Traces of Tx (today)

[Shakey Jake]

Either you like fruitcake or you hate it. I, in fact, love fruitcake and there's nothing better than a fruitcake from the Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, TX. They're not cheap but since I'm the only one in the house that likes it, I can freeze some and save for a later time. Here's a post from the Traces of Texas Facebook group.
The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day:
The Collin Street Bakery in Corsican baked more than one million pounds of fruitcake in 2020. How good is it? I don't even like fruitcake but I really like theirs.
Here's a photo of their bakers getting ready to bake more fruitcake back in 1912. Traces of Texas reader William McNutt kindly sent this in.
Collin Street Bakery

[Hatchdog]

^^^^^ interesting.

My wife and I both love fruitcake (my mom used to make it when I was a kid). I just might look up the bakery and see if they will ship one to me.

[Shakey Jake]

^^^^^ interesting.

My wife and I both love fruitcake (my mom used to make it when I was a kid). I just might look up the bakery and see if they will ship one to me.

I can personally attest it's good! Yes, they ship but you're a little late getting it for Christmas.
Jake

[Rifletom]

Jake, keep these history facts coming. They are interesting as heck. Really enjoy them.
Fruitcake, not so much.

[Mags]

Either you like fruitcake or you hate it. ...

Yup, hate it.

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1943, war hero and escaped prisoner of war William Dyess resumed his flying career and was killed while attempting an emergency landing in Burbank, California. Dyess, born in Albany, Texas, in 1916, was sent to the Philippines in October 1941. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and began assaults on Bataan and Corregidor, Dyess was thrust into combat as commander of all flying squadrons on Bataan. In March 1942 he sank a Japanese ship and damaged shore installations in Subic Bay. When American forces in the Philippines surrendered to the Japanese in April 1942, Dyess became a prisoner of war. He survived the horror of the Bataan Death March and imprisonment at camps O'Donnell and Cabanatuan and the Davao Penal Colony. In April 1943 Dyess and several other prisoners escaped from Davao and contacted Filipino guerillas, who led them to an American submarine. After evacuation to Australia and a hero's welcome in the United States, Dyess briefed the War Department on Japanese warfare and confirmed the enemy's brutality to POWs. After staying in an army hospital in Virginia to regain his health, Dyess was promoted to lieutenant colonel and resumed flying, with fatal consequences. During his life he received the Distinguished Service Cross, the Legion of Merit, and the Silver Star. He was posthumously awarded the Soldier's Medal. Abilene Air Force Base was renamed Dyess Air Force Base in his honor in 1956.

[Hatchdog]

^^^^^ interesting.

My wife and I both love fruitcake (my mom used to make it when I was a kid). I just might look up the bakery and see if they will ship one to me.

I can personally attest it's good! Yes, they ship but you're a little late getting it for Christmas.
Jake

Ordered a cake, I’ll post it elsewhere to keep your thread on track!

[markiver54]

Either you like fruitcake or you hate it. ...

Yup, hate it.

About the same category as mincemeat for me.

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1927, the Santa Claus Bank Robbery occurred in Cisco, Texas. At noon Marshall Ratliff, Henry Helms, Robert Hill, and Louis Davis entered the First National Bank of Cisco with guns drawn. Ratliff, dressed in a borrowed Santa Claus costume, entered the bank vault. Some of the bank customers escaped and alerted the police and town citizens. Gunfire ensued when Ratliff came out of the vault with a sack containing money. Two policemen were mortally wounded, and Ratliff and Davis were also wounded, Davis severely. As their escape car was almost out of gas and one of the tires had been shot out, the robbers commandeered another car, but the driver took the keys with him. They then left the wounded Davis in the car, forgetting the moneybag. The fugitives escaped on foot, stole a series of cars, and had more gunfights over the next several days. They were finally captured in Graham, Texas. The infamous Santa Claus Bank Robbery led to the largest manhunt ever seen in the state at that time.

[Shakey Jake]

In view of the Gunsight Mountains, the town was settled in the late 1870s with a post office being granted in 1880 when the population was 50. The town was all set for a boom with the discovery of oil in the 1920s. The town also had the benefit of being near the railroad (The Wichita Falls and Southern). The boom only raised the population to 150 and Gunsight lost both its railroad connection and its post office in the 1920s. The town's history from that point on is only known to a few.
It no longer appears on the state map and the population is given as a mere six people. The TxDoT County map shows the town in the smallest of print and a small cemetery at the site.

Records indicate that Gunsight existed on a wagon road from Fort Griffin to Stephenville in 1858. Settlement of the town, however, did not occur until the 1870s. The first recorded burial here was that of Lewis McCleskey in 1877. Gunsight developed as a stage stop and by 1880 contained a post office, school, two churches, gristmill, general store, and a cotton gin. The local economy, sustained by cotton farming and ranching, was boosted by an area oil boom in the 1920s. The town began a steady decline after World War II and today consists of a few houses, a few buildings, and this cemetery.