Table of Contents
Introduction ix
Truth is Stranger than Fiction 1
Cadillac Ranch
Bury the Hatchet … and Tomahawk … and Horse
Cane Proxy
Conform or Stay Home!
Latin in Latium
German Ingenuity
Shackelford County's Alphabet Jail
One-Student Schoolhouse
Judge Roy Bean Renders TKO to Prizefight Law
The Great Crash at Crush
Courthouse Moved by Cowboys
St. Elmo's Fire in Texas
Taft's Train "Willed" to Stop
"Bat Cave" Jail
Everything But the Kitchen (Not Even a Sink)
Cuero's "Turkey Trot"
The Curse on the Courthouse Clock
Charles Lindbergh's Crash
Vintage News in North Texas
Bois d'arc Streets
Streets Paved with Gold
The Hindenburg Disaster
Japan Bombs Texas
Super 'Possum
Texas State Mammal Has Strange Reproduction
¿De Dónde ES? 15
Texas Howdy
You Say Green Grow, I Say Gringo
How the Alamo Got Its Name
Original Barbeque
The XIT Ranch
King Ranch
Frying Pan Ranch
Winchester Quarantine
Poinsettia
The Old 300
Two Bits
Corduroy Roads
Daisy Bradford
Whip-Handle Dispatch
The Town without a Toothache
Mobeetie
Alibates
Ragtown
Ransom Canyon (or Cañón de la Rescate)
Odessa
Old Glory
Sweetwater
Mineral Wells
Named by Presidential Order
The Mysterious Rock Wall in Rockwall County
Resurrected Namesake
Skillman Street
Swiss Avenue
High Five
"Panther City"
Where the West Begins
Fort Spunky
Arp
Saxet
Little Angel
Battle Named for a Saint
Bon Ami
Beaumont
Grayburg
Brazos River
Y'all Come Back Now, Ya Hear?
Sunday Houses
Pedernales River
Buda
Waterloo, Capital of Texas
Bevo
Dublin
Big Lake
Babyhead Mountain
Lost Maples State Park
Nueces River
Weslaco
Mercedes
Langtry
Iraan
Caballo Muerto Mountains
El Paso
El Paso del Norte
Red Light District
The Chicken Ranch -Namesakes Remembered
Uncle Oscar
Enterprising Texans 36
Samuel Walker, Revolver Designer
George Addison Kelly
Bone Piles
Gail Borden Jr.
Sarah Cockrell
Versatile Stetson
The Chuck Wagon
John Warne "Bet-a-Million" Gates
Not-So-Famous Inventor
Fred Harvey
Daniel Haynes
The First Hamburger
Not a Real Doctor
Red Plot Claim to Fame Linked to East Texas Town
Texan Saved French Grape Industry
William Gebhardt
Post, Texas: Town Made Possible by Breakfast Cereal
Ringling Bros. Makes Fruitcake Popular
Hogs Credited with Oil Discovery
The Ezekiel Airship
Texaco
Life Hasn't Always Been Peaches and Cream in Brenham
Eddie Rickenbacker
John W. Shary
Made in Texas
Gus Baumgarten
Humble Beginnings
Fort Worth's Casa Mañana, a Product of Neighborly Rivalry
John Mitchell
Popeye's Favorite Place
"Uplift Town" Known for Brassiere Factory
On the Map 53
Nueves Filipinas
Mexico's Chance to Reclaim Texas
Rice Hotel
Republic of the Rio Grande
Commonsense Secession
Center City
Texas Ski Hill
Border Dispute
Inland Port
One Big State
Two Cities in Three States
The County Lost to Oklahoma
Pueblos Cross the Border
Rio Grande
The Sabine as a Border
The Real Lonesome Dove
Treaty Oak
The Many Lives of the Alamo
River Walk Saved from the Gutter
Taylor County Courthouse
Voting Under the Influence
Black Settlements
Truman
Town, Population; 5, Famous for Its Smokestack
Town's Claim to Fame Yields Clue to Shameful US Indian Policy
The Consequences of an Unpaid Debt
Hell Hath No Fury Like a Spurned Stonemason
Texas Forest of Dwarfs
Marble Falls, "The Blind Man's Town"
Chicago, Texas
Texas Wends Cling to Heritage
Underwater Travel in Texas
Famous People in Texas History 71
Francisca Alvarez, "The Angel of Goliad"
Captain James "Brit" Bailey
Judge Roy Bean
Abner "Ab" Pickens Blocker
Jim Bowie, Hero of the Alamo … and Mexican Citizen
John Neely Bryan -Holland Coffee
Bessie Coleman
Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan
John B. Denton
Dorothy Dix
Clara Driscoll, Savior of the Alamo
Dale Evans
John Coffee "Jack" Hays
John William Heisman
James Stephen Hogg
Doc Holliday
Sam Houston
Andrew Jackson Houston
Howard Hughes
Anson Jones
Scott Joplin
Mirabeau B. Lamar
Herman Lehman
The Lone Ranger
Maury and Samuel A. Maverick
Quincey Morris, Dracula's Texan Nemesis
Clint Murcheson Sr.
Elizabet Ney
Fray Juan de Padilla
Cynthia Ann Parker
Lucy Holcomb Pickens
Bill Pickett's Bulldog Grip -C. W. Post
Wiley Post
Harriet Potter
Ann Sheridan
Willie Shoemaker
Charles A. Siringo
Erastus "Deaf" Smith
Jamie Stewart
Samuel Hamilton Walker
William "Bigfoot" Wallace
"Three-Legged Willie" Williamson
Bob Wills
General William Jenkins Worth
Babe Didrikson Zaharias
Texas Rangers
Chief Yellow Bear
The Criminal Element 99
Farmer Felons
Monroe Edwards
Thomas Jefferson Rusk
First Woman Hanged in Texas
Clay Allison
Sam Bass's Last Ride
Who Is Buried in Sam Bass's Grave?
Ben Thompson
The Jail That Billy the Kid Broke Into
John King Fisher, Flamboyant Gunfighter
Belle Starr
John Wesley Hardin
Pilot Knob
John Selman
Frank James: Infamous Outlaw, Shoe Salesman
The First Rolling Stone
William Marsh Rice Murdered for His Fortune
Vanity Trips Up "Wild Bunch"
John Wilkes Booth
Grapevine's "Cross
Bar Hotel"
Vigilantism in 1910 Dallas
Texans Lay Claim to Largest Train Heist
Santa Claus Wounded in Texas Gun Battle
George "Machine Gun Kelly" Barnes
Frank Hamer, Nemesis of the Barrow Gang
Lone Star War Stories 116
Seventh Flag over Texas
Fifty Mexicans Lose Lives in "Grass Fight"
The "Come and Take It" Flag
Remember the Alamo
Santa Anna Shows Mercy
Tejano Heroes
Brief but Monumental Battle
Napoleon of the West Caught
Masonic "Distress Signal" Spared Santa Anna
The "Runaway Scrape"
Black Bean Death Warrant
Three Presidents-to-Be in Battle
Buffalo Soldiers: From Cannon Fodder to Texas Heroes
"Treue der Union" Monument
"The Great Hanging"
Grave of the Confederacy
Last Surviving Civil War Soldier
Won by a Very Long Shot
Congressional Medal of Honor
Army Air Corps Born in Texas
The "Lost Battalion"
Buildings Literally in Ship Shape
There Ought to Be a Law 130
A League and a Labor
Married with Children
Texans Support Santa Anna
The Knights of Texas
Rushed Annexation of Texas
Fifty Cent Act
Car-Barn Convention
The Five States of Texas?
Missouri Capital in Texas
Capitol Coup
Semicolon Court
The Capitol Syndicate
Bonham's "Mr. Speaker," Sam Rayburn
John Nance "Cactus Jack" Garner
Jim Ferguson
Miriam A. "Ma" Ferguson
W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel
Landslide Lyndon
Monumental Name Ban
Will Travel for Sugar
Chryslers Dodge Texan
The Wet Town That Dried Up
Only in Texas 141
Gone to Texas
The Yellow Rose of Texas
Siesta Theory
Hazardous Occupation
Juneteenth
"The Eyes of Texas" Prank
Texas A&M's Twelfth Man
Texas
Leaguer
A Prickly Topic
State Fish
Inflated Currency
Redbacks
Civil War Stamps
The Great Pearl Rush
Salt Domes
Texas
Size Steak Challenge
Paris's Eiffel Tower Receives Traditional Texas Topping
Jesus in Cowboy Boots
Rattlesnakes and Wasps
"One Riot-One Ranger"
Texas's Unkindest Insult
Hidden Secrets of the "Ugly Old Goddess" of Austin
Shelby County Courthouse's Trap Door
"Pecosin" a Feared Word
The Jackass Mail
Rickshaws under Texas Skies
Superlatives 154
First Surgery
First Thanksgiving
Nacagdoches, Site of First Christmas in Texas
José de Escandón
Anaqua
San Jacinto Flag
First Baptist Church in Texas
Old News
The Legend of the First Bowie Knife
Death by the Rope in Dallas
First Flight
Texas's First Civil Rights March
First Oil Well
The First Bridge Across the Brazos
Oldest Public School
Telephones
"Old Tige"
First Auto Trip
The Great Storm of 1900
Public Demonstration of Airplane
First Alamo Movie
The Coolest Buildings
Bowie County's Largest Baby
New London School Disaster
Texas City Remembered
The Longest Nap
Most Reported Extra
Terrestrial Contacts
World's Tallest Column Monument
USS Texas
Loving County
Longest of the Longhorns
Smallest State Park
Glen Rose, Home of Texas's Oldest Unusual Claim to Fame
Bibliography 171
About the Authors 177
