Moved to a new city

2,624 Views | 21 Replies | Last: 6 yr ago by coyote68
who?mikejones
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Just moved to round rock. As always, I started studying the history of where I live.

I basically live on the Chisholm trail. Sam Bass had his shootout a couple miles as the crow flies. Kenney's fort isn't too far. And the Round Rock is just down the street.

Its this type of stuff that gets me excited.

Random post I know. But i was pretty excited to actually do some digging of the areas near me.
Noblemen06
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I hear you...one of my favorite pastimes is digging into the history of the areas the Air Force moves me. It is always an enriching experience and it's made some places fascinating to me where others find them mundane (North Dakota and New Mexico, namely).

In Turkey I lived about 20 minutes from Tarsus and right in the middle of a cluster of Crusader castles. Further afield, I got to learn heaps about Christian, Muslim, and Ottoman history while visiting numerous sights that made my reading come alive.

In Utah, I found the history of western trappers and the Indians, the Donner Party, the Mormons, and the Oregon trail in my proverbial backyard.

Jordan was similar to Turkey in making a lot of Biblical history come alive to me (walking in the same wilderness as Jesus and viewing the promised land from Mount Nebo were especially moving).

I just moved to the heart of Seoul and I'm starting to brush up on Korean history, which I am mostly ignorant to (with two great, Smithsonian-quality museums walking distance from the post gates).
NormanAg
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Quote:

In Turkey I lived about 20 minutes from Tarsus and right in the middle of a cluster of Crusader castles. Further afield, I got to learn heaps about Christian, Muslim, and Ottoman history while visiting numerous sights that made my reading come alive.
My favorite memory from the two years I lived in Turkey, 59-61, 7th and 8th grade (my dad was stationed at Incirlik). My dad loved history and my parents had a lot of Turkish friends, so we did a lot of sight seeing with them. Tarsus, Mersin, and the Crusader castles you mentioned. My family also had Turkish friends in Iskenderen - now semi famous - at least to Indiana Jones fans.

Also lived off and on in NM for 17 years of my life - mostly AF related. Both my dad and I were stationed in the state at one time or another. Albuquerque, Roswell, Clovis (twice), Las Cruces, and Alamogordo. As you posted, lots of history in the state. Everyone is familiar with Santa Fe, but there is also much to explore in Lincoln County and La Mesilla.
HollywoodBQ
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I lived in Round Rock for about 2 years before I learned that there was an actual Round Rock.
Rabid Cougar
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who?mikejones said:

Just moved to round rock. As always, I started studying the history of where I live.

I basically live on the Chisholm trail. Sam Bass had his shootout a couple miles as the crow flies. Kenney's fort isn't too far. And the Round Rock is just down the street.

Its this type of stuff that gets me excited.

Random post I know. But i was pretty excited to actually do some digging of the areas near me.
Just up the road 195 to Killeen in Florence is the Gault Site. A world renown archaeological site dating back 13,000 years.

On the other side of Granger on the San Gabriel River are the San Xavier Missions that were there in 1746.
Rabid Cougar
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in 2009 I lived within a stones throw of the City of Ur which is mentioned in the Book of Genesis. Also during my "travels" that year I visited it's sister city of Uruk. Of more recent history, visited the huge battlefields of the First Gulf War between Iraq and Iran. Trench systems and fortifications as far at the eye could see.
And then of more recent history drove down the same road that the Marines assaulted down and Jessica Lynch was made famous for getting lost on in the Battle of Nasiriyah on March 23, 2003.

In 2011 I "visited" the site where Alexander past from Afghanistan into the Indian subcontinent. During that same adventure saw several old battlefields of the Second Afghan War in 1878.

6 Medal of Honors have been earned within a 15 mile radius of the base that lived on in Afghanistan

AND to keep the post on the original thread.... Round Rock used to be a very nice place to live. Now its just an extension of Austin.
Noblemen06
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I read a great book about Sibley's New Mexico campaign in the Civil War while I was stationed at Kirtland and then spent a couple of weekends exploring the trail and battlefields afterward. They don't teach that in history class!

That plus the Apache and Conquistador history/sites were great ways to get miles on the Harley in beautiful high-desert country while scratching my history itch (searching for the best green chile cheeseburger didn't hurt the exploring, either)
who?mikejones
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Rabid Cougar said:

in 2009 I lived within a stones throw of the City of Ur which is mentioned in the Book of Genesis. Also during my "travels" that year I visited it's sister city of Uruk. Of more recent history, visited the huge battlefields of the First Gulf War between Iraq and Iran. Trench systems and fortifications as far at the eye could see.
And then of more recent history drove down the same road that the Marines assaulted down and Jessica Lynch was made famous for getting lost on in the Battle of Nasiriyah on March 23, 2003.

In 2011 I "visited" the site where Alexander past from Afghanistan into the Indian subcontinent. During that same adventure saw several old battlefields of the Second Afghan War in 1878.

6 Medal of Honors have been earned within a 15 mile radius of the base that lived on in Afghanistan

AND to keep the post on the original thread.... Round Rock used to be a very nice place to live. Now its just an extension of Austin.
i'm not sure what you do/did for a living, but based on all your posts, it seems like it could be quite interesting.
BQ78
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Who?MikeJones:

Welcome to Round Rock. Here is your reading assignment as a new citizen, in case you have not found it:

https://www.roundrocktexas.gov/departments/planning-and-development-services/historic-preservation/historic-round-rock-collection/

http://www.archive.org/stream/lifeadventuresof00dallrich/lifeadventuresof00dallrich_djvu.txt

http://www.williamson-county-historical-commission.org/Round_rock/Sam_Bass_Round_Rock_Texas.html

There is actually a modern book about the Bass gang by Rick Miller that is better than that old one I posted. When I first moved here I did the same thing you are doing. I actually figured out what buildings were there when Bass came to town. The dry goods store is still there on the corner where Bass killed Grimes and the bank they were intending to rob is next door and still the original building.

I live about a 10 minute walk from Kenny's Fort, which figured prominently in the Archive's War and the Santa Fe Expedition. It blew my mind when I read that before leaving on the Santa Fe Expedition they were shooting Gators in Brushy Creek and the San Gabriel River (they must have done a really good job too).

My 8X French Grandfather wrote about the Round Rock marking the ford on Brushy Creek in his diary when he passed through the area and Texas in 1714, stirring up the Spanish and causing them to establish a place called San Antonio. While imprisoned in Coahuila he charmed my 8X Grandmother, the daughter of the Spanish governor into marriage (the charm still runs in the family I might add).
Rabid Cougar
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who?mikejones said:

Rabid Cougar said:

in 2009 I lived within a stones throw of the City of Ur which is mentioned in the Book of Genesis. Also during my "travels" that year I visited it's sister city of Uruk. Of more recent history, visited the huge battlefields of the First Gulf War between Iraq and Iran. Trench systems and fortifications as far at the eye could see.
And then of more recent history drove down the same road that the Marines assaulted down and Jessica Lynch was made famous for getting lost on in the Battle of Nasiriyah on March 23, 2003.

In 2011 I "visited" the site where Alexander past from Afghanistan into the Indian subcontinent. During that same adventure saw several old battlefields of the Second Afghan War in 1878.

6 Medal of Honors have been earned within a 15 mile radius of the base that lived on in Afghanistan

AND to keep the post on the original thread.... Round Rock used to be a very nice place to live. Now its just an extension of Austin.
i'm not sure what you do/did for a living, but based on all your posts, it seems like it could be quite interesting.
I work for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. By day I am a mild mannered Project Manager managing facility construction and facility maintenance and service contracts at several lakes around Central Texas ( Navarro Mills, Waco, Whitney , Aquilla, Proctor and not so Central Texas Hords Creek and O.C. Fisher) by night I am a "Special Operations" ( not really) Project Manager constructing anything and every thing that the U.S. State Department and U.S. Army wants to build in contingency operations around the world. ( Iraq and Afghanistan). In Iraq I built sewage treatment plants and water treatment plant at the largest military detention center in the world (also the birth place of ISIS), border entry stations on the Iranian border, several roads and police stations in the southern part of Iraq around Basra. In Afghanistan, border entry stations, roads, schools and District Police Stations in was once the deadliest Province in Afghanistan, Kunar, which you will recognize in the book "Lone Survivor". Did lots of traveling outside the wire with local battle space owners. When they went out to stir up trouble, I was along for the ride albeit without a weapon.
aalan94
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I live 20 minutes from you. If there were enough of us, we could start a History Club in Williamson County.
who?mikejones
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Let's do it. I would be dwarfed but would love learning from people
Rabid Cougar
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who?mikejones said:

Let's do it. I would be dwarfed but would love learning from people
Hell, I'd drive the hour plus from Waco to be a part of that.
BQ78
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As I passed over A.W. Grimes on my way to work this morning this song came on my phone, it gets much of the history right but much of it is very wrong (Murphy wasn't in town when the shootout occurred).

Jim Murphy

Murphy shot himself a couple of years after the shootout in Round Rock, some say it was an accident, others suicide and still others some otherworldly payback.
who?mikejones
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Well, we're at three so far- Two people who know there stuff, one who just uses the Google.

I'm ready to start the club.
Rabid Cougar
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who?mikejones said:

Well, we're at three so far- Two people who know there stuff, one who just uses the Google.

I'm ready to start the club.

Hey, How did you know I used Google? It's that little camera on my laptop right?
Rabid Cougar
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Rabid Cougar said:

who?mikejones said:

Well, we're at three so far- Two people who know there stuff, one who just uses the Google.

I'm ready to start the club.

Hey, How did you know I used Google? It's that little camera on my laptop right?
It is actually being immersed in history since birth. My father is a walking Google machine when it comes to mundane historical facts about the counties around Bell County and Milam County, Texas, the Confederacy, Native Americans, Anthropology, Geology and our families genealogy . He is and has always been a ferocious reader and his library takes up two rooms in his house. He doesn't have internet or own a computer . All of his correspondence for genealogy is strictly through hand written letters. ALL of his genealogy research is in three ring binders. He pretty amazing when it comes to what he remembers. I hope that I can retain at least a tenth of what he has in his memory banks.
aalan94
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Let's do it this summer. Maybe meet somewhere or I can do a history BBQ at my house some Saturday. I have a large house and a large library.
JABQ04
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I'm jealous of your history club.
p_bubel
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I'm down for a meet and greet.


I digested this 1000+ page book while living in London.



And even though I grew up in San Antonio it wasn't until I moved back a couple of years ago that I really started to dig deep into the history outside of the Alamo.
GSPag`
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Please add me to possibles for the history club.
aalan94
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I would be happy to organize. Can't say when exactly. I have a big legislative client, so I'm waiting to see if we get a special session to see how insane my world will be, but maybe June or July depending on that.

I was going to say send me a PM, but since I let my Senatorial Texags subscription lag and now I'm a Plebian Texagian, I don't have that option, apparently.

So to avoid putting my email address on a world-renown site like Texags, I've got it hidden on my more obscure Texas history blog. (This is also a subtle plug for the blog, which by the way, I'd be happy to open up to other writers as well). That address is here: TexHist.com

Look under my profile section, and my email is at the bottom.
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coyote68
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Find a copy of a book by Clara Scarborough, Land of Good Water. She chronicled the history of Williamson County.
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