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The Legend of Old Rip
The enduring legend of Old Rip began way back in the summer of 1897 in the west Texas town of Eastland, the county seat. Their courthouse had been damaged by fire and had to be replaced. As construction commenced, the good citizens decided to place a few items in a cornerstone to commemorate the auspicious occasion. City officials placed a bible and some other mementos inside the marble block. But, not to be outdone, county clerk, Ernest Wood dropped an unsuspecting horned lizard into what he, no doubt expected to be the lizards tomb. The stone was then sealed.
Thirty one years went by and it was decided that the courthouse should be replaced by a more modern facility. As the demolition of the building began, the talk of Eastland increasingly centered around the question of the unfortunate lizards state. Interest in the contents of the cornerstone grew to the point that over 3000 people crowded into the square to witness firsthand the opening of the block of marble.
On February 18, 1928, the horned lizard was lifted from his marble tomb, apparently lifeless and covered with the dust of 31 years. As he was held aloft for the crowd to see, his flat, dusty body began to twitch. IT'S ALIVE!!
Not only was it alive, the little lizard seem to be be saying to the man holding him by the leg, "hey, put me down". Well the astonished audience immediately christened the lizard Old Rip, for the literary figure Rip Van Winkle. From that moment forward the legend and controversy swirled around Old Rip. There were, of course, many doubters who loudly proclaimed the whole affair a trumped up publicity stunt, while still others vociferously denied any such thing. One citizen correctly asked the doubters, who claimed that the dead lizard was replaced by a live one, where a live horned lizard could have been found since all the little critters hibernate underground during the winter.
Since that fateful February day almost 80 years ago, the Legend of Old Rip has been kept alive largely by the people of Eastland county who know a good thing when they see it.
In the present day county courthouse, visitors will find one of several replacement Old Rip carcasses lying in state within a glass covered case.
Could a horned lizard survive 31 years entombed in a marble block without food and water? Or was the"miracle toad" really an elaborate hoax? The legend of Old Rip is just one of thousands of tales that weave together to create the colorful fabric of Texas Lore.
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Photos: Top, top half of the Nolan marker at Rio Vista, possibly an early stone placed at the gravesite of Nolan where he was buried by servants, but thought by others to be a hoax. The words "Sacred to the Memory of Nolan" with date 1843 are visibly scrawled on the stone. Bottom, bottom part of the marker at Rio Vista, the marker erroneously refers to the Spanish royal forces from Nacogdoches as Mexican soldiers |
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ADOLF HITLER UNWITTINGLY HELPED FURNISH LABOR FORCE FOR CONSTRUCTION OF LAKE TEXOMA
Although a construction project in America was not a part of their original plans,some of Hitler's crack Panzer (tank) troops were involved in the initial construction efforts of Red River Dam at Denison that created Lake Texoma. These men, who made up some of Hitler's top fighting forces before their capture in North Africa, were brought from their POW camps in Denison in spring 1943 and were responsible for helping get this massive construction project started by felling the trees on 300,000 acres of land. Although this was denied in official U.S. government circles, There were German citizens living in America when the war started on December 7, 1941 who were picked up by the U.S. government and held in internment camps, and who also were sent to Denison to work on the mammoth construction site. A personal friend in the German community in Dallas told us how her father was picked up in Fort Worth and sent to an internment camp in the Dakotas. He was subsequently transferred to a camp in Oklahoma, and then assigned to work on the Red River Dam.
Old Indianola
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On 18 April 1847, the main part of the American forces assaulted the Mexican batteries head on, led by Captain Robert E. Lee, assisted by Lieutenants U.S. Grant, P. G. T. Beauregard, and George B. McClellan. At the same time, Shields' division, including the Tazewell County volunteers, made a wide encircling movement through mountainous rugged terrain in order to try to come upon the Mexican position from the rear. The Mexican forces had assumed this route to be impassable.