however, if you head southwest from here, towards the brazos river, things can get interesting. let me start by praising the natural beauty of the area. the effects of the brazos offer a pretty stark contrast to their surrounding areas; travel 10 miles from the river in any direction and you're looking at more flat land and dead grass, but around the river are luscious foliage, impressive hills, and creepy backwoods-y small towns.
our starting point on this trip was the town of Glen Rose. Glen Rose serves as the county seat of Somervell county, with a population of nearly 3,000. The town has a surprisingly large tourism economy; it hosts the Dinosaur Valley National Park as well as an Exotic Animal park.
our first goal was the town of Kimball. located about 20 miles southeast of Glen Rose, the remains of the 1800's ghost town of Kimball were supposed to be preserved within a state park. after a beautiful, although very confusing, drive through brazos country we stumbled upon the entrance to the park just as we considered turning around and trying a new route.
much to our disappointment the park is no longer state run. it is privately owned and is now operated as an RV park. the gate attendant was friendly but told us with a day pass we could only stay for 30 minutes; the only other option was to fork up some cash and stay overnight. what made this park eerie was not the ruins of a former settlement on their grounds (although there certainly are some ruins); the most off-putting aspect was that not a soul was staying there. all of the ruins were safe behind fences and gates, agitating me to no end, but protecting them from a non-existent tourist base. the only people other than us and the gate attendant were the two other gate attendants, cruising the park in a golf-cart while off-duty.
they told us about the place's history and that somewhere on the grounds is the ancient, and completely abandoned, cemetery; unfortunately our 30 minutes of exploring did not turn that up. we did manage to get some excellent photographs of the less hidden structures though.
next we headed northwest to the town of Chalk Mountain. located 15 miles west of Glen Rose, Chalk Mountain is home to an historic cemetery and a Masonic lodge from 1904. there are also obvious ruins of houses and farm structures; however, these are on private property behind barb-wired fence. nearly twenty minutes of driving in search of the fabled cemetery produced only a spectacular view of around ten deer, but the masonic lodge didn't dissapoint.
big fish cover art?
pictures 12-11-08
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