Sonora, Texas

The original intention was to do this trip in ten weeks. Not enough time. I reached Los Angeles in seven weeks because I had to, but it meant leaving out some things that I really wanted to see - like Yosemite, for example. Coming back, it soon became obvious that our trip would last at least twelve weeks, and now it seems that thirteen weeks is a more realistic likelihood. No matter which way we go, there are things of interest to see that we didn't know about but which we don't want to miss once we find out about them.
 
  Today, our "find" was Sonora, Texas. We originally chose it because it seemed to be the town where we were most likely to be after a day of driving.



Main Street in historic Sonora, Texas  



We did indeed arrive at Sonora at 4:00 pm and pulled into a budget motel, where a nice Pakistani gentleman showed us around and assured us that we would be safe and happy at his motel. Indeed, the room was newly painted a bright green and yellow which made it quite cheerful, and outside the room was a huge tree with spreading branches. I had never seen a tree quite like it before and although the owner told me that it was an oak tree, I had my doubts since the leaves were different from any oak I had ever seen. I looked it up on my netbook and learned that it was indeed a Live Oak.

There was a large cavern not too far from Sonora, and we had intended to see it, but we were too late to do this. We had arrived early enough, however, to drive the mile or so into the center of Sonora and take a look at the town. We picked up a walking tour brochure of the town and off we went. The highway was the main street through the town and it was filled with the usual conglomeration of auto repair and sales places, gas stations,restaurants and miscellaneous commercial establishments. Nothing special.

There was a sign pointing left to the historic district. We took the turn and it was almost like something out of Twilight Zone. We had been whisked back into the nineteenth century. We were now on a wide street with small shops on both sides, many of them in refurbished 19th century buildings. The shops were all closed and we were the only ones on the street. Reading our walking tour brochure, it seemed that the town's main claim to fame was that it was the place where Will Carver, a member of Butch Cassidy's gang of bank and train robbers, was finally killed. The various buildings on the walking tour generally had some loose connection to his fatal visit to the town. There were also some other killings referred to. It seems that the town has been cleaned up quite a bit since the nineteenth century. Progress ain't all bad.

The town visitors center was closed. There was a sign up that because of the economic turndown, the center would now be closed on Saturdays. There was also a notice posted about a memorial dinner for George Wallace. GEORGE WALLACE??!! I knew we were in the South and that much of the South has still not conceded that it lost the Civil War and that the reconstruction period is over, but GEORGE WALLACE?! - whose main claim to fame as governor of Alabama was a final unsuccessful effort to block integration at the University of Alabama? If there was ever anyone in the US better off forgotten than George Wallace, it's hard to imagine who it might be. In  all fairness to Sonora, I must acknowledge that George Wallace is a fairly common name; perhaps the dinner was to honor some other George Wallace.  I certainly hope so!

The town courthouse was a beautiful nineteenth century building with a large attractive lawn in front of it. The lawn contained three historic stone markers - one honoring veterans of the Korean and Vietnam Wars, one honoring veterans of WWII, and one honoring a citizen of the town who was killed while leading his Confederate troops in a minor battle of the Civil War. There were also some large cardboard posters touting the local high school football team. On the fence facing the sidewalk, there were small posters honoring the early settlers of the town, apparently written by their descendants. One of them referred to the harsh conditions overcome to get there, including defending themselves against "savage Indians." I suppose being overrun by foreigners and displaced from one's homeland would tend to make the Indians rather savage, but I can't help wondering how an Indian would feel reading that description. Probably less surprised than I was.

Another poster referred to two brothers, each of whom fought on a different side during the Civil War.
The town also had what seemed from the outside like a rather large library. Even small towns like Sonora all seem to have a public library well furnished with computers. We are still a literate people.
We finished our tour of Sonora by driving around the residential area.
Although it was starting to get dark, few of the houses had lights on. Where was everybody? The other noticeable thing was that almost every house seemed to have a pickup truck or two parked either in the driveway or in front of the house.