Download or read book The Future of the Southern Plains written by Sherry L. Smith and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2005-08-01 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Future of the Southern Plains, scholars bring the region to the forefront by asking important questions about its past and suggesting prospects for its future. The contributors, some of them natives of the region, bring to their work a blend of scholarship and personal experience. They match intellectual sophistication with deep affection for a place defined primarily as western Texas, Oklahoma, and eastern New Mexico. Within this volume is a story about America, a story about limits, and a story about challenging those limits. Seven historians, one geographer, and a paleoclimatologist contribute a wealth of observation, analysis, and commentary on the environmental characteristics and history of the Southern Plains. They address such themes as failing communities, scarce water, endangered species, and disappearing ways of life—and the possible results of these developments not only in the Southern Plains but elsewhere on the globe. Based on presentations at a symposium sponsored by the Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University, these essays treat the most important aspects of life on the Southern Plains today, from climate, politics, and religion to business and environmental renewal. Contributors and topics include: Sherry L. Smith: Introduction Dan Flores: Environmental destruction and preservation John Miller Morris: Corporations and family farms Diana Davids Olien: Oil production John Opie: Water management Jeff Roche: Political history Yolanda Romero: Political history Elliott West: Exploration Connie Woodhouse: Droughts

Download or read book Land of the Underground Rain written by Donald E. Green and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2014-07-03 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The scarcity of surface water which has so marked the Great Plains is even more characteristic of its subdivision, the Texas High Plains. Settlers on the plateau were forced to use pump technology to tap the vast ground water resources—the underground rain—beneath its flat surface. The evolution from windmills to the modern high-speed irrigation pumps took place over several decades. Three phases characterized the movement toward irrigation. In the period from 1910 to 1920, large-volume pumping plants first appeared in the region, but, due to national and regional circumstances, these premature efforts were largely abortive. The second phase began as a response to the drouth of the Dust Bowl and continued into the 1950s. By 1959, irrigation had become an important aspect of the flourishing High Plains economy. The decade of the 1960s was characterized chiefly by a growing alarm over the declining ground water table caused by massive pumping, and by investigations of other water sources. Land of the Underground Rain is a study in human use and threatened exhaustion of the High Plains' most valuable natural resource. Ground water was so plentiful that settlers believed it flowed inexhaustibly from some faraway place or mysteriously from a giant underground river. Whatever the source, they believed that it was being constantly replenished, and until the 1950s they generally opposed effective conservation of ground water. A growing number of weak and dry wells then made it apparent that Plains residents were "mining" an exhaustible resource. The Texas High Plains region has been far more successful in exploiting its resource than in conserving it. The very success of its pump technology has produced its environmental crisis. The problem brought about by the threatened exhaustion of this resource still awaits a solution. This study is the first comprehensive history of irrigation on the Texas High Plains, and it is the first comprehensive treatment of the development of twentieth-century pump irrigation in any area of the United States.

Download or read book Texas Place Names written by Edward Callary and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2020-06-02 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Was Gasoline, Texas, named in honor of a gas station? Nope, but the name does honor the town’s original claim to fame: a gasoline-powered cotton gin. Is Paris, Texas, a reference to Paris, France? Yes: Thomas Poteet, who donated land for the town site, thought it would be an improvement over “Pin Hook,” the original name of the Lamar County seat. Ding Dong’s story has a nice ring to it, derived from two store owners named Bell, who lived in Bell County, of course. Tracing the turning points, fascinating characters, and cultural crossroads that shaped Texas history, Texas Place Names provides the colorful stories behind these and more than three thousand other county, city, and community names. Drawing on in-depth research to present the facts behind the folklore, linguist Edward Callary also clarifies pronunciations (it’s NAY-chis for Neches, referring to a Caddoan people whose name was attached to the Neches River during a Spanish expedition). A great resource for road trippers and historians alike, Texas Place Names alphabetically charts centuries of humanity through the enduring words (and, occasionally, the fateful spelling gaffes) left behind by men and women from all walks of life.

Download or read book Wanted written by Edward A. Blackburn and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-18 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Along with the settlement of the Texas frontier came rustlers, public drunks, gunfighters, and other outlaws. A jail in which to incarcerate the lawbreakers was thus often the first public building raised in a new town. Later, as government developed, public buildings—notably county courthouses and jails—assumed not only practical but also symbolic importance. The architecture of these buildings in the nineteenth century reflected the power and status with which the community imbued the government; many of the same architects applied the aesthetic standards of the day to both. In later years, the safety and at least limited comfort of the prisoners became concerns and jails were remodeled or abandoned to other uses in favor of modern, more utilitarian structures. In this heavily illustrated guide to the historic county jails of Texas, Ed Blackburn Jr. takes readers to each of the 254 counties in the state, presenting brief histories and of the counties and their structures that housed their criminals. He provides general information about the architecture and location of the buildings and, when possible, describes the present uses of those that have been decommissioned. Interviews with local officials, historians, and newspaper publishers have yielded colorful anecdotes for many of the jails. Revealing photographs of many of the old jails have been gathered from local and archival sources, and Blackburn himself has taken pictures of extant buildings. Together, these words and images not only provide a survey of the way Texans have housed their criminals, but also, with the aid of thumbnail maps of county locations, offer residents and tourists throughout the state a guide to a fascinating aspect of architectural and cultural history.

Download or read book The West Texas Historical Association Year Book written by West Texas Historical Association and published by . This book was released on 1959 with total page 670 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for the Year written by United States. Department of Agriculture and published by . This book was released on 1885 with total page 740 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Treeshaker written by and published by . This book was released on 1969 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Trail of the Loup written by Harold Waldstein Foght and published by . This book was released on 1906 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Cracker Barrel Chronicles written by John Holmes Jenkins and published by Austin, Tex. : Pemberton Press. This book was released on 1965 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bibliography of Texas Town and County histories.

Download or read book The New Handbook of Texas written by Ronnie C. Tyler and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 1190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A reference guide to the history of Texas, including biographical sketches of notable individuals, histories of events, themes, counties, cities, and towns, and descriptions of physical features, with attention to the roles of women and minority groups.

Download or read book Annual Report of the Bureau of Animal Industry for the Year written by United States. Bureau of Animal Industry and published by . This book was released on 1886 with total page 704 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Report 1862 93 written by United States. Department of Agriculture and published by . This book was released on 1885 with total page 746 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Knox Memorial written by Christine Knox Wood and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Genealogical Helper written by and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 810 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Those Reeves Girls written by Christine Knox Wood and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A genealogy of the descendants of five of the daughters of Thomas Reeves born about 1780 in North Carolina, died in 1838 in Greene Co., Ala. and his wife Rosannah born 1780/90 in Ireland and died 1842/43 in Alabama. They had seven children.

Download or read book The Outing Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 1906 with total page 850 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Outing and the Wheelman written by and published by . This book was released on 1906 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: