Traces of Tx (today)

[Shakey Jake]

Queens Peak is four miles north of Bowie, Tx in Montague County. A section of stone wall from the original lookout post still stands on the south slope of Queens Peak. (I accepted a job as the band director in Bowie but bowed out before signing the contract back in the late 70's. I soon moved to the Houston area to take a job in Clear Creek ISD. I sometimes wonder how things may have turned out had I taken the job).
Photo by Matt Johnson.

[Shakey Jake]

The Battleship Texas just after being commissioned on March 12, 1914. The Texas is in dry dock in Galveston being restored: https://battleshiptexas.org/11-12-23-ba ... as-update/ The ships new home will be at Pier 21 in Galveston after an agreement with Texas Parks and Wildlife, Landry Inc, The Battleship Texas Foundation, and the port of Galveston. Restoration is scheduled to be completed in February 2024 at a cost of over 19 million.

[HenryFan]

It's surprising that a warship some 109 years old is still around to be restored.

[Shakey Jake]

This story has a lot to it. Texas Football, collapse on the field, and 17 years later the payback.
https://www.statesman.com/story/sports/ ... ik-JX3VQ3E

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1839, frontiersman Kit Carson allegedly carved his name and the date on a huge boulder on Sawtooth Mountain in the Davis Mountains. Carson was born in 1809 in Kentucky and grew up in Missouri. He ran away to Santa Fe in 1826 and subsequently embarked on an arduous and wide-ranging career as a fur trapper. As a guide and hunter for John C. Frémont in the 1840s, he gained national fame through Frémont's published reports. Carson was an Indian agent in Taos, New Mexico, in the 1850s. He served in the Mexican War and in the Civil War, commanding a New Mexico volunteer regiment in the battle of Valverde. His connections to Texas history included helping foil the Snively Expedition in 1843 and leading the attack against a large number of Kiowas and Comanches in the first battle of Adobe Walls in 1864. He died in Colorado in 1868. Engineers of the State Department of Highways and Public Transportation discovered the inscription on Sawtooth Mountain in 1941.

[Shakey Jake]

From Traces of History, Archeology, and Art:
When Paul Alexander of Dallas, Texas was just six years old, he was suddenly stricken with polio — along with some 60,000 other American children that year alone. Alexander almost died before quickly being moved into a life-saving steel ventilator, better known as an iron lung. And to this very day, 70 years later, he remains inside that same device. However, Alexander has never considered himself a victim. Despite being totally confined to his iron lung, he got his law degree, worked as a practicing attorney, and even spent eight long years painstakingly writing his memoir with a pen held between his teeth. This is the astonishing story of Paul Alexander, one of the last people on Earth still living in an iron lung: https://bit.ly/3JSE06P

[Shakey Jake]

Otters on the upper Brazos River in Palo Pinto County. Photo by Shane Davies.

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1976, Freddie King, celebrated African-American blues musician, died in Dallas. The Gilmer, Texas, native moved to Chicago when he was sixteen and developed his guitar style under the influence of Lightnin' Hopkins, T-Bone Walker, B. B. King (not a relative), and others. From 1950 to 1958 he played in neighborhood clubs and in the latter year made his professional debut. In 1963 he returned to Texas and settled in Dallas. In 1971 he recorded the first major live album ever made in Austin, at Armadillo World Headquarters, known as "the House That Freddie King Built." King opened AWH and returned periodically for fund-raisers. His recordings with Shelter Records brought him recognition throughout the state as a "top-notch Texas bluesman." Some of his classic songs were "Have You Ever Loved a Woman," "Hide Away," and "Woman Across the River."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE9H1bW-zQ4

[Shakey Jake]

Per Traces of Texas Facebook group:
Here's something crazy (ahem) that I never knew: George Jones played on the same bill as Patsy Cline when she performed what turned out to be her last show ---- and incurred Patsy's wrath. It was March 3, 1963, in Kansas City, and Patsy — who preferred to wait until after her performances before enjoying heavy meals — had ordered a mess of fried chicken to be waiting for her back in her dressing room after she finished. At least, it was waiting for her until George Jones, drunk and hungry, helped himself to the meal while Cline was on stage.
Patsy was not amused. She told George that, in retaliation for his chicken thievery, he would not be allowed to fly with her back to Nashville. That punishment, however, turned out to be a heavily disguised blessing: George was not on board when, two days later, Cline and others traveling with her were killed when the plane in which they were traveling crashed while on the way to Music City.
This story, by the way, comes from George's wife Nancy's memoir, "Playin' Possum," published a few months ago.
Shown here: musician George Riddle, Patsy Cline, and George Jones

[Shakey Jake]

The Tonkawa Tribe has purchased the land that Sugarloaf Mountain sits on. It was an important part tribal culture.
https://www.statesman.com/story/news/hi ... XJhDBVE2M4