ROAD TRIP: A BBM Game

[belbbmfan]

Nat, Texas


NAT, TEXAS. Nat, on Farm Road 343 fourteen miles northwest of Nacogdoches in Nacogdoches County, was first settled by Henry Brewer, who obtained a league of land in the area between 1814 and 1820. It was called Crossroads for its Crossroads Cumberland Presbyterian Church, in which John Bone Paine, early settler and landowner, played a prominent role. In 1895 Nathan (Nat) Jarrell, who operated one of the four stores in the community, became the first postmaster, and the community was renamed Nat in his honor. That year the Nat school was also started. By 1897 the community reported a population of more than 1,700, with dairies, farms, and wood-related industries. In 1990 Nat had a population of twenty-five, an independent church, and a cemetery located at the original crossroads.

[jpwagoneer1964]

Trinidad, Tx

TRINIDAD, TEXAS. Trinidad is on the St. Louis Southwestern Railway and Farm Road 1667, fifteen miles west of Athens in western Henderson County. Settlement of the area began before 1840, when O. M. Airhart ran the local ferry across the Trinity River, which was originally called the Trinidad River, and Zach Smith operated a ferry four miles north of the present townsite. By 1844 the town recorded a general store and a saloon. It became known as Trinity Switch, for its location on the Trinity River, when it became a station on the St. Louis Southwestern in 1880. When residents applied for a post office in 1880, the name Trinidad was chosen (instead of Trinity Switch) to avoid duplication with another post office with the same name. Records suggest, however, that the Trinidad post office was not actually opened until 1891. In 1910 five businesses and a population of seventy were reported. The population remained small until the 1920s, when Texas Power and Light opened a plant on the Trinity River, and a Lone Star Producing Company plant began manufacturing chemical fertilizer there. The 1930 population of 750 had decreased to 550 by 1940, when sixteen businesses were reported in the community. In 1990 Trinidad reported 1,056 residents.

[MaineWriter]

Dawn, TX

 In 1887 Jim Moore, a ranch foreman built a dugout about six miles southwest of the present Dawn. It was bought in 1889 by J. H. Parrish who opened a general store for area ranchers.

When the application was filled out Mr. Parrish requested "Dawn of a New Country," or something similar. It was a little too long for the bureaucrats so they took the liberty of shortening it to Dawn.

The first school was opened in 1891 by James N. Askren.

In 1898 the Pecos Valley and Northeastern Railway came to town and built a depot.

Dawn prospered as immigrant farmers moved in and ranches shipped cattle.

Irrigation wells were dug and wheat was planted. During the 1920s Dawn had the county’s first school cafeteria. In the 1940s David Rodgers began marketing Deaf Smith corn meal, wheat berries, and stone-ground whole wheat flour. By the beginning of WWII the town had a population of 100 but after the war Dawn – like hundreds of Texas towns – lost businesses when people bought cars and moved away or started trading in other towns. In the 60s the Dawn school was consolidated with Hereford.

Leslie

[belbbmfan]

Nell, Texas

[nova20194]

Lamont, AB


Lamont is a town in central Alberta located east of Edmonton at the junction of Highway 15 and Highway 831.

Population: 1,692 (2005)

Lamont is the birthplace of:
•   Gene Achtymichuk, National Hockey League player
•   Brian O'Kurley, former member of Canadian Parliament
•   Ed Stelmach, Alberta Premier

[MaineWriter]

Thorp Spring, TX

The town's namesake is said to be Pleasant Thorp who settled in the region prior to the Civil War. Hostile Indians discouraged settlement until the early 1870s. In 1871 Sam Milliken purchased part of the old Thorp homestead and built a cotton gin. Since medicinal springs were in fashion, Milliken also built a resort hotel and touted the nearby springs.

In 1873 Mr. Clark and his two sons Addison and Randolph opened Add-Ran College (later to become Add-Ran Christian University which later evolved into Texas Christian University).

The town got a post office in 1893 and the population soon reached 400 - reaching a peak in 1904 just short of 500.

Its bright future was dimmed in the early 1890s when it was bypassed by not one, but two railroads. Still, the town maintained a 400-plus population through the 1960s. The last three businesses closed and in 1990 it reported 184 residents - the same figure they've been using ever since.

[belbbmfan]

Gallito, Mexico

[nova20194]

Orient, TX


Orient, in northeastern Tom Green County, derived its name from its location on the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway. A post office was established there in 1909, and in 1914 a general store was operating. The local school had two teachers in 1930. The population of Orient was twenty in 1925 but only ten in 1934. The 1936 county highway map showed at Orient one business and scattered dwellings, with Skinner School, Wooland Station, and a mining site nearby. Nearby oil discoveries staved off Orient's demise, though its post office was discontinued in 1964, one of its two businesses was gone by 1965, and the other was gone by 1970. The population increased to forty in 1953 and remained at that level into the 1980s, when only a few houses and the abandoned Wooland railroad station marked the townsite.

[MaineWriter]

Tom, TX

There are three Toms, actually, in Sterling, Wilson, and Wichita counties.

L

[jpwagoneer1964]

Midval, Wy