FROM MORO TO BLUFF CREEK


Book Description

Except for stints as a US Army Airborne Ranger in the jungles of Viet Nam and academia at the University of Texas, the author’s life remained intertwined within the historical communities of Moro and Bluff Creek, Texas, with their occupants who came for that American dream following the tumultuous aftermath of America’s Civil War. In this melting pot of family and neighbors, the author grew up and was drafted into the US Army, received an advanced engineering degree, farmed and ranched, designed infrastructure as a professional engineer, became a firefighter and medic, flew planes, played the piano, practiced archaeology, fought the proposed location of a 345 KV transmission line, and successfully raised a family . . . all the while observing from within . . . this once utopian community of Moro, Texas, slowly morph into oblivion. The author analyzes his choices in life among circumstances . . . Was it free choice or simply a reaction to the witches’ brew served, or was it a horse that suddenly appeared and must be ridden?




The Bears of Moro


Book Description

In the author’s first book, From Moro to Bluff Creek—Part 1, published in 2014, the author shares an assemblage of unique Moro stories, all garnered while living at Moro, Texas, all the while observing how one decision or lack of decision seemed to have set a new experience into motion. In the author’s second book, Toyah Medicine Woman of Bluff Creek—Part 2, published in 2017, the author returns to Moro again—this time through the life of a Toyah Native American medicine woman who also lived at Moro, albeit some eight hundred years prior to the author, in prehistory. In his current book, The Bears of Moro—Part 3, the author focuses again on Moro while exploring the recent and prehistoric past while sharing more of the author’s unpublished experiences and bringing more depth to the story of the Toyah Native Americans, which brings us to the subject of bears. You the reader will learn that in the time of the Toyah, one thousand years ago, Moro had a thriving population of grizzly bears; and the Toyahs came to Moro to take these bears, in a rite of passage for aspiring want-to-be warriors. This book introduces new Moro stories, not previously published, yet experienced by the author and stories taken from small ledger books handwritten in the late 1800s about the Civil War by a neighborhood veteran of the Civil War, John Joseph Vernon. Vernon’s ledger books tell stories in his unique vernacular of his growing up in the 1850s and 1860s experiencing the horrors of a civil war and facing an even worse reconstruction. The author simply transcribes the stories from Vernon’s handwritten notes, making small grammatical changes only when absolutely necessary, yet keeping the writing style of Vernon intact and to the period. The Comanche Native Americans also lived in Moro, simultaneously with the arrival of the author’s great-grandparents in 1879. The author, having read dozens of books regarding the Comanche Native Americans, became fascinated with Comanche life on the Southern Plains. He read stories of captured Comanche slaves such as Cynthia Ann Parker who became so enamored with her Comanche life such that when returned to her original white family, she still pined away to return to her Comanche family, refusing to eat and dying a slow, painful death. The author also learned that Comanche males only have one career path—take care of the horses as a youth, become a skillful raider capturing more horses as a young adult, and finally return to the Comanche homelife on the Comanche horse ranches as an older adult, somewhat used up following Comanche life as a raider. The author takes his knowledge of Comanche lore and pens his original story connected to historical places and events—presenting how life may have been for a Comanche family living at Moro and adjusting to the arrival of the European settlers in the 1850s. Spending even more time in an archaeological excavation of an actual Toyah encampment at Moro, the author’s findings reveal further insights into the Toyah culture and how their lives were often justified while engaging the ferocious bears at Moro. Taken together, these findings generate more information on many issues regarding the Toyahs while at Moro; yet at the same time, these findings also pose unanswered questions that perhaps could be explored with less direct means or psychic channeling. Consequently, the author obtains the services of four psychic mediums to assist in his evaluation. These psychic channelings reveal more unique information regarding these Toyahs and their lives at Moro. So come take this journey with the author, a thousand years in the making, and witness how various lives were impacted, shaped, and molded, all within this unique community of Moro. This journey and these events are all based upon the archaeological records, psychic readings, historical records, and events that occurred to the author while living at Moro.




Toyah Medicine Woman of Bluff Creek


Book Description

This book concerns an actual group of Native Americans known as the Toyah culture who lived in Central Texas for six hundred years, culminating with their disappearance around seven hundred years before the present. This Toyah cultures prehistoric empire began in Taylor County, Texas, and proceeded southeasterly across the Edwards Plateau through South Texas and into Northern Mexico. Their eastern boundary extended to the Gulf of Mexico while their western boundary coincided with the Pecos River basin. The book is written in two parts, with the first part taking place some seven hundred years before present and chronicling the life of Chandana, a strong young Toyah medicine woman and shaman struggling with lifes mundane things and some things quite serious and imposing. Chandanas life is written in the form of a novel as it is based upon the authors discovered evidence as to how her life may have unfolded. The second part of the book illustrates some of the authors discoveries, evaluations, and research among what was left behind by these Toyah Native Americans who lived along Bluff Creek, Flag Creek, and Elmmott Creek. Finally, the author offers direct and circumstantial evidence illustrating why and how this great Toyah Empire was replaced by other Native Americans, starting around the year 1300.







Water-supply Paper


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Contributions


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Texas Almanac 2020-2021


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The 70th edition in this long-running reference guide is filled to the brim with maps, statistics, full-color photographs, and fascinating information. You’ll buy a piece of Texas history in every Texas Almanac in your collection. Our features this year include: Everyone knows Texas is a big state, but we continue to grow, sometimes in unexpected ways. Learn more about population growth, shifts, and trends, and where we might be by 2050 in this feature, written by Steve H. Murdock, Ph.D., a former director of the U.S. Census Bureau and currently a professor at Rice University and Director of the Hobby Center for the Study of Texas, and Michael Cline, Ph.D., former Associate Director of the Hobby Center for the Study of Texas. A new entry in our series on Texas immigrants focuses on Asian Indians. From facing early anti-Asian immigration bans to becoming the fourth largest concentration of Asian Indians in the United States, Indian Texans have helped shape the state’s economy, public policy and cultural landscape. Learn about this rich immigration history and how the influence of Asian Indians can be felt across Texas. This feature is written by Ayshea Khan, Asian American Community Archivist at the Austin History Center. The entire book is revised with the latest information for every edition, including the 254 county maps and our population estimates for every Texas town. Chapters include: • Environment: Learn about the geology of Texas, as well as in-depth information about plants, wildlife, rivers, and lakes. • Weather: Highs and lows of the previous two years, plus a list of destructive weather dating from 1766. Also, a look at how our state has recovered since Hurricane Harvey. • Astronomical Calendar: Find the moon phases, sunrise and sunset times, moonrise and moonset times, and any eclipses and meteor showers expected for 2020 and 2021. • Recreation: The places to go visit in Texas, with details on state and national parks, landmarks, and wildlife refuges. • Sports: The results of championship games for sports in Texas, from high school through professional, and a list of all Texas Olympic medalists and the past ten years of Texas Sports Hall of Fame inductees. • Counties: An expansive section featuring detailed county maps, locator maps, and profiles of Texas’ 254 counties. • Population: Figures and the latest estimates from the State Data Center, plus an analysis of what has changed in the past 5-10 years and a comprehensive list of the population of Texas cities and towns. • Elections: Results and maps from the 2018 General Election and information on voter turnout. • Government: Historical documents and lists of governmental officials dating from our time under Spanish rule to today, as well as a recap of the 86th Legislative Session, information about state boards commissions, and lists of state, county, and local officials. • Culture and the Arts: Find museums, competitions and award winners, and cultural and artistic highlights from the past few years, along with maps and data about the variety of religious groups in Texas. • Business, Agriculture, and Transportation: Information about all aspects of our rich economy, and how we’ve faired as a state in the past few years, packed with tables about employment, prices, taxes, and more in a wide variety of industries. • And much more…