RicknTX

I recall a similar story published in the Star-Telegram back in the late 70's or early 80's whereas the Fire Dept retrieved an old car from lake Worth and discovered two live catfish in the trunk when it was checked for bodies. One of the fish weighed about 95 lbs and the other was just a little smaller. Now I am wondering it these are just old 'fish tales' that come up ever so often. lol

...RicknTX

I found an excellent picture book on the history of Fort Worth today at the library. I stupidly forgot to jot down the title, but it was written by Quentin McGowen (hope I spelled that correctly). It seems rather new. It's full of B&W pictures of various parts of the city, going back to the earliest days. Pictures show the meat-packing plants, the Medical Arts building under construction, Monnig's big store downtown, the '49 flood trying to get into the 7th Street Theatre, aerial views of Casa Manana when it was still an outdoor venue, you name it. Everyone here will enjoy it tremendously.

I grew up near Benbrook Lake and often heard funny stories about it. This book contains a picture that was taken sometime in the late 1960s; it shows four grinning FW firefighters, two of whom are holding up HUGE catfish. One weighed 67 pounds, the other weighed 68 pounds. According to the book, the firefighters were doing routine SCUBA diving as part of their training when they found a 1947 Studebaker at the bottom of the lake. They hauled it to shore to let it dry out (the FW Police Dept. confirmed that the vehicle had been stolen years before.) Then, to everyone's astonishment, they heard weird noises coming from the trunk! Inside they found -- two big catfish, which apparently had been growing in the back of the car for years. "This photograph... hit the wire services and ran worldwide," the caption reads. Each fish was about five feet long.

"Wow! What did you use for bait?"
"A Studebaker!"

This link might help...

http://www.scripophi...emocaras19.html

The automotive writer Tom McCahill was published in _Mechanix Illustrated_ magazine from the 1950s until his death in the 1970s. He had a great Q&A column in the magazine called "Mail for McCahill." In the February 1967 issue, someone wrote to ask him about the history of an old car called a "Texan." McCahill responded in print:

"The Texan was built by the Texas Motor Car Association, Ft. Worth, Tex., between the years 1918 and 1922. It was a 4-cylinder rig... The engine was supplied by Lycoming, which built engines for several manufacturers at the same time."

McCahill provided no further details or photographs of this car, so I have no idea what it looked like or where the factory could have been. Anyone here have more data?