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"CHARLEY
ECKHARDT'S TEXAS"
by C. F. Eckhardt |
New
Texas
Fever 7-5-09
From the late 1860s into the
1870s, Texas was, in effect, divided into two armed camps. The battlers were south
Texas cattlemen who needed to drive their cattle north to the railheads in Kansas,
Nebraska, and Missouri—and north Texas cattlemen, joined by cattle raisers in
the Indian Nations, Kansas, and Nebraska, who stood ready, with rifles if necessary,
to stop the drives.
The Snively Expedition
5-29-09
Jacob Snively
was either a con-man, a fool, or probably the unluckiest man on earth. It’s hard
to tell which. He claimed to be a mining man who’d prospected the Sierra Madres.
He also claimed he’d found one of the richest gold mines on the continent in the
mountains below El Paso, on the Texas side of the Rio Grande...
The
Murder Maverick 4-16-09
If you’ve ridden
many miles on the sunset side of the Colorado and listened to people talk in bars
and cafes, you’ve heard a good many tales. Once you get west of the Pecos, there’s
one in particular you’ll hear. You’ll hear the tale of a phantom steer called
‘the Murder Maverick.’...
Alley Oop
is a Texan? 1-14-09
Alley Oop, the cave-man
character created by Victor T. Hamlin in 1932, is a native Texan. The area around
present Iraan, Texas was a gold mine of dinosaur fossils. In the days before salvage
archaeology, the fossils were simply hauled away by the truckload. This gave Hamlin
the idea for a comic strip.
Garrett Murder
12-9-08
Nearly everybody knows that Sheriff Pat
Garrett of Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory, shot and killed a 21-year-old
bandit named Henry McCarty, who usually went by Billy the Kid, in Pete Maxwell’s
bedroom at Fort Sumner in July, 1881. What most people don’t know is that Pat
Garrett was himself murdered in Doña Ana County, New Mexico 27 years later. The
murder of Pat Garrett is one of the many unsolved mysteries of the West.
The
Marfa Lights 10-4-08
I’ve seen the Marfa
lights. Twice. Only the first time I saw the Marfa lights, what I saw wasn’t the
Marfa lights. This requires explanation...
The
Longest Train Ride 9-20-08
"Train #1 of the
Gulf & Interstate Railroad, which left Beaumont, Texas, at 7:00 AM on September
8, 1900, to make the run to Port Bolivar, about 85 miles away by modern highway,
arrived at Port Bolivar at 11:10 AM, September 24, 1903—three years, sixteen days,
and ten minutes late. Some of the original passengers were still aboard..."
The
Many Legends of La Llorona 8-12-08
"To
set the La Llorona story straight once & for all. I've been digging into La Llorona
for nearly forty years. This article pretty much sums up what I've found."
The
Eckhart Name in Yorktown and Elsewhere 8-1-08
Al
Jennings 7-21-08
Al Jennings of Oklahoma,
largely through masterful self-promotion, became for a time the best-known of
the outlaws of the American West. He was a genuine bandit, he did go to a Federal
penitentiary for attempted murder on a life sentence which was commuted to five
years in 1900. He was pardoned by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1902...
Keep yer powder dry! 6-1-08
Black gunpowder is extremely hygroscopic. That’s a five-dollar word scientists
use to mean stuff that gets wet real easy. In fact, black gunpowder will absorb
enough moisture from very humid air to make it unusable. ‘Keepin’ yer powder dry’
was of the utmost importance in the early West...
Before
Maw Bell - Rural Telephone Systems in the West 5-8-08
Alexander Graham Bell’s patent expired in the 1890s, and as soon as it did anyone
could legally manufacture and sell a telephone. Almost instantly both Sears, Roebuck
and Montgomery Ward began offering telephone sets in their catalogs... Across
much of the west, to the west of old US 81 (present I-35) in Texas... there was
already a network of wire covering most of the country, in the form of barbed-wire
fences...
The Forgotten Hero 4-24-08
Who was the first—and possibly the greatest—hero of the Texas Revolution? He’s
a man you may have heard of, but not very often. Try Ben Milam...
Hellagain
Hill - How Elgin Got Its Name 4-7-08
In Elgin
they’ll tell you the town was named for a Mister Elgin... If you ask the members
of the Shadetree Historical Society, they’ll give you a version of Elgin’s naming
that has nothing to do with a Mr. Elgin. They’ll tell you the original name of
the place was Helgin—derived from ‘Hell again.’...
The
Long Shot 3-17-08
If you know Texas history,
you know the story. At the second battle of Adobe Walls buffalo shooter Billy
Dixon used his Sharps rifle to shoot a Comanche chief off his horse at about 1000
yards. With the chief dead, especially at such extreme range, the Comanches called
it quits and left.
The L-O-N-G Roads of Texas: Texas-State-Highway-16
3-3-08
Texas’ state highways are some of the
most interesting ways to travel. They pass through—not go around—interesting communities
of every sort. The towns are both beautiful—sometimes (and sometimes not so beautiful)—and
often historically interesting. The two longest state highways in Texas are Highway
16 and Highway 6. Both cut across scenic and historically significant parts of
the state... |
Columns
- BiweeklyPreserving
Meat on the Frontier 2-21-08
Re-examining
the Mexican War 2-3-08The
Wail of the Wampus Cat 1-3-08Panoramic
Drawings 12-1-07
"If you do much historical
research, one of the things you're going to run across is beautiful, highly-detailed
panoramic drawings done in the 17th, 18th, and the first half of the 19th Centuries..."
The
General Was A Spy—And So Was The Pirate 11-2-07
James Wilkinson was Commanding General, United States Army... He was also the
top spy in the US for the Spanish Empire. He was designated Agent #1... Agents
#12 and #13 were the brothers Laffite, Pierre and Jean... Aliens
Amongst Us 10-21-07
About some plants and
animals that are entirely foreign to Texas—indeed, to the US...
Jesse
James. Miss Shirley’s Story 10-8-07First
to Fly 9-19-07The
Second Battle of the Alamo 9-4-07‘Mysterious
Cattle Deaths’ Not So Mysterious 8-15-07Was
South Carolina’s ‘Lost’ First Lady Buried On The Texas Coast? 8-1-07The
King's Texan and USS Texas 7-14-07Did
John Wilkes Booth Live In Texas? 6-30-07Who
Was J. Frank Dalton, Anyway? 6-15-07History's
Most Successful Failure - US Army's Camel Corps 6-1-07
In May of 1856, at Powderhorn, Texas, the US Army's most successful experiment
in overland transportation before the development of four-wheel-drive vehicles
powered by internal combustion engines began. By the end of May, 1866, the experiment
was dead. Henry
O. Flipper, An Epic Remaining To Be Told 5-14-07
Perhaps the most enigmatic figure in the annals of the American West is 2/LT Henry
O. Flipper, 10th United States Cavalry...Who
Killed the Chief? 5-1-07
Peta Nocona was
the husband of the captive white woman Cynthia Ann Parker-and the father of perhaps
the greatest of all Comanche chiefs, Quanah Parker. He was chief of a band of
Quohada Comanches. Over his death, over the years, there has arisen considerable
controversy. Bloody
Christmas 4-16-07
The Murder of LaSalle County
Sheriff Charles B. McKinneyThe
Bartlett Bank Robbery That Wasn't 3-28-07
Back during the 'hippie era' of the '60s, a group of 'unwashed intellectuals'
out of Austin decided to do their bit for the Age of Aquarius by robbing a bank...
The
Ancient Art of Dowsing 2-16-07
In the search
for water, minerals, and many other things, there is nothing quite as controversial
as the practice of dowsing...Sarah's
Dream 2-2-07
Josiah Wilbarger - Scalped Alive
on Onion Creek The
Other Houston 1-22-07
Temple Lea HoustonThe
Great Blackeyed Pea Hoax 1-1-07
Did you eat
blackeyed peas for good luck on New Year's Day? Did you do so because it's a 'great
ante-bellum Southern tradition?' If so, congratulations. You have been scammed
by one of the most likeable con-artists in Texas history...Mr.
Acton's Story 1-1-07
"...We headed for
that light. It was slow going, but we made progress-but when we got to it, there
was no house..." Fox
in the Pickup Bed 12-15-06O.
Henry and the Shoal Creek Treasure 12-1-06The
Little Engine That Couldn't 11-15-06
The
Fredericksburg & Northern Railroad Conan
in Texas: The Robert E. Howard Story 11-1-06Victor
T. Hamlin & Alley Oop 10-24-06Santa
Anna or Ste. Anne? 10-11-06
When Antonio
Lopez de Santa Anna y Perez de LeBron was captured following the battle at San
Jacinto, people in the United States government wanted to talk to him... Stampede
Mesa 9-27-06
"Stampede Mesa was-and
may still be-one of the most thoroughly haunted places in Texas."The
Devilin' of Old John 9-20-06
Old John was
about the oldest man I knew who was still working as a cowboy, and I don't know
how old he was when he died... To
Cultivate Vine and Olive 9-13-06
"Texas under
six flags." That's been around pretty much since who flung the chunk, and it's
wrong. "Texas under sixty flags" might be closer to the truth, and even some of
the six we claim never flew over Texas... One French flag we don't claim actually
did fly over Texas...How
the Texas Rangers Helped Win WWII 9-6-06Cowboy
Life on a Small Spread 8-30-06The
Coolerator 8-21-06To
Sleep Tight 8-16-06
The old expression "Good
night, sleep tight" once had real meaning. Beds didn't have springs in early Texas.
They had ropes... To
Build a House II 8-9-06
Adobe Houses
"...Adobe was brought to the Americas by the Spanish..." To
Build a House 8-2-06
Texas Log Cabins
and Log HousesThe
Whirlwind Lt. John Lapham Bullis and the Seminole Negro Scouts 7-26-06
One of the least-known heroes of the Texas frontier was a man known to his followers
as The Whirlwind and to his enemies as The Thunderbolt.Bob
Wills: The Greatest Fiddle-Player of Them All 7-19-06
"...He was a shirt-tail kid from Turkey... Sixty years after that beginning
he was a legend-Bob Wills ..."The
Gunfight that Killed Helena 7-12-06
"The
Colonel's son has been gunned down, in cold blood or so the story implies..."
The
Ghost on Highway 281 6-28-06
... "Oh," somebody
said, "you saw Lackey's ghost." Thereby, as the old saying goes, hangs a tale..."
The
Ranger's Creek of Gold 6-21-06
In the first
chapter of what was the treasure-hunter's bible for many years, J. Frank Dobie's
CORONADO'S CHILDREN... there are enough clues to tell you...
San
Antonio's Blue Book 6-14-06
'The Blue Book'
is the legendary directory of a city's 'red light' district...
National
Dish of Texas 6-7-06
Chili con carne.
The
Rise and Fall of Meansville, Texas 5-24-06
You
have to hunt for Meansville, Texas, and unless you have a guide who knows San
Patricio County well, you won't find it.
The
Lake That Wasn't and Was and Wasn't and Is 5-12-06
The story of Caddo Lake The
Ghost on Milam Street
Seguin's Headless Ghost
Column
begins May 2006 | C.
F. ECKHARDTHis
full name is Charles Frederick but uses his initials because his name is too long
to get on one line, goes by Charley with an 'ey' because he's not a perfume. He
was born a long time ago in Austin, Texas, and grew up in an atmosphere where
Texas and Southern history were part of his life almost from the day he was born.
His paternal grandmother, a lifelong member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy
and the Daughters of the Republic of Texas -- she was a 'real daughter' in the
former case, since her father was a Confederate soldier -- who lived with his
family until he was 12, was born when Sam Bass, Billy the Kid, Jesse James, and
George A. Custer were still all alive and kicking, and was a young lady before
Butch Cassidy stole his first horse. The man across the street was born when Texas
was still a republic, the man next door was the grandson of one of Jim Bowie's
companions at the Calf Creek fight in 1831, the man up the street was visited
frequently by an elderly uncle who knew way too much more about a couple of Clay
County, Missouri boys named Dingus and Frank than any peaceloving feller had any
business knowing, and just down the creek lived a feller named J. Frank Dobie.
Eckhardt grew up in Austin and on about 400 acres of hardpan, cedar brake,
and honeycomb limestone in western Williamson County, Texas. He attended the University
of Texas when there was only one, and managed to stay on good terms with both
H. Bailey Carrol and Walter P. Webb, which was considered something of an achievement,
as the two Ph. D.s hated each other's guts. He majored in history and holds a
BA in the subject. Since jobs in 'the history bidness' were hard to come by unless
one was politically 'correct' - which Eckhardt has spent a lifetime refusing to
be - he spent many years as a peace officer and soldier. Finally tiring of being
a moving target, Eckhardt pursued a trade that would allow him both the time and
the intellectual energy to pursue his first love, writing about Texas and the
American West. From this trade he retired on 30 March 2002, to pursue writing
full time.
Eckhardt's
books include THE LOST SAN SABA MINES (Texas Monthly Press, 1980), UNSOLVED TEXAS
MYSTERIES (Republic of Texas Press, 1990-co-author), TEXAS TALES YOUR TEACHER
NEVER TOLD YOU (Republic of Texas Press, 1990), TALES OF BADMEN, BAD WOMEN, AND
BAD PLACES-FOUR CENTURIES OF TEXAS OUTLAWRY (Texas Tech University Press, 2000),
and TEXAS SMOKE-MUZZLE- LOADERS ON THE FRONTIER, illustrated by Wesley G. Williams
(Texas Tech Press, 2001). Forthcoming is "Tales Told Across Campfires," from Texas
Tech Press, probably in 2005, and of course the perennial 'novel in progress'
that all writers have. He has been published in magazines as diverse as The Tombstone
Epitaph and the short-lived revival of Harper's Weekly, and in magazines in Great
Britain, Switzerland, and Australia.
Eckhardt lives in an historic home
in Seguin, Texas, with Vicki,
his wife of more years than she likes to admit, and numerous critters. |
Texas Books by C. F. Eckhardt |
| Texas
Tales Your Teacher Never Told You | | |
| Tales
of Badmen, Bad Women, and Bad Places | | |
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