I began my day in Red River County in Northeast Texas, practically in both Oklahoma and Arkansas and more specifically in the City of Clarksville where the County Courthouse is. The County Clerk's Office that originally held the records of deeds and other land transactions within the building seen in the photo below has since been moved to a location next to the cafe where I ate breakfast.
Red River County isn't exactly overpopulated with about 12,000 people to cover about 1057 square miles, but that is a denser spread than many other rural Texas counties can boast, even if the needle pointing to "12,000" is dropping.
They've apparently been able to maintain a tax base sufficient to fund some new construction such as the modern office a couple of blocks down the street from where the courthouse stands. The records were in good shape, if not overly digitized or accessible via the web.
That may in fact have been the grand strategy of the folks who own the only motel in town, i.e. to require visitors wanting to examine the records in the County Clerk's Office to actually drive for five hours from Austin and pay the exhorbitant rate of a little over forty bucks per night for a room that was surprisingly good for that bargain price. At any rate, I fell for that one, but after breakfast thought I'd take a few photos of the old courthouse in the low, early light of today.
Sorry 'bout the weather vane getting cropped out of the frame, but this was shot with an iPhone and the display tends not to be too visible in bright sunlight. At least I caught the Texas flag with some air stirring it into life.
Kent McMillan, post: 428469, member: 3 wrote: I began my day in Red River County in Northeast Texas, practically in both Oklahoma and Arkansas and more specifically in the City of Clarksville where the County Courthouse is. The County Clerk's Office that originally held the records of deeds and other land transactions within the building seen in the photo below has since been moved to a location next to the cafe where I ate breakfast.
Red River County isn't exactly overpopulated with about 12,000 people to cover about 1057 square miles, but that is a denser spread than many other rural Texas counties can boast, even if the needle pointing to "12,000" is dropping.
They've apparently been able to maintain a tax base sufficient to fund some new construction such as the modern office a couple of blocks down the street from where the courthouse stands. The records were in good shape, if not overly digitized or accessible via the web.
That may in fact have been the grand strategy of the folks who own the only motel in town, i.e. to require visitors wanting to examine the records in the County Clerk's Office to actually drive for five hours from Austin and pay the exhorbitant rate of a little over forty bucks per night for a room that was surprisingly good for that bargain price. At any rate, I fell for that one, but after breakfast thought I'd take a few photos of the old courthouse in the low, early light of today.
Sorry 'bout the weather vane getting cropped out of the frame, but this was shot with an iPhone and the display tends not to be too visible in bright sunlight. At least I caught the Texas flag with some air stirring it into life.
The first picture would make for a good pencil drawing!
StLSurveyor, post: 428473, member: 7070 wrote: The first picture would make for a good pencil drawing!
I would imagine that Paden Cash is on that even as I write.
Here's a better view of the building facade with a bit more weather vane, too.
