Here and there

Here and there in East Texas.

• Each holiday, a hay bale north of Bethany, on the Texas-Louisiana line, wishes travelers its good wishes for the season. The last time I was there, the hay bale was celebrating. St. Patrick’s Day. The hay bale, of course, is decorated by the landowner.

• Texas’ oldest remaining gallows, still in place after nearly 100 years, is in the four-cell jail of the Sabine County Jail in Hemphll. The gallows, however, haven’t been used in eighty years.

• The best lookout in East Texas is likely from Love’s Lookout north of Jacksonville. Contrary to popular believe, the lookout wasn’t named for the lovers who often park there. The hill top was named for Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Love, who donated the site as a roadside park in the l930s.

• Coldspring originally stood in a low-lying area known locally as the “gullies.” When the county was built there, rainwater kept flowing down the hill, washing away the buildings’ foundations. The town eventually moved to the top of the hill, leaving behind a jail and courthouse. The courthouse burned in the 1920s and it, too, was rebuilt on the hill. The old jail, now a museum, still stands in the gullies.

• John Winfred Bowen, a farmer in East Texas, was born in 1885 with the remarkable ability to store facts and figures with the dexterity of a computer. “Believe It Or Not” cartoonist Robert Ripley once called him “the human computer.” A physician who examined Bowen said he was born with an extra brain cell which functioned much like a computer’s circuit boards.

• A few weeks ago, we wrote about German prisoners of-war who were used in the timber industry during World War II. Bonnie Miller of Huntington called to let us know that POWs were also used by rice farmers in the China area near Beaumont.

• When the Tyler Theater closed in 1982, the entire town mourned its passing. During its heyday, the theater was the showplace of East Texas. It was opened on August 2, 1940, with the premiere of “They Drive By Night” and ended in 1982 with “The Challenge,” a Japanese martial arts film.

• Edna Porter of Diboll would like to know more about Clay’s Mound, supposedly in Shelby County. If you know something about the community, get in touch with me, and I’ll pass the information along to Edna.

• The small town of Pluck in Polk County advertises a non-existent airport. A local man said: “Well, we’ve got a big field that’s perfect for an airport. All we need from the government are some runways, hangers, pilots and planes.”