Bill Bigfoot said:
Clarksville is the only place I know of that Wal-Mart closed its doors because it was getting stolen from too much.
Cville born and raised here! Hearne is the only other that I know of. But, yes, as you come into town on Highway 82 from the west, you'll see two, count'em, two empty former Wal-Mart buildings! And, most of that theft was internal. Clarksville did have one of the last Piggly Wiggly stores in Texas but another store bought them out.
I do like to tell people that, for me growing up, only in Texas did you go through Detroit and Reno on the road to Paris.
When I was in high school, there was a rash of major crimes in Clarksville. Jenny Weeks, 14YO runaway, was raped and beaten to death and left in a burned out house in Clarksville. I was friends with Reggie Reeves, who was eventually
executed for the crime. He was an incredibly gifted athlete that (obviously) took a very dark turn. His cohort, Ralph Brown, is still in prison.
Not long after, Ms. Martha Lennox was murdered in her home. The Lennox family was old money in Red River County. Miss Lennox never married and lived in a huge house right behind the aforementioned Piggly Wiggly. A group of guys broke into her home thinking she must have a large amount of money there (she didn't) and shot her. They were arrested on I-30 near Dallas in her stolen car. Willie Poindexter was later
executed for his part.
I also remember in about 1990 or 91 there was a
fake AIDS scandal at Rivercrest High School. Rivercrest ISD is in Johntown on Highway 271 between Bogata (pronounced buh-GO-tuh) and Talco. It's a consolidated district for that area. Anyway, there was a lady at the Four States Health Authority (or something like that) that turned out to
have fabricated the whole thing.
Tons of history in Clarksville and Red River County. But, it's also a poster child for the small Texas town that is dead on the vine. It's sad, actually. Drive around and you can see it once had something going for it. I still have family in the area, but only get back about twice a year.
One other incident I'll always remember: spring of 1987, there was a bond election to build a new high school. The existing structure was built in 1917 (IIRC), was three stories, had no elevator, and no central HVAC. The bond failed and a remodeling project commenced after the school year to install some of the items previously mentioned. In July, after all the records had been removed, the high school
somehow caught fire. At the same time, the old fire station (which was no longer in use) in back of the town square
also caught fire. The volunteer fire department was left with a quandary: let the school burn and save the town or let the town burn and save the school.
The brand new high school opened in 1989.
