Small Town Signatures

Fort Stockton is a very small west Texas town, about six or seven thousand people. It began during the mid-nineteenth century as an army post to protect pioneers travelling west from hostile Indians, at a crossroads of east-west and north-south trails known as Comanche Springs. It's easy to imagine the Springs would have drawn from all directions in this dry and barren landscape.

Today, Fort Stockton takes pride in their history and has a mainstreet dedicated to preservation of its past.

I'm not one who believes all small towns are alike, so I was curious to see what would set Fort Stockton apart. You may recall in yesterday's post that one of the first things I saw when I entered town was a huge roadrunner painted on an overpass.

Well it seems that painting on ---fill in the blank--- is what the folks in Fort Stockton do.

This building wall had an array of notables. I would like to know if these were simply somebody's personal favorites or if there is some logic to having their likenesses painted on this wall. Jimmy Dean, Judy Garland as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, John Wayne, Elvis Presley, Lucille Ball and Marilyn Monroe bannered on an American flag theme.

This wall, sponsored or painted by the Boy Scouts Association, showed historically important groups of people such as the soldiers and pioneers.

This downtown sidewalk painting, not in front of a school, attests to the town's school spirit.

Several buildings had names and logos hugely painted on their fronts, like this one.

There were about six scenes like these cleverly painted on the windows of an empty building.

Then there was the building without windows that had windows painted on.

And the building with a window that had curtains painted on.

All this on a few short blocks of Main Street.

I thought the finest looking old building in this town was the old jail, built in the 1880's.

And yes Fort Stockton has a museum too. The museum is the Annie Riggs museum, and it was formerly a hotel that was built by a cattleman's association so they would have someplace to stay when they came through town. Annie ran it for a long period of time.

It is a U-shaped building, all on one level, with each of its room opening individually into a lovely courtyard, somewhat like the motels of the fifties and sixties.

The docent delighted in telling a story of a crooked sheriff who had been assassinated while sitting at a desk in the lobby, desk and blood are on display.

After enjoying downtown, we filled up with gas, bought milk, and did a few other little necessaries before going back to the campground to do laundry. On our way back, guess what, we saw our roadrunner!

Later, as I went to get the last load from the dryer, I noticed I was missing a good sunset. I hadn't thought to be taking sunset pictures tonight without a lake or other attractive scene to set them off, but, what can I say, it was such a glorious sunset I once again had to run for my camera.

And that's how the sun set on another day.

Tomorrow is a new day.