So the Monday of my first full week in the office, my supervisor James took me on a tour of Montague County. We started off with a quick circle around the main downtown and historical area, then headed north out of town. James explained to me how there were multiple small, unincorporated communities around the county that maintained their own separate identities and school districts. As a result, we drove a mere 5 or 10 miles out of town and ran into 2 separate ISDs and communities.
One community started out as an oil pumper’s community, and it was easy to see why. I am a Texas girl, but I have never seen so many oil pumps in one place. The “North Field” has been a staple in Nocona’s economy for decades. In fact, one of the reason the downtown is able to revitalize is because there is an oil man out of Witchita Falls who bought some buildings in downtown and is moving his office to Nocona. While the rest of the country groans when the price of a barrel of oil rises, Nocona cheers because it means that the local oil tycoon can continue to invest and make large donations to the town.
We drove out to Red River Station. This is the original reason that Nocona as a town exists. It is along the Chisholm Trail, and Red River Station was the town that popped up along the Red River as the last town of civilization before the cowboys crossed into Indian territory. At the end of the road was Spanish Fort. It is now a handful of trailer homes and boarded up old buildings. It started as a French and Indian trading settlement, and the Mexican army came up and tried to push the Indians farther north, and ended up being driven back to the south to San Angelo. When settlers came upon the area later, they thought the Indian community ruins were that of a Mexican fort. Hence the name, Spanish Fort. James’ ultimate vision for Spanish Fort is to be a Luckenbach tourist destination at the end of the road. We also are now a film-friendly community, so it would be great to ultimately reconstruct the original Native American dwellings.
Next we drove along the red river to the nearest bridge – halfway between Nocona and Munster. Apparently the old bridge had been just north of Nocona, but Munster threw a fit until the bridge was moved to be equally in between the two communities – which pretty much puts it in the middle of nowhere and the single least-used bridge in the U.S. I’m probably exaggerating, but this is one of those bridges that has NOTHING around it for miles and miles.
From there we turned back to the south and to the shores of Lake Nocona. I couldn’t believe it. You have a very nice lake, which is virtually an untapped resource. The only public boat ramp is never used and has no restroom facilities or recreation areas. Most of the communities around the lake are again unincorporated and have zero covenants, meaning people could and have built anything and everything. Homes made from scraps of material and look like they would be much safer if demolished. James informed me that the majority of the “problem kids” in the school system come from this part of the county, and its no wonder why. I asked James where these people’s sense of pride was. Apparently they don’t have any.
After driving back through town, we headed south. We passed through Montague, the only unincorporated county seat in the State of Texas. The town of 900 consists of the beautiful county courthouse, which houses the only judge in the county, and a few obscure buildings around the courthouse, and not much else.
We also drove farther south to Bowie, the largest town in Montague County with a whopping population of 5,000 and discussed the well-established football rivalry between Nocona and Bowie. This rivalry makes inter-county cooperation non-existent and nearly impossible.
Our last stop was to explore my third and final project: the old vineyard. More on that later.
As a visual person, it was beneficial for me to have a mental picture of Montague County: where things are located, how its laid out, and the community dynamics at play.
No comments:
Post a Comment