2 Towns & the Tale of a Trail of Hope 'Tween Them

Last St Patrick’s Day I found myself with a little extra time during a drive from Lubbock to Amarillo. Jumped off the I-State to wander to and through the town of Tulia, Texas. Why? No idea, other than I had never been there before -- and the name sounded vaguely familiar.

I went through the center of town almost before I knew it. Turned around at the Senior Center. Tulia had already given me the feeling it might have a lot of seniors among its citizens; however, the lack of any sign of life surrounding this very nice facility was, in retrospect, a little disturbing.
Returned to what I perceived to be the city’s main intersection (marked by the stop-and-go light at one corner of the Swisher County Courthouse) and parked the Hertz rental. Got out and read the County was established in 1890 (as inscribed on a huge granite boulder sitting on the corner of the courthouse property – along with its proclamation of Faith and Courage – Endurance and Success (sounds a lot like HOPE to me) and that “Law, Order, Education and Christian Principles have sustained Swisher County people.” I walked clockwise around the courthouse square, past the building that said it was the Tulia Pharmacy (but it was actually a print shop) with a poster in the window advertising the two upcoming (?) March 30th performances (5 and 7:30pm) of the Culpepper and Merriweather Circus. Not sure, in retrospect, the ad was for the this year (since the circus hasn't updated it's website since 2008).

The next thing I saw was a Washington monument-looking oblesisk standing smack-dab in the middle of the intersection. If that wasn’t unusual enough, the marker/monument/obelisk heralded the official route of the Ozark Trail. Some verbage (I think on a nearby historical marker) said something about the Trail being a promotion of a Northwest Arkansas resort. What the . . . .?


I have never laid claim to being a geographical genius, but I had always associated anything “Ozark” to be at least two states east of where I was standing. I took a more careful look at the intersection and its streets. One street was “Broadway”-- very aptly named because it was a VERY WIDE brick paved street—actually more like a boulevard. It had obviously been conceived and built during more prosperous (or, at least, more hopeful) times. It was all curious enough for me to “file away” to investigate later.

Which I did—albeit haphazardly and without any sense of haste. Eventually I learned [God bless Al Gore for inventing the Internet] that the Ozark Trail Association’s efforts predated the legendary Route 66 (which actually followed a good part of the Ozark Trail--just not through Tulia). Found out communities lobbied to have the OTA and similar endeavors routed through their towns. Local merchants, anticipating the lucrative commerce opportunities of all those folks passing by their businesses, funded the upkeep and marker placements. [As you might imagine, this practice did not always serve to create the most direct route to anywhere.] And it also definitely helped to have an ultimate destination to aim the increasing population of automobiles – which an entrepreneur by the name of William Hope Harvey was happy to provide.

Seems around the turn of the century, he started building a resort just outside of Rogers. Arkansas. He saw fit to name it Monte Ne (a moniker supposedly contracted from Spanish and Omaha (Indian) words meaning “mountain waters”). He also “unselfishly” served as the president of the OTA. One can only imagine how strong the attraction of a destination with lush green, hilly terrain, an abundance of trees and water might be to anyone who found themself with an automobile in dry, flat, dusty Northwest Texas.

And, as coincidence would have it, I would find myself there at the other end of the trail a couple of months later! [To be continued]