Happy Holidays to all – from TomsTexasCountyCourthouses – and Tom & Clem. We did it – we got all of the East Texas Counties (north of I-20). We spent the week at Ramblin’ Fever RV park in Mt. Pleasant and did our travels from there. It was very doable – as many of the counties are small – but still, doing 18 counties in less than a week is a lot!
Visit Christmas Across Texas – Courthouse Style for some photos feature courthouses @ Christmas.
First – website updates! I have finally got a map that works and have posted it (Texas Map). This was a LONG time in coming and probably a little more difficult than I had hoped. So accept it for what it is. Second – I am in the process of downsizing all of the slideshows. I don’t know what ever possessed me to load such large files. I hope when this process is done, visiting the pages and seeing the slide shows will be a little faster in the future.
East Texas – we visited 17 new counties and revisited Harrison County. Of the 17 new counties – the ones that truly stood out included Hopkins County, Franklin, Red River and Lamar Counties. On the other end – Morris County was a true dud – right up there with Aransas. The other counties included: Bowie, Camp, Marion, Fannin, Wood, Titus, Rains, Upshur, Hunt, Delta, Cass and Gregg Counties. We photographed Witness Tower & First Methodist Church in Pittsburg, as well as the stunning First Methodist Church of Paris. The historic jails included: Red River, Bowie and Franklin. East Texas is packed with small historic towns – so I’ve included photos from: Pittsburg, Paris, Jefferson, Mt. Vernon, Mt. Pleasant, Gilmer, Bonham, Greenville and Clarksville.
East Texas is a land of trees and lakes. It has a beauty that much of the rest of Texas lacks (water helps). It is historic and commerce. Lots of logging and chicken farming (think – Pilgrim Chickens). There are huge plants hidden in the trees as well – such as the steel plant in Lone Star. And honestly, if you want to visit Texas history from a U.S. migration perspective, you can’t do better than Jefferson, Texas. And for – what to me is one of the absolute top 10 courthouses in Texas – visiting the Harrison County Courthouse in Marshall (another old Southern Texas historical town) is not to be missed. Our revisit was made as on our the first visit, some years back, the interior was closed – being restored. Going back to see this beauty inside as well as out was well worth the time.
Enjoy – I will soon be posting another update – perhaps as soon as this weekend. Happy Holidays!