Texas State & National Parks

Looking for something to do over the holiday break? Perhaps you should explore the beautiful scenery available at one of the state or national parks in Texas. There's also plenty of outdoor activities (hiking, camping, and more) to enjoy in Texas' national forests and grasslands and national wildlife refuges.

Enchanted Rock - Enchanted Rock State Natural Area.
Joshua Wallace, photographer and copyright holder, 2010.

The Big Tree - Goose Island State Park.
Joshua Wallace, photographer and copyright holder, 2013. 

Pedernales Falls State Park
Joshua Wallace, photographer and copyright holder, 2017. 

Dinosaur Tracks - Dinosaur Valley State Park.
Joshua Wallace, photographer and copyright holder, 2017.

Monkey Rock - Lost Maples State Natural Area.

Joshua Wallace, photographer and copyright holder, 2018.

Before planning a trip to the great outdoors you should check out these resources from the library:

Border Sanctuary: The Conservation Legacy of the Santa Ana Land Grant by M.J. Morgan.
Dinosaur Highway: A History of Dinosaur Valley State Park by Laurie E. Jasinski
Enchanted Rock: A Natural and Human History by Lance Allred
Enjoying Big Bend National Park: A Friendly Guide to Adventures for Everyone by Gary Clark
Guided with a Steady Hand: The Cultural Landscape of a Rural Texas Park by Dan K. Utley
Hiking Big Bend National Park by Laurence Parent
Making Camp: The Complete Guide for Hikers, Mountain Bikers, Paddlers & Skiers by Steve Howe
Official Guide to Texas State Parks & Historical Sites by Laurence Parent

Texas Traveling

Are you planning a trip somewhere in Texas this summer? If so, then make a stop by the library before you do. We have a wealth of travel information available in our collection.

The Alamo, San Antonio, TX 2009.
By Daniel Schwen [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons.

Periodicals 

• Texas Highways - magazine published monthly by the Texas Department of Transportation. Contains many articles with Texas road trip ideas.
• Texas Monthly - this magazine covers all things Texas (politics, culture, and much more). It also frequently publishes useful information for Texas travel such as this recent article on traveling in the hill country. 
• Texas Parks and Wildlife - monthly magazine published by the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife. Contains useful information on the recreational activities available at Texas state parks.

Books & eBooks

• 25 Bicycle Tours in the Texas Hill Country & West Texas by Norman D. Ford 
• Along the Texas Forts Trail by B.W. Aston
• Backroads of the Texas Hill Country: Your Guide to the Most Scenic Adventures by Gary Clark 
• The Courthouses of Texas by Mavis Parrott Kelsey
• Enjoying Big Bend National Park: A Friendly Guide to Adventures for Everyone by Gary Clark
• Exploring the Edges of Texas by Walt Davis 
• Finding Birds on the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail by Ted Eubanks 
• Fly-fishing the Texas Hill Country by B.L. Priddy  
• Fort Worth & Tarrant County: An Historical Guide by Carol E. Roark 
• A Gangster Tour of Texas by T. Lindsay Baker
• Ghost Towns of Texas by T. Lindsay Baker 
• Historic Hotels of Texas: A Traveler's Guide by Liz Carmack 
• Official Guide to Texas State Parks & Historic Sites by Laurence Parent and Joanna Ruley-Garza
• Paddling the Wild Neches by Richard M. Donovan 
• Photographing Wild Texas by Erwin A. Bauer and Peggy Bauer 
• Restaurantes, Rumba, y Mas: A Gringo's Guide to Latino Fort Worth by Peter A. Szok
• Roadside History of Texas by Leon Claire Metz 
• Texas Coast by Laurence Parent 
• Texas Forts: Lone Star Guide by Wayne Lease 
• Texas Hill Country by John Graves
• Texas Mountains by Laurence Parent
• Texas Road Trip: Stories from Across the Great State and a Few Personal Reflections by Bryan Woolley
• Texas Wineries by Melinda Esco
• A Walk Across Texas by Jon McConal
• Why Stop?: A Guide to Texas Historical Roadside Markers by Betty Dooley-Awbrey 

1933 Texas Highway Map.
Probably don't want to use this for current travel purposes.
[Public Domain], from Wikimedia Commons. 

Websites

• TravelTexas www.traveltexas.com - Official travel guides of Texas. 
• DriveTexas https://drivetexas.org - Map of current Texas road conditions. 

If you need help finding travel information for Texas or any other destination, then contact the library at reference@tarleton.edu or 254-968-9149. 

Drive Texas Map

Are you planning a Texas road trip anytime soon? Then you should definitely check out the online Drive Texas map created by the Texas Department of Transportation. This map provides up-to-date information on Texas road conditions. It's a handy resource to consult before going on any road trip.

Each icon on the map represents a different condition:construction, closed, damaged, accident, etc. 

The map allows users to zoom in to a particular location, or you can search for a specific place with the map's search tool. If you click on an affected roadway, you will be provided with additional information.

Close up view of Stephenville area. 

After clicking on the affected road this information appears. 

The map has tools that allow you to choose what type of condition (i.e. accidents, etc.) you want to see on the map. You can also choose to see future planned construction or closures. There are options that also allow you to see traffic conditions or the locations of rest areas and travel information centers.

Choose to view various types of current and future conditions

Find locations of rest areas and other resources. 

Traffic conditions in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. 

Before you start your next Texas road trip, you should consult some library resources as well.

Here's a few books we have on the topic:
Exploring the Edges of Texas by Walt Davis and Isabel Davis.
History along the Way: Stories beyond the Texas Roadside Markers by Dan K. Utley and Cyntia J. Beeman.
Texas Road Trip: Stories from Across the Great State and a Few Personal Reflections by Bryan Woolley.

Library staff can assist you in finding information resources for your next road trip at reference@tarleton.edu or 254-968-9249.

Erath County Sheriff Murdered 140 Years Ago to be Honored

This coming Sunday, June 25, a ceremony will be held to dedicate a monument on the east side of the county courthouse to the first known peace officer in Erath County killed in the line of duty, James Mastin.  Free electronic resources at the Portal to Texas History and the Library of Congress website were used to find out more information about his murder and the aftermath.

Two references to his murder were on the same page (two)¹  of the July 5, 1877, issue of the Weekly Democratic Statesman, published in Austin, Texas, found via the Portal to Texas History.  The search was for "mastin erath" (without the quotes) with results limited to the year 1877.  The first reference started at the bottom of column six and continued at the top of column 7.  Sheriff Maston [sic] was killed by a cattle thief he intended to arrest:

Further on in column seven was a little more detail.  This time Mastin's name was spelled correctly, and it gave the date of the murder, June 25.  The name and a detailed description of the murderer, Bone Wilson, was also given, as well as the fact that a reward was being offered for his capture.  This story also noted Mastin was going to arrest Wilson for stealing a horse (not cattle theft):

A follow-up story² was in the Galveston Daily News of September 27, 1877, on page 4.  In a section with news from Erath County, the Stephenville Empire newspaper was quoted. (In the image below, a number of lines of news not relevant to this case have been blanked out.)  Bone Wilson, alias Napoleon B. Wilson, was killed by Texas Rangers under the command of T. M. Sparks about 20 miles from Fort Chadbourne on September 15, 1877:

A little more detail³ about the murderer’s death comes from the Lampasas Dispatch of September 27, 1877, via the Brownwood Banner.  This one was found by searching the Portal to Texas History for “sheriff erath” (no quotes in the search), as Mastin was sometimes spelled incorrectly.  This article does not even refer to the sheriff by name, and some of the details of Wilson's killing are different.  Both articles note that Wilson's body was taken to Coleman City (just established in 1876). which is about 60 miles east of the fort.

There’s more about Mastin on pages 15-16 of James Pylant’s 2009 book, Sins of the Pioneers⁴.  He was elected sheriff on February 15, 1876, and had survived an earlier attempt on his life in November of that year "when Rufus C. Howie fired a six-shooter at him."

One of Pylant’s sources⁵ is an account of the killing of Mastin’s murderer, Bone Wilson, by one of the Texas Rangers participating, Noah Armstrong.  Armstrong was interviewed sometime between 1936 and 1939, as part of the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers’ Project, a New Deal jobs program that was part of the U.S. Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration (WPA).  His account of the killing of Bone Wilson starts on the fourth page.


Sources:

¹Weekly Democratic Statesman. (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 6, No. 39, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 5, 1877, newspaper, July 5, 1877; Austin, Texas. (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth277635/m1/2/?q=mastin+erath: accessed January 21, 2017), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; .                                                          

²The Galveston Daily News. (Galveston, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 161, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 27, 1877, newspaper, September 27, 1877; (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth464966/m1/4/?q=mastin%20erath: accessed January 21, 2017), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Library Consortium.

³Beall, W. P. The Lampasas Dispatch (Lampasas, Tex.), Vol. 7, No. 18, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 27, 1877, newspaper, September 27, 1877; (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth179077/m1/3/?q=sheriff%20erath: accessed January 21, 2017), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.

⁴Pylant, James. Sins of the pioneers: crimes & scandals in a small Texas town. Stephenville, TX: Jacobus Books, 2009.

⁵Doyle, Elizabeth, and Noah Armstrong. [Noah Armstrong]. Texas. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh002308/. (Accessed January 21, 2017.)

Tarleton Thursdays - Stephenville Historic Resources Survey

In the spring semester of 2015, Dr. T. Lindsay Baker, W.K. Gordon endowed chair in history, and his students in HIST 5309 (Historic Preservation) and HIST 4350 (Special Topics) partnered with the City of Stephenville to identify and document historic, mostly commercial structures within a 25 block area surrounding the Erath County Courthouse and the square, as well as additional sites outside of this area selected by the city.  The students used recording forms approved by the Texas Historical Commission, adding photographs and other research documents.

The result was called the Stephenville Historic Resources Survey.  Dr. Baker recently donated a copy of this survey, as well as the accompanying research files for the 147 sites and other supporting material, to the Dick Smith Library, along with digital copies of the photographs from the project.

A nearly-21-block area downtown was initially identified, with over half of the buildings surveyed in it considered to be contributing to a historic district designation on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).  Further work by the expert consultant hired by the city, Mary Saltarelli, has expanded the district to include a total of 120 buildings, with 77 of those (63%) contributing.  The minimum requirement is 51 percent to be considered for placement on the registry.  Being listed on the registry can bring tax incentives and other benefits to the downtown area and property owners.

While the original research files will be preserved, the library hopes to make copies of the files available in the Local History Room in the Special Collections Suite on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library, where users can access them to learn the history of their homes or buildings.

Here are just a few examples of buildings that are part of the proposed district.  The first building pictured, the First National Bank building on the square, built in 1889, has been a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark since 1994.  On July 21, 2015, it was added to the NRHP as an individual building, and in February 2017, it received a Preservation Texas Honor Award for its restoration and rehabilitation.

Above:  198 S Belknap Ave., First National Bank Building.  Photo by T. Lindsay Baker, 4 May 2015.

Below:  160 E Washington St., W.W. Rutherford Building.   Photo by T. Lindsay Baker, 3 May 2015.

Below:  154 E Washington St., Tatum and Sons Building.  Photo by T. Lindsay Baker, 3 May 2015.

Research by the library's Special Services and Archives staff using old Sanborn insurance maps shows that the first floor of the Tatum building was actually constructed between September 1902 and November 1907, which corresponds with a large increase in the property's value in 1905, the estimated construction year for the first floor (a grocery warehouse on that 1907 Sanborn map).  
The second floor was added in 1920.

On this building, the first floor is made of stone while the second floor is made of brick.  The cast iron columns by the entry were furnished by Fort Worth Iron Works, and were added before 1920.  

Tarleton Thursdays: From Our Day at the State Capitol, March 21, 2017

Senate Resolution 426, issued at Tarleton State University Day at the State Capitol on March 21, 2017, in honor of Tarleton's centennial as a member of the Texas A&M University System (click on the image to enlarge it).  This proclamation will be added to the University Archives.

Ancestry.com Texas

Did you know?

Free access to Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) records that have been digitized by Ancestry is available to Texas residents. 


Go to https://www.tsl.texas.gov/arc/ancestry and follow the instructions given on that page!  I have a membership with Ancestry.com, but I followed these steps to successfully create a free account for access to these Texas records only for my husband.

1.  Enter your Texas zip code at the bottom of the web page linked to above, and click Submit.

2. This will open a page like the one below.  Do a search first - ideally a last name - as you need to search for something to get to the next page, in order to create the free account.  I chose to search a unique last name in my family tree (my native Houstonian mother's maiden name, as her grandfather by that name settled in Texas about 1880).  Enter your search term, and then click the Search button:

3.  You will get a page with some results.  None may pertain to your family, but at this stage, it does not matter.  Click on the name of the result (NOT on "View image"!).  In this case, I actually got a relevant result - Anton Guokas is my great-grandfather's brother, so I clicked on "Texas, Prison Employee Ledgers, 1861-1938" opposite his name:

4.  At this point, you should see a screen inviting you to create a free account. Click the link to sign up with your e-mail address.  Do not click on any “Start A Free Trial” button. If you have an existing Ancestry.com Texas or paid account you may proceed to the “Sign In” link in the upper right corner.

5.  Enter your name and e-mail address, create a password (no rules!), and click the Continue button:

6. You can now access the result you clicked on, and view its image, save it and create a family tree, print it, and in some cases share it, and search for other records from TSLAC.  You'll see your name appearing in the upper right corner.  Note, however, that you can't access many of the links below it on the right without a paid Ancestry.com account.  Some, such as the 1940 Census and the Find A Grave index, ARE free, but most will required a paid membership.

For more information, check the Frequently Asked Questions on the Ancestry.com Texas web page.  To avoid frustration getting lots of results for records you can't access without a paid membership, it is recommended that you go to the Ancestry.com Texas web page, enter your zip code, and then sign in in the upper right-hand corner each time you use the site..

Texas Bluebonnet Award

The Day the Crayons Quit was recently announced as the 2015 winner of the Texas Bluebonnet Award, a children's choice award by students in grades 3-6.   This hilarious fantasy by debut book author Drew Daywalt (who has lots of experience in film writing and directing) has the crayons in the box on strike and writing letters to their owner about their various complaints.  Oliver Jeffers' whimsical illustrations incorporate crayons (of course!) as well as mixed media.  This book would be a great mentor text for a lesson on letter-writing.

The Texas Bluebonnet Award is one of many children's choice competitions across the country.  Some of you Tarleton students probably remember participating when you were in grades 3-6.  Students are supposed to read at least five books on the list of twenty, and then vote for a favorite in January of the following year.

A Texas Bluebonnet Award has been given since 1981.  The master lists and voting results from all those years are still available.  We have all of the winners and 596 books from the lists in the Dick Smith Library (on the lower level in the Curriculum Collection).

The master list of nominees for the current year (2015-2016) was announced a few months ago.  We have these books in both the Dick Smith Library and the Texan Hall Library in the Hickman Building of the Fort Worth campus.  Students across the state are reading these books and will vote for their favorite in January 2016.  Here's a one-minute video of the covers of these books:

Texas Library Association

The Texas Library Association (TLA) just held its annual conference in Fort Worth, April 24-27.  Although the association was established in 1902, the first conference was not held until 1914, so 2013's conference was the 100th!

Today, TLA has over 7,600 members and is the largest state library association (with the largest state conference) in the country.  This is the first time the conference was held in Fort Worth since 1997.  It had grown so large that the conference had only been held in Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas since then.

With the conference so close, most of the library staff was able to attend at least one day.  As I write this after the last conference day, I and my colleagues are exhausted but energized with ideas to improve Tarleton Libraries for our users.  Watch for future posts by other members of the LOL blog team on things we learned or saw at conference!

Free i Pod 1908 Style

The Dick Smith Library has in its collections textual county records for Erath, Eastland, Coleman, and Comanche counties. These are large leather bound volumes. While the majority of the volumes are records of county activities there are a few "strange" volumes. One such is an account book for a store in either Dublin or Harbin, Texas. The account part of the volume dates from 1908, then in the middle there are court records from 1915, then it goes back to an account book dated from 1908. Perhaps the county clerk need a book one day and also worked at the store and grabbed one from the store. Tucked in this volume was the ad you see here offering a $25.00 natural tone talking & singing machine absolutely free, with $50.00 cash purchase. Or for $5.00 with a $25.00 cash purchase. 

In 1908 this was the latest in recorded sound technology. The customer is invited to come by the store to hear specially prepared records of bands, instrumental music, songs, and stories. "The best talent in the country is brought right to your fireside to while away the long evenings with comical recitations and songs."It is pointed out that the machine also has educational uses as well. The ad continues further that the graphophone represents the latest achievements of the largest and best equipped talking machine industry in the world. The machine has a "handsome flower horn, noiseless motor, an adjustable speed screw, and oil tempered bearings that will last a lifetime. The machine required no electricity to run it, it was a hand cranked machine. One can only imagine what the people of 1908 would think of mp 3 players and all of the other ways we have to carry our music with us.

Juneteenth-Emancipation Day

Today in 1865 Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and issued General Order Number 3, which read in part, "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free." This was the first news of the Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued on January 1, 1863 to reach Texas. The approximately 250,00 slaves learned of their freedom over the next few months as plantation owners informed their bondsmen of the news. 

The first Juneteenth celebrations were political functions used to educate freed African American about their voting rights. Shortly they came to become festivities throughout the state, organized by official Juneteenth committees in some parts of the state. In Austin Juneteenth was first celebrated in 1867 organized by the Freedmen's Bureau, by 1872 it was listed on the calendar of public events. These celebrations often are a time of family reunions and the family history during slavery and since are recalled. While originally an event only found in Texas as families have moved to other states the Juneteenth celebrations have traveled with them.

To see the Emancipation Proclamation and learn more about it visit:

http://tinyurl.com/4mnmxer

To learn more about Juneteenth visit the Handbook of Texas Online at: 

http://tinyurl.com/3duwpsr 

Portal to Texas History

The Portal to Texas History is a great resource for Texas history and genealogy materials.  Photographs, maps, newspapers, yearbooks, documents, and other materials from Texas libraries, museums, archives, historical and/or genealogical societies, and private family collections have been digitized and indexed in this free online database. 

One of the collections is that of our very own J-Tacs from 1919 through 2007.  You can search for a name and it will be highlighted on the pages of the issues in which it appears.

The Portal also has some great "Resources 4 Educators," including lesson plans and other learning materials for teachers and students. 

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Great Texas Places to Get Away From it All

With summer upon us many people think of just getting away to a cooler place. Others want to just get away from all of the connectivity that surrounds us. This is a list from Texas Highways of where in Texas you can go to get disconnected.
1. Padre Island National Seashore
2. Big Bend National Park
3. Devil's Sinkhole State Natural Area
4. Hill Country State Natural Area Wilderness Primitive Camp
5. Palo Duro Canyon State Park
6. Lost Maples Natural Area
7. Guadalupe Mountains National Park
8. Matagorda Island Wildlife Management Area
9. Matagorda Bay Nature Park
10. Devils River State Natural Area
http://www.texashighways.com/index.php/component/content/article/98-roadtrip-archive/3733-ten-great-places-to-%28really%29-get-away-from-it-all

11. My favorite place to get away: Mo Ranch

Beat the heat without beating your wallet

Summer is just around the corner, and it's already starting to heat up here in Texas. If you're like me, you have already turned on your air conditioner a few times by turning the switch and not doing any other checking or action. Did you know you could save money and energy by taking a few extra minutes to check the overall condition of your air conditioner? This article presented on Lifehacker's website explains how badly sealed air conditioners are a big waste of money and energy. You can also check on other links provided within the article to learn how to fix this! Badly Sealed Air Conditioners Are Huge Wastes of Energy.

Texas History

Visit TexasHistory.com featuring the Best of Texas for a lot of neat information on Texas and its history. Really enjoyed this site.

On The Eve Of Independence

As I write this, it is a cold wet dreary March morning in Texas as it was in 1836. My thoughts turn to what was happening 174 years ago in Coahuila y Tejas. Delegates to the Convention of 1836 were arriving at Washington, not yet named Washington-on-the Brazos. Tomorrow the delegates would elect Richard Ellis president of the convention and Texas would declare its independence from Mexico. Colonel Travis and the other defenders of the Alamo are wondering if any help is coming. Travis writes a letter to the Convention on March 3^rd asking for the convention to let him know if independence has been declared. If independence is not declared then they will abandon the Alamo, however if independence is declared they "will die a hundred deaths against a blood-red flag." The blood-red flag was a red flag with a skull and cross bones that Santa Anna had flown from the spire of the Church of San Fernando that indicated no mercy would be given to the Texans at the Alamo. You can view scans of the original hand written Texas Declaration of Independence and a broadside version of it and other historic Texas documents at the Texas State Library & Archives Commission website at: http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/treasures/republic/declare-01.html