2018 FIELD REPORT
Traveling the
American Prairie Corridor
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| Yard Art, Texas Style |
Driving the Corridor 🌻 Coleman to Albany, TX
June 21-24, 2018, Tina Rust
June 21, 2018 - On Thursday, Tina drove from Dallas out to Abilene, TX with her sister’s family for some summer relaxation at a local campground. She also came to drive the portion of the Corridor that runs along US 283 from Coleman to Albany, TX. Her first stop was the Abilene visitor center where she picked up a lot of maps of the area and talked with the center’s guide about local sights and events over the weekend. She was strongly advised to go see the Fort Griffin "Fandangle" in Albany, a unique weekend performance that the people of Albany put on nightly beneath the summer stars of Texas during the last two weeks of June.
June 22, 2018 - On Friday, she and her sister, Tracee, headed east from Abilene along I-20 to Baird, Texas, then turned north toward Albany to drive the Corridor. She saw miles and miles of Mesquite trees, cacti, huge ranches with prominent gates, large transmission line and pipeline corridors, and miles of solar farms.
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| View of Pipeline Corridor |
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| View of Floyd Ranch Gate |
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| Fort Griffin Fandangle Poster |
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| View of Mesquite Along Corridor |
They stopped for lunch at the Beehive restaurant for lunch (http:// www.beehivesaloon.com) and heard more about the Fort Griffin Fandangle (http://www.fortgriffinfandangle.org) that was being performed that evening in Fort Griffin, just outside of town. After finishing the fieldwork and driving back to Abilene to pick up the kids, they headed out to Fort Griffin to watch the amazing Fandangle, with over 250 local performers singing, dancing, and performing at this event’s 80th-year celebration.
"That was the biggest...gal-durned rattlesnake ever seen by mortal eyeballs…" - Performer in Fort Griffin Fandangle
June 23, 2018 - On Saturday, she drove south from Baird toward Coleman. Along this portion of the Corridor, the countryside was much the same with unending Mesquite trees lining the roadway, interspersed with a few wide open fields, ranch gated entrances, and utility corridors. She drove out to Lake Coleman which is inside the 3-mile-wide corridor northwest of the City of Coleman, and then later into the city here she encountered a vacant former high school with what appeared to be an overgrown community garden in the back. Another, well-tended, garden, “Graham & Jean Bevel Community Garden” was located across the street at the corner of Pecan St and US 283 which was planted in the spring of 2015.
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| View of Lake Coleman |
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| View of Abandoned Coleman High School |
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| View of Corridor |
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| View of 3B Ranch and Lodging |
