This photograph cannot be the "Byers toll bridge" -- instead, it's a long-forgotten toll bridge that once sat north of Charlie, Clay County, Texas.

This widely-shared photograph depicts the very fancy mansion in Gainesville, Cooke County, Texas, that once housed members of John and Clara (nee Easley) Belcher. The Belchers didn't live in Gainesville very long, but left some historic traces in North Texas. And because this photograph has been shared but not researched as much, I thought I'd give it a go!

Near the tiny settlement of Dye in Montague County, Texas, stands a 1,294 feet high "mound" called Jim Ned Lookout along Jim Ned Road. So I became curious... who was Jim Ned? Turns out, there were three Jims -- Jim Ned and Jim Shaw, both Delawares navigating their way through Texas, and Jim Ned, a literary figure.

Americans identified and described a Panis village at the Red River that was not necessarily Pawnee.

Steamboat Captain Igo provided testimony in the case, Oklahoma v. Texas about his time traversing the Red River.

In his 1844 journal of his trading expeditions to Santa Fe, Josiah Gregg devoted at least four pages to the prairie dog.

After the Battle of Village Creek, the Republic of Texas signed the Fort Bird Treaty of 1842.

What are these "earth pimples" (acne!) as some researchers have described the circular mounds that appear in all over the Red River Valley?

Burneyville's hotel was once a real beauty, but nothing remains of it.

In May 1899. a letter in a Denison newspaper appeared about a "new, thriving, up-to-date town" named Pancanula, Chickasaw Nation.

A Peace Treaty that wasn't supposed to be peaceful was signed by the tribes southern Indian Territory at Camp Napoleon in May 1865.

Discovery of an ancient village at Fish Creek, formerly a channel of the Red River in Cooke County, Texas, explains Cross Timbers people.

Photos by THC in the 1970s depict the Thompson House, Grayson County's oldest, still extant structure. Well, kind of.

he Western Interior Seaway of the Mesozoic Era is the reason that the Red River Valley of the South is extremely rich in fossils.

The Peery Cemetery in Cooke County, Texas is endangered by the development of a 7-Eleven.

Crutchfield Cemetery is an African American burial ground that is all but forgotten among a a construction boom in eastern Denton County.

I found two other maps of Texas, both from the period after Texas statehood (1845), that shows Warren's trading posts.

Pressler's 1867 shows Warren's Trading House sandwiched between Panther and Salt Creek (TX), and near Red Creek (OK), but not on Mud Creek.

Several years ago, I took a road trip and found myself at Indian City, USA. I'm glad I did, because Indian City, USA is no more.

Red River Station was the fabled crossing for the Abilene Cattle Trail at the Red River in Montague County during the 1870s and 1880s.