he National Cattle Trail would be a two-mile-wide (on average), designated highway that would reach from Mexico to Canada to bring Texas cattle to markets up north.

Maps are great snapshots of contemporary viewpoints that depict past, present, and potential futures, and this is definitely true for maps that depict the Republic of 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.

The history of the house at 301 East Lamar in McKinney includes a murder and a live burial!

William Whitlow's 3-D tombstone at Oakwood Cemetery in Fort Worth is truly an in-your-face kind of memorial, and the story behind it really encapsulates Fort Worth's short but colorful history.

A map from 1835 shows Cameron's Grant and a proposed boundary line, both at the Red River, and both unsuccessful.

Opened in 1931 and promptly unusable, the Red River bridge between Love and Cooke counties looked good, but that's about it.

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

Whether you're driving south or north over Interstate 35E to pass by downtown Dallas, poor you, you'll eventually cross the Trinity River.

Hickory Creek in Denton County, Texas may be named for Hickory, a much older settlement that history has forgotten.

The Texas & Pacific Railway Depot in Pilot Point, Denton County, Texas was abandoned in 1961 and put up for sale in 1964.

An unpublished and undated engineer's report details a plan to connect McKinney to Paris with an interurban railway.

Until the 1830s, the Disputed Territory along the Red River, where Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana meet, was a "no man's land."

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

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

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.

The Scott-Barker House and St. Paul Baptist Church contribute to worries about preserving the past of fast-growing Melissa in Collin County.

When Route 66 served as the main highway through Amarillo, the Triangle Motel on the east side was the first place west-bound travelers saw.