Smithwick, Texas

     Smithwick. I love the name. It sounds old-timey. Smithwick, though, has been a thorn in my sides for years. I've always wondered where the actual 'town' part of it was, if it still existed. Generally, Smithwick is on FM 1431, one of my favorite roads between Lago Vista and Marble Falls. Once you see the sign for Smithwick, though, you don't see much else besides a church, a graveyard, and the Smithwick Store, which was open and then closed and is now open again. I would pore over Google Maps looking around the county roads hoping to see something that looked like it might have structures.
     Recently, while going over the map again I thought I would take a Street View tour down one road because it came off a road that branches off of 1431 and is labelled on Google Maps as "Farm To Market 1431 Business." It's funny because there are no businesses there. At least, there isn't now. There might have been one situated on the island created by the "1431 business" and FM1431. There are a couple of old buildings, a stone sign, a fire pit, and steps that lead to nowhere.
     Near the center of 1431 'business' is county road 344 that heads south for quite a ways. It's a really nice drive if you like narrow roads with curves, hills, and some really nice views of the hills that remind you of why this area is called the Hill Country. I imagine at night it would be pretty scary if Camp of the Hills wasn't located back there. When you get to the end of it there are a couple of buildings that comprise at least part of what Smithwick was.

     It turns out it's a Freemason Lodge. It's been one since 1876, not long after the building was erected. There was a store on the first floor so I'm guessing this was probably "Smithwick" itself. It's still active, too.
     More pictures can be found here.

Deadman's Hole

     Dead Man's Hole is in Marble Falls, TX. On the outskirts. Well, I say 'outskirts' but sometimes I think these towns (cities) take up a whole lot more space than is generally recorded. Anyway, getting to Deadman's Hole isn't all that difficult: take 281 south out of town, make a left onto RM 2147, make a right onto Shovel Mountain (county road 401), and then make a left onto Deadmans Hole. It's the sign right up at the top of this post.
     Going by oral histories, this hole in the ground was used as a hanging and body disposal spot used against people with sympathies to the Union. The Daily Trib has an article on it. While once a dark and looming pit it is now a hole in the ground with a steel cover.

You can no longer "bring your own"

     If you made it here, though, you may as well see the rest of Marble Falls. There are quite a few places to eat and you can always stop in at The Blue Bonnet and take home a pie with about a mile of meringue topping it.

[Addendum] I shouldn't have been so short with this one. I have a few questions about this place and I don't see any place that answers them. For instance, the hole wasn't explored until the 1950s but there's no mention of if anything was found in it. I would expect that there would be remains of some kind down there so for that to not be mentioned is a little odd. Are there remains still down there? Personal effects? There is a hole in the steel cover so if someone had the equipment (small camera, a light, and a way to lower them down) I suppose it would be possible to get a look at something down there now. I kind of wish I had something to do that with.

Briggs, TX

     Why do I do this? I mean, the driving around part and taking pictures. Sure, going to parks and lakes makes sense because that's what they're for, right? But why small towns? Abandoned buildings? It's a good question, and one that I have an answer for, but it would take a while to fully articulate. For now, I think, I'll just say that time is kind of compressed now. A lot of things change in a short period of time and I wonder, sometimes, what it was like to live in a time when things didn't change quite so much quite so quickly.
     Labor Day weekend. Other people have families and go camping or to the lake or do some grilling or whatever it is people that have families do on holidays such as this. I was determined not to spend all my time at home but didn't have anything planned. So I went to Briggs, TX.
     Briggs is on U.S. Route 183 in Burnet County. US 183 is kind of a big thing in Austin. It's one of the highways that are always clogged up when people are trying to get somewhere. I'm betting not too many people know that it runs from nearly the Gulf of Mexico to almost Canada. Or they don't care. Once you get north of Austin it kind of calms down, although it's still pretty busy. It isn't until you get past Cedar Park and Liberty Hill that it turns into a small four- to two-lane highway.
     If you leave 183 and take State Spur 308 you'll pass by the bank in Briggs, which closed in 1928 after a fire swept through the town. If you do some searching you can find real estate links showing that it is, or was, for sale. I'm not sure if it still is and I don't have the $200,000 to snap it up, although it would be pretty neat to worn.

The bank in Briggs

     There are a few buildings here that don't seem to be doing much. There was one that I found kind of odd because it looks like it has two exterior front walls. I didn't notice when I took the picture, but when I played around with it in Lightroom it looks like there was something written on what I guess is the inside exterior wall? I don't know. I'm not an architect so I don't know how these things work.
     I look down the row of buildings and wonder what life was like here, up until 1928. They got electricity and telephones in the early 1900s and I wonder how that happened.
     After the 1928 fire nobody rebuilt the burnt down buildings. I guess they moved away. I wonder what started it? I wonder if I should have asked that old man that wished me a good morning if he had been around back then. Something to think about for the future, I guess.

Looks like it says something to me

     There are more photographs [HERE].

Norman's Crossing, TX

     At the intersection of FM 3349 and FM 1660 lies Norman's Crossing. Going here was kind of unintentional. You see, I don't actually just get in the car and drive around and miraculously come across old buildings or whatever. I generally pore over Google Maps and look for something out of the ordinary, like Dime Box, or just happen upon something that catches my attention. Then I look it up on Wikipedia or the TSHA site. After that I use Street View to see if there's anything interesting nearby.

St. John's Church, built 1925

     Norman's Crossing didn't really get my attention. What I saw in Street View was, basically, an historical marker set into the ground. I decided, then, to give it a pass and just drive around in the hopes I found something interesting. Shopping had to be done and I didn't want to take up a lot of time, anyway. Also, it looked like it would rain.
     So I fired up the Red Head and took a drive. I found a church at a cross roads and stopped to see if, maybe, it had a marker on it and maybe find out when it was built. That could take a few minutes of my time. Sure enough, it did. I took some pictures which, I swear, were straight when I took them.
     Turning, I looked across the street to see if there was anything over there. That's when I saw this:

It was fate!

     Really. What were the odds of the random left and right turns I took to eventually end up at the place I had decided not to bother with? I won't say it was a wasted trip. It was actually quite nice. And I didn't travel too far from home. And I saw this lovely couple who were eyeing me suspiciously.

"You just keep right on movin'..."

   

They feature live music

 There's also a bar nestled back here call R Brushy Creek Bar. It wasn't open, I think, when I went past. I'd be curious to know what it's like when it is open. Is it busy? Do a lot of people stop by? I had always hoped that when I got to this place in life that I'm at that I'd have a small house next door to a bar like this.
     I'm not sure why; I don't actually drink much these days. I guess it would just be nice to be around a group of people who go on about their lives doing living people kind of things.