28 replies to this topic

[djold1]

I would like to announce that I have begun publishing a new blog.

It's entitled The Fort Worth Gazette

Look for articles on Fort Worth and North Texas history, Lost Maps, and even some current issues..

Thanks..

[bburton]

Looking good. Best of luck with this new venture.

[djold1]

I've just updated the Fort Worth Gazette blog with a couple of posts using an antique 1892 Texas County Map from the Walker's International Atlas.

One post explores some Lost Railroads that were drawn on this map but that never were built.

Another post covers some Lost Towns & Places that were on this map but which have become ghost towns or just historical markers by the road.

Finally, an earlier post about the little coal mining town of Strawn in the mountains of southwest Palo Pinto county.

[John S.]

I've just updated the Fort Worth Gazette blog with a couple of posts using an antique 1892 Texas County Map from the Walker's International Atlas.

One post explores some Lost Railroads that were drawn on this map but that never were built.

Another post covers some Lost Towns & Places that were on this map but which have become ghost towns or just historical markers by the road.

Finally, an earlier post about the little coal mining town of Strawn in the mountains of southwest Palo Pinto county.

Good blog items, Pete. I was intrigued to see Doan's Trading Post mentioned. I have a Wichita Falls Centennial book (from 1981, when I lived there and had to grow a "Centennial" beard) and it has a photo of this early Red River outpost. At that time it was one of the few signs of civilization in the area. As for Strawn, it is one of several ghost towns in the area. Caddo and Thurber which are not far away, were also boomtowns that are now bona fide ghost towns. I believe the Caddo, TX historical marker mentioned something like 30,000 residents at the population peak. The huge Ranger, TX oil boom of the WWI teens brought a huge influx of transient population which almost as quickly departed once the boom ended. Nice esoteric maps in your blog-great for local railroad historians.

[djold1]

Thanks John...

That's a real compliment coming from you. I plan some future posts on other similar, faded places. Newcastle for instance. I'm going to keep topics and subjects kind of mixed up. Look for an announcement of the discovery of a cache of Lost Maps of Fort Worth, soon. And maybe a post on a well known local mapmaker.

I'm having a good time with this..

[djold1]

While I was sorting my old Fort Worth maps today, I discovered an interesting 1924 Fort Worth to Weatherford road map with a written "Log" that the motorist used to navigate between the two towns. These were common from about 1910 to 1928 and provide an revealing look at travel in that era. The result is a little item on the Fort Worth Gazette blog:

[djold1]

After Thursday's post about the early roads across Tarrant County, Dan Smith who is an authority on the Bankhead Highway sent some additional maps and information from a new book he is writing, which I have incorporated into the current post.

http://fortworthgazette.blogspot.com/

[djold1]

I've added two new Fort Worth history posts to

The Fort Worth Gazette blog

[djold1]

Scouting the Lost Highway to Old Stoney & Decatur is the title of my latest posting to the Fort Worth Gazette blog...

[John S.]

Scouting the Lost Highway to Old Stoney & Decatur is the title of my latest posting to the Fort Worth Gazette blog...

I love your old highway articles. My early 1950's Texas (Travel) Guidebook by Rex Z. Howard (deceased, but formerly a FW physician) has some amazing tales about obscure sites and sights along Texas highways in the pre-freeway era. A whole lot of these places have vanished in the past 60 years, such as the five-stories high, Hexagon Hotel in Mineral Wells erected in 1872 by D.G. Galbraith, a prominent cattleman. Wish I had a time machine to go back and see so many of these long-gone structures and places.

[Owen]

We went to Mineral Wells several times when I was a kid (my brother went to ROTC camp just outside town), and I vaguely remember Hexagon House; sad to hear it's gone.

[djold1]

I've been very surprised and happy at the response to my Fort Worth Gazette blog postings. Thanks to everyone here and on Facebook that have commented.

For many years I have been collecting U.S. Department of Agriculture Soil Survey Maps from the 1890's to the 1940's. These highly detailed maps are not generally seen and they are not really suitable for wall decorations. However, they are an invaluable source of historic information not available elsewhere..

The latest blog posting is The Lost USDA Maps of Texas Counties.. It's a note on an on-going map project of many years..

The Fort Worth Gazette .

[djold1]

A new posting about a very large, very scarce old Fort Worth map in the Fort Worth Gazette today

[djold1]

I just did a new post on the Fort Worth Gazette concerning some old musical treasures I found featuring some well known Fort Worth people..

The Fort Worth Gazette blog

[djold1]

Here's a new post on the Fort Worth Gazette blog about a couple of Ghost Towns south of Graham that used to be oil boom towns in the 1920's and are now on the edge of the fire zone hoping they won't be incinerated......

[djold1]

The Fort Worth Gazette blog

1953 ~ Let's Go SCCA Racin' in Fort Worth Carroll Shelby!

I found an old race brochure..

[GenE]

I would like to announce that I have begun publishing a new blog.

It's entitled The Fort Worth Gazette

Look for articles on Fort Worth and North Texas history, Lost Maps, and even some current issues..

Thanks..

I wanted to tell you, that I very much enjoy reading your site.

However, I need some help. What is the best way to save the blog to favorites, so that I automatically get the most recent updates?
Right now, I go to the original save, which happened to be the March 27th entry, and when I enter the blog, I have to
locate your "directory" to see if there is a more current entry.

Again, I really enjoy the blog and look forward to new entries.

GenE Shockley.

[djold1]

Hi Gene..

Thanks for your note and I appreciate your nice comments. As to getting onto the favorites I don't really know. I've never really looked into this. I assume that if you become a "follower" that you are notified when a new post is made. However, I'm not sure.

The general URL that would be used to make a shortcut is:

http://fortworthgazette.blogspot.com/

When that link is made the latest posts come up with all the others trailing it.in a monthly order.

I'm sorry that I'm not more help on this..

[Dismuke]

Wow. What a great blog. I have been very busy over the past several months and have thus not been following the Forum. So I just learned about it - and I am looking forward to reading through the postings.

[Dismuke]

However, I need some help. What is the best way to save the blog to favorites, so that I automatically get the most recent updates?
Right now, I go to the original save, which happened to be the March 27th entry, and when I enter the blog, I have to
locate your "directory" to see if there is a more current entry.

The best way to follow a blog - particularly if you follow multiple blogs and some of them are not updated on a very definite schedule - is through a feed reader. There are many different types that are available. But the one that I use is Google Reader which, if you already have a Google login can be set up under that.

http://google.com/reader

These days, most sites that have content that is updated regularly such as blogs and even many news websites, will offer either RSS or Atom feeds. What Google Reader (as well as other similar services) does is present you with headlines/titles of all the newly posted content across the various websites you would like to keep up with. In most cases, you can also click to read the content directly from the Reader without actually having to visit the websites. The biggest advantage is that this saves you the time of having to actually visit multiple sites to keep up with whether or not there are new postings. This is particularly useful for sites that are updated only occasionally and which one might eventually give up on checking. Also, there are often blogs that I enjoy but which regularly feature postings/content that I have no particular interest in. With the Reader, I can just skim through headlines and skip over the stuff that I either do not have time for or interest in.

Anyhow, that is what I am planning to do with the Fort Worth Gazette. Looks like the last update was on April 22. By adding it to the Google Reader, if/when the next update comes, I will know about it through that.

[djold1]

Thank you all for your interest. I have had some serious distractions since the middle of April but I hope to resume a more regular posting schedule on the FWG in the hear future....

[Stadtplan]

I just wanted to mention how much I enjoy reading The Fort Worth Gazette. Thanks Pete!

[djold1]

After a long hiatus I have loaded a new post to the Fort Worth Gazette blog..

Hope you enjoy it..

[djold1]

The Fort Worth Gazette: Found in a Handley antique mall: A few musical memories from 1945....

[djold1]

Last night I posted an item on Fort Worth's Hell's Half Acre on my Fort Worth Gazette blog.

[djold1]

The latest Fort Worth Gazette blog goes back to Fort Worth in 1849...

[GenE]

The latest Fort Worth Gazette blog goes back to Fort Worth in 1849...

Thank you For letting us know of the new entry.

[John S.]

The latest Fort Worth Gazette blog goes back to Fort Worth in 1849...

It was nice to read Ripley Arnold's reply and rebuttal of Indian attacks in the region. Julia Kathryn Garrett's early accounts of life at the Fort was of a congenial relationship between the soldiers and local native Americans. The first piano at the Fort was a source of endless fascination to visiting native Americans according to Garrett's story.

Whatever strife there might have been between local settlers and native Americans probably took place back in the era of (Jonathan) Bird's "fort" (until a treaty between local tribes and Sam Houston was signed in 1843) and before the time of the arrival of the Peters Land Company colonists in the late 1840's. So Arnold was correct in calling such stories of Indian raids false. It was not by accident that by 1852 the Army considered the Fort Worth area to be safe enough to move soldiers further to the West around Fort Phantom. (Abilene) Of course, popular myth sometimes holds that native Americans fought white settlers right up until the automobile appeared but by the 1850's most of the major tribes had been "contained". A few took advantage of the distractions caused by the Civil War but by the 1880's even the most resistant tribes in the West had ceased to challenge the U.S. military. The mosquitoes and poisonous snakes from the wetlands and river were by far more of a threat to local settlers after the Fort was established than were local Indians.

[djold1]

Good comments John....