#6 Bartonville - 12/28/2009

We passed through Denton going from Gainesville to Bartonville. We came around the corner and saw this giant JESUS sign and had to stop and take a picture. Victory World Outreach is making Jesus famous in Denton. Awesome!

Had a hard time finding a Bartonville sign. Here we are (Amanda is holding Tex) at the sign to the Town Hall. The Town Hall building had Bartonville written on it, but it was hard to see.

signs we could find in this sprawling 6.1 sq. mile This sign was less than a half mile from the Town Hall sign. Those were the only two Bartonvillemetropolis.

"Bartonville was originally part of the Chinn's Chapel settlement, but then it decided to change to a place that was established in 1853 by Elisha Chinn. Chinn's Chapel eventually became three small communities with Bartonville being the lone remaining town. Bartonville was settled in 1878 and was named for T. Bent Barton. In 1886 a local post office was established, and by 1890 Bartonville had twenty-five residents, a general store, a gristmill, and a cotton gin, all owned by the Barton family. By 1896 Bartonville's population was estimated at 100 and the town had three general stores. The post office was discontinued in 1906. Slow growth continued, and by 1930 Bartonville had a population of 300 and a business establishment.

In 1960, with cities such as Irving looking to expand northward, local residents feared annexation and Bartonville incorporated for the first time. The town then included Double Oak and Copper Canyon, as well as present-day Bartonville. Once the fear of annexation subsided a few years later, Bartonville citizens voted for disincorporation." (Source: Wikipedia)

#5 Gainesville - 12/28/2009

Our second stop on today's trip was Gainesville. We planned taking our sign pictures on the way into town, eat lunch at a "local" place and then visit the factory outlet stores. Things did not go exactly according to plan. Both of the "local" places that we tried were a little TOO hole in the wall, so we ended up eating at Cracker Barrel. Next we went to the factory outlet mall only to find that most of the stores had closed down and moved out. Oh well, so much for that.


This picture was the highlight of our trip (click pic to see larger version). We are making in a habit, when possible, to stop at State Parks along the way on our day trips. We have an annual park pass, so we stop to see what might be of interest. As we were driving into Ray Roberts State Park between Krugerville and Gainesville, I saw movement on the side of the road. I pulled over and discovered that the "movement" was a bobcat! I waited for him to move a bit further from the car and then got out in time to snap this picture. Pretty cool.


I guess being a little further north, Gainesville got more snow than we did on Christmas Eve. There were still snow drifts on the side of the road so Amanda wanted to stop and take pictures.


This was at a not-out-of-the-way intersection in Gainesville, but we had not gotten a good sign picture on the way in. Notice Tex the stuffed armadillo sitting on the sign below Amanda's left elbow. He is our mascot and will be posing in all of our Adventure Across Texas pics.

A picture of the Gainesville courthouse. No, that ugly thing on front has nothing to do with construction. If you click on the picture to see a bigger version, you will notice that it is a fire escape (ladder that leads to a slide). Nice safety feature, just distracts from your otherwise cool courthouse.

"Gainesville is home to a courthouse with an octagonal rotunda topped by stained glass, erected in 1910. "The 1912 Cooke County Courthouse was designed by the Dallas firm of Lang & Witchell. The courthouse was designed in the Beaux Arts style with some Prairie Style features and influences from famed Chicago architect Louis Sullivan. The courthouse in the center of Gainesville features black and white marbled interiors and a tall central atrium capped by a stained glass skylight under the tower." The courthouse is undergoing a major renovation project, with many of the city offices moving out to other buildings to make way for the contractors to begin.

The courthouse grounds feature a towering Confederate soldier memorial, erected in the early 20th century by the United Daughters of the Confederacy UDC), topped by a Confederate soldier facing northward, and bearing the following poetic inscription honoring Confederate casualties of war." [Source: Wikipedia]

#4 - Krugerville - 12/28/2009

We headed out today to visit a couple small towns north of us, and our first stop was in Krugerville. Not much to photograph in Krugerville... it was literally one of those towns that if you blinked, you missed it. It has a total area of .7 square miles and a population, according to it's sign, of 1,560.

"In 1964, after several years of building houses in the Denton area, Mr. L. H. Kruger purchased 328 acres right off of Hwy 377, just south of Aubrey. His plan was to improve the mostly wooded area, and build houses on 1-acre lots.

The “ol’timers” still recognize the place, since so much of the original look-and-feel still exists. In fact, you can still see L.H. Kruger and his wife Willie Mae out and about in “Old Krugerville.” A lot of improvements have taken place since his time as Mayor back in the early 1970’s, but L.H. still enjoys the beauty that initially drew him to this area over 40 years ago." {From City of Krugerville web page}