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.

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

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