Longtime readers may remember Corkey Mayberry of Park Hills, Mo., and his search for a Texas-shaped monument that greeted westbound Route 66 travelers in Texola, Okla., right on the Texas border.
Mayberry and his wife had their photo taken at the monument in 1955, seen above. On a Route 66 trip in 2010, Mayberry tried in vain to find the monument again in Texola.
The Texas Department of Transportation, after a bit of sleuthing, reported that the monument was moved to the U-Drop Inn in Shamrock, Texas — 14 miles west of its original location but still on Route 66.
But Mayberry insisted the monument in Shamrock was not the one he saw in 1955. Upon comparing photographs between the Shamrock monument and Mayberry’s 1955 image, he made a compelling point.
I told him I assumed the Texola monument was destroyed in an automobile accident shortly after he saw it, and replaced with a similar but not identical monument.
Finally, it appears, the mystery is solved. Mayberry forwarded an e-mail today from Barbara Seal, public information officer with TxDOT. Here’s what she said:
I spoke with Hubert Moore who was working in the Wheeler County Maintenance Section at the time the interstate was built. Mr. Moore is now a Wheeler County Commissioner. Mr. Moore said he remembers this monument very well and also remembers what happened to it.
I know this may not be what you want to hear, but when Interstate 40 was completed in 1965, the monument was moved to the picnic area on the north side of the interstate. Later a new monument was made and the old monument you are referring to was given to the City of Shamrock to put at the U-Drop Inn. When our Wheeler Maintenance forces tried to move this monument, Mr. Moore said it broke into pieces. He said he remembers first hand taking the loader out and removing the rubble and hauling it off.
The new monument that was put up in it’s place was later donated to the City of Shamrock and that is the one that is sitting at the U-Drop now.
So the border monument met its untimely demise due to an accident … a less-exciting one than surmised.
(Photo courtesy of Corky Mayberry)