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

Campti lies in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, just up the road from the Grand Ecore.

S.A. Bolton explained living in a dugout in Harmon County, Oklahoma Territory to a WPA worker during the Great Depression.

Two maps of the Missouri Territory were either made with a time machine, or one of them is a wee bit older.

Today, the Louisiana Tower stands in the Tilly aka Phoenix aka Youree aka Washington-Youree aka Captain Shreve Hotel's Shreveport site.

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

A 1656 map shows villages like Naguatex, which were described in the 1557 book, Gentleman of Elvas, about the de Soto expedition.

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.

One of the "most noted fishing places" in the Red River Valley has historically been Spirit Lake in Lafayette County, Arkansas.

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.

The northwestern portions of the Ozark Trail were subsumed by the federal highway project designated as US 66, aka the original Route 66.

Coates' Bluff was Shreveport's original settlement, the site of a trading post within a Caddoan village.

According to Jacques Marquette in 1673, this is the "First Map of the Mississippi River."

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.

Built about 1830, the Washington Tavern served as a stage coach station as well as the nearest American boarding house to Mexican Texas.

A map about an unrealized future, drawn to indicate where the Texas & Pacific Railroad would pass once it was built west of Shreveport.

Along Cherry Street in downtown Sherman is an interesting ruin behind the 1888 Cottonbelt railroad depot.

A PERFECT example of Mid-Century Modern still exists in downtown Sherman.