ROAD TRIP: A BBM Game

[MaineWriter]

Shanghai, TX

 Located on a spur from the New York, Texas and Mexican Railway in 1899, Shanghai was planned to become an actual town like Pierce's Station (later Pierce, Texas). Abel H. "Shanghai" Pierce had contracted with the state of Texas for convicts to clear the land for the proposed town. The spur was built to bring in supplies and men. Although a cotton gin was built and prisoner's quarters erected, Shanghai and another planned town named Borden (after Pierce's nephew) never really got much beyond the planning stage.


Leslie

[MaineWriter]

ilfeld new mexico  87548

Janice is new to the game...we were discussing it in chat...and perhaps didn't fully understand that the game towns needed to be from Texas, Wyoming, Alberta or Mexico towns. As a regular player, I am asking if maybe we can let this stand, since she is a newbie? Besides, she gave us a D, which is a whole lot more interesting than E, A or Y! LOL

Leslie

[jpwagoneer1964]

That's fine by me!

[Meryl]

Hi Janice, welcome to Road Trip! 

I'm okay with stretchin' the rules a bit, but how about editing your post to, say, Ireland, TX?

That way we get our "D" and we're still legal! 

[jpwagoneer1964]

Desoto, Tx

DESOTO, TEXAS. DeSoto (De Soto) is twelve miles south of Dallas on Interstate highways 35 and 20, U.S. Highway 67, and Ten Mile Creek in southern Dallas County. It is bordered by Lancaster to the east, Glenn Heights to the south, Cedar Hill to the west, and the junction of the city limits of Duncanville and Dallas to the north. The community is located on the original land grants of W. Caldwell, Z. Heath, T. Rhodes, and C. Parks. It was founded in the 1840s by the Parks, Cheshier, Ramsey, and Johnson families. Parks is thought to be the first, and his land grant is the location around which the community developed. The Ramseys' daughter Mary, who was born in 1846, was reportedly the first white child born west of the Trinity. She eventually married another settler named F. M. Hamilton and lived in the area until she was ninety-four years old. In 1848 T. J. Johnson built the first general store in DeSoto at the junction of what became Belt Line and Hampton roads, and the place became known as the Store. In 1850 Otway B. Nance built a farm in DeSoto that eventually became a Texas historic landmark.

By the 1870s a community developed around Johnson's store. S. E. Judah built a harness shop in the 1870s, and his son built a general store in 1898. In 1884 a post office was established and named DeSoto, either after Hernando De Soto (see MOSCOSO EXPEDITION) or a local resident, Dr. Thomas Hernando DeSoto Stewart. By 1885 the community had a population of 120, a general store, and a cotton gin. By 1890 only the general store remained, and the population had decreased to forty-one. The post office remained in service until 1906.

DeSoto had seven businesses and a population of ninety-seven in 1930. The town was incorporated in 1949 and by 1950 had a population of 300 and eight businesses. In 1960 DeSoto had a population of 1,969 and twenty businesses. As Dallas expanded southward, DeSoto continued to grow and became a city of commuters. An estimated 90 percent of DeSoto's workforce commuted to jobs in Dallas or Grand Prairie. By 1970 DeSoto had 6,617 residents and seventy-one businesses. This growth brought about improvements to the municipal infrastructure, including road and park construction and a new water and sewerage system. Industrial, commercial, and residential construction increased also. A newspaper, the DeSoto News Advertiser, has been published since 1977. In 1980 DeSoto had 168 businesses and a population of 15,538. By 1984 the number of businesses had increased to 360, and in 1991 the population was 30,544. This growth is supported by civic facilities that include a police station, three fire stations, thirty-seven public parks, one public library, and ten public schools. In 2000 the population was 37,646, with 1,203 reported businesses.

And as some of us know DeSoto was a popular family car choice, a division of Chrysler from 1928 until 1961. My green Suburban is at the bottom.

[Meryl]

Hey, I found another 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! 

[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