Page 8 THE BATTALION
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1980
Austin’s not the only Texas capital
Capital-ism is big business for towns
United Press International
The claim may be as solid as miles
of roses or as thin as helium. In some
cases it may be all boast or it could be
historical fact.
But whatever the reason and
whatever the claim, being the capital
of something in the world is a good
source of civic pride, civic fun and
outside money.
More than 20 Texas communities
claim to be a capital and most have
annual festivals built on their claims.
Gilmer in East Texas calls itself
the “Yam Capital of the World”
while San Angelo makes the same
claim about “Mohair” and Crockett
about “Fiddlers.”
In Tyler the title is “Rose Capital
of America” and it’s not something
the citizens have taken lightly since
the first rose festival 41 years ago.
“It’s a valid statement, not just a
boast,” said Dan Herod, one of the
rose festival promoters. “We have
more rose bushes growing in a 50-
Whatever the reason and whatever the claim, being the capital of
something in the world is a good source of civic pride, civic fun and
outside money.
mile radius of Tyler than any place in
the nation. ”
Although the Tyler claim is veri
fied by the American Rose Society,
Herod says he can understand why
some communities may claim capit-
aldom, no matter how vague the
title.
“It helps the economy for one
thing,” he said. “National statistics
say tourists who stop in your town
will spend an average of $35 for every
day they stay. Last year we had
200,000 people just sign the register
at the Tyler Municipal Rose Garden.
“And the volunteers — people
getting together to make the com-
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munity a better place for others and
making a better place for them
selves. And, of course, there’s pride.
Pride’s a big factor. You enjoy show
ing off your town.”
In Floresville, the “Peanut Capital
of the World, ” it’s a recognition of
the “the main source of income for
the whole county,” said Liz Howard.
The community annually celebrates
the harvest with a festival that in
cludes a queen and various contests
related to peanuts — including a
shelling competition and a cooking
contest using peanuts.
Luling is the “Watermelon Capital
of the World ” and Ann Manford says
anyone who doesn’t believe it could
get hit with an 80-pound melon. Last
June during the three-day Waterme
lon Thump the grand champion
Black Diamond melon sold for
$3,000 — and it was just 68 pounds.
Needless to say, the farming com
munity exports tons of melons per
year.
Amarillo’s claim is as light as Lul-
ing’s is heavy.
“Over 90 percent of the helium in
the free world is stored in and around
Amarillo,” said Leslie Slak on behalf
of the “Helium Capital of the
World. ” There is no festival extolling
the virtues of helium, but there is a
three-story Helium Monument and
center that attracts about 20,000 visi
tors annually.
East Texas historian Bob Bowman
says Terlingua can have its chili, all
Lufkin wants is its hush puppies.
“Hunters and fishermen back at
the turn of the century used to fry
corn meal patties at night and then
they’d throw some to their dogs to
keep them quiet,” he said. “That’s
how hush puppies got their name. ”
He said Lufkin, being in the mid
dle of a rich hunting and fishing area,
just naturally assumed itself to be the
“Hush Puppy Capital of the World.”
Visitors to Poteet in mid-April had
best forget about their diets and dig
out their wallets. Poteet is the
“Strawberry Capital of the World”
and every year thousands of people
flock to the town south of San Anto
nio to sample strawberry shortcake
and whatever else the competing
cooks can think up to offer.
Last year the crate of strawberries
(24 pints) judged the best was au
ctioned for $2,700. The second place
crate, however, only cost $900.
San Saba City Manager James
Reavis says his city, "The Pecan
Capital of the World,” owes its title
to local researcher E.E. Risen, who
did the first pecan grafting to im
prove yields in the early 1900s. Still
remaining are long lazy streams
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lined with pecan trees where Risen
worked and Reavis said the city
made it official in 1950 with a festival
to celebrate the city’s major export.
Crystal City, the “Spinach Capital
of the World,” is proof that it doesn’t
matter whether there’s a festival to
celebrate the local commodity or
not, it still will draw a crowd.
Beginning in 1948 an annual
celebration was held for the hapless
spinach plant — but the festival died
in 1955 for lack of interest, said local
authority Teresa Flores. Still in front
of City Hall, however, is a 4-foot-tall
stone can, atop which is an 8-foot-tall
statue of the patron saint of spinach
— Popeye the Sailor.
“People who go through town al
ways stop to have their picture taken
with the statue,” she said.
Just a few other world capitals are
Athens — Black Eyed Peas; Port
Isabel — Shrimp; Bandera — Dude
Ranch; Cuero -— Turkey; Llano —
Deer; New Braunfels — Sausage;
Pleasanton — Cowboy; Port Arthur
— Crawfish; San Antonio — Air-
power; and Stonewall is the “Peach
Capital of the World.”
what’s up at
Texas A&M
au
eel
WEDNESDAY
PLACEMENT SEMINAR: The Placement Center will presenlis
entertaining and informative film on interviewing, followed hi;
question and answer session at 4 p.m. in 206 MSC.
THE GROVE: Will present “Fiddler on the Roof’ tonight at 8:45p,i
Admission is 25 cents with Texas A&M I. D.
TAMU MICROCOMPUTER CLUB: Will have a summer organi
tional meeting at 7:30 p.m. in 203 Zachry.
THURSDAY
United I
ALGIERS,
n Oil Minis
lisappearet
and may
ictions on
g OPEC’s
cials said I
Ifficials sail
he affairs c
eum Expo
der of its a
md a late e
Monday a
letime dur
THE GROVE: Will feature the film of J.R.R. Tolkien s classic, ’
Lord of the Rings,” tonight at 8:45 p.m. Admission is 25 cents w
Texas A&M I.D.
FRIDAY
ip
DEGREE APPLICATION DEADLINE: Friday is the deadlineii
applying for graduate and undergraduate degrees to be awardedt
August for students completing degree requirements ii
THE GROVE: Will present “Grease” at 8:45 p.m. and 'Halloween"]
midnight.
Luckenbach, take a back seat
'Is: I'm
ay.
iconfirmi
delega
ler to neij
oss the N
(ii long
think p
very i
'EC Pr
rto Cah
mish i
The lure of the Gruen
United Press International
GRUENE — On some Saturday
nights as many as 1,000 people
crowd into the “oldest dance hall in
Texas,” swig beer and kick up their
heels to the music of a blaring coun
try band that disturbs the calm of this
century-old ghost town.
Gruene Hall has changed little
since it was built in the 1880s as a
recreation center for German cotton
farmers who began settling this
Comal County community four
miles northeast of New Braunfels
earlier last century.
The aged wood building has no air
conditioning, so the nostalgia
seeking dancers sweat and curse ab
out their discomfort as they sway
across the creaking timbers cooled
only by what breeze infiltrates the
screened edifice.
“They bitch every weekend (about
the conditions), but they come back
the next weekend,” smiles co-owner
Pat Molak.
On the subject of making improve
ments, Molak says, “We won’t touch
it.”
Molak, 32, has met such unex
pected success with the dilapidated
dance hall and a restaurant he has
established in the ruins of the brick
cotton gin’s boiler room that burned
Saudi 4
id. Fahd
h location:
Jamani wa
ECminist
erences tl
rt on a coi
de oil pric
that has
wmoil thi
^cording
The corporation, compriiti
Molak and Nalley, bought
old saddle works and plans to!
the buildings for shops thatwil 8 es ted wa
detract from the town’s Vi* m ' se w oul
architecture.
Besides its thriving dance hill
Gristmill Restaurant, where it
can eat chicken fried steak andi
e its pric
ichmark c
;e from t
lity oil at
L.C1I1 L. 11IV I\v tl 11 OIGCUV (UIUI. | '
soda pop out of mason jars id lest P r ‘ ce
BILL’S AND JAY’S
AUTO TUNE UP
sa all cars
$ 9.75 PLUS
“They bitch every
weekend (about the con
ditions), but they come
back the next weekend. ”
icult no\
mberto C
la said Me
on on a si
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BRYAN, TX. 77801
t
in 1922 that he now is launching an
ambitious plan to carefully revitalize
the ghost town without changing its
historic flavor.
Gruehef pronounced “Green,*
was founded in 1872 by Ernst
Gruene who envisioned the town as
the hub of a farming empire, but it
fell into disuse after his death in
1920. Five years later the boll weevil
ravaged 8,000 acres of cotton and
sent tenant farmers elsewhere to sur
vive the Great Depression.
Until Molak and his partner, Mary
Jane Nalley, both San Antonio na
tives, reopened the dance hall in
1974 after a half century of idleness,
about the only activity in the town
was the bar, which remained open in
the front of the hall, and the Hadlock
and Fox saddle treemaking business
that operates in four of its ancient
buildings.
Now they have set out to preserve
the town’s weathered structures,
most of which are listed in the Na
tional Historical Register, in the
same condition as they were 100
years ago. At the same time, they
want to turn Gruene into a major
tourist attraction.
looking over the scenic Guadii
River, Gruene now has Texas!
winery and tasting room, i
in the remains of the old
an art gallery and the Gruene5
Company, which provides e« ,. .. , -
thing a person needs for a rail ! ,P 1
through the rapids of the Guadi lcu ^ n0 '
In recent years the ghosttai
replaced fabled Luckenbach if
lation 3), as the hang-out foi
progressive country music
on some weekends traffic is solii|l ucr ' f
across the river bridge that: econei
policemen have to patrol. Lb
bach, the object of a songbylli
Nelson and Waylon Jennings,
been abandoned in recent)!
since the. death of its fort
owner, Hondo Crouch, as a
ing place for underground cod
music buffs because of internal
ering.
Nelson sometimes visits Gri
Hall, and maverick musician
Jeff Walker, who wrote thes
amani ap]
tion giver
ijedid Chi
back for
'ion, held
tightly gi
oil pr
n on the
United
TEHRAN
In recent years theghoi ,, hassan
town has repJacei jeeto hai
fabled Luckenbacl
(population 3), as
hang-out for the prof
ressive country nwsit thi
set.
“Mr. Bo Jangles,” sometimes
suds and plays his guitar on a«t
has staked out in a second-story
door gazebo of the old Gruene# ding a tr
re are n
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dence.
Molak, who started his cai tttion,” f
working for a San Antonio secoii lani-Sadr
firm and later went into realesti|olvethe2
became a Gruene lover back
early 1970s when he and a B ■Wed at
went into the bar in the front(d slem fun
dance hall to sip some beer, bol the ]
He demonstrates the
trek in time a 35-mile drive fro®
liament
als for the
Id have u
Iran.
If the hos
iem are
|n we wo
tstion as t<
len month
jt public s
rse.
' Ther
iiffhe pres
ed in a
Antonio can exhibit by taking vis' nday in t
up three flights of stairs to thefe ^ a mor
the converted cotton gin bd liament i
room-restaurant.
Ie on the 1
Peering south across the guifi Moslem
spy
river, Molak says, “on acleariil Ivor
you can look right down this 8 ‘resident
valley and see the lights of I ^ States ^
Antonio.
1 if the 1
Attention All Students
MSC Town Hall
4n '-Sadr
ta ges is 1
n * s of the
,Wn whal
ANNOUNCES THE SALE OF
OPTION PASSES
♦
ISP
♦
9 A.M. - 4 P.M.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
CALL MSC BOX OFFICE 845-2916