Sunday, December 4, 2011

Saturday: Texas History

The redhead and I loaded up the dog and drove to Fair Park in Dallas to see the Dallas Historical Society Texas History exhibit. You can't see it. Today is the last day. The weather is changing and we drove through the spitting rain to Dallas. At Fair Park we threaded our way around to a parking lot at the Hall of State. The Dallas White Rock Marathon is today so a steady flow of skinny middle aged folks were coming into the plaza to pick up their race packets. Hardly anyone in the exhibit.

The Hall of State was built in 1936 for the Texas Centennial. It is very impressive with murals, carvings and mosaics. The exhibit was configured badly and poorly lit but the items were impressive. Stephen F. Austin's hatchet and surveying tools. Houston's hat, broken pistol, walking canes and some laurel leaves from the tree where he accepted Santa Anna's surrender at San Jacinto. (Houston wrote love letters to a woman during the revolution and sent her some pressed leaves). Santa Anna's captured snuff box from San Jacinto and his vest captured in the US/Mexican war. (all in all he didn't do very well against the Nortes) Bowie's knife from the Alamo. Crockett's fiddle and derringer. Fannin's watch he gave the Mexicans before they executed him, shooting him in the face while he sat in a chair. Arrowheads. A Kiowa deerskin shirt. A cannonball from the Alamo. Many items from La Salle's La Belle supply shipwreck in Matagorda Bay. Spanish sword and spurs. Great stuff. You just needed to bring your own flashlight.

White Rock Marathon start. Only 50,000 folks in Texas during the 1836 revolution. 25,000 folks in the marathon and half marathon.

1 comment:

JD(not the one with the picture) said...

Just read yesterday that Texas has a larger population than Australia. Sure are a lot more people around than when we were kids.