On Christmas Eve I attended a nice celebration at the home of the founder of the glass recycling "C&R Kutt Bottle" charity. We started with their "pot luck" dinner where everybody brings one food or drink to share. The food ranged from good to very good. (This is more personal, so no pics.) Then we'all went into the forest to sing Christmas carols by the large bonfire. For scale, the fire ring is two meters diameter, (and my home fire ring is only one meter diameter.) Everybody sat on chairs inside the large stacks of firewood ricks; about ten meters from the fire ring in all directions. We sang most of the night and some of us exchanged Christmas gifts. Finally we ran out of Christmas songs and it was time to go home. I got ... read more

According to Union Pacific Building America, there were only twenty five "Big Boy" Locomotives built exclusively for the Union Pacific (UP) Railroad in the early 1940s. The engine with tender were 132 feet long and weighed 1.2 million pounds. The Big Boys were originally coal burning steam engines, but later converted to #5 oil (diesel) steam boilers. There are seven Big Boys on display with one in Dallas Texas USA. The Big Boy locomotives have a "4-8-8-4" wheel arrangement, with the middle 8-8 wheels being driving wheels. The Big Boys were so large their frames were articulated to keep them from a bad de-rail on the curved railroad tracks. This train took about five days to travel up from Houston, Texas through many railroad towns to Marshall, Texas; then to Little Rock, Arkansas. Today Big Boy ... read more

According to Wikipedia, the Texas State Railroad started construction near Rusk, Texas; built by inmates of the new Rusk Penitentiary to transport raw materials for the iron blast furnace at the Penitentiary. The building of the Texas State Railroad and the Rusk Penitentiary are linked with both located in the Rusk area (Cherokee County), and both starting operations in 1883. In 1906 the railroad reached Maydelle. Then in 1909 the railroad was completed to Palestine in Anderson County. Now the Texas State Railroad is operated as a scenic tourist train line through the countryside. The real story about the Texas State Railroad is from the old Rusk Penitentiary (1883-1917). Now the old penitentiary is located in the Rusk State Hospital (a medium security prison). I thought there was no chance for my entry; and they were ... read more

According to TexasExcapes.com, Wesley Love purchased much land North of Jacksonville, Texas (in Cherokee County) and planted a six hundred acre peach orchard in 1904. When Love died in 1925 his wife donated twenty two acres of the land to the State of Texas for a state park. Texas never acted on that gift. In 1934 the City of Jacksonville purchased that twenty two acres and another twenty acres (including what now is Love's Lookout) and developed both land tracts as city parks. Very soon afterwards Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal invested in building a park, picnic area, and an amphitheater for services, plays, concerts, and other events. (The New Deal was a good plan by Roosevelt to put people back to work in our Great Depression.) The park had a swimming pool and a dance hall. ... read more

I was driving to a small town of Keatchie, LA to visit a friend South of Shreveport, Louisiana. I found on my Texas road map the small community of Deadwood, Texas not far out of the way to my destination in Louisiana and decided to see Deadwood without Wild Bill Hickok. I drove North on US Hwy 59 and about three miles South of Carthage where I turned East on Farm Road 2517. I drove East about ten miles and passed over the Sabine River. After about five more miles I got to the community of Deadwood, Texas at the intersection of FR 2517 and FR 31. I stopped there at an abandoned parking lot cuz I saw no trace of Deadwood at the highway intersection. I drove a short distance South on FR 31 and ... read more