What was a simple conversation about the capabilities of the internet
set events in motion that will probably link me forever to Rick Steed's
project on Fort Tours at forttours.com and its galling history of massacres
and blood. Something wasn't right. The large oak trees that stood guard
at the ranch's cattle-guard, rustled and unnerved me. As a natural born
Texan, standing six-three and 300 pounds, this was a scary assault on
my excessive male machismo. A simple night walk in the country triggered
memories of my discussion with Rick Steed about the massacres and mayhem
that was a consistent threat to our forefathers in this area. Little did
I know that this night would cement the old and the new for me forever.
I was about to make a mental link, between a pleasant and relaxing walk
in the moonlight, to surrounding sites of massacres, slow deaths, rapes,
scalpings, secret brutality and many stories more repulsive and riveting
than anything in movies or on TV. I would soon learn that these sites
were everywhere around me. I could drive a short ways from home and be
standing in the middle of a battlefield or on the site of a bloody skirmish.
These are everywhere in Texas.
Driving down any highway or country road can present more of the most
vivid and bloody Texas history than you can ever imagine. If there is
a good view, fertile or strategic land, or clean water nearby, some one
has probably lived and died there in the past. Road
Trip Maps. It may have been a native American, a traveler, a settler,
or one of their descendants, but someone's blood was spilled in the daily
contest for life and land in Texas' woods and prairies. A few of their
histories are recorded in the contemporary writings of the times, expressed
with raw emotion in the language and words of the those people and kept
in the communal and private collections of Texans and their descendants.
Everything from military forts to camp fires described and enshrined the
Ghosts of the Cross Timbers.
Rick Steed's Fort Tours, Inc. has begun a physical and cyber journey
that is not for the weak of heart or politically correct. It reports many
tragic and bloody incidents as presented by the people and documents of
the time. His material is not about right or wrong, racial equalities,
or public fairness. It resounds with the blood and sweat of the tragic
and vicious history of Texas and the Southwest. I stumbled upon it in
a frightening way! Start a tour into a bit of bloody
and vicious Texas history. Better yet! Gather you family or friends, use
the maps, and take a road trip to sites that you will never forget. I'll
never again feel quite as safe when I walk in the country at night. ...I
know about the Ghosts of the Cross Timbers!