A State at a Time: Texas - Day 41 - Huntsville, via College Station, to Lockhart

Lockhart State Park, Lockhart

Sunday, 13 December 2020

today's route

Huntsville

I didn't get into the downtown area yesterday, so it was my first stop this morning.

Walker County Courthouse in Huntsville

These historical markers are in front of the courthouse. I was interested to note that the Mr. Walker the county was named for refused to support the Confederacy so the Texas Legislature (meddling in local affairs just as they do now) renamed it for a different Mr. Walker.

The current courthouse, built in 1970, lacks the soul I think older buildings have, and you can see a hint of what its predecessor might have looked like from a couple of nearby buildings.

The sign says it's the County's Criminal
District Attorney's office.

building now housing an antique store
and a jeweler

clothing store, next to the jeweler

detail from the wall above left -
likely showing Sam Houston's life

Huntsville is home to Sam Houston State University, established 1879, with Bearkats as their mascot. Around town I saw signs saying, "Mask 'Em Up Kats!" and "Six Paws Apart!" Which seemed much more forward thinking than I'm afraid I expected from this solidly east Texas town that unnamed its county for a non-secessionist.

I passed a business with a sign saying, "We By Gold." That's not a typo on my part.

I saw several signs saying "Lone Survivor Foundation," which was something I've never heard of and couldn't figure out from where the signs were. I've learned it's a non-profit that hopes to help wounded warriors and their families, an admirable goal. It was started by a veteran named Marcus Luttrell, who grew up in Huntsville and who was the lone survivor of a military operation in Afghanistan. Oddly, much of his account of that tragedy is disputed by just about everybody else involved. If you're curious, at this link scroll down to "Operation Red Wings Controversy." https://en.wikipedia.org/Lone-Survivor-Foundation

I heard on the radio about a book called Overstated: A Coast-to-Coast Roast of the 50 States, by Colin Quinn. A review I saw says it describes the unique character of each of the states (e.g. Vermont: The Old Hippie State; Florida: The Hot Mess State) and how they manage to stay together as a country. Which is much of what I've been traveling to learn about.

On the road

The volunteer clean-up crew near Huntsville is the "Members of SHSU Soul Lifters" which turns out to be a small gospel choir at Sam Houston State University. Established in 1971, they claim to be the oldest collegiate gospel choir in Texas.

I've been seeing quite a few calves lately. For some reason I expected they'd be born in the warmer months of the year, but I obviously had that wrong.

I like driving on early Sunday mornings. Always very little traffic, so I can be much more relaxed than usual.

I passed the town of Shiro, which had no highway sign, but I can tell you it's an unincorporated town of about 200 folks. And I saw the Shiro Gin Co. (As in cotton gin, not as in gin&tonic gin.) And shortly thereafter I passed Roans Prairie, also without a sign, also unincorporated, but with only 56 residents. In a plug for AAA, though, their map showed both these little towns despite the state highway department ignoring them.

All morning I've dealt with a low cloud situation - you can see the grey sky in the photos above - and the fog increased as I drove west.

Anderson

This is a tiny town, population 222, with a very old "downtown" area that's about 1 block long. It's the county seat, and this courthouse may give you a picture of the town.

Grant County Courthouse
in Anderson

I think this courthouse was built in 1859. The entire town of Anderson is in the National Register of Historic Places, which may give you an idea of how old this place looks.

And you can get an idea of how these folks think when I tell you that in 1859 the town rejected being connected to the railroad. Nearby Navasota jumped at the chance and Anderson never caught up. Navasota now has 7,049 residents, compared to Anderson's 222.

Anderson's Confederate
Memorial Plaza

That memorial plaza occupies a substantial part of "downtown" Anderson so I assume it reflects the current thinking of local residents.

The historical marker about Grimes County was stuck on its own about a half block from both the plaza and the courthouse.

In that same vicinity I saw St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Church. Not a saint I'd heard of before and I wondered why the folks here named their church for him, rather than Mary or some other well-known Biblical figure. St. Stanislaus Kostka (from the 1500s AD) is called that (it was his real first and last name) to differentiate him from St. Stanislaus (from the 1000s AD), who the 2nd one was named for. I think both were from Poland; the earlier one was martyred and the 2nd died at age 17, and I'd be curious how modern-day medical sleuths would characterize his cause of death. He seems to have acquired some kind of illness. Here's his information. https://en.wikipedia.org/Stanislaus-Kostka Given this church, I expected to find the area had been populated by eastern European settlers, but au contraire it was Spaniards who got here first. Here's more information about the town. https://en.wikipedia.org/Anderson-TX

Back on the road

I passed through Navasota and crossed the Navasota River, and I'm wondering why the county seat's never been moved from Anderson to Navasota. Maybe without the county courthouse business, Anderson would wither and blow away?

College Station

As far as I can tell (without trying much), this town (pop. about 118,000) got its name after the railroad came through (about 1860) and after Texas A&M University was established here (1876). I guess it's like the name for the town of State College in PA.

When I drove into town one of the first things I saw was "Welcome to Aggieland," which makes the town's priorities clear.

Though I didn't bother driving through the A&M campus, I did pass some of their athletic facilities as I drove out to the George [H.W.] Bush Presidential Library.

Until his son ran for president, George Bush was known by just those 2 names; his son's election forced today's addition of the middle initials to distinguish between the two. Though since we have the example of John Adams and John Quincy Adams, I don't know why we can't just stick with George Bush and George W. Bush for these subsequent father/son presidencies.

Of course, the library was closed and I could only see the outside, and even that view was obscured by the increasing fog. Here are 2 photos I took.

George Bush Presidential Library
in College Station

I couldn't get an angle without the trees
but see below for the inscription.

I found a photo of this same wall (above) online that let me read what it said:

"Let future generations understand the

burden and the blessings of freedom.

Let them say we stood where duty required

us to stand."

President George Bush January 1993

Actually, I'm not sure about that date - it's definitely 1990-something. But you can see how the low light level made photos more challenging. When I drove back down the road, I noticed the press box at the football stadium was hard to see because the fog had dropped down so low.

I remembered from the short time I lived in Bryan when I was young that the main road through the heart of both towns was Texas Avenue, and it still is. But in College Station that street has changed drastically from just an ordinary street with businesses into a very wide multi-lane boulevard with a median and many fancy national-brand stores. Since I feel confident the residents of this area are still who they always were, I'm guessing these fancy businesses are catering to the now-wealthy A&M graduates and their kids/students.

Bryan

Support for this idea appeared the instant I crossed the boundary between Bryan and College Station. The Texas Ave. that's in Bryan is just about the way I remembered it - still 4 lanes but without the median and with local businesses instead of national ones.

I passed a fast-food place with this sign: "Handshakes = Bad Milkshakes = Good." Catchy, and more progressive than I'd've expected in this conservative town.

Bryan, pop. 86,000, is the county seat and home of a courthouse that one commenter called "a forgettable building." I thought the front was so uninspiring that I took a photo from the side, too, but that just emphasizes the boredom. The original building from 1955 was the section in lighter stone (what you see in the 1st photo), with a courtyard behind it, and beyond the courtyard another building that housed additional courthouse functions. Some years later, the courtyard was replaced with an addition (visible in the 2nd photo) that connected the 2 buildings. I don't think it helped increase the beauty.

photo #1 - Brazos County
Courthouse in Bryan

photo #2 - from the side

I was pleased to see that Bryan's downtown is still as I remembered it, except they've gussied up Main St. by adding extra parking in the center. Maybe that was always there but I don't remember it. Considering how little time I lived there, I was surprised at how many of the buildings I remembered.

The whole visit was a little unsettling, actually. Fifty years ago, both cities were fairly small and definitely reflecting east Texas/rural atmosphere, which was fitting considering that's who lived there (though very hard on my brother and sister who'd had to move there from the Dallas area and had trouble with the culture shock). Now the 2 cities couldn't look more different, with Bryan much as it's always been and College Station acting like it was never that way but has always been a clone of Houston. Weird.

Back on the road

I picked up Texas Highway 21 in downtown Bryan and headed west, almost immediately back out in the country.

I passed a facility labeled Texas A&M University RELLIS Campus, which meant almost nothing to me. Online I learned it's offering bachelor degrees to students from Bryan/College Station who aren't already enrolled at the main campus. Here's how it describes itself: "An ecosystem of transformative innovation like few others in the world." Those of us who went to the University of Texas always did think those Aggies had an inflated opinion of themselves, and this description seems to confirm it.

I passed road signs that read "JCT OSR" and later "East OSR." I have no idea what OSR means.

Visibility continued to decrease and I passed an accident, this time not involving me. I had rain in some form all day, sometimes heavy, sometimes as mist. Made for some sloppy driving and limited sightseeing.

Nobody wants to tell me how many folks live in the town of Cooks Point, but their church parking lot was full. Since there were enough cars to suggest the small church was also full, I assume few there were wearing masks, since they're obviously disregarding social distancing. Honestly, sometimes it seems like people think this virus is like venereal disease and nice people don't get it.

Only a few more miles away I came to a "Welcome to Caldwell - Home of the Hornets" sign. I thought it was odd that both Caldwell and Huntsville, which aren't all that far apart, would have Hornets as their mascot. I mean, what if they played against each other? But as far as I can figure it out, Huntsville being much larger is in 5A and Caldwell has recently been moved from 4A into 3A. The town of Caldwell has 4,104 residents.

All my older Texas relatives, some of whom once lived in this area, pronounced Caldwell with the emphasis on the 2nd syllable - cald-WELL. I never heard anyone else say it like that and assume it was an old-fashioned local pronunciation that has died out along with my relatives.

Caldwell, founded in 1840, is the county seat.

Burleson County Courthouse
in Caldwell

You can see in the photo above that the clouds were down below the roof of this courthouse. Farther along the road I noticed that the only cows I could see were in pastures next to the road. For a while my visibility was down to less than a mile, and later on it went down to less than a quarter of a mile. I slowed way down on these country roads.

I came to the turnoff for Dime Box, and farther along to Old Dime Box. I always liked that name for its colorfulness. The town of Dime Box, Wikipedia says, was named for Old Dime Box (like nobody could figure that out for themselves). And when Old Dime Box was just plain Dime Box, back when it was founded in the mid 1800s, the name seems to refer to a large box early area settlers used for transporting mail to Giddings.

And speaking of Giddings, pop. 4,881, it was 16 miles farther down the road (which was a fair distance 150 years ago). It has a surprisingly fancy high school, considering the size of the town, and it's the county seat.

Lee County Courthouse
in Giddings

This nice little building, erected in 1898, has all the character that the poor thing in Bryan lacked. This one replaced the first one built in 1878 that was destroyed by fire. I had a hard time getting a photo of this one because there are a lot of trees around the square, blocking off my view; fortunately all 4 sides looked the same so I had a choice.

I passed through a number of towns, large and small, all about 15-20 miles from each other, certainly a result of travel times in the early settlement days.

At Lockhart I didn't even go into town as I'd intended but instead went straight to the campground. I was tired of driving through these conditions. This state campground, as with so many of them, was built by the CCC, and this one had some original buildings and displays about their history.