walterman9999

I was in Diboll, Texas on minor business and found two old country cemeteries (on my Angelina County map) on Texas Hwy 1818 East of Diboll. Both had an active Christian church with a maintained cemetery. The first was the Prairie Grove Church and Cemetery. This was founded in the 1800s with its cemetery. There were some interesting and expensive granite grave stones. Two of of the markers showed that the person resting there were Masons. I drove a few miles East and found the Pine Grove Church and Cemetery. This is a newer facility then found in Prairie Grove. I wanted a pic of inside the Pine Grove Church. Since the glass window had glare and a strong reflection I tried my old method. I placed my camera directly on the glass window to get ... read more

The Old Town Rig Down is a new small festival held at Festival Park and the nearby Nacogdoches Square. Note: This whole area was blocked off for the safety of the many people on foot. I started my walk at the Nacogdoches Square where they had many nice semi trucks without their trailers. The many food vendors were found on the square. The downtown Visitors Center was open with employees giving out good information of Nacogdoches and Texas history; and has many historic artifacts. The Visitors Center has good clean restrooms open to the public. I walked downhill to Festival Park to attend the festival. There were many beautiful semi trucks (with their trailers) lined up for viewing. Many of the semi owners were there to chat about their big rigs. They had a very good ... read more

The local weatherman at our local ABC station in Tyler, Texas informs his viewers when the International Space Station is visible over the "Piney Woods" of East Texas. I had time to pick out two nearby locations where I could shoot the station coming and going. I started my shoot with my camera on a tripod. When changing location I managed to seperate camera from tripod, hence the squiggle in my results. It was a nice clear cool evening for viewing the International Space Station. note: these pics were two second exposures.... read more

I drove into Henderson on South Main Street for a short easy walk to Heritage Square for the Syrup Festival. Just before reaching the festival secured area I reached the Howard-Dickinson House, built by the Howard brothers in 1855. The Howards were carpenters and brick masons. They were the major brick makers for the area, and many old homes and businesses standing today in Henderson were built with Howard bricks. Martha Howard was a cousin to Sam Houston, and President Houston visited there often. I walked into the secured area (keeping the autos from the street festival people) and got to thr traffic light where the four Main Streets (North, South, East, and West) met at Heritage Square. There vendors were selling food, rides for children, tee shirts, crafts, nic-nacs, and lost of other stuff. There ... read more

The Killough Monument (massacre site with historic marker) is a hard to find site on an unmarked road running South of Cherokee County Road 3411. The Issac Killough family was unarmed while harvesting their crops. They were attacked resulting in 18 family members being murdered or carried off. The historic marker (and several internet sites) blamed that massacre on "Indians"; refering to the peaceful East Texas Cherokee Nation. Keep in mind that Cherokee Chief Duwali (AKA Chief Bowles) had a signed treaty in 1836 with Sam Houston (and the Republic of Texas) for permenant exclusive land rites for about three million acres of land including all of Cherokee County. In 1837 the congress of the Republic of Texas nullified the treaty and started issuing land grants to settlers on Cherokee land.Unfortunately Issac Killough did not know ... read more