans. Deer, squirrel and duck hunting are very popular in
those piney woods. Night 'coon hunters abound and as for fishing,
there's no better fresh water fishing anywhere.
A triangle is formed by the three points of Marshall,
Texarkana
and Shreveport, Louisiana. Within that triangle lies my "old stomping
grounds" of Caddo Lake,
Lake of the Pines and Lake
(Texarkana) Wright Patman on the Sulphur River. Not very far into
Louisiana flows the mighty Red River, famous for irrigating pecans
groves and and cotton farms. The whole area is a great place to live
and raise a family. Life is simpler, quieter and moves at a slower
pace.
Bogus
Springs is a vanished Rodessa oilfield community. It was an active
little town during the 1920's, '30's and '40's. It must have had 20
to 30 people living there during it's heyday. I can remember that
the spring the town is named after was still actively flowing in the
1950's. The community was built around the cold water spring. ...
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