ROAD TRIP: A BBM Game

[Fran]

Xbechel, Mexico

Geographical location: Tenabo, Campeche, Mexico, North America
Geographical coordinates: 19° 55' 0" North, 90° 25' 0" West
Map

[jpwagoneer1964]

Lincoln, Tx

LINCOLN, TEXAS. Lincoln is eight miles northwest of Giddings in central Lee County. The town was named for a circuit rider named John A. Lincoln who lived on a nearby farm and frequently led revivals in the area. The earliest settlers arrived before the Civil War,qv and by the 1880s a small community had developed there. A post office was opened for the settlement in 1886. During the 1890s the Texas and New Orleans Railroad bypassed nearby Old Evergreen, and most of its residents moved to Lincoln. For a time the town served as a shipping point for stores in Dime Box, Fedor, and Manheim. By 1890 Lincoln had two cotton gins, a corn and saw mill, a general store, and a Lutheran church. A school was constructed there around 1895, and during the 1905-06 school year it had an enrollment of forty-one. In 1904 the town's estimated population was 148; by 1925 it had grown to 200. A new one-room schoolhouse was constructed in 1926, and a second room was added in 1932. In 1940 the town had a reported population of 350 and eleven businesses. After World War IIqv Lincoln began to decline. In 1945 its school was annexed by the Giddings Independent School District. From 1970 to 1990 its population was estimated at 276. In 1970 the town reported five businesses, in 1988, three, and in 1990, eight.


Also the brand name of a much more well known luxury car. What many people don't know is that the Cadillac and Lincoln were begun by the same man Mr. Leyland.

[Meryl]

New Harp, TX

[MaineWriter]

Punkin Center, TX

 An old Irish legend that must have come to Texas with some of its earliest settlers has grown into a profitable business for Lone Star farmers – cultivating a variety of squash that sells by the ton every fall.

We’re talking about pumpkins, of course. Or, to the Texas tongue, punkins.

It’s not too difficult to dig up the tale that transformed pumpkins into edible holiday icons, but there is an interesting puzzle of geographic nomenclature to consider: The Punkin Center Phenomenon.

If anyone ever tells you that they’re from Punkin Center, better ask them to be more specific. Unique as that place name might seem, Texas has four different communities called Punkin Center.

Listed alphabetically, there’s Punkin Center in Dawson County, Punkin Center in Eastland County, Punkin Center in Hardeman County and Punkin Center in Parker County. Oh, and in Wichita County, the community of Haynesville is locally known as Punkin Center even though Haynesville is the official name.

Elsewhere across the United States, four other communities call themselves Punkin Center. But unlike Texas, which has to be bigger about everything, each of the non-Texas Punkin Centers is in a different state – Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana and Missouri.

Strange as the name Punkin Center may seem, according to the Web site www.placesnamed.com, Punkin Center is the 4,438th most popular town name in the U.S. It also shows up on a Web site devoted to America’s funniest town names, but that site lists Punkin Center, KS, not the Texas PCs.

Texas singer David Allen Coe sure likes the name. In 1976, he recorded a song called “The Punkin Center Barn Dance.”

But here’s the weird thing about Punkin Centers in Texas. None of them are in counties particularly known for their bounteous pumpkin crops.

Floyd County, which has an annual Punkin Festival but no community named Punkin Center, is the top pumpkin-producing county in Texas. Other prolific producers of pumpkins are Bailey, Hale, Lamb and Lubbock counties.

Texas A&M University says Texas ranks in the Top 10 of pumpkin-producing states (but don’t forget we’re No. 1 in terms of number of Punkin Centers). The estimated value of Texas’ annual pumpkin harvest is $4.6 million, most of the pumpkins going for ornamental (read: Halloween) purposes.

And that brings us back to that old Irish folktale  without which Texas’ pumpkin industry would have remained a mere pumpkin in metaphor, not a pretty economic carriage.

Back in the 18th century, an Irishman named Jack had an unfortunate propensity for strong beverage. But he did not let his drinking get in the way of his antipathy toward the Devil, who he tricked into climbing an apple tree.

Once Jack had the Devil treed, he carved a cross on the trunk, an action he knew would prevent the Devil from climbing down. The Devil pleaded for his freedom, and Jack finally struck a deal: If Jack let him down, the Devil would never come after Jack’s soul.

That seemed like a good trade, so Jack covered the cross and the Devil was free to return to his normal level of devilment.

Unfortunately for Jack, the deal with the Devil did not include immortality. When Jack died, his hard drinking, penuriousness and other issues sent his spirit down instead of up.

The Devil proved true to his word and refused to allow Jack into the nether regions. But Jack did not qualify for Heaven either, and realized this. Unfortunately, his spirit was doomed to wander forever.

It being dark out, the Devil graciously threw a glowing coal at Jack so he could find his way around. Jack placed the red hot coal in a hollowed turnip to make himself a lantern.

Somehow over the centuries, the turnip gave way to the pumpkin, hence the enduring symbol of Halloween, the Jack-O’-Lantern. All of which makes about as much sense as naming four different communities Punkin Center.-


Leslie

[jpwagoneer1964]

Rockport, Tx
 
If you were a resident or visitor in Rockport during the 1950’s thru the late 1970’s, it is quite likely that you remember the big blue crab. The approximately 18 foot wide, paper mache crab eventually deteriorated and was laid to rest.

Mark

[Meryl]

Teton Village, WY

[MaineWriter]

Elysian Fields, TX

 The name is said to have come from a suggestion over dinner in New Orleans. In 1817, Capt. Edward Smith, was describing the area (that he had just visited) to dinner guests and someone suggested the mythological name. (One of New Orleans' oldest boulevards is also named Elysian Fields.) The original Caddo Indians started moving out of the region when white settlers started moving in in the late 1830s. Smith brought his family here in 1837 and opened a store. A post office was applied for and was granted in the mid to late 1840s.

From a population of 60 in 1884, Elysian Fields had grown to 160 by the mid 1890s. The twin industies of cotton and lumber fueled the local economy and when the Marshall and East Texas Railroad came through in 1910, the community moved a mile to the west to be connected with the outside world. The population had grown to 500 by 1929 but declined with the onset of the Great Depression.

Cotton and timber gave way to oil and gas (in the 1950s) and today farming and cattle raising are the primary businesses.

Leslie

[jpwagoneer1964]

Socorro, Tx

SOCORRO, TEXAS. Socorro, located on the Southern Pacific Railroad and State Highway 20 about ten miles southeast of downtown El Paso, began in 1680, when Governor Antonio de Otermín and Father Francisco de Ayetaqv led Spanish and Piro Indian refugees fleeing the New Mexican Pueblo Indian Revolt to the El Paso area. In 1682 the Spanish established Nuestra Señora de la Limpia Concepción del Socorro Mission. The first permanent mission, built in 1691, was swept away by flood in 1744, and a second church was built. It was washed away in 1829, when the Rio Grande cut a new channel south of the old one, thus placing Socorro, Ysleta, and San Elizario on La Isla.qv The main part of the present Socorro mission was completed in 1843. By that time the town of Socorro had developed around the mission and had a population of 1,100. The town was a part of Mexico from 1821 to 1848, when it became a part of the Texas. For the rest of the nineteenth century Socorro remained a small farming community. Locally constructed acequiasqv supplied water for agricultural crops, which included vineyards, fruit trees, and cereal grains. The town, together with other Rio Grande communities, played an active role in county politics until 1881, when the railroads arrived and shifted the political power structure to El Paso.

The construction of Elephant Butte Dam on the Rio Grande in 1916 resulted in an agricultural revolution that transformed a family-based system into one featuring large-scale cotton production on plantation-sized estates. Small farms, manual labor, and vineyard culture gave way to large landholdings where farm machinery was used in the cultivation of cotton and alfalfa. By 1920 cotton was beginning to rival copper as the Socorro area's principal industry. The population of the community was 2,123 in the mid-1930s, but fell to 350 by 1941 and remained static for several decades thereafter. During the 1960s and 1970s the number of residents increased at a rapid rate. Developers built residential subdivisions-colonias in effect-that lacked paved streets, water, and sewer lines. Coloniaqv residents put tremendous pressure on existing wells, as the town's population grew from 10,000 in the middle 1970s to 18,000 in the late 1980s and 22,995 in 1990. Only recently has the Lower Valley Water District Authority received the necessary assistance to begin construction of new water and sewage systems for the area. Socorro has disincorporated and reincorporated several times. In 1985 the town blocked El Paso's plan to annex the town and voted by a margin of 263 votes to remain a separate corporation. Since then, Socorro has adopted ordinances and codes to halt uncontrolled growth and has instituted a historic landmark commission to encourage historic preservation.


You can pirchase this home in Sorroco for $99,750.00.


Mark

[Fran]

Orla, TX

[MaineWriter]

Altair, TX

Altair had its beginnings in the 1880s and was granted a post office in 1888. The town had originally been named Stafford's Ranch after the prosperous and influential Stafford family of Columbus. But to avoid postal confusion with Stafford, Texas (in nearby Fort Bend County), it was renamed Altair in 1890.

The Texas and New Orleans Railroad arrived in 1890 but Altair never fully developed due to the proximity to the county seat of Columbus - just 9 miles north. Altair had a mere 200 people in the 1960s which declined to only 80 in the 1980s.

In the 1990s a rice-drying facility and some short-lived businesses occupied the site, but the population has been estimated at 30 since 1990.

Leslie