Texas Obscurities: Stories of the Peculiar, Exceptional & Nefarious - Softcover

Bills, E.R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1626192812 ISBN 13: 9781626192812

Publisher: The History Press, 2013

Synopsis

Some of these quirky true stories might surprise even the most proud Texan. Austin sat the first all-woman state supreme court in the nation in 1925. A utopian colony thrived in Kristenstad during the Great Depression. Bats taken from the Bracken and Ney Caves and Devil's Sinkhole were developed as a secret weapon that vied with the Manhattan Project to shorten World War II. In Slaton in 1922, German priest Joseph M. Keller was kidnapped, tarred and feathered amid anti-German fervor following World War I. Author E.R. Bills offers this collection of trials, tribulations and intrigue that is sure to enrich one's understanding of the biggest state in the Lower Forty-eight.

About this title

About the Author:

Born in Fort Worth and raised in Aledo, E.R. Bills received a degree in journalism from Southwest Texas State University in 1990. When he's not wandering Texas back roads, he does historical, travel and editorial writing for publications around the state.

Review:

The truth is out there, somewhere in Texas, that is.
   At least, that's the way E.R. Bills musthave felt when he sat out to write a book about strange goings-on in the LoneStar State. No one doubts that the state has more tall tales than jackrabbitsin a West Texas desert and Bills has found 24 of them -- stories that is -- to share.
   This is an interesting and fun (for the mostpart) read. Bills keeps readers interested in these quirky tales, usingnewspaper articles, laden with eye-witness accounts and historical sites, tosupport his stories.
   Here are five peculiar Texan tales, a laYouTube "Top 5s" style:
No. 1. Incendiary Bat Bombs -- During WWII, before the invention of the atomic bomb, the United States sought ways to inflict damage on the enemy. After watching bats fly out of Carlsbad Caverns, a dental surgeon from Pennsylvania contacted President Franklin D. Roosevelt about the potential for using bats asweapons. By 1943, the U.S. Army Air Force was experimenting with Mexican free-tailed bats from the Devil's Sinkhole near Rocksprings and Ney Cave in Medina County. After several tests, it worked. Soon, the atomic bomb was discovered and Texas bats were allowed to go back to their roosts.
No. 2 Satan's Storm -- It was a hot time in Kopperl, on June 14, 1960. Right before midnight, an unusual storm occurred. A freak meteorological phenomenon struck the community when a thunderstorm rained itself out and, with little to no precipitation to cool the resulting downdraft, super-heated air barraged the community in  gusts of up to 75 mph.  The temperature increased rapidly, peaking near 140 degrees Fahrenheit.  
No. 3 The Aurora Spacemen and Crash -- Before Roswell, N.M. and the "X-Files,"there were UFOs sighted all over North Texas. In April 1897 there were nearly50 sightings in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and throughout North Texas.  But nothing was more exceptional than what the folks at Aurora experienced. On April 17 early risers were stunned by the sudden appearance of a flying object which sputtered, crashed into a windmill and exploded. The following Easter morning the townspeople gathered up the remnants of the pilot and gave him (it) a Christian burial in the town cemetery. The legend of the Aurora Spaceman, presumably a Martian, was born.
No. 4 The Slocum Massacre -- On July 29, 1910, thelargely African-American community in East Texas was attacked by the local whitecitizenry. Reports vary, but 8 to 30 blacks were killed. The survivors scattered out of town,more killed in the act of leaving. No one was ever brought to justice.
No. 5  The Porvenir Massacre -- "Porvenir" means thefuture, in Spanish. But this hamlet, located in West Texas between the ViejaMountains and the Rio Grande about 23 miles southwest of Valentine, didn't havemuch of one after the Texas Rangers decided to dole out its own brand offrontier justice. A Rangers posseorganized in January 1918 rounded up allable-bodied Mexican American men and executed them. The massacre was one of themost serious acts of Ranger misconduct cited in the Texas Ranger investigationof 1919, organized by state legislator José T. Canales. Canales'action, however, resulted in Gov. William Hobby removing the Rangerdetachment from its West Texas outpost.
   From "The San Marcos Ten," to "Lone StarLindy", "The Valentine Earthquake" to "Civilization Seemingly a Failure inTexas" and "Japan Bombs Texas" and others, Bills shares fantastic folk tales inthis book.
   In a state as big as Texas, tales like thiswill continue to be told around glowing camp fires in the Brush Country ordeserts of West Texas or in cozy living rooms with 52-inch television screensin-between watching a Dallas Cowboys game.
   Chances are, according to Bills, that mostof them are true.
CorpusChristi Caller-Times, November 27, 2016

Texas Obscurities: Stories of the Peculiar, Exceptional and Nefarious by E. R. Bills lives up to its title. Short chapters describe everything from the massacre of unarmed Mexican American men by Texas Rangers at Porvenir, the tarring and feathering of a German priest at Slaton, UFO sightings in Texas(starting with the one at Aurora), the Fence-Cutters' War, the Lake Worth Monster, and the first female sheriff in the United States. Although written in a lively, accessible style, one might wonder if its in the best taste to juxtapose dark historical episodes and historic "firsts" alongside the more speculative and humorous material. This is perhaps a minor qualm, though, and readers looking for a lighter historical read will likely find this enjoyable.
 
The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Vol. 118, No. 1, July 2014

About this edition

• Publisher: The History Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1626192812
• ISBN 13: 9781626192812
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160