Postcard From Huntsville, Texas

Continued from (roadtrip post 3)

In case you are entertaining a trip to Huntsville, Texas and wondering about where to stay, be aware that the Best Western my road trip buddy and I stayed at is pretty much a hit-or-miss. The location is good, the price was less than $90 and the room was clean and decent sized, but the wifi was slow when it worked and would periodically drop. The "free" breakfast was just ok, the ice machine was broken and the pool was full of green water. I doubt we would stay there again as there are a number of other like-priced chains that might be a better option. Just my opinion from this one stay.

We were headed to the Texas Prison Museum, but first we stopped at an interesting home - the famous "Boot House."  There’s probably no other house quite like this one. Only in Texas does a boot-shaped home seem fitting.

Boot House on the right

The "Boot House" is a design of the world-famous artist Dan Phillips who works with The Phoenix Commotion, a group that builds with recycled materials. This 700-square-foot home stands at an impressive 35 feet tall and while it seems more like a huge work of art than an actual house, the interior is very cozy and livable. Inside, there's a working kitchen, a loft for the bedroom, a full bath, and an extension which adds plenty of room to the boot house. Even more impressive is the attention to detail inside the boot: granite floors, a fireplace, and a bright red spiral staircase. There’s even a roof deck located at the very top of the boot, offering an impressive view of the town. If you are interested, the boot house can be rented for $1,200 a month.

Disappointed that we couldn't tour the Boot House or even walk around it (private property and heavy rush-hour auto traffic on the road in front of it), we drove to the Texas Prison Museum. Huntsville is home to five state prisons and is the headquarters for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). Located just off Interstate-45, the red-brick museum is where most of the existing memorabilia for the whole Texas Corrections System is housed. The five prisons along with two county jails make incarceration Huntsville's largest industry.

Upon entering the museum, after paying the $7 per person entrance fee ($5 for seniors), you watch a short video about the Texas prison system and improvements — like offering education and job training — it has made over the years. Then you are free to wonder around and see the many interesting artifacts on display, all of them the real, actual items. There's a gun that belonged to Bonnie & Clyde which was retrieved from their death car. There are many contraband items, like a knife which had been hidden in a flip-flop sandal, a coke can with a false bottom and dozens of "shanks." When a person is desperate, has limited resources and unlimited drive and time, they can do some pretty innovative things. The museum shows how anything can be turned into a shank if you have enough time. They have shanks made from toothbrushes, plates, trays, paper, glass, almost anything you can think of. There is also an art display which shows what else inmates create with time and limited materials: a jewelry box and cross made from matches, a rosary made from pencils, a hand-drawn game of “Prisonopoly,” patterned after a Monopoly board with real estate named for Texas prison units.

One of the most moving item is a wall of pictures of inmates and members of their victim's families along with quotes from the condemned just before they are put to death and from the victim's family members who watched them die. A few of the condemned are just plain mean, bad individuals to the very end who made the world a better place with their demise, but most seem genuinely  sorry for their bad deeds, don't make excuses and accept their punishment as deserved. Of course, when you are facing imminent death, I guess it's natural to get religion, tell your loved ones how sorry you are to cause them such pain, and want forgiveness from those you've wronged.

Probably the most interesting item on display is Old Sparky, the actual electric chair which was used to kill 361 people. It sits in a replica of the red-brick death chamber at the Huntsville Unit prison less than 3 miles away. The inmate-built oak chair glems beneath a spotlight with its leather straps curled around the chair's arms and footrests. Metal housings for the electrical works wrap around the side of the chair. It's pretty darn sobering to stand just a few feet from that chair and think about all the people that died in it.

There is also an exact replica of a jail cell you can enter and shut the cell door behind you. I did that and almost immediately opened that door and came back out. It only took a few seconds to confirm what I was always sure of - jail is not for me!

On the way out, there is a small gift shop mostly filled with products the inmates themselves have made. The $25 nickel key chains reading "Death Row" are very popular. Also for sale are t-shirts, some with the image of Old Sparky and reading "Home of Old Sparky." For $4 you can buy an Old Sparky shot glass or for $2 you can get a box of "Solitary ConfineMints." A portion of the money made from the sale of an inmate-made item is credited to their commissary account. A visit to this museum seems to be a bit dark, but it is interesting, for sure.

After leaving the museum, we naturally had to visit the inmate cemetery nearby. The official name is the Captain Joe Bird Cemetery, but most people know it as "Peckerwood Hill." Peckerwood is derived from an old African-American insult for poor white trash people. Since most of the graves hold poor people, the nickname stuck. This is the place where the bodies of prisoners who were not claimed by family are buried. Within its 22 acres are about 3,000 graves of convicts who were buried by other prisoners who serve as pallbearers, chisel names in headstones and dig the graves using shovels. A lot of the graves are only marked by concrete crosses with prison ID numbers and date of death. Some have names and birthdates inscribed. Headstones of executed prisoners have ID numbers that start with "999," the state designation for a death row prisoner, or a simple "EX" or just an "X." 

There is an empty grave located here that stands out. It is the grave of a Native American, Santanta (White Bear), the famous Kiowa war chief. He was born around 1820 during the height of the Plains tribes power and was one of the best and last Kiowa chiefs. He established an enduring alliance with the Comanche and fought with them at the First Battle of Adobe Walls and in many engagements and raids against the encroaching white men. Finally realizing it was futile to continue fighting, he negotiated a treaty and promised his people would move onto a reservation. Unfortunately, his people had to hunt for food and prepare for the move first, so when they didn't move to the reservation fast enough, General George Custer arrested him and held him hostage until the move was accomplished. 

In early 1871, with white men hunting on their reservation lands, Santanta led a raid on a wagon train and killed several men. When he returned to the reservation, General William Sherman assembled a large force of soldiers and arrested him along with two sub-chiefs. Santanta was taken to Jacksboro, Texas to stand trial for murder, the first Indian to be taken to trial. He was found guilty and the judge ordered the sheriff to "hang him by the neck until he is dead, dead, dead." Before that could happen though, Edmund Davis, the governor of Texas, commuted his sentence to life in prison. He was a model prisoner and was paroled in September, 1873. 

A few months after his release, members of his tribe attacked and killed several buffalo hunters who were hunting on their reservation. Santanta was blamed and even though all the members of the tribe said he was innocent and not even at the fight, he was found guilty of violating his parole and once again sentenced to life in prison. He was taken to the state penitentiary in Huntsville to live out the rest of his life. Forced to work on roads and building railroad tracks as a member of a chain gang, he gave up hope of ever being free. His spirit was broken and he spent hours looking through the bars of his cell's window back toward the north, the hunting grounds of his people. 

On October 11, 1878, he was taken to the prison hospital which was the top floor of a 3-story building. Deciding not to spend the rest of his life in a white man's prison, he commited suicide by throwing himself out of a window head-first. He was buried in the prison cemetery, but in 1963, his grandson, an artist named James Auchiah, received permission to move his remains to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Out of respect, his former grave has been marked and maintained. 

An interesting side note of Santanta, the character of Blue Duck in Larry McMurtry's book "Lonesome Dove" was partially based on his life and death.

World's 2nd Longest Burning Lightbulb

There's something to be said for an object that just keeps on doing its job, day after day, year after year. Especially when that object consists of thin glass and wispy little wire. Steadiness in good times and bad. Reliability and durability you can count on.

In 1970, the Guinness Book of World Records listed a light bulb in in Ft. Worth, Texas as  the world's "most durable." But then somebody in Livermore, California jumped up and said a bulb in a fire station there had been burning even longer. A lady claimed she was the daughter of a man who had donated some light bulbs to Fire Station #6 on East Avenue and she remembered the light bulb being installed and turned on in 1901. Or maybe it was 1902. Or it might have been 1905. Even with this somewhat sketchy "documentation," Guinness decided the claim was legitimate and the little lightbulb in Ft. Worth was dethroned and relegated to obscurity.

Since bulbs usually fail when they are turned back on, the city of Livermore installed a dedicated power source for the bulb to ensure no electrical interruption even in a blackout or a fire house blown fuse. A rheostat was installed to smooth out any power surges. For its maybe, possibly 100th birthday, the Sandia National Laboratories donated and installed a "Bulbcam," a small camera which has its own web page showing the world that "The Centennial Light," as it has been named, is still burning.

"The Eternal Light"

But what about that forgotten bulb in Ft. Worth? Even in relative obscurity, it still burns, still doing its job. Known as "The Eternal Light," it spent its early life illuminating a stage door entrance at Byer's Opera House on 7th Street. Thanks to meticulous record keeping by the opera house, this bulb is proven to have been screwed in and turned on by a stagehand named Barry Burke on September 21, 1908. The opera house was sold in 1919 and turned into the Palace Theatre, but being a rear door, the light was never turned off throughout the years.

In 1970, a nameless somebody flipped a very dusty, never used switch just to see what it went to. The building's owner happened to walk by as the bulb went dark. When he found out what caused it, in a panic, he flipped the switch back and was astounded and relieved when the little light came right back on and burned as steady as ever. After shouting a while (nobody knows what happened to the guy whose curiosity got the better of him and flipped the switch), he placed a piece of cardboard over the wall switch with clear instructions to never, ever, ever touch the switch. 

"The Eternal Light" in it's display case.

Ft. Worth Stockyards entrance portal.

The only other time the bulb was dark was in 1977 as the old building was being torn down. A man named George Dato knew about the bulb which had been burning for so long and managed to remove it and put it in a socket at his home which he then kept turned on. In 1991, it was turned off one more time, the bulb unscrewed and transported to a socket in a glass display case in Ft. Worth's Stockyards Museum. Everyone held their breath when the power was flipped on, but once again, the bulb began glowing and it hasn't stopped yet. 

To see the unheralded World's 2nd Longest Burning Lightbulb, visit the Stockyards Museum at 131 E. Exchange Ave, Ft. Worth, Texas. You might want to hurry as there is no telling when it will finally give up the ghost and become just another burned out bulb. Or who knows, the thing just might keep on shining and outlast us all.
 

Bonnie & Clyde - Little Known Facts

The Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Museum in Gibsland, LA.
The building is the site of the former Canfield's Cafe
where Bonnie & Clyde stopped for sandwiches 45
minutes before their death. The museum is owned
and managed by "Boots" Hinton, the grandson of one
of the lawmen who ambushed and killed the outlaws.  

Bonnie Elizabeth Parker was born in Rowena, Texas on October 1, 1910. When she was just 4 years old, her father died so her mother moved herself and her 3 children to Cement City, an industrial suburb of Dallas. By the time she was in high school, Bonnie was a top student, winning contests in writing, spelling, and public speaking. In her junior year though, she met Roy Thornton, also a high school junior, and fell deeply in love with him.  She had grown up wanting to be a famous actress, but the love-birds dropped out of school and married on September 25, 1926 just six days shy of her 16th birthday. Roy soon proved to be a womanizer and small time crook, often leaving Bonnie alone for weeks at a time while off with another woman or serving short stretches of time in jail for petty crimes. In January, 1929, he was sentenced to a term of 5 - 8 years for robbery and Bonnie moved back in with her mother. She found a job as a waitress in a local cafe, but she often complained of the boring and lonely life she was leading. At the cafe, one of her regular customers was Ted Hinton, a postal worker who would later join the Dallas sheriff's office and become a member of the 6-man posse who would have a meeting of a totally different kind with Bonnie on May 23, 1934.

Clyde Chestnut Barrow was born on March 24, 1909 in Ellis County near the town of Telico a few miles southeast of Dallas.  Clyde, his parents and 6 brothers and sisters moved to the slums of West Dallas in the early 1920's, sleeping at night under their wagon until their father earned enough to buy a tent large enough for them to all sleep in. Clyde's first passion was music. He became a good guitar player and taught himself the saxophone. He wanted to make his living playing in a traveling band. In 1926 though, Clyde rented a car to go see a girl who had broken up with him. He failed to return the car on time and he was arrested for theft of an auto. He gave the car back and the charges were dropped, but he was soon arrested again when found riding in a truck with his older brother Buck. The back of the truck just happened to contain a number of stolen turkeys. After a short stint behind bars for the stolen turkeys, Clyde decided to join the navy. He went to the recruiting station but before arriving there, he stopped and got a tattoo on his left arm which said, "USN." During his military physical, it was found he still had some lingering effects from his boyhood bout with yellow fever which resulted in his medical rejection for naval service. 

On January 5, 1930, Bonnie had lost her waitress job and with her husband still in jail, was staying in West Dallas helping out a female friend who had broken her arm. She was making hot chocolate in the kitchen when Clyde and a friend stopped off at the house for the friend to visit the girl with the broken arm. Clyde walked into the kitchen and it was love at first sight for both of them. The crime spree began soon after and "the legend of Bonnie & Clyde" slowly became entrenched across America over the next four years.

Marker at the ambush site. Some
people shoot it, some leave
flowers, some deface it with
graffiti, others leave bullets
and shotgun shells. 

At about 8:45 on the morning of May 23, 1934, Bonnie & Clyde stopped at Ma Canfield's Cafe in Gibsland, Louisiana for breakfast. They ordered 2 sandwiches and 2 coffee's to go. At 9:15, they were driving down Louisiana Highway 154 about 8 miles south of Gibsland when they slowed down because they saw the car of someone they knew pulled off to the side of the road like it was broken down. With no warning and before the car even came to a stop, six law enforcement officers, including Ted Hinton, one of Bonnie's regular customers when she was working as a waitress, opened fire with shotguns, automatic rifles and hand guns. The shooting stopped only when the officers had used all of their ammunition. There were over 150 bullet holes in the car. Clyde had been hit with 17 shots; Bonnie 26. When the officers got to the car, Bonnie was found leaning against Clyde, her head on his shoulder, a half-eaten sandwich clutched in her right hand. She was still wearing her wedding ring given to her by Roy Thornton when she married him at age 15. Visible on the inside of her right thigh was a tattoo, two interconnected hearts labeled "Bonnie" and "Roy." On the floor behind Clyde, officers found his saxophone. 

Word of the ambush quickly circulated when 4 of the officers went into town to telephone their respective bosses. Before the undertaker could get to the site, a large crowd of people had gathered around the death car and the two officers who had remained behind to guard the scene couldn't control them. Individuals began reaching in the car and cutting off pieces of bloody clothing to take for souvenirs. Broken glass from the shattered windows was taken, several guns were taken from the car and when the coroner finally showed up, he found people cutting patches of hair from the bodies. He had to chase away one man who was trying to cut off Clyde's left ear with his pocket knife and another man who was trying to cut off Clyde's trigger finger. Additional police finally arrived and pushed back the growing throng of onlookers and souvenir hunters.

The side of the remote road where Bonnie & Clyde's
car came to a stop after being shot over 150 times
with rifles, shotguns, and pistols. 

The coroner had the car with the bodies still inside towed to the Conger Furniture Store and Funeral Parlor in downtown Arcadia. He called H.D. Darby, a young undertaker in nearby Ruston to assist him with the bodies. Just 13 months earlier, Darby and a lady friend had been kidnapped by Bonnie and Clyde during a robbery. They were both later released unharmed about 50 miles from Ruston. He said the outlaw pair had treated them kindly and had even given them some money so they could get back home. He also reported that Bonnie had asked him what kind of work he did. When he told her he was an undertaker, she laughed and replied, "Maybe someday you'll work on me." He did.

The side of the road where the lawmen hid in a stand
of trees when they ambushed Bonnie & Clyde. 

The 6 lawmen who took part in the ambush were each promised 1/6 of the reward money. At that time, rewards totaled over $150,000. After the deed though, most of the state, county and other organizations reneged and never paid. In the end, each of the 6 lawmen received $200.23 and a few souvenirs.

Bonnie & Clyde wanted to be buried together, but Bonnie's mother refused to allow it. She hated Clyde, blaming him for her daughter's life of crime and death. Clyde is buried next to his brother Marvin with a double headstone marking their graves. It is inscribed with the phrase, "Gone but not forgotten." Bonnie's grave, also in Dallas but in a different cemetery, is marked with a simple stone inscribed with her name, birth and death dates, and a poem - "As the flowers are all made sweeter by the sunshine and the dew, so this old world is made brighter by the lives of folks like you."

Postcard from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

Reagan statue at the entrance to
 the library

While in California visiting a friend recently, we took the opportunity to take in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. Having never been to a presidential library before, I was very pleasantly surprised to find it to be an interesting exhibit of artifacts, historical documents and interactive displays. There was a full-sized replica of the Oval Office and Ronald Reagan's actual Air Force One plane along with a replica of the White House's Rose Garden.

I always thought Reagan was a pretty good president, but I came away more impressed with him and some of the things he said way back in the early 1980's ring truer than ever today. To be honest, initially I wasn't expecting much and was not very enthused about going to a presidential library. I only went to accompany my friend who wanted to see it, but I definitely came away wanting to visit more of them. Before we left the gift shop, I purchased a Presidential Library Passport. Looking like a passport and about the same size as one, it contains information and the location of each presidential library in America and has a place to get the page stamped as you visit. There happens to be 3 of them within easy driving distance of my home and I fully intend for there to be some stamping going on soon!

The library is on the top of a high hill which offers
a great view of the surrounding area

Signs of Reagan's favorite sayings were posted
throughout the library

Full-sized recreation of the Oval Office

Reagan's presidential limo

Ronald Reagan quote, March 6, 1981

Reagan's Air Force One. We took a tour
of it - pretty impressive!

Ronald Reagan quote

Piece of the Berlin Wall

Bye-Bye Spooky New Orleans

With only one day left in our New Orleans adventure, the Mama-woman and Youngest-daughter wanted to visit the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas and do some shopping while I wanted to visit the acclaimed World War II Museum. They had no interest in my museum and I had no interest in more shopping so it was adios, catch you later, see ya and off our separate ways we did go.

The WWII museum is very extensive and informative. I thought the ticket price was a bit high at $22 per person. but if you are active military or a veteran, you get a real nice discount so I paid a much more reasonable $13. Following the displays and artifacts through the maze-like corridors proved to be a bit of a challenge as the proper chronological route is not always clearly marked and several times I found myself in rooms I had already seen and had to backtrack to figure out what turn I had missed. Other than that minor complaint though, I found it to be interesting and would certainly recommend it. Allow yourself 3 or 4 hours to go through it.

Amazing architecture throughout the city,
but especially in the French Quarter

Later that afternoon, I hooked back up with the women folk and we just walked around, taking pictures and enjoying the sites until we were able to meet the Sis-in-law for supper. She just happened to be in New Orleans attending a business conference during the last 2 days of our visit, but couldn't get away to meet up with us until after the conference was over. While waiting for our food to be delivered, we told her about the ghost tour we had gone on the previous evening and she told us of her own interesting experience the night before. While we paid good money in search of ghosts, she actually had a frightening up close personal ghost encounter and it came free with her room!

When she decided to attend the conference, she simply picked one of the hotels nearby. She made her reservation at the Hotel Chateau Dupre' not knowing it has the reputation of being haunted. It wouldn't have mattered to her anyway. She had an open mind, but didn't actually believe in "any of that nonsense."  And the first night, absolutely nothing happened except she got a good night's rest in the old, but well-kept room. It was the second night that challenged her non-belief.

After being at the conference all the next day and then going out to eat with some of her business associates, she returned rather late to her room ready to relax and prepare for the following day's activities. Her "room" actually consisted of 2 rooms - the bedroom and a sitting room with a television which led to the bathroom. She had just settled into the bed with all of the lights out when she heard a noise. It sounded like someone slowly, softly walking across the room. She was looking toward the sound trying to see something when the light in the sitting room came on. Scared now and certainly unnerved, she called out, "Is somebody there?" All was quiet for several seconds when the TV came on! 

Entrance to the Hotel Chateau Dupre

She was pretty freaked out now, but was sure she had locked the only door into her room and absolutely knew nobody was in the room before turning out the lights. She worked up her nerve, slowly got out of bed, picked up a large bag of rather heavy written material she had brought back from the conference, and tip-toed to the sitting room. When she looked in, nobody was there! She turned on all of the lights in the whole room, checked the bathroom and was positive nobody was there. She decided it must just be something weird going on with the electricity in this old building so she turned off the TV and all of the lights and went back to bed.

She was laying there trying to calm her nerves and go to sleep when once again, the light came on and a few seconds later the television came on, this time with the sound turned up! This time she was just mad so she got up, marched into the sitting room and saw again that nobody was there. At least, nobody visible. She spoke in her most authoritarian voice and said, "OK, enough of this! I'm tired and I have a big day tomorrow so I need to get to sleep!" She reached over, turned down the volume very low on the TV and said, "I'll leave the TV on for you to watch, but don't turn up the volume. And I'll leave 1 lamp on over here for you, but do not turn on the big light overhead and YOU LEAVE ME ALONE SO I CAN SLEEP!" She went back to bed, pulled the covers up to her chin and went to sleep with no more problems from her unseen visitor that night.

Room 203 - where a spirit likes to play tricks on guests?

The next morning, not only had she not been bothered the rest of the night, but when she went through the sitting room into the bathroom, she noted both the TV and the side lamp were turned off!  She was taking a shower when she noticed the shower curtain moving a little peculiar  As she watched, she could make out a hand that was gently  brushing from left to right! Once again, she screwed up her courage and peeked out from the end the furthest away from where the indention was moving. As soon as she looked, the indention and shadow disappeared and she saw absolutely nothing. She said, "I told you to stop it. Now leave me alone!" And that was the end of any eerie activity.

Now I've known this lovely lady very well for many, many years and I've never in all that time known her to not tell the truth or even embellish a story. Still, I asked her if she was yanking our chains and she assured me she was telling the absolute truth. I was really impressed. If that had happened to me and I was by myself, I'm not so sure I wouldn't have gone running out of there screaming like a little girl and demanding a different hotel or at least a different room!

Youngest-daughter not so sure she wanted to go into the
Hotel Chateau Dupre'

With bellies full of food, we parted so she could catch her flight back home and we went back to our non-haunted hotel to pack and get ready to head home ourselves early the next morning. It had certainly been interesting and we had totally enjoyed our time in this unique city. If you've never been to New Orleans, you don't know what you're missing. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

The inside of the St. Louis Cathedral

Another picture inside the St. Louis Cathedral

Beads left over from Mardi Gras. Notice some person's sense of
humor - One "Day"

Entrance to Saint Louis Cemetery - eternal home to Voodoo
Queen Marie Laveau and many other voodoo practitioners 

The Saint Louis cemetery is supposedly 1 of the 10 most
haunted places in America

Postcard From The SPAM Museum - Spam, Spam, Spam

SPAM Museum entrance

Yes, there really is a SPAM Museum - you know, the oft derided, no respect canned meat kind of SPAM. Located at 1101 N. Main Street in Austin, Minnesota, it is 16,500 square feet of SPAM history, SPAM games, SPAM videos, SPAM branded gear and SPAM gifts.

To borrow words from the SPAM web site, "Few experiences in life are as meaningful and meaty-filled as those you'll have at the magnificent SPAM Museum. Referred to by some meat historians as The Guggenham, Porkopolis, or M.O.M.A. (Museum Of Meat-themed Awesomeness), the SPAM museum is home to the world's most comprehensive collection of spiced pork artifacts."

To be honest, even though I've had a few fried SPAM sandwiches in my time, I had no idea there is a SPAM museum. Like most people, I never gave it much thought. But I couldn't pass up an opportunity to check it out when I saw a brochure at a highway rest stop as I was driving into the state of Minnesota and determined it would only be about a 30 mile side trip.

Parking spots are clearly marked

It was fun, it was informative, it was filling (free samples of SPAM) and if you are in the mid-southern part of Minnesota, worth a short detour if for no other reason than to be able to tell your friends you were there!

Pig farmer and his pigs statue in front of the museum

In front of the museum is a SPAM lunch wagon featuring "
Deep Fried SPAM Curds." No, I didn't have any and no, I
don't know what they are. I don't really want to know.

SPAM burger at the SPAM Wagon. Um, no thanks.

Interesting SPAM facts

How they make SPAM

A SPAM ad from the 1930's

The SPAM store in the museum. From SPAM post cards to
SPAM pens to SPAM coffee cups and so much more. If you
can't find a SPAM product here, it doesn't exist!

According to a store employee, their biggest seller lately is
SPAM-labeled shirts!

Route 66 - Devil's Rope

The entrance to the Devil's Rope & Route 66
Museums in McLean, Texas

With the sun verging on hanging low to let us know the day was almost done, we pulled into the town of McLean and easily found our destination - The Devil's Rope Museum.

In 1901, Alfred Rowe, an English Rancher, donated land near a railroad cattle loading stop for the establishment of a town. The railroad dug a water well and built a section house there and the town began to grow. Within a couple of years, the citizens had chosen the name of McLean for their town in honor of Judge William McLean who served in the Texas Legislature and on the Railroad Commission. By 1912 when Rowe died in the sinking of the Titanic, the town had been incorporated and had become home to over 1,000 people. By 1927 when Route 66 was built through town, there were about 1,200 citizens. McLean's population temporarily tripled from 1942 until 1945 when the Army built a POW camp for 3,000 German prisoners. In 1984, the town was bypassed by the newly constructed I-40 and with the prominence of Amarillo and Pampa surpassing McLean, the population began to decline from 1,600 to the current 800.

In early 1990, barbed wire collectors attending a show in Dodge City, Kansas discussed establishing a museum for barbed wire. People took the discussion seriously and by August of that same year, an old building in McLean, Texas was selected. A contract was signed and building renovation work began. The Historical Museum of Barbed Wire and Fencing Tools Organization was chartered as a tax-exempt, non-profit organization and it drew many barbed wire collectors from around the country and even the world as its members.

The Texas Route 66 Museum in the same building
as the Devil's Rope Museum in McLean, Texas

In January, 1991, the Old Route 66 Association of Texas received its tax-exempt, non-profit charter from the state and the 2 organizations soon began to work together to establish 2 museums in the same building. Members of both organizations provided all of the financing, labor, and artifact donations to set up the museums after the building had been renovated. The Devil's Rope Museum and the Texas Route 66 Museum both opened to the public on March 23, 1991. Today, the Devil's Rope Museum is known as the largest collection of barbed wire and fencing tools in the world and the Texas Route 66 Museum is billed as the first Route 66 museum actually on Old Route 66.

Inside the Devil's Rope Museum. This is
a LARGE building!

OK, so now you ask, "How was it? Should I stop there?" Well, if you are really interested in barbed wire or if you are hitting every Route 66 museum along your road trip, then yes, you definitely should stop. The building is very large and the admission is free so the price is right. While we were there, a really nice elderly lady was at the front counter - a nicer, friendlier person you could not find. We stopped to chat after touring the museums and she seemed to have a permanent smile on her face. I dropped a few bucks into the donation jar and she was very appreciative. Such a sweet lady. But hundreds of samples of barbed wire - really? There are people out there who collect all kinds of things and far be it from me to make light of anything harmless that gives somebody happiness in their life - more power to them. Let's just say that for me, strictly my opinion here, even as well as the museum of barbed wire was laid out and with the astounding amount of artifacts collected there, I mean, it was still barbed wire! Pretty exciting stuff only if compared to watching paint dry or grass grow. I kept wondering, "Why?" However, according to that sweet little old lady, almost 100,000 visitors from all over the world each year come to see this place. I gotta be missing something. If you are a barbed wire enthusiast, please let me know so I can quite thinking about this and get some sleep!

Barbed Wire Bunny

Barbed wire cowboys.



Is there anything more useless than a barbed wire
cowboy hat? I pondered this for a while and couldn't
come up with anything.

 

Go to the first Route 66 entry here.

Or go to the first entry of each state:

Illinois   Missouri   Kansas   Oklahoma   Texas   New Mexico   Arizona   California