The objective for day 1 of this trip was to wind up sometime in the late afternoon at the home of my old friends Bob and Abigail Sebastian in Waco, Texas. So I left Wimberley and headed north on I35 – a break with my usual practice of staying on the back roads, but I had a lot of ground to cover.
Here’s the map of Day 1:
First stop was Belton, seat of Bell County. Like virtually every single Anglo settlement in Texas, Belton grew up in areas that were originally inhabited by Native Americans – here they were Tonkawa, Lipan Apache, Wacos, Kiowa, and Comanche. As was customary at that time, the Anglos said to the Indians: “Thanks for your hospitality, now get out.” It’s a sad refrain that provides the background music for that mid-19th century version of making America great.
But Belton itself is a pretty little town with a very nice limestone courthouse…
…and a nice little movie theater…the Beltonian.
Atypically for a Texas town of that time, Belton had a sizeable minority that opposed slavery and secession from the Union – there was strong support for Sam Houston, who gave up the governorship because of his opposition to secession. After the war ended unhappily for the Confederacy, the losers got even by lynching some of the Union sympathizers.
After a little bit more of I35, I finally got back off the beaten path and went next to the little town of Marlin, seat of Falls County. Marlin had once been known for its hot mineral water springs, which attracted tourists and, in due course, Conrad Hilton, who built his 8th Hilton Hotel in Marlin – it’s now defunct. Several major league baseball teams held spring training there, I guess because of the mineral waters (what other explanation could there be?).
In order to liven this blog up, in Marlin I hit on the bright idea of “jumping” for the courthouse pix. This is the first of those ill-advised experiments…
Apparently the citizens of Marlin held their sheriff in high regard, as they had several decorated 55-gallon drums with his image on them:
In commemoration of the life-giving waters…
and…
From Marlin, I continued along back roads leading to, and going through, places I had never heard of before. Such as Bremond:
Unfortunately I missed the Polish Pickle Run, but continued along my way to the town of Franklin, seat of Robertson County. Along the way, the ever-trusty BMW crossed 30,000 miles, recorded for posterity below:
Franklin is a tiny speck of a town, but with a lovely little courthouse:
Boy, that jumping really adds to the narrative, doesn’t it? (Don’t worry, I did eventually come to my senses, though not soon enough…)
Turning Northeast for a long drive through the country to Fairfield, seat of Freestone County. Fairfield’s claim to fame is as the birthplace of the great jazz trumpeter Kenny Dorham, who played with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and everyone who had a name from that era. Now it’s home to some funky rustic art:
Hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time…
Now headed back west, to Groesbeck, seat of Limestone County. Groesbeck is the town closest to the hugely important historical site called Old Fort Parker, which was actually a family settlement on what was then the bleeding edge of Anglo encroachment into Comanche territory. Cynthia Ann Parker was captured from this “fort”, and wound up being the wife of the Comanche chief, Peta Nocona, and mother of the last of the Comanche chieftains, Quanah Parker, who surrendered the remains of his band, undefeated, at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Cynthia Ann Parker was forcibly recaptured, against her will, by Texas Rangers. She attempted to rejoin her Comanche family, and eventually starved herself to death because of her “captivity” in the white community that she rejected.
Groesbeck is also home to Bob Wills, the legend of Texas Swing music – interestingly, I did not see anything prominent that claimed Bob Wills, though I also did not see much of anything for Waylon Jennings in Littlefield in the Panhandle.
While taking pix in front of the courthouse, what was either a baby, or injured, turkey vulture practically landed on me. I was thinking Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”… 😀
Continuing west to the last stop of the day, Waco, seat of McClennan County. Waco is named for the Hueco (same sound) band of Wichita Indians who were displaced by the Anglo arrival. It’s kind of disconcerting to note the number of instances in modern-day Texas (and America) that evoke the people who were driven from their homes, or exterminated, and then commemorated in place names, coins, and sports teams.
The soft drink Dr. Pepper was invented in Waco, and of course David Koresh and the Branch Dravidians were incinerated there in 1993 by Attorney General Janet Reno. Additional fame came from the 2015 shoot-out between local biker gangs and the police, with 9 bikers dead. It’s not certain that the real story of what happened there has been told.
Hank Thompson, country musician, was from Waco, and Ted Nugent (!) lives here. Leon Jaworski, the federal prosecutor who brought down the Nixon administration during Watergate, was born and raised here.
Here’s the courthouse, no jumping…
Chisholm Trail went through Waco…
After a brief foray through Waco – a place to revisit, I headed over to my friends’ home and spent a great evening with them before heading out on Day Two…