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USA - TEXAS : ON THE TEXAS FORTS TRAIL by Ursula & Eldrid Retief   We're on the edge of the sweeping parade ground, eyes shut; our backs to Officer’s Row, faces toward the enlisted men’s barracks, we hear past echoes of horses’ hooves and rattling sabres. Close by is the distinct jingle of trace and chain as a team of mules pulls a heavily-laden supply wagon. We swear we can smell the smoke from a frontier fire.Several times a year you can. This is Fort Concho, San Angelo, Texas. The 23 original and restored buildings display life on the frontier as it was in the late 1800s; during special events the whole garrison comes to life to treat visitors to the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the Texas frontier. Fort Concho is part of the Texas Forts Trail which provides visitors with a spellbinding look at that part of West Central Texas where US Army Forts sought to protect settlers in the mid-to-late-1800s. On the trail you discover not only eight historic forts, each an impressive monument to the Texas pioneer spirit, but more than 29 historic courthouses and some unique cultural events and historical reenactments. You rub shoulders with cowboys, ranchers, soldiers, buffalo hunters and all the characters that would people a good western movie – and there are breathtaking Texas landscapes to boot. Strung along the Texas Forts Trail like a necklace of San Angelo's concho pearls are a number of delightful communities. Absorbed by their history and anxious to share it, they all welcome visitors with open arms. The Abilene visitors’ center is housed in the Texas & Pacific Railroad Depot, one of the city's outstanding landmarks restored to its 1920's appearance. Here you can pick up an interpretive folder which provides details of nearby Fort Phantom Hill's three-year life. Abilene has preserved the traditional heritage of the Old West while providing all the advantages of a thriving contemporary city. The town sprung up in 1881 as a railroad shipping point for ranchers and today remains fundamentally Western in outlook and lifestyle. The Grace Cultural Center in Abilene is a restored historic 1909 hotel, now the setting for three museums: historic, children's hand-on and fine arts. Nearby is the restored Paramount Theatre with Spanish-Moorish design features. All form part of a National Register Historic District. Some 14 miles south of Abilene is Buffalo Gap Historic Village, first a natural pass for buffalo and later a stop on the Dodge Cattle Trail. Among the 100-year-old buildings are the original Taylor County courthouse and jail, a schoolhouse, a general store, doctor's and dentist's rooms and a railroad depot. A dying art thrives at James Leddy Boots – hand-crafted western boots. Many famous rodeo and country performers buy their boots here. You can stop in and watch this superb craftsman at work. Among Abilene's tailor-made tours is one on antiques, collectibles and crafts. Abilene itself has several antique shops and shops like Crafter's Gallery and the Antique Gallery. The tour takes in Baird, Ballinger and Breckenridge where there is a fine arts museum with a wonderful collection of old dolls, Graham where your clients can visit an antique mall, and of course Albany, one of the gems of West Central Texas. The first thing visitors do when they get to Albany is get a copy of the Albany Guide, the official Visitors Guide of the Albany Chamber of Commerce, compiled and published by The Albany news, the "oldest Journalistic Venture West of the Brazos". Here you will learn of the Fort Griffin Fandangle, Albany’s musical pageant of the area’s history. Some 400 volunteers recreate frontier life with song and dance in an outdoor theatre on the last two weekends of June. The Prairie Theatre comes alive with horses, longhorn cattle, Indians and settlers. Barbecue is served on the lawns of The Shackelford County Courthouse. The likes of characters like Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, Billy the Kid, Lottie Deno the Poker Queen no longer walk Albany's streets, so the 1877 jail has been put to a remarkable use. It is now The Old Jail Center, a critically-acclaimed art gallery which features an astonishing collection of terra-cotta figures from China's Tang Dynasty, pre-Columbian figurines, and works by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Grant Wood, Joan Miro and other famous artists. Another city with custom-built tours on the Texas Forts Trail is San Angelo. The heart of the city's historic district is Concho Avenue. Here your clients can soak up history as they shop and browse in specialty shops such as a country store, antique malls, several unique eating establishments and designer fashions, each located in renovated historic buildings. Slip into any jeweller for a look at its collection of Concho Pearls. For over 400 years the Concho River and area lakes have yielded these unique pearls, their lustrous colours varying from soft pink to deep lavender. These rare gems are produced by freshwater mussel clams. Concho Avenue had a rather tarnished history as the street where over 35 saloons and bordellos were once located. Don't miss Miss Hattie's Parlor & Museum, a memorial to the working gals who were part of San Angelo's frontier past. It served for 50 years as a "gentleman's social centre" until it was closed by the Texas Rangers. It's furnished much like it was in its heyday. Its huge copper roof-top resembling a covered wagon, the new San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts is an architectural masterpiece on the banks of the Concho River. It offers varied and changing exhibits of different media and from many areas. Not far from San Angelo, the Campbell's Ranch at Paint Rock is not only a working sheep ranch but the site of historic Indian pictographs. A stopping place for Indian tribes over the centuries, this half-mile long limestone cliff was the canvas that was used to illustrate the wandering of the Paleo, Comanche, Apache and other tribes who rested at the banks of the Concho River. South of San Angelo is Eldorado where your clients can tour the first woollen mill built in the state of Texas (1939). Here you will meet Byron Clark. By night Byron plays percussion in a rock 'n roll band – by day he oversees the complicated antique machinery that spins raw wool into finished products coveted even by American Presidents. Among his other duties at Eldorado's downtown mill, Byron leads tours of the plant. A short drive away is the 7,100-acre X-Bar Ranch ("just a small average ranch," says Stan Meador, one of the family who owns the ranch) where your clients can break their tour of the Texas Forts Trail for a few nights to experience the real thing on a working guest ranch. Here they can ride horses, swim, hike, bike, go bird-watching and star gazing – and even shear sheep. And you won’t want to drive through Mineral Wells without stopping for a swig of Crazy Water at the Famous Mineral Water Company. When a well drilled in the 1880s tapped mineral water, the rush was on to create the town famed for the medicinal properties of its water. According to local legend, a deranged woman became sane after drinking the water – which gave birth to the name Crazy Water. Minerals extracted from the water are still marketed as Crazy Water Crystals. The Texas Forts Trail leads you to eight frontier forts and a Spanish presidio in West Central Texas: * Solemn stone chimneys and a stone commissary, guardhouse and powder magazine are all that remain of Fort Phantom Hill, north of Abilene. * Near Albany, Fort Griffin, whose ruins and restored buildings spread on both sides of the highway. The official state herd of Texas longhorns garzes at Fort Griffin State Park. * East of Throckmorton, several stone structures have been restored at Fort Belknap where a county museum is housed in the former post commissary. * Fort Richardson, in Jacksboro, was the most heavily garrisoned military installation in the United States during the Buffalo War of 1874 and 1875. * The ruins of the cavalry stable are all that remain of Fort Mason at Mason but a reconstruction of officers’ quarters at the site give an idea of the fort buildings. * The entrance to the ruins of Presidio San Luis de Las Amarillas (partially reconstructed in the 1930s) is at the western edge of Menard. * Some 17 miles west of Menard are the extensive ruins of Fort McKavett which had more than 40 buildings at its peak in the 1870s – today 16 have been restored. * San Angelo's amazing Fort Concho, called the best preserved western fort in the United States, has also been wonderfully restored. * The ruins of Fort Chadbourne are on private property and can only be viewed from a vehicle, but nearby is a well-maintained historic cemetery. Photo courtesy Fort Concho National Historic Landmark
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