Tell us about your town's history!

[BullFrog Dad]

I'm sure the towns on the 3ADL have an interesting past. LW and Jackboro Hwy. were something else from the 20s-50s with the focal point being Casino Beach. Let the Entertainment Begin!

In 1916, Fort Worth built a Municipal Beach, directly where the Nine-mile Bridge connected to the west shore of Lake Worth. It was a huge success. By 1920, over a hundred thousand bathers patronized the beach each season. It was so popular that a bus line from Fort Worth called the Fort Worth Auto Bus Company took passengers from the end of Rosen Heights line to this beach.

In 1927, a company out of Bellafontaine, Ohio called A.J. Miller & Co. wanted to take advantage of this new Lake. Seeing the enormous groups of visitors and bathers that flocked to the Municipal Beach each summer, entrepreneurs, E.A. Albaugh and French Wilgus had a plan to make Casino Park the largest amusement park in Texas and the Southwestern United States. The company leased the very same ground from Fort Worth, and sunk over a $1 million into this playground, which consisted of rides, a midway, a boardwalk, bathhouse and swimming area, and a huge ballroom. Over 125 carpenters were at work at any given time during construction, using more than a million feet of lumber. Casino Park (also known as Lake Worth Amusement Park) would not only cater to bathers and visitors, but would attract oil magnates, wildcatters from west Texas and cattle barons of the Southwest.

Casino Park was renowned for having The Thriller, the largest roller coaster in the southwest. It was almost a mile long, with humps that varied from 14 to 72 feet. Three trains, each carrying 24 passengers were operated. It was one of only three roller coasters in the entire country equipped with the latest safety devices; wheels of the cars rolled between, under and overhead on the track so that a derailment was almost impossible. Mr. H.S. Smith, engineer for the John A. Miller Company of Detroit directed construction of the monster “ride”. Casino Park also had some unique rides, such as Bluebeards Castle and the "Bug-a-Boo" tunnel train. Amazing stunts like high diving horses complimented the Midway. There was even a 300-lb caged gorilla named appropriately Big Boy. Other familiar and popular rides such as the “Tilt-a-Whirl”, "Dodge-em” and Merry-go-round complimented the Park. The Midway had the usual concession stands and games, such as the ring toss and shooting gallery. The park also had the largest boardwalk west of Atlantic City, made of wood and over 400 feet long. A swimming area, complete with a sandy beach and bathhouse drew in those people who wanted to cool off in the summer months. Motorboats could be rented for scenic tours of the lake.

Casino Park held an annual beauty pageant, and on the Fourth of July, the Casino would draw crowds of well over a hundred thousand strong to celebrate and watch the fireworks display put on by the late W.A. Engelke. Mr. Engelke, owner of the Pan American Fireworks Co., in Samson Park, was known throughout the world for his talents in fireworks displays. The park season began each year on May 1st and ended on Labor Day, with bus service that continued to transport the public to this park for several years.




But by far, the center-point and most long-lived attraction was the Casino Ballroom. At over 31,000 square foot, it could seat 2,200 people for dancing and a hot meal for $2 per person, total. It attracted the biggest bands in the country and had it’s own nationally known radio show. It had a beautiful smooth floor made of 2-foot x 2-inch strips of solid oak. There were two bars and a full service kitchen. Underneath the ballroom, no space was wasted. On one end, there was an icehouse owned by the Fort Worth Ice Company. On the other side was the boiler room, and in the middle were the tracks of the bug-a-boo train. From the late ‘20s through the ‘50’s, the big bands flourished, the top names played at the Ballroom; Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Frank Sinatra, Herbie Kay, Rudy Valle and Ted Weems, to name a few.

Casino Park was also to compete with the Lake Como Pavilion, which had its’ pavilion and amusement park rides. But the aging Pavilion, built in 1889 was small and isolated, built more to attract streetcar passengers along the Arlington Heights Line route, and the numbers of people dwindled with the burning of the “Ye Arlington Inne.” It could not compete with this new and larger amusement park.

The small community of Lake Worth suddenly had a business in it’s midst that carried over 500 jobs. The population of Lake Worth wasn’t even enough to fill the positions. The population of Lake Worth began to increase as people sought housing close to their place of employment. A land development called 'Indian Oaks' then took off full steam with the help of philanthropist G.T. Reynolds. Each street name featured the name of an indian tribe.

Casino Park was a place that launched many a career. Harry Beason, who grew up in Lake Worth recalls, "I started off raking the beach sand in the swimming area. Then I was 'promoted' to the icehouse, then the boiler room, both of them under the ballroom. Harry Beason recalls an amusing memory from those days. "The bug-a-boo cars were driven by mules, and they always seemed to stop in the dark of the tunnel. Couples would take advantage of the dark to become romantically involved. It was my job to prod the mules so that the ride wouldn't back up". Interestingly enough, Beason became Sheriff of Lake Worth in his later years.

Life began for Constable Paul Meador when he was nine years old. That's when his family moved from the sleepy community of Azle to Lake Worth. With the Parks' boardwalk, roller coaster, rides and dance hall, he remininced in an interview for the 1984 Sentinel: "It was like living in a carnival. What kid wouldn't like it?".

Another resident, Bud Irby, began as a busboy in the ballroom, and eventually became a partner in the Lake Worth Amusement Company, the owners of Casino Park.

The 1920's

The first manager for Casino Park was E.L. Furnas, and he had his hands full.

In only it’s second season, Fire destroyed much of the Park in 1928. On June 17th , 6:20 a.m., fire followed a blast on the boardwalk. Fanned by high winds blowing off the lake, it quickly got out of control of park employees, who attempted to stem destruction with four chemical carts. A dozen fire trucks which raced to the scene, pumped water directly from the lake and succeeded in saving Bluebeards’ Castle and the Thriller. The Ballroom, bathhouse and between 25 and 30 concessions were destroyed. Four park employees, attempting to save the ballroom, were trapped and forced to leap into the lake and swim to safety. Big Boy, the 300-lb gorilla, was burned to death. Workers described as almost human the weird cries of the giant beast as flames licked into his cage. “You could hear the screams of the gorilla for miles” recalls one of Effie Morris’ students. Fortunately, the gorilla was given a mercy killing. A cause for the fire was never determined. It must have not been for the insurance, because A.J. Miller & Co went right back, reconstructing Casino Park from the ground up. It cost $140,000 to rebuild. But as rebuilding took place, Mr. Furnas decided to leave Casino Park forever.

The company needed a new manager replacement. Stockholders from the A.J. Miller Company, who had known Smith, asked him to take charge So in the same year, George T. Smith moved to Fort Worth from Los Angeles to take over operations of the Casino Ballroom. In Los Angeles he had been a salesman for ambulances and funeral hearses. . It was quite a career change, switching from the macabre to a rainbow world of dance bands and nighttime merriment.

The Casino Ballroom flourished in the 1920s’ with the big bands. The first band to play at the Casino Ballroom was headed by Hogan Hancock. Hancock had a trumpeter in the band that blew with such gusto that Casino owner George Smith found it intolerable. Completely unnerved by the trumpeter’s blasts, he gave sharp orders to Hancock: “You either put that trumpeter in the back row of the band or hide his horn. He’s driving me nuts!”. Hancock hastily moved the offending trumpet to a chair completely behind the band. Not too many years later, G.T. Smith was glad to have this young trumpeter back at the Casino, and to pay him a large fee. This time, the trumpeter was heading his own band, and was a star. His name: Harry James!

[Ranger Mom]

All I know about Greenwood is that is was named for the Greenwood family, who owned the local bar.

They served drinks 6 nights a week and held Sunday Church services on the 7th.

The bar sat where the First Baptist Church is now!

[cdlvj]

La Grange is located where an old buffalo trail later known as La Bahia Road crossed the Colorado River. The town developed in 1831, becoming the seat of Fayette County in 1837 and developing as a pivotal point on the Texas Pioneer Trail, which covers a four county area. Oral tradition tells us that the town and county were named by the first settlers for their home town and county in Tennessee. "Historic Oak" on the north side of the town square was the muster point for men in six conflicts.

Downtown La Grange includes a classic Texas 1890's courthouse, the old county jail, an 1886 MKT Depot, several historic markers and the St. James Episcopal Church, circa 1885 at 156 North Monroe Street.

Kreische Brewery State Historic Site -

Ruins of the stone brewery and house built by stonemason Heinrich L. Kreische who came to La Grange in the 1840's are adjacent to the Monument Hill State Historic Site (see below). Kreich's brewery was one of the first commercial breweries in Texas and produced in excess of 7-- barrels in one year. Guided tours tell the story of this German immigrant and details of the brewing process as it existed more than a century ago. Tours only on Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 and 3:30 p.m.

Monument Hill State Historic Site -

Visit the final resting place of the men who drew the fateful black bean after the failure and capture of the Meir Expedition against Mexico. The Mexican Government, which refused to recognize the sovereignty of the Republic of Texas, invaded Texas in 1842. A militia of the citizenry, led by Captain Dawson, fought the Mexican army and lost. The defeated soldiers were forced to draw beans to determine who would be shot and killed by lottery. Forty one of Captain Damson's men were massacred by the Mexican army at Salado Creek (one of five streams in Texas named Salado) near San Antonio. The monument is a handsome 48 foot tall marker of stone, bronze and polychrome. The historic site features a visitor's center, self guided tour, wheel chair accessible, interpretive trail, nature trail, picnic areas, and playground. Open daily, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Group tours with refreshments are available.


Scenic Drives -

U.S. 77 southwest to F.M. 2436 to Hostyn. Be sure to Stop by the Holy Rosary Catholic Church to see the Hostyn Grotto. First Texas highway roadside park 10 miles west on Texas 71; also, scenic overlook of Colorado River Valley. Other scenic drives thoughout this area, especially pretty during bluebonnet and Indian blanket flowering season.

[HighSchool Fan]

GAINESVILLE, TEXAS. Gainesville, county seat of Cooke County, is in the county's approximate geographic center, on Interstate Highway 35 about sixty-seven miles north of Dallas. In the 1840s the first settlers arrived in the area, attracted by the promises of the newly created Peters colony,qv which offered 640 acres to each head of family and 320 to each single man, plus land for a church in each settlement. In 1850 Gainesville was established on a 40-acre tract donated by Mary E. Clark. At the suggestion of Col. William F. Fitzhugh,qv commander of a stockade 3½ miles southeast, the town was named in honor of Gen. Edmund Pendleton Gaines.qv Gaines, a United States general under whom Fitzhugh had served, had been sympathetic with the Texas Revolution.qv Gainesville originally consisted of three families who lived in log houses near the banks of Elm Creek. Although Gainesville was made a stop on the Butterfield Overland Mailqv route in 1858, Indian attacks retarded the community's growth in its first decade. During the Civil Warqv a controversial trial and hanging of suspected Union loyalists brought the new town to the attention of the state (see GREAT HANGING AT GAINESVILLE).

In the decade after the war the county seat had its first period of extended growth, catalyzed by the expansion of the cattle industry in Texas. Gainesville, only seven miles from the Oklahoma border, became a supply point for cowboys driving herds north to Kansas. Within twenty years the population increased from a few hundred to more than 2,000. To the post office, opened in 1851, and the general store were added a number of churches, two banks, a public school, and a weekly newspaper. Gainesville was incorporated on February 17, 1873, and by 1890 was established as a commercial and shipping point for area ranchers and farmers, partly as a result of the arrival in 1886 of the Santa Fe line and the construction in 1887 of the Gainesville, Henrietta and Western Railway. During the 1890s Gainesville College operated for a time, but it was eventually closed, a victim of the depression of 1893 and the consequent rapid decline of the cattle industry.

Unlike some other cattle centers in North Texas, however, Gainesville survived the disappearance of the cattle drives. Its economy continued to grow because of the high price of cotton during the next twenty years. By World War Iqv the county seat had more than 200 businesses and a population of 7,500; in the mid-1930s just under 9,275 people lived in Gainesville. Because oil was discovered nearby in the mid-1920s, the town survived the Great Depressionqv better than similar communities. Also contributing to Gainesville's relative well-being in the 1930s was the success of the Gainesville Community Circus,qv which first performed in May 1930 and thereafter gained a national reputation. In addition, Camp Howze, an infantry-training center established in the county in 1942, more than doubled the local population and provided much-needed jobs.

After World War IIqv Gainesville's population grew steadily, surpassing 10,000 in the mid-1950s and 14,000 by the late 1980s, when the community reported more than 300 rated businesses. In the 1980s Gainesville residents were served by Cooke County College, the Gainesville Municipal Airport, eight schools, and more than fifty churches. At that time Gainesville was also home to Camp Sweeney, for diabetic children (see SWEENEY, JAMES SHIRLEY), and Gainesville State School for Girls.qv Businesses at Gainesville included an aircraft firm and a fishing-lure company, and the community also served as a shipping point for sand and gravel. In the early 1990s Gainesville had 600 businesses and a population of 14,587.

[HighSchool Fan]

Collinsville is a small town of 1,500 people located about 70 miles due north of Dallas, Texas.

Around the time it became a town, Collinsville formed Texas' first "Free" school.

The school was started by Mrs. Lodoweska (Lodi) Collins (from the family that the name "Collinsville" came) in a one-roomed log cabin.

With the population quickly growing, a new school was formed in 1904.This was a large two storied building with six rooms and could hold about four hundred students. "Collinsville Academy", as it was called, offered subjects such as Greek, metaphysics, and mental physics.

During this time, Collinsville was becoming a well-known marketplace. Alfred Collins (Lodi's son) gave land to start and grow the community.

Horatio Waldo also gave land to settlers and to start businesses. Collinsville looked as if it were going to be a big city. The Great Depression and World War II were two factors that caused Collinsville's population to dwindle.

In 1941 after the Collinsville Academy burned down, a two-winged, twenty room school was built by a government program (WPA) designed to provide jobs to people and help end the Depression. This building with an extension is still in use as our elementary school.

In 1995 a new high school/junior high school was constructed on the northeast section of town. This facility continues to function as the secondary campus today.

Collinsville has remained a small, quiet town over the years. However, Collinsville is starting to see a lot of growth as it looks forward to the future

[nutcrackin]

GILMER, TEXAS. Gilmer, the county seat of Upshur County, is on U.S. Highway 271 and State highways 155 and 154 thirty-five miles northeast of Tyler and twenty-two northwest of Longview in the central part of the county. When the county was established in 1846, provision required that the county seat be located within five miles of the geographic center and that it be called Gilmer, for Thomas W. Gilmer, who died during the test firing of a new cannon on the USS Princeton on February 28, 1844. The same explosion also killed United States secretary of state Abel P. Upshur. On December 15, 1846, when the fifth district court first met in Upshur County, Judge Oran M. Robertsqv held court in a grove of six oak trees at the residence of William H. Hart and declared that site the location of Gilmer until a more permanent location could be selected. The Gilmer post office opened in 1847. In 1848 county voters selected the permanent site. The original site came to be called Old Gilmer and was gradually abandoned; a historic marker on the Cherokee Trace three miles north of Gilmer marks the original site. Bethesda Masonic Lodge No. 142 received a charter in 1853 and sponsored the Gilmer Masonic Male Academy (1854). In 1861 the lodge rented the school building to Morgan H. Looney, who established Looney School; from 1868 to 1871 O. M. Roberts taught there. In 1860 Gilmer had twenty-five businesses, seven physicians, six law offices, two churches (Methodist and Baptist), two academies, and the post office. During the Civil Warqv Gilmer businesses provided hats and leather goods to the Confederate States of America. Shortly after the war ended, members of the Ku Klux Klanqv beat up Meshack Roberts,qv a former slave of O. B. Roberts, who had helped him to become a landowner.
In its early years Gilmer served as a cotton-ginning center; it once had six gins in operation, and one continued until the 1950s. In 1890 farmers in the county began producing sweet potatoes but had to quarantine the crop in the late 1920s because of an infestation of sweet-potato weevils. When the quarantine lifted, residents organized the East Texas Yamboree, a fall festival to celebrate the sweet potato harvest; the first festival was held in October 1935. In the late 1980s the annual festival continued, with some 30,000 to 40,000 people attending in 1987. At that time it was one of the oldest continuing festivals in East Texas. On April 17, 1900, Dickson's Colored Orphanage was chartered in Gilmer. It was founded by a black Baptist preacher, the Rev. W. L. Dickson, and from 1900 to 1929 was the only orphanage for black children in Texas. Baptists in Dallas, Waco, and other cities contributed to its development, as did local Baptist churches and Gilmer businessmen. Robert C. Bucknerqv served as chairman of the board of trustees. In 1929 the state took over the home and renamed it Gilmer State Orphanage for Negroes; the state continued its operation from 1930 to 1943, when the orphans were moved to Austin. In 1902 the Gilmer Independent School District was established; in the 1980s it had four schools in Gilmer. From 1920 to 1930, with the fall of the cotton market, Gilmer for the first time recorded a drop in population, from 2,268 to 1,963. In 1931, however, the East Texas oilfieldqv rescued the town from the Great Depression.qv The new oil money went in part to construct a new courthouse, dedicated in 1937. By 1940 the population had grown to 3,138 and by 1950 to 4,192. Between 1960 and 1970 the population decreased slightly, mainly because of a new residential subdivision just outside the city limits. After Pine Acres joined the city, the population of Gilmer stood at 5,192 (1970).

After World War II,qv many Gilmer residents began commuting to jobs in Tyler, in Longview, and at Lone Star Steel in Morris County. During the same period the lumbermill at Gilmer was expanded, and the city over time gained a factory that made ceramic bathroom accessories, an electrical conduit and fittings plant, and, in 1989, a highway-sign factory. In the 1980s Gilmer obtained a federal matching grant to build a larger public library. The expanded Upshur County Public Library housed 37,794 volumes. In the late 1980s Gilmer had twenty-one churches, a hospital affiliated with the Baylor University Medical Centerqv in Dallas, nine resident physicians, five dentists, three chiropractors, two nursing homes, two national banks, two savings and loans, a motel, and numerous restaurants and service stations. In 1990 the population was 4,822.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hans Peter Nielsen Gammel, comp., Laws of Texas, 1822-1897 (10 vols., Austin: Gammel, 1898). Gilmer Mirror, August 15, 1968. Doyal T. Loyd, A History of Upshur County (Gilmer, Texas: Gilmer Mirror, 1966). Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.

[Old Tiger]

The sandy loams where Rockdale now stands were once the homeland of the Tonkawa Indians in the sixteenth century. The Indians roamed the prairie throughout Central Texas until the early part of the eighteenth century, when expeditions by missionaries and conquistadors brought the Spanish to Milam County. By 1755 Spanish occupation of Milam County came to an end due to drought conditions and disease. However, the Tonkawan were eventually squeezed out of their homeland by advancing Comanches in the northwest and Anglo settlers from the southeast. Pioneers settled permanently in Rockdale in 1873 with the arrival of the railroad.

The International and Great Northern (I&GN) Railroad wanted to extend its tracks westward from the city Hearne into Austin. In 1874 Rockdale became the terminus of the railroad for the next two years. When the final tracks were laid hundreds of people flocked to the area to watch the steam locomotive roll into town. Among those people was Mrs. B.F. Ackerman, traveling by horseback via an old wagon trail. Two miles north of the town, she spotted a rock formation in the middle of the prairie. Standing atop of the twelve-foot high rock, Mrs. Ackerman observed the railroad tracks ended in an area that was nestled in a valley or dale. It was there the name Rockdale was first used.

B. Loewenstein, Sr. was among the first settlers in Rockdale. He and his wife, Carrie, moved to the area from Colorado County. He opened a dry goods and grocery business in 1873 and established Rockdale Brick Works and erected several brick buildings in the business district, now Rockdale's downtown.

The town went from an agricultural community to an industrial one virtually overnight when the Aluminum Company of America moved into town in 1952. The city's population tripled when the largest worldwide metals producer came into town to develop the area's vast lignite reserves for aluminum production.

Just one year after Rockdale came into existence the Masonic Lodge of Rockdale #414, AF & AM received its charter. As the first and oldest organization in Rockdale, it set the standard for community involvement. There are numerous clubs and organizations in Rockdale for active community members to join, such as Rotary, Lions, Garden and Matinee Musical clubs, VFW Post #6525, and Girl and Boy Scouts, to name a few. The community of Rockdale has a long historical tradition of service to others, and residents take pride in knowing they make a difference.

Today, Rockdale is a bustling community with a diverse roster of business and industry. A solid citizenry preserves its rich ethnic heritage made up of Central Europeans, Germans, Mexicans, Czechs, African Americans, and Jewish settlers.

[KTJ]

A sidenote for Gainesville:

It was the 15th largest city in Texas in the late 1890's. Gainesville was predicted to be the same size, if not bigger than, Dallas. :eek: (I wish it was though.)

[Cat22]

ORANGEFIELD, TEXAS. Orangefield is at the junction of Farm roads 105 and 408, twenty miles east of Beaumont in south central Orange County. It developed around the Orange oilfield, discovered in 1913. A major producing well, which was brought in eight years later, led to the opening of the Orangefield post office in 1922. The population level, reflecting the fluctuations common to oil boomtowns, was estimated at 1,000 during the mid-1930s, fell to 500 by the early 1950s, but recovered to 681 by the early 1970s. Orangefield and the nearby oilfields were for a time plagued by flooding from Cow Bayou, which runs through the community. In 1963 Congress agreed to channel the first 7.7 miles of the watercourse. Included in the package was a provision for a turning basin at Orangefield. However, only the first seven miles had been completed by 1967, and the existing work was deemed able to handle the foreseeable needs for navigation and flood control. During the mid-1980s the number of residents at Orangefield was estimated at 725, and the town reported eleven rated businesses. In 1990 the population was still estimated as 725.

[cdlvj]

Also Sidenote for La Grange.

Missed being the state capital by one vote. Austin was selected instead.

[Bandera YaYa]

Originally posted by cdlvj
Also Sidenote for La Grange.

Missed being the state capital by one vote. Austin was selected instead. Uhhh.....I think you left out a very historical place in your town......The Chicken Ranch!!!! :eek: :eek: :D

[AP Panther Fan]

Originally posted by Bandera YaYa
Uhhh.....I think you left out a very historical place in your town......The Chicken Ranch!!!! :eek: :eek: :D

I noticed that was conveniently left out of the La Grange post.;) :D

[Bandera YaYa]

Originally posted by AP Panther Fan
I noticed that was conveniently left out of the La Grange post.;) :D Ha...when I was growing up....I just thought that the Chicken Ranch was all there was in LaGrange..........and of course the movie with Burt Reynolds and Dolly was sooooooo funny.

[BullFrog Dad]

Originally posted by Bandera YaYa
Ha...when I was growing up....I just thought that the Chicken Ranch was all there was in LaGrange..........and of course the movie with Burt Reynolds and Dolly was sooooooo funny. Plus the song by ZZ Top!

[HighSchool Fan]

Originally posted by BullFrog Dad
Plus the song by ZZ Top!

now that's an awesome song

[AP Panther Fan]

Originally posted by HighSchool Fan
now that's an awesome song


sure enough!!! :clap: :clap: :clap: :smoker:

[lepfan]

I have a friend who attended a wedding years ago in LG....happen to be the father of the bride (i think) was friends with a couple of them (ZZ Toppers)...they showed up at the wedding with hot babes on each arm...talk about stealing the spotlight from the bride!

[Old Tiger]

Originally posted by cdlvj
Also Sidenote for La Grange.

Missed being the state capital by one vote. Austin was selected instead. Didn't they have some kinda prostitute house there?

[Cameronbystander]

CAMERON, TEXAS (Milam County). Cameron, the county seat of Milam County, is at the intersection of U.S. highways 77 and 190, on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad fourteen miles north of Rockdale in the north central part of the county. In April 1846 the Texas Legislature authorized a seven-member commission to find a permanent site for the Milam county seat. The commission purchased a sixty-acre tract of Daniel Monroe's headright on the Little River later that year and named the new town Cameron, in honor of Ewen Cameron.qv

When the courthouse at Cameron was completed in 1846, the county records were transferred to Cameron from Nashville, which had served as the seat of Milam County during the republic. The new town struggled in its early years because of its isolation, the nearest railroad being more than fifty miles away. In the late 1840s and early 1850s several attempts were made to navigate the Little River in order to give Cameron easier access to trade routes. The most successful of these occurred in 1850 after rains had made the river rise. J. W. McCown, Sr., persuaded Capt. Basil M. Hatfield to bring his steamboat Washington through the upper Brazos and up the Little River. The steamboat and the merchandise it brought caused great excitement among residents, and a two-day celebration was held when the boat tied up 2½ miles east of Cameron. Navigation of the river was impractical on a regular basis, however, and other towns, such as Nashville and later Port Sullivan, prospered in the 1850s and 1860s as the dominant business centers of Milam County. Cameron faced even greater competition in the 1870s, when Rockdale was established on the International-Great Northern Railroad. The arrival of the railroad prompted considerable discussion among Milam County residents as to whether Cameron should remain the county seat, and elections were held in 1874 and 1880 to decide if the county government should be moved to Rockdale.

Cameron survived these challenges, and in 1881 the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway arrived; the San Antonio and Aransas Pass came through the town ten years later. The railroads improved the town's economy and increased its prestige. The population grew from an estimated 500 in 1878 to 800 by 1884 and 2,000 by 1892. Cameron had attempted to incorporate in 1856, 1866, and 1873, but each time the charter was allowed to lapse; the town was finally incorporated for good in 1889. Although agriculture, particularly cotton, dominated the town's economy in the nineteenth century, diverse industrial interests came into play in the early twentieth century. The discovery of oil in neighboring Williamson County in 1915 prompted residents in Milam County to look for oil of their own, and the discovery of the Minerva-Rockdale field in 1921 provided new opportunities for investment. Several milk-product companies, including the Kraft-Phenix Cheese Corporation, were in operation at Cameron in the 1920s and 1930s.

Cameron residents received much-needed job opportunities in the 1950s, when the Aluminum Company of America built a plant a few miles southwest of Rockdale. Jobs at the plant, as well as in the lignite industry that supplied the plant's power, revitalized the economy of the entire county. Unfortunately, Cameron suffered setbacks when the Texas and New Orleans discontinued its track from Cameron south to Giddings in 1959, and again in 1977, when the Southern Pacific, which had taken over the Texas and New Orleans, abandoned its track from Cameron north to Rosebud. The population of Cameron rose from 5,227 in 1952 to an estimated 7,500 in 1958; it fell to 5,640 in the early 1960s and, after a brief recovery, to 5,347 in 1978; the town reported 5,817 residents in 1988. The present courthouse, which was constructed in 1890, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In 1990 the population was 5,580.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Ann Arthur, "A New Era for Milam County," Texas Historian, March 1972. Lelia M. Batte, History of Milam County, Texas (San Antonio: Naylor, 1956). Katherine Bradford Henderson, The Early History of Milam County (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1924). Curtis Henley, "Alcoa's Impact on Milam County," Texas Historian, September 1974. Margaret Eleanor Lengert, The History of Milam County (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1949).

Vivian Elizabeth Smyrl

[Ray_BearKat]

RAYMONDVILLE, TEXAS. Raymondville, the county seat of Willacy County, is at the intersection of State Highways 186 and 448 and is bordered on the east by U.S. Highway 77; the community is twenty-two miles west of Port Mansfield on the Missouri Pacific line in the center of the county. It was established by Edward Burleson Raymond, who organized the Raymond Town and Improvement Company in 1904. In that year the post office was established, and Raymond's company, along with the Kleberg Town and Improvement Company, gave right-of-way to the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway. The railway in turn provided low-cost round-trip excursions for land seekers. Town lots were sold by Raymond and by Henrietta King,qv acting as agent for the King Ranch,qv Raymond's former employer. Raymondville, located in what was then Cameron County, had by 1914 a population of 350, four general stores, a bank, a newspaper, a hotel, a cotton gin, and a lumber company. Agriculture, primarily the raising of sorghum, cotton, citrus fruits, vegetables, and corn, drove the town's growth in its early years. It was a trade center for local farmers and by 1929 had a population of 1,800. In the 1930s it had at least three churches, two schools, a courthouse, a hospital, and a hotel, as well as businesses and manufacturing enterprises. By 1941 the town's population had increased to 4,050, with 150 rated businesses. By 1952 the population had grown to more than 9,000, probably because of a change in census-taking practices that incorporated residents formerly defined as rural into the community. Raymondville has continued its role as a commercial center for the truck and fruit crops produced in the surrounding area. In the 1960s industries at Raymondville included a cottonseed-processing plant, manufacturers of farm implements, producers of leather goods, fruit processors, and children's clothing manufacturers. Because of its location near the coast, Raymondville is a year-round recreation center. As of 1990 there were twenty-six different religious denominations with churches in the city. The Raymondville Historical and Community Center and the Reber Memorial Library are among the city's cultural institutions. The city has a mayoral government. The Raymondville City Hall includes a public assembly hall. The courthouse was built in 1922, and an annex was constructed in 1977. In Raymondville are seven schools, including a high school. During the 1970s the population decreased to slightly less than 8,000, but by 1990 it had increased to 9,830, with ninety-seven rated businesses.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: James Lewellyn Allhands, Gringo Builders (Joplin, Missouri, Dallas, Texas, 1931). D. William Day, Cultural Resources Surveys and Assessments in Portions of Hidalgo and Willacy Counties (Austin: Prewitt, 1981). Tom Lea, The King Ranch (2 vols., Boston: Little, Brown, 1957). Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.

Stanley Addington

[JHS_c/o_06']

Jasper is best known for forming a volunteer army of farmers in the mid 1800's to defeat Godzilla....

[HighSchool Fan]

Originally posted by Tiger WR
Didn't they have some kinda prostitute house there?

The Chicken Ranch that they mentioned

[mwynn05]

Originally posted by JHS_c/o_06'
Jasper is best known for forming a volunteer army of farmers in the mid 1800's to defeat Godzilla.... Actually before the past couple of years I only knew of them for another reason but we're not gonna go there.

[HighSchool Fan]

Originally posted by mwynn05
Actually before the past couple of years I only knew of them for another reason but we're not gonna go there.

that's what i was thinking

[JHS_c/o_06']

Originally posted by mwynn05
Actually before the past couple of years I only knew of them for another reason but we're not gonna go there.

I know.....the name Jasper Football strikes fear into many people's hearts rendering them speechless....

[LH Panther Mom]

Originally posted by lepfan
I have a friend who attended a wedding years ago in LG....happen to be the father of the bride (i think) was friends with a couple of them (ZZ Toppers)...they showed up at the wedding with hot babes on each arm...talk about stealing the spotlight from the bride!

Were they wearing cheap sunglasses? ;)

[Matthew328]

EVERMAN, TX: Everman is an incorporated residential community on the southern edge of Fort Worth near U.S. Highway 820 in southeastern Tarrant County. Members of the Kiowa-Apache and Wichita tribes inhabited the area until the arrival of Anglo-Americans in the early to middle 1850s. A hamlet named Oak Grove existed in the area for several years. Upon the arrival of the International-Great Northern Railroad in 1904, a more established community developed and was named for an engineer of the railroad, John W. Everman. In 1905 postal service to the settlement began, and in 1906 Everman established an independent school district. In 1917 the community was one of three sites selected to serve as a flight training school for the Canadian Royal Flying Corps and the United States Signal Corps, Aviation Section. Barron Field, just outside the city, stimulated the local economy and increased population growth. By the mid-1920s Everman had eight businesses and an estimated population of 138. In 1976 the Barron Munitions Building, which after the war had served as a schoolhouse for African-American schoolchildren, was awarded a Texas Historical Commissionqv marker. In the mid-1950s the community had a population of 450. After the nearby Dallas-Fort Worth International Airportqv was constructed, the number of residents at Everman increased to more than 5,000 by the mid-1970s. Everman adopted the council-manager form of city governmentqv in 1986. In the early 1990s the community had an estimated 5,701 residents. The population in the 2000 census was just under 6,000 residents.

[NSUTrumpet08]

Originally posted by mwynn05
Actually before the past couple of years I only knew of them for another reason but we're not gonna go there.

Yeah i think i know what you're getting at...let's not go there...

[NSUTrumpet08]

From
this website (http://www.texasescapes.com/EastTexasTowns/JasperTexas.htm)

JASPER, TEXAS. Jasper, the county seat of Jasper County, is on U.S. highways 96 and 190, State Highway 63, and Sandy Creek in north central Jasper County. The site was settled around 1824 by John Bevil.qv Thirty families occupied the settlement as early as 1830, when it was known as Snow River or Bevil's Settlement. In 1835 it was renamed for William Jasper, a hero of the American Revolution. Jasper became the county seat in 1844 by an act of the Texas Congress. A post office was established there in 1846, and travelers reported a population growth from forty to 400 in the decade from 1848 to 1858. During the Civil Warqv the town housed a Confederate quartermaster depot. Antebellum educational institutions included the Jasper Male and Female High School, which operated until 1878, when it became the South East Texas Male and Female College, and Jasper Collegiate Institute,qv which operated from 1851 until 1874 and was absorbed by the public schools in 1908. A weekly newspaper, the Jasper News-boy, has been published continuously since 1865. The population declined to 360 in 1870, reflecting the hardships of the Civil War, but by 1885 had risen to 1,000. In that year the community had three saw and grist mills, a cotton gin and planing mill operated by power from Sandy Creek, two churches, and a college; the town exported cotton, hides, and pine logs. In 1896 Jasper had a population of 1,200 and a one-teacher school with eighty-one pupils.

With the arrival of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway early in the twentieth century, Jasper grew into a center for the manufacture of timber products. Lumber from two sawmills with a daily capacity of 125,000 board feet, goods from basket and stave factories, logs, ties, poles, and pulpwood were shipped in 200 cars per month. Supplies of timber were also sent to the paper mills at Evadale. Jasper served as headquarters for the Lower Neches Valley Authority'sqv construction program, including Dam "B" at Town Bluff and engineering and surveying for a dam at Magee Bend on the Angelina River. In 1957 the community had 185 wholesale and retail businesses, in addition to thirty manufacturing establishments and two lumber mills. It also had seven churches, an enrollment in local schools of 1,400, and three hotels. Local farmers raised broiler chickens and beef and in the 1950s turned to dairying. Jasper also became the headquarters of Morgan and Lindsey, Incorporated, variety chain stores, which at one time operated eighty-five stores in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The population grew steadily after 1925, rising from 1,500 to a high of 6,500 in 1967; the number of businesses fluctuated between seventy-five and 225. After a brief decline in 1969, in 1990 the community reached a peak of 7,267 residents and 222 businesses. The only known soldier of the American Revolution to be buried in Texas was Jasper resident Stephen Williams,qv in whose honor a marker has been placed on the courthouse lawn.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Marie Smith, comp., Historically Marked Sites in Jasper County (Jasper, Texas: Jasper County Historical Commission, 1979).

Diana J. Kleiner

http://www.co.jasper.tx.us/Graphics/Jasper.jpg

[Gobbla2001]

http://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTownsSouth/CueroTexas/CueroChurchViewFromCourthouse02.jpg
view from Courthouse

http://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTownsSouth/CueroTexas/DeWittCountyCourthouse.jpg
The Courthouse

http://www.txcoastalbend.org/images/Cuero.jpg
The Wildflower Capital of Texas

CUERO, TEXAS. Cuero is at the convergence of U.S. highways 183, 77A, and 87, in central DeWitt County. It is the largest city in the county and the county seat. The first post office in DeWitt County was established in May 1846 in Daniel Boone Friar'sqv store, four miles north of the present site; it was also called Cuero (later Old Cuero). Cuero is named after Cuero Creek, which the Spanish had called Arroyo del Cuero, or Creek of the Rawhide, in reference to the Indians' practice of killing wild cattle that got stuck in the mud of the creekbed. When the Gulf, Western Texas and Pacific Railway was extended from Indianola to San Antonio, the Cuero site was chosen as a midway stopping point in the construction of the line. Although the tracks were not completed to Cuero until January 1873, construction of business establishments and homes was begun as early as November 1872. Among the first residents were Benjamin McCulloch and Gustav Schleicher.qqv Schleicher, who surveyed the railroad, platted the new town for his Cuero Land and Immigration Company, and Robert J. Klebergqv surveyed the site in January 1873.

The city government was organized in the summer of 1873; the town was incorporated on April 23, 1875, and it replaced Clinton as county seat in 1876. Cuero grew as Clinton declined, and after the great hurricanesqv of 1875 and 1886 people came from Indianola. Among the significant early businesses were Otto Buchel's bank, J. R. Nagel's hardware, and H. Runge and Company, a branch of Henry Runge'sqv Indianola-based store and bank, which was operated in Cuero by Edward Mugge, Sr. Mugge was joined by William Frobese, Sr., and Emil Reiffert, Sr., when the firm moved its operating base to Cuero after the hurricane that destroyed Indianola in 1886. These men are credited with much of Cuero's early expansion. Rudolph Klebergqv began publishing the weekly Cuero Star in June 1873. Other Cuero newspapers were the Deutsche Rundschau, a German-language paper established by William T. Eichholz in 1880; Lee Chaddock's Cuero Sun, in operation by the early 1890s; the Cuero Bulletin, established in the 1880s by Samuel L. Kyle and later absorbed by the Star; the Constitution, a populist paper published in the 1890s by Fay Carothers; the Daily Hustler, issued by James C. Howerton from July to November 1894; and the Cuero Daily Record, founded in November 1894 by Howerton, H. G. Woods, and B. S. Wright. Howerton became sole owner of the Record, which absorbed the Star and Deutsche Rundschau, and is Cuero's longest running newspaper.

Professor David W. Nash opened Guadalupe Academy (also known as Nash's School or Cuero Institute), a coeducational private school, in September 1873; it operated until about 1910. The Cuero Independent School District was formed in 1892; white, black, and Mexican-American students attended separate schools. Among the German social associations were the Order of Sons of Hermannqv and a turnverein (see TURNVEREIN MOVEMENT). Episcopalians organized the first Cuero congregation in 1874, and Catholics founded a church and school in 1876. Methodists built a church in 1884; Baptists organized in 1877 under Rev. John Van Epps Coveyqv and Presbyterians in 1878. German Lutherans had organized by 1880, and their congregation grew substantially from the Indianola migrations of 1886.

Cuero prospered despite a period of lawlessness and a disastrous fire in April 1879. Citizens organized the Home Protection Club, which drilled regularly as a military unit and aided law officers when necessary (see SUTTON-TAYLOR FEUD). Shipping opportunity increased in 1886 when the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway connected Cuero to Houston; good dirt roads and two free iron bridges across the Guadalupe River also served the community. The town's proximity to the river provoked much discussion of Cuero's commercial future through an inland waterway that was proposed but never completed. By 1887 Cuero recorded a population of 2,500, mostly Anglos and Germans.qv Rudolph Kleberg recorded in his Description of the Resources of DeWitt County, Texas: The Immigrant's Handbook (1887) that Cuero had an opera house, two large schools, a fire department, and a hotel. Truck farming became an important industry, as did cotton, poultry, and livestock. The Cuero Record reported in late 1886 that the town had a railroad machine shop and a $50,000 steam-powered cotton textile factory with sixteen looms, but also noted that there was much cattle rustling in the area. By the mid-1890s Cuero also had one of the state's largest cottonseed oil mills, capable of producing eighty tons a day; there were also three large cotton gins, an ice factory, two bottling plants, a cigar factory, a tannery, a private electric company, and the first of three hospitals. The Cuero turkey industry was already shipping processed birds nationwide by 1906, though the renowned Turkey Trotqv parade did not begin until 1912.

Cuero had an estimated population of 3,422 in 1904 and 3,671 by the mid-1920s, at which time the town had an assessed value of $3.7 million. The power dam on the Guadalupe River, which formed part of the community's privately owned hydroelectric plant, was the largest in the state. Cuero pioneered the turkey-raising industry in south central Texas and became one of the largest poultry markets in the Southwest. The city also supported large cattle, dairy, and meat-packing industries and produced pecans, cottonseed oil and products, and feeds. Its Crescent Valley Creamery was one of the largest independent creameries in the South in 1935. Oil speculation began in 1919, although a successful well was not hit until after 1929.

The city's population rose to 5,474 by the mid-1940s and reached 7,498 in the next decade. By 1949 the broiler-chicken industry had passed turkeys as the second most important source of livestock income. The Cuero Livestock Commission records show Cuero as the largest shipper of cattle in the state in 1942 and 1943, with more than 800 carloads exported per year. The commission, established in 1940, sold $251,750 worth of stock that same year; sales jumped to $1.3 million in 1941, $3.5 million in 1942, and $4.7 million in 1943.

Cuero's population peaked about 1969 at 7,800 and had declined to 6,920 by the mid-1970s. Agribusiness still dominated the local economy, though the turkey and cotton industries had declined in significance. In the mid-1980s the population reached 7,124, and the city supported 142 businesses. The county courthouse, built in 1895-96, was restored in 1955-57. The DeWitt County Historical Museum was established in Cuero about 1974. The population in 1990 was 6,700.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Roy Grimes, ed., 300 Years in Victoria County (Victoria, Texas: Victoria Advocate, 1968; rpt., Austin: Nortex, 1985). Nellie Murphree, A History of DeWitt County (Victoria, Texas, 1962). Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.

Craig H. Roell

[AggieJohn]

a little too much

[Gobbla2001]

Originally posted by HighSchool Fan
now that's an awesome song

Yah, that was one of my favorite songs until bad momories became attached to it :doh:

[CHS_CG]

CALDWELL, TEXAS
Burleson County Seat, Central Texas S

"Kolache Capital of Texas"

Highways 21 and 36
25 miles W of Bryan / College Station

Population: 3449 (2000)

History in a Pecan Shell

Caldwell was designated county seat in 1840 when the Texas Congress annexed all of Washington County north of Yegua Creek to Milam County. The proposed town, surveyed by George B. Erath and named for Mathew Caldwell, was laid out parallel to the Old San Antonio Road. Caldwell served as the county seat of Milam County until Burleson County came into being in1846.

The town had a population of 300 prior to the Civil War and it's prosperity was reflected in its brick courthouse. During Reconstruction, a company of State Police was stationed in Caldwell. Postwar Caldwell had its own newspaper, bottling works and an ice plant.

The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway built through in 1880 and in 1905 six passenger trains arrived daily.

The first tax supported public school was built in 1882.

Company E of the Texas National Guard, was headquartered in Caldwell became part of the Thirty-sixth Infantry Division. Many soldiers of this unit were captured at Salerno, Italy, in 1943 and remained POWs until the war's end.

The Annual Kolache Festival -
Second Saturday in September
On the Square Downtown


Caldwell Attractions:

Burleson County Czech Heritage Museum - History and culture of the Czech immigrants. Located at the Chamber of Commerce building. 212 W. Buck St.

Burleson County Historical Museum - in Burles County Courthouse.


Nearby Destinations:
Lake Somerville

http://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTownsSouth/Caldwell-Texas/CaldwellTexasBurlesonCountyCourthouseTXDoT1939.jpg

Burleson County Courthouse

1939 photo courtesy of TXDoT

[Phantom Stang]

Texas & Pacific RailwayHistory - Sweetwater, TX
Sweetwater, the county seat of Nolan County, is on Interstate Highway 20, U.S. Highway 80/84, State Highway 70, Farm Road 419, and the Santa Fe Railroad, forty-two miles west of Abilene in the north central part of the county. It was named for Sweetwater Creek and known as Sweet Water by postal authorities until 1918. The site held only a couple of tent stores and no permanent buildings when it was designated county seat at the organization of the county in 1881. The first stirrings of the community might be set in 1877, when Billie Knight ran a store for buffalo hunters in the area. The post office, established in 1879 on the creek three miles southeast, was moved to the new town the same year. The Texas and Pacific Railway started service in 1881, and by 1883 there were five saloons and other businesses. A store building constructed in 1881-82 at a cost of $8,755 served as both a jail and a courthouse until a new courthouse was built in 1891. Grand jury indictments returned throughout the county in 1881-83 included seventeen for murder, seventeen for assaults to murder, and forty-five for gambling and carrying pistols, but there is no indication that Sweetwater itself was an unruly community. Its population remained small and relatively stable for several years. The most celebrated occasion of violence in early days occurred because Sweetwater lacked a bank. It was rumored that the saloon operated by Chiflet and Gilliot often held up to $20,000 in cash deposits left by residents. In February 1883 there was a raid on the saloon that resulted in the murder of the saloon owners and the wounding of a bystander, N. I. Dulaney. Eleven of the seventeen murder indictments returned in 1881-83 arose from this saloon robbery attempt. The next month Thomas Trammell and others established a bank. The Sweetwater Advance began publishing in 1881. Incorporation came in 1884, 1897, and 1902. A blizzard in 1885 killed 90 percent of the area's livestock and was followed by the disastrous 1886-87 drought. The population in 1890 was half that of 1884. Prosperity revived when construction began on the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway in 1903. To encourage the railroads Sweetwater increased its water supply by building a small town lake in 1898 and, more ambitiously, Lake Trammell (1914), Lake Sweetwater (1929-30), and Oak Creek Reservoir (1950-52). Railroad shops have provided a steady payroll over the years. The Gulf refinery operated there from 1929 to 1954, and at one time the town was a large telegraph center. The International Harvester Company operated a factory in Sweetwater from 1920 to 1950. Gypsum plants, apparel manufacturers, cement plants, cotton compresses, a cottonseed oil mill, and packing companies were among the nearly 250 businesses operating there in the 1970s. The most important businesses trafficked in cotton, oil, and cattle. The Army Air Force used Sweetwater's airfield for training during World War II,qv and before that the field served as a training base for Britain's military flying cadets. In 1943 the Women's Airforce Service Pilotsqv were trained there. Sweetwater has a pioneer museum, a hospital, and a golf course, and the swimming, fishing, and other recreational facilities of Lake Sweetwater are significant amenities. The Rolling Plains campus Texas State Technical Institute, established in 1970, is four miles west of Sweetwater. The population of Sweetwater was 10,367 in 1940, 13,914 in 1960, and 12,242 in 1980. In 1990 it was 11,967.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Kathleen E. and Clifton R. St. Clair, eds., Little Towns of Texas (Jacksonville, Texas: Jayroe Graphic Arts, 1982). E. L. Yeats and Hooper Shelton, History of Nolan County (Sweetwater, Texas: Shelton, 1975).

William R. Hunt

[lostaussie]

lots of reading, but this is really quite interesting.

[Old Tiger]

Originally posted by HighSchool Fan
The Chicken Ranch that they mentioned OIC, I didn't know what the name of it was.

[Phantom Stang]

History of the
Sweetwater Municipal Auditorium



Golden Era of Rail

Sweetwater’s historic Municipal Auditorium is an 800-seat performing arts center that was built in 1926-1927 – at the time the railroads were the primary means of travel. Sweetwater has been a major railroad center since 1881, and its location midway between the Atlantic Seaboard and the Pacific coast meant that the Sweetwater Municipal Auditorium was a frequent performance venue used extensively by the glittering names during the golden era of traveling entertainment troupes. Audiences here have experienced the brilliance of Fred and Adele Astaire, the Ziegfeld Follies, John Philip Sousa, tent showman Harley Sadler, Sir Harry Lauder, and Broadway touring companies from such early productions as Seventh Heaven, The Bohemian Girl, Rita Rita, The Rain Maker, and Carmen.

A little bit country – A lotta rock-n-roll

In the 1950s, emerging country legends such as Eddie Arnold and Roy Acuff drove the region’s highways to play at the Sweetwater Municipal Auditorium. Then something else emerged as all rock-n-roll broke lose with the “Great Balls o’ Fire” of Jerry Lee Lewis and – in the tender year of 1955 – a young man from Tupelo put his blue suede shoes on the hard wood that once touched Fred Astaire. Elvis Presley rocked the Auditorium stage twice in 1955 – in June and again in December. His spirit has never left the building.

Collecting dust

With the continuing growth and improvement of highway travel – and the shift in entertainment from traveling troupes to motion pictures, radio, and television – the use of the Auditorium for performing arts continued to decline until it became essentially a huge storage building for municipal records, and the stage saw action only to hold the ring for summer boxing programs. By the 1970s, demolition was a real possibility. Fortunately for Sweetwater and for the West Texas region, the building was so well built that destruction proved to be financially impossible – but neglect and decline continued. Beginning with 1975 summer entertainment revues, dedicated locals swept the dust off of the neglected gem, and since 1982 there has been a constant commitment to renovation and rejuvenation. From local theater productions of the Sweetwater Little Theatre to local entertainment from the Sweetwater Municipal Band to the independent film “Red Desert Penitentiary”, creative and intensive fundraising efforts have produced dramatic results in polishing this regional showplace and providing a 21st century venue.

In 2003, the Sweetwater Municipal Auditorium hosted a reunion concert of the band “America”, screen legend Mickey Rooney, and “Ron Stein’s Hollywood Stars”, a major casino entertainment troupe of celebrity impersonators. In 2004, Jerry Jeff Walker appears in April. In October 2004, New York’s Charlotte Kendrick will anchor her U.S. tour by headlining the first edition of the Jim Wortham Memorial Concert Series – a showcase for the nation’s most talented emerging singer-songwriter-musicians. Jim’s daughter,vocalist Jessika Wortham Damron, will open the concert series.