The Stories Beneath Your Feet

Your Local Historical Society Needs You

A gentleman at my church is a man of short stature but of extremely tall tales. Or at least that would be your first assessment of him when you hear him talk about where I live. He’ll tell you just about everything from what this place used to be like — a railroad town with gunfighters and farmers alike, to the bustling main street of the 1950s and that “George Lucas got a lot right in American Graffiti.” I’ve spent many an evening long after the services were over with a cup of coffee and this gentleman as he told me about what life was like fifty years ago, and what his parents told him life was like fifty years before that.

In just a matter of hours, this man had conveyed to me over a century of history about where I live, and with names and locations to show me what used to be there. And what used to be there, and what still exists even to today, is an impressive amount of history. What finally pushed me over the edge to learn more was going through an antique bookstore off of my small main street, only to notice that they had a “Local Authors” section off in a corner. The books on these circle rack displays covered just about every topic you could imagine — the famous celebrities from decades past who had stayed here, the political intrigue and scandals that aren’t even a footnote in Texas history, local cryptids, ghost stories, and biographies of gunfighters that once struck fear in the place that I call home. So right then and there, I made the call to buy one of each of the local authors, bringing home books on everything about the area and the town I live in. Most of the authors listed in their biographies that they had been here for generations, or were members of my county’s historical society.

Prior to my involvement in my own local historical society, I had always looked at them with the mind of a bureaucrat, as just another hurdle I would have to jump over in order to appease the regulations for building a new fire station or renovating a senior center, as I haven’t to date encountered any actual historical artifacts or sites that would be affected or disturbed by the projects I’m working on. Much like environmental reviews being the source of activism to prevent projects ranging from pipelines to nuclear power plants, these kinds of organizations left me skeptical. Sure, they served a purpose, but when there’s no such thing as a neutral institution, you tend to run with your gut and be skeptical. However, about six months ago, on a whim (and having some free time), I made the call to my county’s historical society to see when they meet and what it took to join.