Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > The Lighter Side
ROAD TRIP: A BBM Game
MaineWriter:
Otey, TX
Originally the site of Palo Alto, one of the largest antebellum cotton plantations in Texas, it was just one of the holdings of the Mills Brothers (Robert and David G.). Mills bankrupted during Reconstruction, the brothers lost the land to creditors and in 1908 the state bought it and other plantations to build the Ramsey Prison Farm.
In 1911 a post office was granted but the origin of the name is a mystery. In 1914 the population was given as 700 and the Ramsey Farm reported 624 inmates.
The population declined to a mere 150 in 1958 and mail was rerouted through the Rosharon post office in the 1970s.
Otey today is actually surrounded by the sprawling 15,040-acres of what is now called the Ramsey Unit of the TDC and visitors have to pass through prison roadblocks to enter the town. It sits at the end of the FM 655 cul-de-sac.
(NB: XYZ...side trip!)
Leslie
Meryl:
Quealy, WY
(Leslie, you are our Queen of XYZ) ;)
nova20194:
Claresholm, AB
Claresholm is a small community located about midway between Calgary and Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada along Highway 2. The location was originally a watering stop for steam engines on the Canadian Pacific Railway line along the Macleod Trail. The first settlers arrived in 1902, and the village was established in 1903. Claresholm was incorporated as a town in 1905, when Alberta became a province of Canada.
Population: 3,622 (2005)
One of the Famous Five involved in the Persons Case, Louise McKinney, lived in Claresholm.
RCAF Station Claresholm was established near the town in 1941 to train pilots for service in World War II. The station was reopened for a period in the 1950s to train NATO pilots.
Just west of Claresholm is the John Hart Farm, which is the site for two Brokeback Mountain filming locations........Ennis and Alma's "Lonesome Ranch" and Ennis' cabin where Jack came to see him after the divorce.
Meryl:
And Bob is our King of Alberta Film Locations. ;)
MaineWriter:
Medicine Mound, TX
Like the old saying goes: "If you find Medicine Mound - you had to have been looking for it." It's not that it's difficult to find - since it still appears on the state map - it's just that it is on a long extended spur off of Highway 82. (FM 91 on the east and FM 1167) on the west. The mountains that comprise the mounds are visible from Highway 82. There are actually four elevations that rise 200-250 feet above the landscape. These are natural mounds that were held sacred by the Comanches.
The older Medicine Mound community that had been here prior to 1908 moved 2½ miles north to be alongside the tracks of the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway as it built through Hardeman County. Medicine Mound was once a vibrant town with a respectable population of 500 served by 22 businesses. A devastating fire in the early 30s (arson) destroyed most of the town. By the end of the Great Depression the population was 210 and the town still had 6 buildings left.
Today there are three - about the same number of historical markers. The Medicine Mound school merged with Quanah's district in the mid-1950s - about the same time the post office closed.
The Mounds of Medicine Mound
L
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