January 23, 2022
The Spaceship Car is still not back from the shop. They are waiting on one critical part for which shipment has been repeatedly delayed. Hopefully they will be finished soon, but we are not holding our breath.
This weekend had been busy, but we thought it might be good to get out of the house and take a short trip. I picked a route along some “new” and previously explored roads located around Lake Livingston.
Lake Livingston, like nearly all Texas lakes, is manmade. It is located along the Trinity River. Construction of the dam was completed in 1969. It is strange to me that there was no Lake Livingston prior to that–there has always been a Lake Livingston from my perspective because that was the year I was born.
Our adventure started off of FM 980, east of Riverside, Texas, on Old Staley Road. Staley was a small community located somewhere along FM 946, which runs north from U.S. 190. We have traveled FM 946 and East Old Staley Road before, but the western part of the road was new to us.
The road starts off a little rough on the western end, but manageable for any vehicle. Most of the route is forest, but as one travels east a few homesites appear.
A short distance along our route we crossed East Carolina Creek. Along the eastern bank was one of the most unusual sights we’ve seen in a while: a collection of Airstream travel trailers just moldering away in the woods.
This is somewhat mind-boggling to Kristi and me. Airstreams are among the most durable–if not the most durable–travel trailers on the market. There are many examples of half-century-old and older trailers that are still in use. It seems that, properly cared for, these things can last a lifetime. Why would someone just pile a bunch of them up in the woods? Or, despite their outward appearance, are they actually being cared for? They would probably be worth a fortune if in decent condition.
Nearby was a collection of Volkswagen bugs and a few other vehicles, including a campervan that had seen better days.
Moving along we came to some open pasture wherein sat a very large bird atop a very large tree. It was quite a distance from the road but was easy to spot because of its coloration (or lack thereof). The photo below was about as good as I could get with digital zoom. I think it might be a white-tailed hawk, but I think we live a little too far north for their normal range. Perhaps it flew north to find warmer weather after the winter storm that hit South Texas the previous week?
FM 946, which runs north-south, ends at Old Staley Road. I think this intersection is where the community of Staley was located. Staying on Old Staley Road we passed through more forest before the road finally ended at FM 980. We turned south toward Point Blank.
FM 980 parallels the western shore of Lake Livingston and ends at U.S. 190. A bridge crosses the lake’s midpoint, between the towns of Point Blank and Onalaska. Patrick’s Ferry Public Boat Ramp is located next to the bridge on the western shore. We stopped to take a few pictures of the water.
After crossing the lake, we turned northwest onto FM 356, which runs along the eastern shore. I wish there were some places where I could have easily pulled over and taken pictures–the sunlight glistening off the water was beautiful!
My intention was to take FM 356 to Carlisle Cemetery Road which, according to Google Maps, connects with nearby Chita Cemetery Road. Carlisle Cemetery Road, however, ends at Carlisle Cemetery. (There is a path through the woods that appears to have once been a road but is now fenced off.) The cemetery looked like an interesting place, so we got out and explored a little.
The cemetery is still used for burials. Its oldest gravesite dates back to 1867. The names of several old local families are represented here.
Although the area around the cemetery had been settled since sometime around the Civil War, it did not develop into a significant community until the end of the 19th century when sawmills of the Carlisle Lumber Company were built nearby. The town was named in honor of John Carlisle, the owner of the company and also founder of Onalaska.
The lumber industry is an important part of East Texas history. Towns like Carlisle and Onalaska were created to service the sawmills. Take a look at the satellite views in the maps embedded in this post and note that most of the trees in the forests appear in neat rows. The original old-growth forests were all cut down by the early part of the 20th century. The trees we see today are second, third, or possibly fourth generation pines, replanted after the original trees were harvested. The history of the East Texas lumber industry might be a fun topic for a future adventure.
(Note: embedded maps might not appear in emails.)
We drove back out to FM 356 and turned onto Chita Cemetery Road from there.
This road looked promising because, as the map indicates, it runs through a great deal of uninhabited forest. Sadly, a new high fence has been installed–possibly by a hunting club–on the east side of the road and the landscape running between the road and the tree line, which is now farther from the roadside, has not yet recovered. Maybe in a year or two it will “green up” and look better. But even so, not having the woods close to the roadside spoils the charm of a dirt road running through the forest, in our opinion.
The road was easy to drive–virtually any vehicle can navigate it, I am sure. It ends at FM 355 in the community of Chita, Texas. At the end of the 19th century Chita was a small settlement with a post office and several businesses. It had pretty much disappeared by the late 1960s but began to grow again after the construction of Lake Livingston.
Chita Cemetery is located on Chita Cemetery Road, a short distance east of FM 355. The cemetery sits on a hillside that overlooks a valley.
We returned via Trinity, Texas, and rounded out our trip with dinner at Los Pericos in Huntsville.
It never ceases to amaze us how we stumble upon interesting things on every one of these trips. Even roads that seem like nothing out of the ordinary will often surprise us. Who would have expected to run across a mysterious collection of Airstream trailers? Or find a seemingly misplaced species of bird? Or discover a beautiful cemetery on an East Texas hillside? These sorts of things encourage us to go out and look for more. We are sure that there is still a lot left to discover.
Another nice trip. Yes, Caddo Lake is the only natural lake in Texas. The others are all man-made.