Various Pic’s From Recent Travels

Sulphur Springs Texas



Sulphur Springs Court House – Constructed 1895.
The town square in Sulphur Springs is a dramatically different place. A vintage J. Riely Gordon courthouse occupies the northeast corner of the spacious town square. This offset location is both by choice and chance. The previous courthouse was built on the east side of the original town square. When that building burned down in 1894, a decision was made to buy additional property east of the town square and build the present day courthouse on the northeast corner of the enlarged town square.The net result of all these events in Hopkins County is a spacious public square with plenty of room for parking and public gathering. Along the eastern side of the square there's a bandstand and a small yard with trees and benches. The parking lot and walkways on the square are paved with red bricks. This adds a vintage feel to the place, and also creates a dramatic approach to the county courthouse.


LouViney Winery & Bistro
While you are enjoying the fabulous downtown area of Sulphur Springs be sure to have lunch, supper, or an afternoon wine at LouViney. LouViney Vineyards & Winery LLC established and bonded as a Texas Winery in 2005 by Susann Briggs, Nancy Briggs, and Susan Jones. It is the first commercial winery in Hopkins and Wood County. The name "LouViney" is our mother's nickname given to her by her grandfather.


Ogallala Nebraska – Front Street
Gateway of the Northern Plains; that was Ogallala from 1870 to 1885. Hard-bitten Wyoming and Montana cattleman met in Ogallala's hotel and saloons with Texas Cattle kings and bargained over cattle prices. Gold flowed freely across the table, liquor across the bar, and occasionally blood across the floor as a bullet brought some unlucky cowhand to his death on the floorboards of "Tuck's Saloon."

Ogallala's early history was unspectacular; it promised to be nothing but a section house and water tank for the railroad. Then, in the spring of 1868 appeared three men to set the destiny of Ogallala. These men were the Longergan brothers and Louis Aufdengarten. The Lonergan brothers came to do construction work for the Union Pacific Railroad, but they found the plains to their liking, subsequently then became interested in Ogallala.

By 1876, Ogallala had changed from its infant days in1868. The stores were all south of the railroad tracks. The stores fronted what was called Railroad Street. Aufdengarten's general store was on the corner of the intersection of this street and the trail leading south to the Platte River. Along this trail extended the rest of the town. The town consisted of saloons with such names as "The Cowboy's Rest" and the "Crystal Palace." The last building on the street was the "Ogallala House" -the dining room was widely patronized because of its excellent fare.

The tempo of living in early Ogallala changed with the seasons. During the months of winter and early spring life was drab and dreary. Shortly after the first of June the town began to hum with activity as the first Texas trail herds started to arrive. During the three summer months business boomed -ten to twelve herds, each of two thousand five hundred head could be located south of town. The presence of a hundred or more trail hands taxed the facilities of Ogallala. Sleeping rooms and meals were hard to find when the trail hands were in town. Activities in Ogallala continued at a fever pitch until the end of August, by then the Texans were heading back to Texas. By November, Ogallala had settled back in quiet and peaceful repose.


Lobster In Nebraska
One of the restaurants we dined at in Nebraska had a steak & lobster combo on the menu. Just what I was hungry for. But then I noticed one of the painting hanging in the restaurant. It was a kitchen scene. I was confused by the two chefs and the lobster. Not sure what they were discussing, I decided to just order the steak.

Beaver Dam Kentucky

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Beaver Dam Inn - Funny name, good place to stay. However it's just another dam hotel!

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

This was a really cool retro Denny's.

Bill Monrow – The Father of Bluegrass Music – Beaver Dam KY
Lots of new generation country musicians talk about their cultural roots, but not pioneering songwriter-singer-mandolinist Bill Monroe. Nearly a half century after being dubbed "the Father of Bluegrass" for his inestimable role in defining and popularizing that strain of country music.

Dallas Fly By
On the way home the “company plane” made a low pass over downtown Dallas. It means we are getting close to home. That’s a good feeling.

Fort Smith

Alice On The Road - My client and one of his customers attended a conference in Fort Smith Arkansas. They both particularly enjoyed the bidding auction fund raiser. In addition to winning the bid for the framed cattle trail map and the red long handle underwear (signed by Miss Arkansas Beef) the highlight was having their picture taken with the raining Miss Arkansas Beef and this years candidates.

Fort Smith

Fort Smith span the years 1817-1896. Soldiers, laundresses, Native Americans, civilians, federal judges and marshals, deputy marshals, jail guards, lawyers, and outlaws all played a role in the history that unfolded here.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The groundwork for Fort Smith's role in U.S. and Arkansas history was laid early and deep, as the native tribes that originally peopled the area during the Stone Age established communities in what later became valued and contested lands.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Early inhabitants of western Arkansas have been characterized as "bluff dwellers" whose civilization dates back to 10,000 BC. The bluff dweller culture was absorbed into that of invading tribes, and by the time that Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto ventured into Arkansas in 1541, the most numerous Arkansas residents were of the Quapaw tribe.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

In 1682, French explorer Robert cavelier de La Salle claimed the area for France as part of the Louisiana Territory. In Arkansas and back east, relocation of native peoples soon began as early European settlers required more land on which to live, hunt, and farm.

The later 1700s saw an increasing mix of native tribes west of the Mississippi, not all of who were on friendly terms. Closer proximity naturally resulted in heightened tensions and conflicts, endangering not just the tribe members themselves but also the increasing population of fur traders and pioneers who were employing the Arkansas River Valley as a funnel into the southwest.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

After Arkansas became an official part of the United States as the District of Arkansas in 1803, the federal government perceived a need to intervene in intertribal hostilities on the western edge of the burgeoning country.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

..

.

.

.

A new fort was established in 1817 on the banks of the Arkansas River where it meets the Poteau River, on a promontory of bluffs called Belle Point; the fort was named for General Thomas Smith of the federal garrison in St. Louis. For the next seven years, Fort Smith military personnel arbitrated clashes between the Osage and Cherokee tribes, negotiated treaties, and also patrolled the borders of the United States that were contested by Spain.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

For twenty-one years, Judge Isaac C. Parker held the bench of the U.S. Court for the Western District of Arkansas. His tenure was unique in the history of the federal judiciary; while most U.S. district judges toiled away on civil cases, Parker heard thousands of criminal complaints involving disputes and violence between Indians and non-Indians. He sentenced 160 people to death, and for fourteen years he did so while the condemned had no right of appeal.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

(The Gallows at Fort Smith)

.

Remembered in Western novels and films as a "Hanging Judge," Isaac Parker's real career and accomplishments in Fort Smith are far more fascinating and complicated.