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It was a beautiful sunny day and the roadsides were covered with the Texas state flower, the Texas Bluebonnet, a species of lupine. We were traveling along ‘blue highways’ in an effort to avoid the megalopolis that is Dallas–Ft Worth. (As one of my favorite authors William Least Heat-Moon calls them in his book Blue Highways, they are the small roads across America where the true spirit of the country can be encountered. He derived the name from the color of the roads on his map, on our map they are red.) We were headed to the 640 acre Lake Bob Sandlin State Park which is about half-way between Dallas and Texarkana.

Our drive took us by the remains of Camp Ford (near Tyler, Texas) which was the largest Prisoner-of-War compound west of the Mississippi during the Civil War. Since the Confederates were struggling financially the prisoners were poorly provided for. Someone wrote that it took seven of the prisoners just to throw a shadow. By the time it closed in 1864 the Confederate stockade had contained over 6,000 Union soldiers.

Our next roadside wonder was a place we could smell long before we saw it, the Pilgrim’s Pride Processing Plant in Mt. Pleasant. It is one of the largest food plants in the U.S. and can produce over seven million pounds of product every week. That is a lot of chicken related materials! According to their website, Pilgrim’s Pride started in east Texas with a few chicks and some seed and is now a Fortune 500 company. Being ever curious I would like to take a tour of a plant like that some day, but from what I can tell by the smell, I would not want to work there.

Mt. Pleasant is the seat of Titus County and its economy is based on oil, timber, poultry, and peaches. I can just imagine it in summer; the scent of ripe peaches, the warm sun beating down on the back of your neck as the sweet juice drips off your chin, yummy!

Lake Bob Sandlin State Park is roughly eleven miles southwest of Mt. Pleasant on the northern shore of Lake Bob Sandlin. The lake was created by the impoundment of water behind the Fort Sherman Dam which was completed in 1977. The dam took its name from the nearby old fort that was built in 1838 to protect white settlers. The Cherokee Trail, one of many routes used by the Cherokees during their forced removal from their homes in Georgia (collectively known as the Trail of Tears), ran through the area and the settlers were worried about attacks as the tribe moved through on their way to Oklahoma.

During our visit the lake was suffering from extremely low water levels that had closed the boat ramps but it is said to be an excellent lake for fishing. Crappie, Catfish (Blue, Channel and Flathead), Bass (Largemouth and White), Trout and Sunfish all swim in the lake. The water near our campground has been left full of stumps which is said to be the favored habitat of crappie, catfish, and bass. The standing trees are also quite popular with birds; we saw several large, expertly woven Great Blue Heron nests and a hollowed out stump that an Eastern Bluebird couple moved into.

Spring had clearly sprung in the Pineywoods of northeastern Texas, the birds were constantly chattering and the woods were punctuated with bright splashes of color. The Dogwoods were our favorites, with their simple four petal design, crisp white color, and tendency to grow in groves; they demanded our attention. The Redbuds stood out because the fuchsia colored flowers were the only thing that looked alive on the whole tree, no leaves yet, just brilliant blooms. Lower to the ground were the Red Buckeyes and the purple cluster flowers of the Wisteria vines.

The flowers were not the only things happy about the warm weather, as birds were bustling about: finding mates, building nests, gathering food. A couple different birds took offense to our highly reflective windows, apparently viewing their reflections as rivals. A Carolina Wren came by and scolded the bathroom window every morning while a Tufted Titmouse yelled insults from a nearby branch. After a few days of following the drumming we finally located the bird responsible, a Downy Woodpecker. Of course, there were also noisy Blue Jays and talkative Northern Cardinals during the day and a pair of very vocal, although well-hidden owls at night.

We hiked the almost six-mile-long Volksmarch Trail that runs through the park several times, taking caution to avoid the very plentiful poison ivy and using generous amounts of bug spray in an effort to deter the mosquitoes. By the time we leave the East Coast we will have plenty of DEET in our systems! We appreciated the effort that the park had put into the trail and its signs, many of the trees were identified and even the location of several old homesteads were marked. The park even has signs for the old cemetery on the grounds where several of the early settlers were buried.

And, as fast as that our three month stay in Texas was over. We have a new appreciation for our country’s second largest state, its diversity of plant and animal life is amazing as is its diversity of cultures from one part of the state to the next. We learned so many new things and had a wonderful time, thanks Texas!

Photos: View our photos from Lake Bob Sandlin, Texas.

Notes: We stayed in Lake Bob Sandlin State Park from 03/19/2007 to 03/24/2007.