2021-06-17: Summer Road Trip to Buy Our "New-to-Us" Home and Geocaching Through Texas, Arkansas and Missouri

Hello Friends! Well some of our regular readers may recall that the primary reason that we are able to go on so many geocaching roadtrip adventures is because we work in construction. We travel from project to project across the country and had to find short term rentals in each town to live in while there working. My wife has been traveling and working with me for about two years now, though this last solar project we just completed near Fort Stockton, Texas she didn't work on it.

When we arrived in the nearby small town of McCamey at the beginning, the choices for rental accommodations were old rundown houses from the 1940's. My wife took one look and decided she'd stay with her daughter in Killeen, TX for the duration. Now that it has completed, I have three weeks before starting at the next location in North Texas. So what to do but go on a roadtrip to Indiana where I found our "new to us" home to buy! Finally after a year of looking... a wish comes true!

 

My last day on the project was a Tuesday. I had packed up everything in the Jeep that morning and I made the 5-hour drive to Killeen after work that evening. On Wednesday, Candy and I packed as much as we could into our little 2-door Jeep for us as well as her teenage grand-daughter who rode along with us on this roadtrip adventure.

So we left Central Texas and our first stop wasn't until Texarkana, Arkansas or is it Texas? Or Arkansas? Actually it IS in both! The courthouse sits right on the state line. Now that's a divided court and was a virtual geocache, now archived (GC829D).

After 450 miles of driving, we stopped at a hotel in South Hot Springs, Arkansas for the night. Waking up Thursday morning and checking out, we grabbed a quick geocache (GC1KGXN) right there in the parking lot before hitting the road.

But not before taking a quick drive into the historical Hot Springs National Park and Bathhouse Row. Hot Springs, Arkansas, gets its name from the naturally 143 °F thermal spring waters found here. Flowing out of the ground at almost one million gallons of water each day. Native Americans called this area “the Valley of the Vapors,” and it was said to have been a neutral territory where all tribes could enjoy its healing waters in peace. Spanish and French settlers claimed the area in the mid-1500s. In fact, famous explorer Hernando de Soto was the first European to visit Hot Springs in 1541.

While it is true that President Grant designated Yellowstone as the first "National Park" in 1872, it can also be said that Hot Springs, Arkansas was technically the first national park when President Andrew Jackson designated Hot Springs a "Federal Reservation" in 1832 for public use. Hot Springs didn't officially become a National Park until 1921.

Bathhouse Row has evolved over the years from it's rustic beginnings to the modern spas of today. In the 1830's, Hot Springs earliest facilities were make shift shelters perches over individual springs. Later elaborate Victorian bathhouses flourished along the avenue. But those wooden structures were susceptible to rot and devastating fires. The present mix of Spanish Mission to neoclassical architecture date from 1911 to 1939, the Golden Age of bathing.

Medicinal bathing peaked in 1946 and many of the traditional bathhouses have closed or converted into the modern spas. Traditional bathing remains at the Buckstaff Bathhouse. The National Park Service has landscaped many of the exercise paths that were considered essential to good health. Like earlier visitors, you can still stroll the brick Grand Promenade behind Bathhouse Row or hike mountain trails throughout the National Park.

Walking among the shops there on the row, I spotted an iconic Zoltar fortune teller machine made famous from the 1988 movie "Big" starring Tom Hanks. Hmmm, what should I wish for?

Also spotted this restored antique Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Not sure about those white tires though!

And then there's this statue standing outside of Diablos Tacos and Mezcal restaurant. Still too early for lunch so just took a photo.

While walking down Bathhouse Row, we did find three geocaches and completed an Adventure Lab. Along with what I've already shared with you, they also highlighted Hot Springs history with Babe Ruth and baseball (GC2ZDMJ), the cemetery (GC3JFJ9, GC92RGD), and Al Capone and organized crime in the 1930's.

Time to get back on the highway heading north. Since I've already gotten the geocached counties along the way from previous trips, I tried to make up some time and skipped a lot of the geocaches I had picked out. Got back to I-30 into Little Rock to US-67 towards the northwest.

When we get to the town of Walnut Ridge, I make a right turn onto US-412 eastbound. It didn't take long before I thought it was a big mistake. CONSTRUCTION TRAFFIC!! My next target cache was still over 40 miles. While waiting for the lane to open back up to proceed, I thought I'd check the nearby geocaches. What do I see but a new geocache hidden on my birthday (June 11), published on the 13th, and STILL yet to be found four days later! I guess it was just waiting for us to pass by! I knew exactly what it was just from name "Dollar Skirt" (GC9CMGQ). Found and stamped the blank log sheet! WOHOO a First-to-Find! Thanks for construction traffic!

Then we crossed over into Dunklin County, Missouri and made a quick roadside geocaching stop for the county (GC3ABN5). Next door in Pemiscot County we found a very large geocache with a LOT of favorite points (GC1REX7) to complete the "heal" of Missouri.

Also in the town of Hayti was this restored one-room schoolhouse. The Hayti school building was built in 1874 and was used until 1895. There was a geocache there too but we couldn't find it, as well as several previous geocachers too. It has since been archived.

Jumping onto I-55 northbound a few miles into New Madrid County, we soon exit into the town of New Madrid, Missouri. There were three geocaches on my to-do list in town to be found. The first one was at the Byrne-Howard Cemetery (GC2M4Q4). The cemetery was established in 1833 with the burial of Morgan Byrne. He was joined by his wife Jane just two years later. This small cemetery has acquired 29 permanent residents between 1933 and 1947.

We also stopped by the Hunter-Dawson State Historical Site (GC47ZVN). William and Amanda Hunter owned a successful dry goods business in New Madrid as well as a floating store selling goods up and down the Mississippi River. They built their antebellum mansion with Georgian, Greek Revival and Italianate features popular during the period. The mansion took nearly a year to build and was completed in May of 1860. Unfortunately William died in 1859 before the house was completed.

In 1874 Ella, the Hunter's youngest daughter, married William Dawson. Upon Amanda's death in 1876 Ella and William moved into the mansion. Dawson served three terms in the Missouri State Legislature. In 1884 he was elected to the US House of Representatives. In addition, he served on the planning committee of the 1898 World's Fair in Chicago.

The home did suffer damage during the Great Flood of 1937. (There is a spot in the house where you can see the water mark on the wall.) Descendants of the Hunter family occupied the home until 1958. In 1966 it was purchased by the city of New Madrid. A year later the city donated the site to the state to use as a state historic site. The home now stands as a testimony to the grand lifestyle of the successful businessman prior to the Civil War.

Speaking of the Civil War, while the Union troops occupied New Madrid, the Confederates controlled passage of the Mississippi River just around the bend upstream on a large island in the middle of the river. This prevented supplies from reaching New Madrid or any Union troops further south. In March of 1862, Colonel Josiah Bissell, commanding the "Engineer Regiment of the West," surveyed land north and east of New Madrid. Bissell found swamps and bottomland inundated with early spring floodwaters and suggested to Brigadier General John Pope cutting a canal from north of the island going west into New Madrid allowing steamboats and other ships to bypass the Confederate forces. Pictured below is a submergible saw used to cut down trees below the waterline allowing boats to maneuver through the thick swamps.

Island #10 in the Mississippi River

Backing up a bit for earlier history, New Madrid was the first American town in Missouri. Founded in 1789 by George Morgan, Princeton graduate and Indian trader, on the site of Francois and Joseph Le Sieur's trading settlement. Named for Madrid, Spain, the town was to be an American colony. Morgan was promised 15 million acres by the Spanish ambassador, eager to stop U.S. expansion with large land grants. In 1800, Spain traded the territory back to France in the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso. After trying to regain control of Saint-Domingue (the present Haiti), where a slave rebellion was underway, Napoleon gave up on his North American colonies, agreeing to sell this territory to the United States in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase.

And finally, the New Madrid Earthquake (GC1DRVR), made up of a series of monstrous and lessor shocks, which began December 16, 1811, and continued for over a year. One of the great earthquakes of the world because of severity and length it caused little loss of life in a thinly settled region. Some of the shocks were felt as far of 1100 miles.

So that's it for today. Tomorrow we see a little more of Missouri before getting into Illinois and Indiana.

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2019-04-01: Geocaching and Exploring Early Mexican-American History in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas

Hello and Welcome Back! So after my long and packed roadtrip from Texas to Minnesota and back, I had another two weeks off before getting called back to the wind farm down in the Rio Grande Valley. I managed to get one week of work behind me before overnight and this mornings rains made it too muddy to work. But a rain day off from work means an extra day for geocaching and exploring early Mexican-American history of small towns in the Rio Grande Valley.

My first stop is the town of Roma, Texas, just a few miles down the road from where I'm staying. A new cache was published over the weekend called "Cactus House" (GC85FFK). Just a couple of blocks from Roma's point of entry bridge over the Rio Grande River into the United States, is an old long abandoned brick house that's been taken over by nature. I found the geocache on this Monday morning and a nice clean log sheet to claim a First-to-Find!

From there I went a few blocks over to the Roma Historic District. Not a typical border town settlement, Roma, founded in 1765, is distinctive for its historic high-walled, gated, family compounds that reflect strong ties to 18th century northern Mexico, which was then part of the Spanish Empire. The planning, colonization and land grant system was the brainchild of Jose de Escandón and focused on civil development. Today, Roma is the only American Spanish colonial settlement that preserves the character of Escandón’s town planning.

The community is directly across the river from Ciudad Miguel Alemán, Mexico. The Roma Historic District, a National Historic Landmark district in the City of Roma, contains architecture influenced by Spanish colonial culture and by the bustling 19th century Rio Grande trade route that brought goods and people from the Gulf of Mexico to the continent’s interior. The Roma Historic District contains the best and most intact collection of ethnically diverse buildings and structures in the border region.

The site of Roma was part of the Mexican town of Mier about 10 miles northwest of modern Roma, in what was New Spain’s Nuevo Santander. Don José de Escandón founded the Spanish colonial province of Nuevo Santander in the mid-18th century. Spanish colonists from Mexico settled Mier in the 1750's and received land grants along the Rio Grande, where they formed family ranches. In the 1760's, the Spanish colonial government granted two tracts on the northern side of the river to the Salinas and Sáenz families, who were among the founding families of Mier and whose descendants still reside in Roma. The tracts they received were the first permanent European settlements at the Roma site.

Soon after the Mexican War for Independence ended in 1821, Roma became an independent community. One of the earliest records of Roma is in American colonist Stephen F. Austin’s chart of Texas, which literally put Roma on the map. After the Mexican-American War ended, Roma belonged to the United States. In the 1840's, Euro-American entrepreneurs settled in Roma, Texas, and married into the founding families.

German immigrant and master-builder Enrique (Heinrich) Portscheller settled in the region in 1865, married a Mier woman, and eventually moved to Roma. Portscheller added to the beauty of the local building techniques with his trademark decorative molded brick and use of New Orleans-type wrought-iron balconies. In addition to his work in Roma, Portscheller designed buildings in the border towns of Mier, Rio Grande City, and Laredo. Though there are other towns where this type of brickwork endures, Roma sustains the highest level of density, integrity, and quality in its 19th century Rio Grande brick and stone craftsmanship.

The John Vale / Noah Cox House (GC7JGVK) served as both a home and business location for John Heinrik Vale and Noah Cox, who were deeply embroiled in Civil War activities in Roma. Vale, a Swedish immigrant, had come to America in 1840 seeking adventure. During the Mexican American War, Vale volunteered for Zachary Taylor’s Army of Occupation and was encamped in Camargo. He chose to remain in the region, marrying a woman from Ciudad Mier in Tamaulipas and taking up residence across the Rio Grande in Roma. In 1853 he built a two-story home on the town’s main plaza.

Three years later he sold the house to Cox, a representative of the New Orleans firm of Stadeker & Mecklinburger & Cox, who continued to use the house as both a residence and mercantile center. In addition to his mercantile operations during the Civil War, Cox also served in the Confederate Texas Cavalry. For his part, Vale engaged heavily in the lucrative cotton trade that funneled through the city of Roma during the Civil War, doing business with Joseph Kleiber, a key player in Confederate business operations on the Gulf of Mexico. 

The geocache I found, my second attempt at looking, was on the ruins of the wall which surrounded the side and backyard. Hopefully they don't completely restore this section of the wall because I like the way it looks now.

Also built by John Vale around 1850's, the Leocadia Leandro Garcia House is similar in style and construction to the Noah Cox House across the Plaza. Originally, the house contained commercial space on the ground floor with residential space above. The house was later remodeled as a building for a dance hall and now owned by the Knights of Columbus.

Manuel Guerra, the legendary political and economic boss of Starr County, commissioned Portscheller to build his family compound in 1884. A native of Mier, Guerra printed his own currency to be redeemed by his ranch workers at his store. The two-story brick structure sits assuredly along the upper western edge of the plaza, extending for half a block with fine classical brick detailing and a historic two-color metal balcony that delicately embellishes its second story. A one-story warehouse completes the L-shaped complex enclosing a courtyard with original outbuildings. Never to be outdone by competitors, the Guerra family also operated the first gas station in Roma with a pump installed near the chamfered corner entrance (since removed).

The seven men, pictured in 1911, in Roman collars and broad brimmed hats were Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) who had travelled from their missions scattered throughout the Rio Grande Valley along the river. Since 1849, this Calvary of Christ have been building churches and chapels from Brownsville to Laredo.

Arriving in Mission, Texas and turning back towards the river, I make another stop in Anzalduas Park. It's a riverside park popular with bird watchers. I was here once before and found a couple of geocaches. But there was one that I previously DNF'd (GC6AF7Y). Today was redemption as I found it this time. Out on the Rio Grande I could see why this park was popular among bird watchers.

At my next geocache (GC84NC2), I see the ruins of this structure up on the hill. Next to the Juan Diego Academy stands the remains of the Villa Queen of Peace (photo below and at top of page). Though the cache page says Oblate Monastery, I can't find any information about it's history or that it was indeed a monastery. So I'm not sure when it was built or what happened to it. If you have any information as to its history, please comment below.

Nearby was geocache (GC6Z60B) and my next piece of history. The La Lomita (meaning small hill) Chapel was constructed by the Oblates in 1865, then rebuilt in 1899 on these 122 acres willed to them in 1861 as it was nearly halfway between Brownsville and Roma. The Oblates moved their ministry to the growing city of Mission in 1908. Now it is a historical landmark, a park, and a place of pilgrimage.

Looks like an oven outside the chapel.

I hope you have enjoyed the sampling of early Rio Grande Valley history. There is much more to see if you every get the chance to be down in this area. I didn't even get to any of the cemeteries. Overall I managed to find many more quick roadside geocaches for a total of 32 finds for the day.

Until next time, I look forward to your comments here or on any of my social media accounts. Hopefully I have inspired you to go out and explore the rich history along the many backroads and small towns of this great country.

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2018-06-03: A Couple of FTF's, Cemeteries and an Old School in Central Texas

On this day, another Sunday and another 360 mile drive from Killeen to Fort Stockton, Texas, I found seven geocaches and visited a couple cemeteries, an old schoolhouse, and a ghost town.

I had to make a stop in Odessa also which would normally have me on a more northerly route up through San Angelo and began to head that way. Then I remembered a new cache publishing along my route to the south in Burnet. I checked the phone and yes it was still available. So I made a u-turn.

Wallace Riddell served as Burnet County Sheriff longer than any other county sheriff in Texas. I’m wondering if maybe it was longer than any sheriff anywhere? He ranched, and also won rodeo championships for roping. The really remarkable thing about him is that he didn’t carry a gun! Yep. After a bad incident with a gun in his first year as sheriff, he vowed never to go armed. But he did have deputies to do that, if the need arose.

The geocache (GC7QGF9) was located in a city park named after him. Arrived at geocache to find a blank log sheet and stamped my name on the top at 10:55 AM! WOHOO a First to Find!

Continuing west on Highway 29 over to Llano, turning northwest on Highway 71 to the Salem Cemetery (GC35JNM). William Leggett Lewis, a physician and ordained Methodist minister who served in the Civil War, came to Texas with his family in 1878. Lewis' land was probably used for a family and community burial ground before 1884, when Rebecca Ann Stevenson, the daughter of Joseph and Eliza Stevenson, was interred in the earliest marked grave on this site. Dr. Lewis' son, M Dee Lewis, was interred here a month later.

Dr. Lewis and his wife deeded 100 square yards of land for use as a cemetery to the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1888. Of more than 200 known graves in the Salem Cemetery, 61 are unmarked and a few have initials scratched on rocks. Twelve graves are those of civil war veterans. Others served in World War 1, World War II, and the Korean War.

Several miles up the road was the ghost town of Valley Spring, Texas and my next three geocaches. The first stop was at the Valley Spring Volunteer Fire Department building (GC57E1T).

The next geocache (GC1NVGN) was at the old school building built in 1938. This area was originally settled by the O. C. J. Phillips family in 1854 and was known as Phillips Ranch in the early years. The Phillips's were soon followed by several other families, including that of Davie Owen. Phillips's son, W. O. Phillips, established a cotton gin and sawmill on the ranch in 1860, known as Whistleville because of the steam whistle that announced the opening of his business day.

A rival mill and gin were built by Davie Owen less than a mile away and were facetiously referred to as Bugscuffle. When a post office was established for the community in 1878, it was located at the Bugscuffle establishment, which was thereupon renamed for the numerous springs in the area. The stage route from Llano to Brady was changed in 1882, and Owen built a store on the new route, at the site of present Valley Spring. From a population of 100 and several businesses in the 1930s and 1940s, Valley Spring had declined by 1968 to fifty people, a post office, and a store. The population through 2000 was still reported as fifty.

The old school building below is used as a community center today.

The last one in this community is at the Valley Spring Cemetery (GC1NVNQ). This hilltop cemetery has served the local community since 1867 when Martha Epperson Eaker and Hattie Phillips, daughters of the pioneer settlers, were buried here. Burials continued, and in 1877 the Epperson family donated land for the "benefit and convenience of San Fernando Valley." Cemetery trustees acquired another acre in 1889, the deed referring to the "old graveyard west of the Valley Springs."

Renowned pioneer physician, Dr. W. Y. Fowler (1860-1935), who began his 46 year Llano County practice in Valley Spring in 1889, acquired the surrounding ranch in 1897 and provided additional land for the cemetery. More than 100 graves in this cemetery are marked with a rock or unlettered stone. The grave below is that of David Owen (1791-1873), the father of Davie Owen mentioned above, who was also a veteran of the War of 1812 and a Texas Ranger.

Now that it is getting so late in the afternoon and I still got a long way to go, I drove non-stop into Odessa. I made a quick geocaching find after stopping for gas (GC7N73E). Then standing in line at Walgreens, I checked on another new cache that was published about 30 miles west off I-20. Yep, still unfound!

"Welcome to Thorntonville" (GC7Q9PH) is for a small town just outside of Monahans. I arrived and quickly find the cache and a blank log sheet. I happily stamp the top of the log sheet at 5:19 PM for another First-to-Find! WOHOO!

That's all for caching. Another hour drive down to Fort Stockton and that put's me over the 400 miles for today with the detours. I'm ready for this day to be over!

2018-04-08: Geocaching Across Central to West Texas

Welcome back to AwayWeGo's Geocaching Adventure Blog. For those that don't know, I started using AwayWeGo back in 2005 when my sons were 8 and 10 years old. At the peak of the real estate boom, we sold our house and bought a motorhome. For the next 11 months we just traveled the country from Florida to Maine to California up to Alaska. You can read about that adventure by going to AwayWeGo.US. Click on the "Our Adventures" in the menu for the archives. The AwayWeGo.US is also my Geocaching name.

OK, so much for reminiscing. Today's 360+ mile Sunday drive from Killeen back to Monahans, Texas, had me stopping by a couple cemeteries, an old church, a roadside attraction photo opp, the geographic center of Texas, and has Christmas died?

My first stop was at the Copperas Cove Cemetery at a cache called "Nineteen Forever" (GC1G31T). The hider has a brother buried here who died in 1989 at the age of nineteen.

One more before leaving Copperas Cove. A quick guard rail cache called Keyless Entry (GC11JGE), but not what I was expecting.  It kinda threw me off a little. But then it finally hit me like "what's the purpose?" Duh! I guess I should have reconsidered the name of the cache. A round rusty magnet covering the key/cache hole. Nicely simple creative geocache.

Continuing on to Lampasas, Texas, there was a new puzzle geocache (GC7MJC7) that had not yet been found after three days. So a chance at a First-To-Find! Most puzzle caches I take a quick look then ignore because they can be so complicated you need rocket scientist to decode them. But this one wasn't one of those. I arrived at the given coordinates and looked around for some numbers in the line of sight. Getting the information needed, I input the new coordinates which took me over to Hancock Springs Park. At the entrance to the park is the Worlds Largest Spur. After taking a few photos, I found the cache and a nice clean logsheet! YEA a FTF!

Along the way to my next geocache, I found myself on some very rural backroads of Texas north of Richland Springs in San Saba County. While enjoying the drive, I noticed a sign pointing down a side road that said cemetery. Hmmm... so I don't recall another geocache being along this route and I don't have cell phone service to verify. But I gotta go investigate no matter what.

A short distance later, I find myself in the Bowser Community. About 1858 the Abel Bowser family settled at a large bend in the Colorado River about 3 miles north of this area. The developing village, school and cemetery became known as Bowser Bend and by the late 1880's included a cotton gin and store. Due to river floods, Paul Varga donated land at this site for a chapel and cemetery in 1890. In the early 1900's J. T. Martin sold town lots and deeded land for a school one-half mile east. The town of Bowser relocated, but the closure of the post office, gin and school caused it to decline in the 1940's. Recent population has it around 20.

I spotted this old homesite that had fallen in on itself. The only thing that's held up are the two chimneys at each end of the house. I've seen a few of these towering chimneys with nothing else around. In Odessa, Texas, there's even one at the edge of a shopping center parking lot. The only remains of an early pioneer homestead.

Then there's this small church that looks like it's had some additions and improvements over time. The lower right corner of the stone building has a plaque that says: "The Methodist Church, 1941, D. G. Hardt, Pastor."

Finally, I arrived at the Varga Chapel Cemetery which brought me down this way. This is the cemetery I mentioned above on land donated in 1890. Since there wasn't a geocache here already, I decided to hide one myself. Walking around through the headstones, I was looking for something of interest and a reason to highlight this cemetery. Then there it was! Of all the many cemeteries I've been to, I don't recall ever seeing this family name. I found a spot to hide the geocache container and "Bah Humbug! Christmas is Dead!" was created (GC7MRW5).

Remember as a kid when your mother

used to tell you not to eat the seeds

because trees would grow in your stomach?

Well...

OK, time to get back on track continuing on towards the geocache (GC5PFE3) I was headed for! I thought this next one was going to be cooler than it turned out to be. What I did find was a historical marker. It read as follows:

"Five miles northwest is the geographic center of Texas,..." WAIT! WHAT? FIVE MILES NORTHWEST!? So as it turns out, this marker is NOT the geographic center. The TRUE center happens to be located on private property. So NO marker to visit there. Oh well. Here's the rest of the text you'll read on this historical marker just in case it might appear on a Jeopardy question or trivial pursuit.

"...an imaginary point whose coordinates divide the state into four equal areas. In straight-line distance it is 437 miles from the state's most westerly point on the Rio Grande River above El Paso, 412 miles from the most northerly point in the northwest corner of the Panhandle near Texline, 401 miles from the most southerly point on the Rio Grande below Brownsville and 341 miles from the most easterly point on the Sabine River near Burkeville. Maximum border-to-border distance is 801 miles from north to south and 773 miles from east to west.

"Enclosed within the 4,137-mile perimeter of the state are 267,339 square miles or 7.4 per cent of the nation's total area. Fifteen of the 50 states could be readily accommodated within Texas' borders--with more than 1,000 square miles left over. Brewster, in southwest Texas, is the largest of the state's 254 counties with 6,208 square miles, an area larger than the state of Connecticut. Smallest county is Rockwall in northeast Texas with 147 square miles.

"Texas elevations rise from sea level along the 624-mile coast of the Gulf of Mexico to 8,751 feet atop Guadalupe Peak in the Guadalupe Mountains. Altitude at this point is 1,545 feet. Terrain varies from the subtropic Rio Grande Valley to the trackless Great Plains, from the lush forests of East Texas to the rugged Trans-Pecos region where mountain ranges thrust 90 peaks a mile or more into the sky. But perhaps nowhere are Texas contrasts more pronounced than in average annual rainfall: from more than 56 inches along the Sabine River, nearly as much as Miami's, to less than 8 inches in the extreme West, as little as Phoenix's."

By now it's after 1PM and I still have almost four hours of drive time plus several more potential FTF's to get near Midland. So I quickly drive through San Angelo all the way to Sterling City. I stop at the DQ to finally get a late lunch and grab the geocache at the park across the street (GC5132R). And well since I've stopped anyway how about another quick one just 2 blocks away (GC52CRT).

Just southeast of Midland and I arrive at "What Am I Doing Way Out Here?" (GC7MPT9), where I find a nice clean logsheet at 5PM. WOHOO a FTF!! I looked up the cache owner and saw she had some more new caches out here in this area.

I found "Finally Got a Signal" (GC7MC5X) and "Down That Long Dirt Road" (GC7MC63), where I managed to get 2nd to find on each of those. Then it was "One Noisy Windmill" (GC7MPT2) and another FTF at 5:30PM.

Now it came down to: do I go after 6 more FTF's in the wrong direction towards Big Spring OR go west towards Monahans for only one more FTF? It had been a long day of driving. So westbound it is to the "Nice Little Pit Stop" (GC7MPT5) at a new Dollar General store for my final FTF at 6PM.

Another hour later and I finally make it back home to Monahans. Thanks for riding along with me. See you next time...

2018-03-25: Geocaching Through Ghost Towns, Old Schoolhouses, Cemeteries, a FTF and More!

So on today's 360+ mile drive from Killeen to West Texas, I visit a few cemeteries, a couple of ghost towns, two old school buildings, I spot an old Jeep rusting away, and I get a First-to-Find! So let's get started...

Driving westbound on US-190 into San Saba County, my first geocache was a quick roadside stop called "Me and My JJ" (GC28F72). Soon after that was a "Westbound Picnic Cache" (GC28RQF) at a roadside picnic area. Comanches used to use the hill location of the picnic area for smoke signals to communicate long distance in the pre-settlement times up until the 1870's.

Entering the town of San Sabo, I turn into the Mill Pond Park and head towards the "Armadillo Travel Bug Hotel" (GC6Y53J). A travel bug hotel is just a geocache big enough to hold travel bugs. Some cachers create very elaborate "hotels" that look like actual hotels inside which are really cool. This particular one was just a larger sized container. Oh, and for those new to geocaching, a travel bug is an item with a trackable number on it. The purpose is to retrieve and place from cache to cache so the sender can follow its travels.

My next geocache is located on the north side of town in the San Saba Cemetery and is called "Edge of Eternity" (GC7284N). From the historical marker: San Saba Cemetery, previously the Odd Fellows Cemetery, is located on 17 acres of land about 800 yards north of old town San Saba. On April 18, 1883, the San Saba Chapter of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) purchased 10 acres of this land from JJ Stockbridge to establish a cemetery, which they maintained for 45 years. On April 3, 1929, the newly incorporated San Saba Cemetery Association purchased the cemetery for $1.00 and an additional 7 acres from Mrs. May Holman also for $1.00. In 1935 burials from San Saba's earliest city cemetery, now Rogan Field, were reinterred here. The cemetery reflects San Saba's earliest times and is a continuing record of the lives and culture of its changing people. (2008)

Continuing westbound on US-190, I entered the town of Richland Springs. Jackson J. Brown and his family settled near the springs on Richland Creek in December 1854. The Brown School was constructed in 1868 and named for the neighborhood's original settler. The area attracted settlers through the 1870's, and in 1877 a Richland Springs post office opened in the store of Samuel E. Hays. By 1890 local production of cotton, grains, and livestock supported a settlement of 150 residents, including a justice of the peace precinct, a constabulary, and several commercial and craft businesses. A local newspaper, the Eye-Witness, began publication in 1905. Not long after, the First State Bank was organized, and in 1911 completion of a trunk line for the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway linked the town with the main line between Galveston and Amarillo. Richland Springs incorporated in 1932. With a population nearing 500 and as many as forty businesses, the town prospered until the onset of the Great Depression. A three-year drought in the mid-1950's crippled the local economy again. The town's only bank failed, and within a decade its residential and business populations had fallen by nearly half.

Anna B. Davenport (9/18/1882 -- 11/24/1882), was the first person buried here at the Richland Springs Cemetery. To help you find her gravesite look for a historical marker by her headstone. There are over 2200 internments here. And there was one that kinda stood out from the rest and the reason I placed the geocache there (GC7M2M5). John Henry Hart (1873-1946) and his wife Katy Abbie Hart (1877-1956) have a rather unique border surrounding their family plots. And I just happened to have a container that blends in perfectly.

The next little town down the road was Rochelle. Even though there wasn't a cache here, I stopped by the cemetery anyway. From the Historical Marker: E. E. Willoughby (1853-1935), a cattleman from Tarrant County, moved to Rochelle (then about 1.5 miles SE) in 1883. He acquired land here in 1886 along the Brady-San Saba Road. In 1889 he donated two acres near this site for the community's school and church building, moved here from its original 1886 site about 1 mile south. When Willoughby's 19-month old son Ernest Eckie died in 1894, he buried the infant near the school. In 1896, Willoughby deeded one acre here as the cemetery. A new school was built here in 1899.

The community and schoolhouse were moved in 1903 about 2 miles northwest to the new Fort Worth & Rio Grande Railroad. This cemetery continued to serve the new community, first named Crothers but soon renamed Rochelle. The tombstones here of Rev. and Mrs C. W. Jones indicate that she died in Crothers (1906) and he died in Rochelle (1910), though they both died at their home in the same town. Willoughby deeded another acre to this cemetery in 1910, but he was ultimately buried in Brady at Live Oak Cemetery. The rock fence here was built in 1935, and four more acres were purchased in 1943. The cemetery contains almost 500 graves, of which 105 are unmarked. An association founded in 1972 cares for the grounds.

Continuing west on US-87 closer to San Angelo, I come to the ghost town of Vick, TX (GC18HAF). Vick is at the junction of Farm Road 381 and U.S. Highway 87, four miles south of Eola in west central Concho County. In 1963 the community had a post office, a motel, and two other businesses. A 1984 map showed a cluster of buildings at the site. In 2000 the population was twenty. Now only a few homes remain and the ruins of numerous buildings. The old gas station has been turned into a private home.

Driving a few miles north to Eola was my next geocaches. The community has had a post office since 1901, when it was known as Jordan. In 1902 the name was changed to Eola, reportedly after a small local creek named for Aeolus, Greek god of the winds. In the middle to late 1890's public school lands in the county were put up for sale at fifty cents an acre. Spurred on by railroad promotion, a land boom resulted in the area of Lipan Flat, a section that stretched east from San Angelo to the Colorado River. Eola was one of the communities created during this boom, which included many immigrants from central and eastern Europe. In 1920 more than 100 people in the vicinity of Eola were reported to be of Czech descent. The first family to settle in the area was that of Asher L. and Lizzie Leona (Hollman) Lollar, who established themselves at a site 3½ miles southeast of Eola in 1898. Both Asher and Lizzie are buried in the Eola Cemetery (GC18H8M).

Scrolling through the Find-A-Grave website to see what the oldest grave may be at the cemetery, I found something odd. There was a listing for a Lydia Lillath White 1806-1807, long before the Lollars arrived. Looking closely at the headstone, it looks like the engraver flipped the number "9" around for the day and year. That confused the person entering it into the website. But based on the history of the community and the other graves listed, I'd say the first buried there in the cemetery was M M Schooler in 1902.

By 1902, when the first local store was built, the community numbered four families. Within the next two years a Baptist church was erected. The first school was conducted in a church on the Will Stephenson ranch. A two-story, two-room schoolhouse was built in 1906. In 1908 the community had a windmill and an Odd Fellows lodge. By 1914 Eola had a drugstore, a general store, and a population of twenty-five. In 1940 the community had a population of 250. A nine-teacher school taught elementary and high school classes. The school has long been closed. There is a geocache there though (GC11BBQ). According to the TexasEscapes website, the school building has been purchased and the new owner is slowly restoring it. The original school is the white building and now contains a restaurant and micro-brewery. The brick section was added in the 1930's along with the gym which is on the backside. You can see the domed top sticking up from behind.

Between Eola and San Angelo I arrive at another old schoolhouse and my next geocache (GC1CHVX). The cache page or any research I've done in preparing for this blog has given me any information on this old school. Some of the possibilities is that the town of Wall, TX, a few miles to the south, used to be called "Lipan School" and then "Little School." Perhaps from that pre-1906 era?

Having passed through San Angelo and still on US-87, I arrived in Sterling City. I remembered a new geocache published there a few days earlier and had yet to be found. So I dropped down Hwy 163 for "overlooking Sterling City" (GC7KR29) to find a nice blank logsheet! WOHOO!! Always good to get those First-to-Finds!

Down the road in Garden City I found a few more caches. The first one wasn't all that exciting except for the finding another cache is always a good thing. But what I found next to it was more interesting. The "Butane4Life" (GC3AJ2N) geocache is a quick roadside cache hidden near a huge butane storage container. But off to the side of where it sits are some old abandoned tanks and other equipment. And then there this old Jeep just rusting away. Oh if I only had the time and money to do something with it, I'd be tracking down the owner to see if they'd sell it!

After a quick stop by the Glasscock County Courthouse cache (GC17W82), I proceeded south of town to the "Graves Graves" cache (GC1PEVW) at the Garden City Cemetery. From the historical marker: The Garden City community has been using this burial ground as early as 1886. That year, a child of county commissioner Sullivan Hill and his wife, Lucy, was buried here. Four years later, a sibling was buried at the same spot; the two graves share a single stone.

The Hill family plot, where Sullivan and Lucy are also buried, is one of many in the cemetery representing the early area settlers. Other early family names found throughout the burial ground are Hanson, Gooch, and Cox. Family plots are typically bordered by concrete curbing. Most gravestones are vertical, especially in the older section of the cemetery, which is indicated by the remaining decorative iron fencing. Some of the individual family plots also include original fencing.

In 1914, John Etheridge and Perneice Gore Lawler formally designated the originated one acre tract as a cemetery. Today, the county maintains the burial ground, to which three acres were later added. As the final resting place of many of the early settlers and their descendants, the cemetery is a significant link to community's history.

Already late in the afternoon, I had to get moving. I've still got an hour and a half drive ahead of me AND also need to stop by Walmart and get some groceries. So that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed todays adventure and learned some history. See you next week for more.