Researching and Exploration

The best thing about working on a project, whether it is an article or a possible book, is the plethora and wealth of information. As I continue to research for my project I learned about people and places I never would have known. For instance, did you know that William Marsh Rice, whom Rice University was named after, was part of an automobile journey from Houston to Beaumont, via Port Arthur in East Texas?

In addition to personal research, I love listening to other people share their findings with the world. For example, I am part of a Facebook group that studies the Texas portion of the Bankhead National Highway, a major auto trail in the early decades of the 20th Century. Without other people to provide information and insight, one will never know the true meaning behind that historic structure or highway.

For example, when I was driving east along the Bankhead Highway coming from Metcalf Gap I noticed an abandoned gas station.

After posting it on the page, I learned that it was the site of the old Canty Bus Stop, which was built by ranchers Bob and Eliza Jane Townsend during the 1930s or 40's. According to the city of Mineral Wells Index, while the Townsend's enjoyed ranching they wanted to get involved in the service industry, so they inquired about the property located along the Bankhead or US 180. After they purchased the lot, it garnered other people's attention. "Evidently, their presence caught the eye of the Greyhound Bus operators, and they secured the right to stop the westbound Fort Worth buses at that point for a rest stop. For the next several years, a bus pulled into the area behind the café, stopped beneath an add-on canopy and, depending on physical needs and time of day, stayed long enough for food, rest and leg-stretching. Every day, beginning at about 6 a.m. and continuing until around 10 p.m., the buses arrived every 30 minutes or so (sometimes two at a time).

The gas station, which was thought of to be a Texaco had a unique history with one of the members of the page. "My grandmother worked in the cafe in the 1950's and my mother thinks she remembers the station being a Texaco but shes not positive about this. In 1982 the larger building burned."

It is the stories behind the pictures and text that help add to the experience of being a researcher and historian.