Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > The Lighter Side
ROAD TRIP: A BBM Game
Meryl:
Hey, I found another D! ;D
Obed, AB
Penny Johnston, Sampling Technician
Obed Mountain Mine
Mark, thanks so much for your interesting history lessons on car manufacturing in America. A very appropriate subject for a thread named ROAD TRIP! 8)
MaineWriter:
Dimmitt, TX
History in a Pecan Shell
The County was named after Henri Castro; the same man who had Medina County's Castroville named after him. W. C. Dimmitt was a partner in the original land development of the county and had nothing to do with Dimmit County down in South Texas, which is a misspelling of Phillip Dimmitt's name. Phillip Dimmitt had served in the Texas Revolution at Goliad. Now that that is clear, lets move on to the gunfight.
The Gunfight
While county-seat disputes were common in Texas, rarely did they result in fatal gunplay. This was the case however, in the dispute between rivals Dimmitt and Castro City back in 1891. Developer Ira Aten and Andy McClelland got into it on the courthouse lawn and a plaque commemorates the event today. The Handbook of Texas didn't mention the Victor (probably because it was just Andy and Ira in the gunfight), so we called the chamber and was about to ask if they'd go out and read the plaque for us. We spoke with Bill Sava, who seems to know his town and county well. He was able to tell us that there were no fatalities from the gunfight, and he didn't even have to leave his office.
WWII POW Monument
While Mr. Sava admits that Dimmit is a little off the tourist route, he did remind us that Italian Prisoners of War had been kept in Castro County during WWII. A monument dedicated to the ones who died in captivity is located on a ranch about 14 miles outside of town. He said that the lady who looks after the history of the shrine has letters from former prisoners and that several internees have visited over the years. We will add this to our growing list of things to do when we're in the area.
Leslie
jpwagoneer1964:
Temple, Tx
History of Temple, Texas
Temple had its beginning as a railroad town. On June 29, 1881, Temple Junction was created as the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway pushed north from Galveston. On this day, trains brought prospective buyers in for an auction of town lots - 157 business lots and 28 residential lots were sold... and the rest, as they say, is history.
The new settlement was named in honor of Bernard Moore Temple, the Santa Fe's chief engineer; however, he would never live in the town that bore his name.
The railroad lured a diverse population including doctors, lawyers and merchants. The city was incorporated in 1882, and by 1884 its 3,000 residents were served by three churches and a school, as well as two banks, two weekly newspapers, an opera house, and a waterworks, among others. Temple boomed, soon exceeding the size of nearby Belton, the county seat of Bell County. Attempts to relocated the county government to Temple failed.
Today, the city is one of the leading medical centers in the Southwest, thanks to King's Daughters Hospital (1896), Scott & White Hospital and Clinic (1897), and the Olin E. Teague Veterans center (1943).
Mark
Fran:
Etzikom, AB
If you believe in UFOs:
On the 19th of April 2001, the Canadian crop circle organisation CCCS received a report about a “crater like” circle in soil. The circle was located in an area of pasture-land in the vicinity of Etzikom, Alberta. The nearly perfectly circular formation with a high standing surrounding rim measured about 3,6 m in diameter. Investigators from AUFOGS inspected the circle. Three small holes or indentations were found inside the formation, in a roughly triangular configuration, near the outside perimeter. Rust-coloured "flakes" were found on the surrounding ground. CCCS suggests that it is possibly a meteorite crater, although a study by the Department of Geology from the University of Lethbridge found no direct evidence of this (although that was still their conclusion). A neighbour reported seeing a "funnel of fire" light in the sky about two weeks previous over the same location, which lasted about an hour. link
MaineWriter:
Mutt and Jeff, TX
Mutt and Jeff was named for the resemblance of the towns two main merchants to the comic strip characters. The postal authorities would've rejected the application for such a name out-of-hand, but Texas is worse off for not having M & J today.
The town had several businesses during the 20s, although the population was already leaving by the time the Depression hit. The town was totally abandoned by early1960s.
The town is not on maps and (thankfully) there is no Mutt and Jeff cemetery.
Leslie
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