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J. Frank Dobie was one of the best writers of stories of the Southwest. The book that I have read many times is Coronado's Children, a book about hidden treasures.  It was often rumored that Coronado had stashed away lots of valuable treasure as he and his entourage traversed the southwestern states.  It was storied that he had placed gold in this cave, or that cave, only to be lost due to the erosion of information with passing time.  I have read these stories many times as they are written with such finesse that it is really difficult to tell whether they are tales or are they accounts of scattered information.   The stories have captured the minds of many people as some have spent years looking for buried treasure. Then I read a story of an early settler finding a man with a gunshot wound and helped him to a place where he could recover. As it was, the man died (that's an important part of the tale) but before he died he told of a stash of gold coins that he hid ...

There must be a direct correlation between the number of people and the availability of land.  If there is a direct correlation today, it might not be the same in the future as the value of land is shifting.  Individuals seem to not care to own land and large corporations, seeing the profit potential in land are hungry for land. In Texas, it all started with the separation of Texas lands from Mexico as a result of the war with Mexico.  Those early settlers and those who fought in the war with Mexico were given grants of land from the Republic of Texas as a reward.  The grants were large (by todays standards) ranging from 1380 acres to 640 acres. The process went something like this:  the grantee was given a certificate which when submitted to the government, allowed the grantee to request a survey in an area chosen by the grantee.  That survey then took on the name of the grantee.  Since this parcel of land now had its first owner, that owner is said...

Our town has a monopoly supermarket that is really customer oriented.  Some of the features are that in spite of state laws prohibiting the presence of dogs, uh, mutts, some customers  bring in their pets into the store by brushing right past  anyone who may raise an objection. It provides food for not only the human customer but also the birds of the neighborhood. Where are we?  We are not in a Mexican town  bordering Texas, where even cattle could roam in and look around and probably not even be noticed.  No, its not that kind of market, it does have doors which are usually closed and opened only automatically when a customer approaches the door. But what about the birds? Take a studied look at parking lots where cars arrive having driven through a lot of bugs and you see Grackles greeting each newly arrived car and immediately going to the front end of the car to inspect it for any fresh bugs that may be plastered on the frame or grille.  Their be...

Topics such as this one seem to come out of the blue---the term used in the past, now we say its an idea that came out of cyber space.  No matter what, the topic was an interesting one. Here is the scene:  its rural America, the year is about 1940, the War had not started for us but was on the horizon. Most families had cars, but usually only one. There was no television, phones were basic in that most people had so called party lines, thus making them unsuitable for chatting between family members. This situation created the normal behavior of frequent visits between relatives, but also between unrelated friends. Dad and mom would announce that we were going to visit so and so, and we would all get in the car and drive to their house.  If they were home we would be greeted cordially and spend the next few hours chatting.  If there were no other children in this household, we would sit like little angels and speak only when spoken to, which was not often.  If ...

Local history is interesting because it often comes from stories passed down over the years. The only problem is that the stories usually undergo some change with each generation of story tellers so that the current version is no where near that what actually occurred.  But, that too, is part of the enjoyment of local history. Hays County, where we live, is quite rich in history because it is sandwiched between Travis and Bexar Counties, both of which have their own rich history.   Hays County has some local history in written form, but not nearly what it should have given its wealth of history. Every so often, we encounter a unique opportunity to chat with someone who was pretty close to the situation which created the history. We were cleaning up the front entrance when a truck stopped and the gentleman got out and walked to where we were working.  He introduced himself, and I immediately recognized his name.  He's the man that lives in the stone house----th...