Trade Days and Goodman Bridge Liquor Store, Nacogdoches County, Texas

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This is the start of my August 15, 2020 travel to Southern Cherokee County. I needed gasoline so I stopped at my favorite station on the North side of Nacogdoches to fill up Old Blue. Driving South on Loop 224 I was surprised to find our Trade Days Flea Market open and circled around to get mangos and other tropical fruits from my favorite vendor. He noticed that I had a hard time walking, so he had his assistant carry my purchase back to my truck.

Since I was planning to tour Southern Cherokee County, I drove West on Texas Hwy 225 and stopped at the Lake Nacogdoches Scenic Overlook by the dam.

Driving Westbound I made a stop at what the locals call the "suicide turn" (where horrible auto wrecks happen) as TX 225 turns sharply North to Douglass, Texas. There was a Historic Marker for the old Spanish Mission was founded the same year as another Spanish Mission started the permanent settlement of Nacogdoches (the oldest town in Texas).

Then at the turn I drove South (left) on an unmarked county road a few miles to the old Goodman Bridge Liquor Store, closed around the late 1970s. As I crossed the new Goodman bridge over the Angelina River I crossed from Nacogdoches County into Cherokee County. There I was on Texas Hwy 1911.

The original Goodman Bridge was built over the Angelina River in 1932 at a cost of $4000 USD. Sometime in the late 1900s the bridge timbers rotted out and the bridge was closed. A number of people and towns wanted the Goodman Bridge to move and renovate; and the City of Nacogdoches won and spent over $1,000,000 USD to move and renovate the Goodman Bridge to Pecan Acres Park where it serves as a foot and bicycle bridge.

When I was a young collage student at SFASU (in the early 1970s) there was no Pecan Acres Park. Since I had little money and little to eat, in the Fall seasons I would go to the pecan trees there and gather the pecans to supplement my food supply.

note: The pics of the Goodman Bridge in Pecan Acres Park were shot in 2019. The Historic Marker accurately shows the original bridge timbers; where the top two rows of extra planks where your truck wheels needed to drive on.

completed

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Photos

Nacogdoches Trade Days
my favorite fruit vendor

Trade Days my purchase
my tropical fruit purchase

Lake Nacogdoches Scenic Overlook
masked bandit

suicide turn
Old Blue

suicide turn
Spanish Mission Historic Marker

Goodman Bridge Liquor Store
(long closed)

Goodman Bridge (upstream Angelina River)
From Nacogdoches County to Cherokee County

Goodman Bridge (original)
Pecan Acres Park
Nacogdoches City Park
(back entry into park)

Goodman Bridge creek
Pecan Acres Park
small creek flows into La Nana Creek

Goodman Bridge
Pecan Acres Park

Goodman Bridge
Pecan Acres Park

Goodman Bridge
Historic Marker
Pecan Acres Park