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ROAD TRIP: A BBM Game

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MaineWriter:
Roma-Los Saenz, TX

Roma and Los Saenz have incorporated joinly and so they are listed here together. Corrales de Saenz was founded in the 1760s by a ranching family named Saenz who followed José de Escandón from the Spanish colonial city of Mier. According to the Handbook of Texas, "it is possible that what came to be known as Roma-Los Saenz and Ciudad Miguel Alemán were originally part of the same city, San Pedro de Roma, Tamaulipas."

1848 was the year Roma-Los Saenz became part of the U. S. - although that fact is thought by some to be a moot point. The only obvious change was an opening of the first post office in Starr County. The flavor of the city is definately 19th Century Mexico and is certainly one of the gem cities on "Los Caminos del Rio."

The Oblates of Mary Immaculate founded a mission in the mid-1850s and it was they who suggested the name Roma. The town was also the westernmost port for the steamships that ran up and down the Rio Grande from 1850 to 1900.

Roma was designated a national historic district in the 1970s and the historical museum itself is in an 1840 building. The main plaza, was used a backdrop for the 1953 movie Viva Zapata. Many of the downtown buildings built in the 1880s (including the old 1880s post office) were designed by noted German brickmaker and architect Heinrich Portscheller.

The population in 1904 was a mere 521. During the border unrest 1910-17, refugees from Mexico occupied the historic "Pink House." The town's isolation ended in the mid 1920s when new roads were built and the railroad arrived.

Roma's green bridge - one of the few remaining suspension bridges in Texas became Texas' international bridge when it was built in 1927. A recent restoration has painted and reenforced it, although it has yet to be reopened to pedestrian traffic.

In 1931 Roma's population was 1,000 - and the businesses were all clustered in the few blocks around the bridge. With the construction of Falcon Dam in 1953, the threat of periodic flooding was removed.

Since 1979 the town's infrastructure has been improved with a new water plant, water tower and new fire and police stations. The town is surrounded on three sides by 100,000 acres of irrigated river bottom.


Leslie

jpwagoneer1964:
Zoquiapanm, Mx

Mark

Meryl:
Muzquiz, Mexico

MaineWriter:
Zulch, TX

(not to be confused with North Zulch, played earlier by moi!)

 Settlement began in the late 1830s when the first homestead was established in what had been Grimes County. Sometime around 1850 Julius Zulch, a German immigrant recognized the potential of this place that was known as Willow Hole. It had spring water and was halfway between Midway and Boonville - the perfect place to open a store.

Zulch opened his store and in 1859 the Willow Hole post office operated within the walls of Zulch's store. The settlers (mostly from southern states) weren't settling fast enough for Julius, who wanted a broader customer base. He started placing ads back in the old country - even fronting interested immigrants their passage money.

In the early 1880s, "considerable numbers" of Germans arrived - either sharecropping for Zulch or others in order to get a grubstake for their own farms. Willow Hole soon had a respectable population of 150 - growing to around 500 by 1890.

Julius Zulch built a Lutheran school which doubled as a church. In 1893 the Bethlehem Lutheran Church was built on property donated by Zulch. The town was renamed Zulch in 1906 and the postal authorities authorized the change of the post office's name.

That same year the Houston and Texas Central Railroad on its way from Navasota to Mexia bypassed Zulch by building to the west.

Then in 1907, the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway built a spur parallel to the Houston and Texas Central tracks. When people moved North to the railroads - North Zulch came into existence and plain Zulch shrank. The post office closed in 1920 and the school managed to hold on until a consolidation in the early 1940s.

By 1949 Zulch was down to only 50 people and by the 60s, only the Willow Hole Church and Cemetery remained.

A historical marker on Farm Road 39, (half a mile west) serves as tombstone for the town.

Leslie

jpwagoneer1964:
Hudson, Wy

Hudson, Wyoming, has quite possibly two of the most famous restaurants in the state. Today, the town is a quiet little burg in between Riverton and Lander, yet it maintains some of its charm from the days of the mines.

A Mining Legacy

George H. Rogers filed on a homestead in the vicinity of present-day Hudson, more than 100 years ago, but George didn't live to see the town that would spring up from his farm fields. George's wife, Emma (Hudson) Rogers, "proved up" on the land in 1890, following his death. On December 30, 1905, Emma and her brother, Daniel Hudson, released their homestead rights. The mineral rights were purchased by J. C. Hickey, a trustee for the Wyoming and Western Railroad. In the same year, the attorney for J.C. Hickey filed on 67 mineral and oil leases throughout the Hudson valley.

On March 8, 1909, Hudson was incorporated, a "company" town. Wagon mines were in operation before the railroad was built, but the birth of Hudson was primarily due to the building of the railroad into the area in 1907 and 1908. During those years, the Poposia Mines, number One and Two, were put into production. The railroad operated for both mines, running three shifts a day until the 1920s. The high demand for coal during World War I kept the mines in business and running strong.

At the peak, the population of Hudson reached approximately 1,500. Historians have said mining camp populations in the area approached another 10,000 people. Irish, Scotch, Italian, Yugoslavs, French and Welsh immigrants found work in the mines.

In the boom years, Hudson boasted many businesses including a bakery which supplied bread to Riverton and Lander, a hotel, pharmacy, Chamber of Commerce, two banks, a restaurant, two general stores, a lumber yard, butcher shop, jewelry store, millinery shop, a motion picture house which was called the "Opera House", a cement block factory, brick yard and kiln, a doctor, its own newspaper, a 15-piece band, railroad depot and stockyards. The stockyards at Hudson were a major cattle shipping point for all of Fremont County. Hudson was once said to have had more houses of ill-repute per capita than any other town in the State of Wyoming. Some even remained until the 1950s.

With the evolution of diesel engines and natural gas production, a sharp drop in the demand for coal let to the decline in the production at the mines and consequently a sharp decline in the population of the town.

In 1941, the last mine closed down in Hudson. Many tried in vain to keep the mines going as long as possible. The Poposia Mines were the first to close down, while the smaller wagon mines slowly closed one by one.

Hudson remains a viable community and the town has quite possibly two of the most famous restaurants in the state. Today, the town is a quiet little burg between Riverton and Lander, yet it maintains some of its charm from the days of the mines.
   

Hudson was also the name of a american car manufactured independently thru 1954 well known for wins stock car racing in the 1950's.

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