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Because of my last-minute planning, there were not many campsites available in Texas when it was time for me to book our September camping trip. I found one at Fort Richardson State Park in Jacksboro, which isn’t far from us and is a park we’ve never been to, so I reserved a spot for two … Continue reading
It’s been eight months since we moved into a one-hundred-year-old hotel. Eight months of meeting new people, and eight months of hard work. My wife and I both have our day jobs, so the cleaning and hosting and fixing happens during our time off. We make quite the team. Though I’m involved in the normal business … Continue reading
Thurber, Texas is half-way between Fort Worth and Abilene on Interstate-20, but you’ll miss it if you’re not looking for it. Although it was the biggest city between Fort Worth and El Paso with a population of nearly 10,000 one hundred years ago, it is a ghost town today. Between 1886 and 1920, the Texas … Continue reading
Josiah “Doc” Scurlock was a colorful character who rode with Billy the Kid and found no shortage of trouble in his younger years, including having his front teeth shot out over a card game dispute. The other man wasn’t as lucky. Scurlock was born in Alabama in 1849 but moved west as a young man. … Continue reading
By John Bird Eastland, Texas is best known for its most famous citizen of the past—a horned toad named Old Rip. Eastland County was amid a boom in the last years of the 19th century, and a larger courthouse was built in 1897. During the dedication, dignitaries placed various things in the courthouse cornerstone as … Continue reading
In 1918, Eastland County, Texas was in an oil boom. From 1910 to 1920, the population of the county more than doubled, and what had been a farming area became the tenth most populated county in Texas for a time. The growth meant new businesses, including the three-story building one block from the courthouse that … Continue reading
