Blogs from Texas, United States, North America - page 12

According to TSHA (Texas State Historical Association) Kingtown was named for land developer Alton King who purchased fifty acres on (the North side) the Angelina River in 1943. A residential community was established when King opened a camping area in 1943. In the 1950s he was selling lots for homes. When they damned up the Angelina River creating the Sam Rayburn Reservoir (around 1960) that attracted many new residents and increased the property values. I was driving down Texas FM 226 Southbound and saw a sign for Kingtown. I turned West on Nacogdoches County road 552, following the signs for the Kingtown Landing Liquor Store, passing by a private deer hunting lease on the North side of the county road. note: These free county road maps in East Texas are generally accurate, but sometimes do not ... read more

Well, the clutch burnt out on Old Blue. The cost of repairs far exceeds the cash value of Blue. It is not RIP yet. Old Blue served me well for 200,000 miles. That includes over 2,000 miles of off-road in the wilderness (back-country) trails of the desert and mountains of Western USA. This includes three trips down the trail of Diamond Creek to the bottom of the Grand Canyon (by way of the Native American Reservation at Peach Springs, Arizona), where I made camp by the Colorado River. We made a good team of man and machine to beat the odds and pass many survival tests on very bad trails where I could not walk out to civilization for help. It is possible that Old Blue could be a Phoenix and rise from her ashes to ... read more

San Augustine was founded by Thomas McFarland in 1832 and was named after Presidio de San Agustin de Ahumada. It is located on the El Camino Real (Old San Antonio Road) that was started in 1691. In 1717 a Spanish mission was established by Father Antonio Margil de Jesus, after he established the mission in Nacogdoches in 1716. The mission in San Augustine was abandoned in 1719, and did not lead to a permanent settlement like the mission in Nacogdoches. Tejas (and Texas) had a complicated history including interactions with the French, Spanish, Mexico, and the USA. The City of San Augustine became the County Seat of San Augustine County and was one of the twenty three original counties (or municipios) for the Republic of Texas in 1834. (Nacogdoches and Shelby counties were also two original ... read more

On May 6 2020 I drove from Nacogdoches, Texas, North on US Hwy 59 past Appleby, and made a brief stop to shoot the front of the Circle A ranch. I passed through Garrison and saw the abandoned downtown (North side), and the Wiley Hotel (South side). I had photographed an 1920s photo of Garrison with the downtown and the Wiley Hotel. I entered Shelby County and passed a nice Catholic Church, and I knew I was close to the potential work site. (All the following pics are from Shelby County.) I was visiting a friend just West of Timpson, Texas (Shelby County) who had a large pine tree damaged by a tornado with three large branches busted and dangling with the wind causing a real hazard. I gave him an estimate on removing the dangerous ... read more

A few months ago most people did not know what a pandemic was, or how deadly it could become. Just common sense told me that the Corona virus could become a global pandemic with many sick and many would perish. A pandemic is an disease epidemic with a rapid spread that develops over a wide geologic area that affects a very high proportion of the population. Pandemics can and have spread world wide. Few facts are understood about Covid-19, but this is my best understanding of the potential plague hazards. I think that Covid-19 can not last long floating free in air. The primary hazard is from infected persons coughing and sneezing virus infected mucus droplets, inhaled or from touching contaminated surfaces then touching their mouth or eyes. I think the Corona can infect somebody from ... read more