January 3, 2023
It’s been a while since we’ve been on a Dirt Road Adventure. Most of our recent travel has been the standard holiday style to visit our son, Bryan. Among that, work obligations, and unfavorable weather, we haven’t had time or opportunity to indulge in any exploration. Both of us took off from work this first week of the new year. The weather has been good, so it’s a nearly ideal time to do at least a little adventure or two.
Today, we explored some of the area around an old coal mine located in Grimes County.
Back in 1982, the Texas Municipal Power Agency (TMPA), a “Joint Powers Agency” formed by the cities of Bryan, Denton, Garland, and Greenville, started up the Gibbons Creek Steam Electric Station on the bank of the recently impounded Gibbons Creek Reservoir. The plant’s initial fuel source was a lignite coal mine located a short distance to the south. A conveyor system brought coal from the mine to the plant.
Lignite, however, has a high sulfur content and does not burn very efficiently. During the mid-1990s, in an effort to reduce sulfur and ash production, improve efficiency, and reduce costs, TMPA converted the station to use sub-bituminous coal shipped in from Wyoming. In 1996, the lignite mine was closed, and the process of reclaiming the land began. (The power station was closed in 2018.)
The mine pits were filled in, and the land was converted to pasture, forest, and ponds. Private landowners, in cooperation with Texas Parks and Wildlife, have been working to redevelop wildlife habitats and manage wildlife populations. There is still a good deal of work to be done, but much of the land has already been released from reclamation performance bonds.
Our drive started in the small community of Carlos, which is located at the intersection of TX-30 and FM 244 in Grimes County. We headed south on FM 244 toward the county seat, Anderson.
There are several spots along roads adjacent to the mine that afford great views of the landscape. The mine covered a large area, so the views are quite expansive.
From FM 244, we turned south (right) on to FM 3090. (Another part of FM 3090 was covered in our Madisonville Branch adventure.)
I try to be candid about the quality of the routes we explore. Sometimes, the scenery is not all that nice–and that is nearly always the consequence of human misbehavior. As we were traveling along FM 3090 we came across a stack of doors in a ditch. Now, if it had been something mundane, like household trash or tires, I wouldn’t have bothered posting a picture. But this felt particularly unusual. Who would waste a bunch of interior doors like this? And why wouldn’t they clean up their mess? (I can think of one person I’ve known personally–a former landlord who would transport garbage and cause it to be scattered along the roadside, then complain to his tenants that they were a bunch of litterbugs.)
Note that the grass has been mowed AROUND the pile. “Not my job,” I guess, but the mowers probably didn’t have the facilities to clean up someone else’s mess.
Moving on…
Most of the rest of the scenery was pristine–a lot of pastures, some forests and creeks, and, of course, the reclaimed mining areas.
FM 3090 makes a 90-degree bend to the right but continuing straight took us onto CR 186.
We turned left at the end of CR 186 onto CR 185. A short distance from the intersection we crossed over Rocky Creek. Rocky Creek is a perennial stream. The moisture and shading on the west bank of the creek at the CR 185 bridge make ideal conditions for some beautiful mossy coverings over the rocks.
Turning right onto CR 188, we followed it to its end at FM 149. FM 149 is a fairly long route that connects parts of Grimes and Montgomery Counties, running through Anderson, Richards, and Montgomery before terminating at TX-249 in Pinehurst in Montgomery County. Turning right (west) off of CR 188 and heading away from Anderson, we followed it to where it ends at the junction of FM 3090–technically, the roadway continues straight, but beyond a certain point it is FM 3090.
FM 3090 turned north. Part of this section of the road was once the roadbed of the Mexia Cut-off (pronounced, “muh-hay-uh”), a branch of the Houston & Texas Central railroad. It passed through the community of Piedmont, which is part of an area formerly known as Sulphur Springs. (An exploration of the Mexia Cut-off might be the subject of a future adventure.)
Sulphur Springs was developed as a health resort back in the early 1840s, drawing visitors to the “sulphur water” springs, which are/were believed to impart various health benefits. Various famous individuals visited here, including Sam Houston. The resort closed sometime around 1871.
I’m going to pause here for a moment to discuss something that has, in the past, caused me a great deal of confusion: the spelling of sulfur/sulphur. In chemistry, “sulfur” refers to the element; but there are numerous placenames that use the “sulphur” spelling to reference the presence of the element in some form in the respective areas. For example, the city of Sulphur Springs in northeast Texas (not to be confused with the Sulphur Springs mentioned above) was named for the “springs of sulfurous water in the area.” From what I have been able to determine, “sulphur” is an older, British spelling of the word “sulfur,” which is the American version. I suppose that the British spelling was more common in the early days when settlers were naming places. And even though “sulfur” is considered the correct American spelling, I often find myself spelling it “sulphur” simply because I see it so often on maps and road signs.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand…
There isn’t much left of the communities of Sulphur Springs and Piedmont. The resort was torn down in the 1870s, and the Mexia Cut-off branch ceased operations in 1933. Part of the railroad still exists in the form of various roads in the area, including that one stretch of FM 3090. Another part of the branch was rebuilt to serve coal to the power station. Below is a picture of a structure that I suspect may have been a warehouse or other business that was served by the railroad.
Turning left from FM 3090, we started driving down CR 190 toward Gibbons Creek. The creek flows for about 20 miles from the northern part of Grimes County and ends at the Navasota River, along the county’s border. CR 190 heads west from FM 3090, crosses the creek, then turns north and runs through the area of the lignite mine. Most, if not all, of this property is owned by Moody Ranch Outfitters, an event venue and hunting service.
I found some shell fossils along the road in this area. Unfortunately, the rocks they were part of were embedded in the road, and my policy is to only pick up loose rocks. (Next time I will think to take some pictures!) The next several images are from a long stretch of CR 190 that runs through the area of the old mine.
One thing that I think is worth mentioning at this point is that there were a tremendous number of birds in the area–ducks, songbirds, and hawks, especially. In fact, Kristi and I have never seen so many hawks in such a small area. There must be abundant prey for there to be so many. I suspect that this is a good sign that the environment is recovering from the years of abuse it endured while the mine was active.
The road came to a wooded area where some new houses were being built. CR 190 turned toward TX-30, but we kept driving straight onto CR 192, which also ended at TX-30, but next to where the TMPA headquarters used to be located in Carlos. The site is now owned by an industrial equipment supplier.
By now you may have forgotten the title of this post, “Coal and C.O.U.S.” If you don’t know what “C.O.U.S.” stands for, then I suggest you read my post entitled “Cows of Unusual Size,” which describes mine and Kristi’s encounter with a herd of larger-than-usual bovines. To sum it up, we came across a pasture just outside of Mason, Texas that had, well, cows of unusual size (C.O.U.S.).
We live in Texas. Cows are EVERYWHERE. One cannot travel far without seeing them, even in the cities, so over time one develops a basic sense of the average size of a bovine even if one does not work with cattle. As a result of our encounter with the Mason C.O.U.S., Kristi and I have a running joke where, when we see a herd of cattle, one of us will say, “Now THOSE are regular-sized cows.”
But during our adventure today we happened upon another herd of C.O.U.S.! This is only the second herd we’ve encountered so far. They were in a pasture along FM 3090 near the junction with CR 189.
The problem I have here is that it is difficult to convey the scale of a cow without a frame of reference. Unless they are standing next to an object that has a standard size, such as a fence post, there is no way to truly demonstrate their exceptional height. Maybe some of you who are familiar with cattle will see the difference in the images below. And if you happen to know the breed, please let us know!
I’ll end this post with the beginning of the adventure. As we were walking out of the house, I spotted this green anole sitting on the bench by the front door. Anoles are one of my favorite animals, simply because they are some of the animals that I’ve known the longest. I remember these little guys (and gals!) from early in my childhood. They are usually green during the warmer months but will turn brown when the temperatures drop below 70F or when they are stressed. I’m reasonably certain that this one is a male, in part due to its size. It looks like it has some damaged scales on its back. I wonder if it got into a fight with another anole or one of the local cats…
