Carol C Taylor Blog

It’s the mud – – – gray mud
The sloshy, grimy, slimy & sticky gray mud – – – gray mud.
I go tramping, stamping, my muscles are cramping
From mud – – – gray mud.
I am crawling, falling, and awkwardly sprawling
In mud – – – gray mud.
My temples are pounding, pounding and pounding
From mud – – -gray mud.
My body is aching, breaking and shaking
With mud – – – gray mud.
No depth am I sounding, I’m drowning, I’m drowning
In MUD! – – MUD! – – MUD! Joe Westbrook, Esq., Co. 857, CCC

Such was life in Northeast Texas this spring, and so far, this summer. Rain and mud, trees fallen from too much rain, and dreary skies. I suspect that cattle are beginning to have hoof rot. If cotton was planted, it drowned. Since I was raised farther west near Wichita Falls, where rain is scarce this time of the year, it strains my senses and conscience to complain about mud, overflowing ponds, and countless mosquitoes. But I could stand a few dry days. And once we got dry weather it remained with us.

I always feel guilty when I express that sentiment. I know that we will be begging for cooler weather, breezes, and lower temperatures in no time at all. So, we should sit back and enjoy.

The poem above was penned by Joe Westbrook, an experienced mud-swamper in the Civilian Conservation Corps at Caddo Lake, one of many ABC agencies who accomplished so much during the New Deal. Northeast Texas, along with the whole state participated in numerous agencies during the trying times from 1935 to the beginning of World War II. The New Deal Consortium recently published Conflict and Cooperation: Reflections of the New Deal in Texas. It gives reflections from New Deal historians, who explored such a sad time.

I know that the CCC built small dams to combat erosions here in Hunt County. There is a really pretty park at Bonham known as Bonham State Park. Students at East Texas State Normal School received funds for odd jobs so they could continue their education. I had the privilege of reading letters they submitted for those funds. No requests for fancy cars, new clothes, just room and board. Greenville has one public building built by PWA, Public Works Administration. The Municipal Building opened in October 1939. Other construction jobs under the WPA built roads near Wolfe City, sidewalks in towns, and countless other jobs. The whole concept is worth looking into.

Last weekend we witnessed an extraordinary event, that is if you are a horse lover. On a sloppy track with rain pouring down, the first horse to cross the finish line at the 145th running of the Kentucky Derby was disqualified. Yes, he cheated! Shame. Shame! He pushed and shoved and bullied his way to the head of the pack.

Video cameras, an implement we can’t seem to live without, recorded what appeared to be some cheating among the horses, even though the jockeys have not been accused. It took three stewards or judges of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission twenty minutes of intense viewing of the final seconds of the race.

Country House, at a 65-1 long shot, is now the winner of the Kentucky Derby. Jockey Flavien Prat and another jockey challenged the decision that Maximum Security played fair. After the lengthy viewing the stewards agreed; Maximum Security was not the good winner. Since this is the 21st century, there will surely be appeals to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and perhaps lawsuits. Such a sloppy ending to such a sloppy race on a sloppy day.

However, there are two more stellar horse races this summer. Only the Kentucky Derby is in the south, though. Years ago, few towns in the South resisted horse races. Greenville was no exception. While cash was extremely scarce there were certain items like pocket watches, knives, and even horses to use for stakes.

Mustangs roamed the prairies south of Greenville at the confluence of Caddo and Cowleech Creeks, now under Lake Tawakoni. A great adventure was to roundup ponies and saddle-break them to enter in the next race. James Hooker, an early and prominent leader in the county and first Probate Judge, bred his horses with mustangs to produce a much faster animal. He even bred female horses with male donkeys to produce mules, a different specie with different numbers of chromosomes. The mules were not raced but sold to planters in other parts of the South who needed strong mules for plowing and hauling cotton.

The best attended horse races in the area was Devil’s Race Track, north of Greenville in Black Cat Thicket. It was actually a giant salt-lick, a whitish strip of salt on the ground in the shape of the quarter-moon that was always moist. The track was 100 yards long and fifty to 100 yards wide in various places.

Leader of the displaced group of Shawnees Chief Black Cat was well-known for his fine, fast horses. Over the years, young men from Indian Territory brought their steeds to race and more than likely most won. Once the railroads came, the Native Americans put their horses on the train for a comfortable ride to Hunt County. Native Americans from the Choctaw Nation, Osage Nation, Kickapoo Nation as well as the Shawnee Nation made their ways across the Red River to Devil’s Race Track. Even a few unescorted young ladies were seen at the Devil’s Triangle around 1900.

Horse races attracted gamblers and horsemen to the Hunt County Fair each August. Again, great horses arrived on the train, some in special railroad cars. The Hunt County Fair was well known for its races and fine horses. About 1910 when the Progressive Party began to set social standards and determine what was proper and what was not, horse races along with other activities bit the dust, so to speak. But that’s another story completely.

I sat down with former Texas Game Warden Glenn C. Mitchell last week. Because my father was an avid hunter, I was interested in game and fish hunting. As a child we ate lots of venison, dove, quail and catfish. In fact, I like to fish. Mr. Mitchell and I had a wonderful visit. Listening to his stories was pure delight.

Glenn Mitchell lived on a cotton farm in Collin County growing up. In 1957 he joined the newly created Texas Fish and Game Commission. Assigned to Rusk and Gregg Counties, he spent lots of time in the Sabine bottoms looking for trappers, fishermen who planned to illegally sell game fish to restaurants and other miscreants inhabiting the brushy woodlands.

At first, he was issued a three foot by three-foot unbleached canvas flag painted with red letters STOP and slightly smaller STATE GAME WARDEN in smaller black letters. If he saw a suspicious person on a rural or ranch road, he rolled down his window, poked the flag hanging onto an old broom handle out the window, got out of his car to have a conversation with the suspect. In addition to the flag, he was issued a book about one-inch thick with all Texas hunting and fishing rules and regulations. He furnished his own car, gun, and handcuffs. Mr. Mitchell chose to use a revolver.

Mr. Mitchell has chosen to donate the flag, now encased in a frame to the Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum this year.

In 1959 the Mitchell family transferred to Hunt County where they still reside. Big changes came in 1962. The State of Texas provided all game wardens with a 1962 gray Ford car with 6-cylinder engine, red lights, a siren, a decal on both doors and a two-way radio. The flag and broom stick became obsolete at that time. The one to be donated to the museum is a true relic.

Game wardens were authorized to search vehicles for poaching, to arrest anyone who caught over the limit of game, but seldom took a prisoner to court. Placing a heavy fine on the culprit usually did the job. Every year on September first dove season opened at noon. Mr. Mitchell said he looked at the number of doves shot, asked to see a valid hunting license, and made sure the hunter had only three shells in his shot gun. Hunters often got a little crazy shooting dove and went over the limit. Those didn’t go home with them.

I asked about quail. They are abundant around Wichita Falls where lots of grains are produced. But here in Hunt County they are scarce due to fire ants and lack of grain on the ground. However, Mr. Mitchell explained that one of the tasks game wardens performed was restocking fish and game. About twenty years ago or more, several trailers of deer were released at various places in Hunt County. Today, deer can be found all over the county.

The turning point of Mitchell’s career was the construction of Lake Tawakoni. The 37,879 acres of water covers parts of Hunt, Rains, and Van Zandt Counties. It retains flowing water from Caddo Creek, South Fork Creek and Cowleech Creek along with all of their tributaries. He aided in releasing thousands of channel catfish, lots of bass varieties, and crappie as the lake began to fill.

At first no water safety rules existed. No speed limits, no restriction on alcohol, no life jackets meant costly accidents and drownings. It would be ten years before the Texas Legislature enacted the Texas Water Safety Law, leaving large numbers of drowning victims.

Mr. Mitchell retired after thirty-three years with the Texas Game and Wildlife Commission in 1990. The following year he and his wife traveled with friends and relatives. But in 1992, one of his sons bought Coker-Matthews Funeral Home. Glenn Mitchell finds work to do there, he still hunts and fishes, and takes a test every year to retain his game warden certificate. He certainly doesn’t look or act his age.