Tuesday, 26 November 2019
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| unmistakable, right? |
Last night's campground wasn't as comfortable as I'd hoped. The site was described as "level" but it wasn't really. And there were folks near us who had a big dog that liked to bark, which got Dext all wound up and made me nervous about walking near them, which was hard to avoid. There's nothing wrong with the park, but if I can get a wifi signal at tonight's campground, I'll likely stay there for the rest of the month.
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| today's route |
I'd seen on the map that I'd be driving through the town of Malesus, which I thought was an interesting name. But if it's a separate town from Jackson - well, maybe it used to be and has now been engulfed by Jackson. I saw the Jackson city limit sign before I saw anything about Malesus, and I had trouble finding anything about it online. Urban creep, I guess.
I also saw a billboard for an Allen Samuels car dealership and thought it sounded like an awfully familiar name. Sure enough, the internet says it's got 23 locations with many of them in Texas.
I took a wrong turn and ended up going past the Madison County Courthouse in Jackson. While I was waiting for a light, I saw this historical marker about Davy Crockett on the grounds. https://www.hmdb.org/marker The legend lives on.
Casey Jones Museum
Jackson has not one but two railroad museums, and I learned later it was once a hub for 15 regularly scheduled passenger trains, not to mention freight trains.
Casey Jones was considered the world's most famous locomotive engineer and made his home here in Jackson.
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| close-up of marker |
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| his home |
The museum charges $5.50 for senior admission, and I decided not to go in. I figured it might be as phony as its surroundings and didn't want to pay to see it. Lots of other people were, I guess, because the large parking area was pretty full. I saw 3 other Texas license plates, but most cars were from Tennessee.
Around town
I ran a few errands, which made me more familiar with the geography - Jackson is built on some hilly ground - and then pulled into the very large parking lot of the First Baptist Church - historic, they say - so we could stretch our legs and get some lunch. After we'd been there a bit, a man came out of the church and stared at us the rest of the time we were there. This is by no means the first church parking lot we've stopped for lunch in, but it is the first time we've been treated like we're going to cause trouble. He didn't go back inside the church until we were driving away.
The reason the church claims to be historic, I saw online, is that it was founded in 1868 as the first African-American Baptist Church in Jackson.
NC & St.L Depot Railroad Museum
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| depot built 1907 |
The initials stand for Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis. And I'd figured the "NC" for North Carolina instead. This depot was one of 3 in Jackson in the early 1900s - and all 3 were needed because of the large numbers of trains coming into town daily.
The museum didn't even ask for donations and it has a lot of material about Casey Jones, so I'm glad I didn't bother with that other place.
It also has two large rooms full of local railroad memorabilia and another room with a large model train set-up. I loved it all.
General train stuff
As you'll see, I had a really hard time getting some of these photos because of the lighting here. I did my best to clean these up.
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| explains local railroad history |
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| the turntable headlined above |
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| the ghost in a jar |
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| speedy City of Memphis waiting at Jackson in 1947 for passengers |
Casey Jones died in a train wreck while he was at the controls. Authorities at the time blamed him for reckless driving that caused the accident. The world was outraged. Later investigations cleared him entirely of any wrongdoing. This museum has many more exhibits about this than I'm showing here, but this is a sample.
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| the man himself |
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| more explanation |
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| article continued below |
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| end of article |
About a year after the investigation was finished, Illinois Central Railroad announced that he was completely absolved of any responsibility for the wreck in which he died. So the legend lives on.
Model trains
This is a model of what Jackson's supposed to have looked like about 100 years ago. As you can see, there's a lot of detail and the model is quite a bit bigger than these 2 photos show.
They've got dozens of trains, and an engineer came in and ran about 5 of them for me. He had a panel that let him blow different kinds of train horns, and one - he said it was the horn of a diesel engine - suddenly took me back 60 years.
I don't think it's possible to watch model trains for a while without leaving with a smile on your face. I certainly had one on mine.
There were several folks here at the museum who all were happy to give me information about the local trains, whether I asked for it or not. Interesting place.
Back on the road
Construction workers in the late 1800s hit a plume of mineral water that they capped and made into a well. Those who drank the water felt a slight electrical charge. Naturally, people came to believe the water had curative powers and thousands came to cure various ailments.
As you can see, the spring still flows though the crowds have died down. This isn't my photo - it was raining when I went past, but I saw the spring all the same. You never know what you're going to find traveling around the US.
South of Jackson I passed a sign to Chigger Ridge Road. It does not sound inviting.
I passed a sign for the Beech Grove CME Church. I've heard of AME, of course, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, but never the CME church. Turns out it's the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. On my travels I've passed any number of churches that don't seem to be connected with any particular organization. But I guess faith is as varied as humans are.
I passed the town of Bemis and saw this historical marker about the town and its founder. He was the president of Bemis Bag Company and this was built as the company town where they were made. Mr. Blackwood, a lifelong friend of our family, was a salesman (I think) for Bemis Bags and I always think of him when I hear these words. Here's the link for the historical marker. https://www.hmdb.org/bemis
Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park
This post is already really long, and I have a lot of information to post about these mounds and the Native Americans who built them. So I'll do a separate post about that and just finish up here with the continued drive south.
Back on the road
Route 45 south of the Pinson Mounds has been designated the Rockabilly Highway.
I passed a very large plant near Henderson for the Arvin Sango Co., and I looked it up to see why the plant's so big. They claim to be a global company that makes emissions control and other car equipment.
Farther south I found myself on the Buford Pusser Highway. A little farther on I came to Adamsville, where a sign said, "Welcome to Adamsville - Home of Buford Pusser." Another sign said that Adamsville offers Sheriff Pusser's home and museum as open to the public. If you can't quite place him, as I couldn't, here's the link. https://en.wikipedia.org/Buford-Pusser
Not much farther down the road I came to Savannah (TN) that proclaims itself Catfish Capital of the World. Somehow I doubted that, and the story that got this designation is your basic Life-In-America story. https://www.outdoorlife.com/catfish-capital-savannah
I hadn't made a reservation at tonight's campground, partly because their website showed they have plenty of room for the next few days, but mostly because I thought I'd stay at last night's campground if I liked it. So we'll see what this place is like and decide where to spend the rest of the month.
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