Crockett County Historical Marker - Ozona, TX
N 30° 42.624 W 101° 12.057
14R E 289226 N 3399575
The 1936 Texas Centennial County marker for Crockett County, TX, located along the Old Spanish Trail.
Waymark Code: WMTXMA
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 01/19/2017
Views: 10
The Old Spanish Trail was one of the early US Auto Trail routes intended to boost tourism and travel in the early days of motoring for fun.
Much of the OST passed through Texas, from Orange to El Paso. Most of the route of the OST is under the I-10, but parts of the old road have been preserved.
In Texas, the OST west of San Antonio was designated the US290 after 1926. In 1935 that part of US 290 that ran west from SA was redesignated US 87, and US 290 was rerouted further north from Houston to reach Austin, before meandering through the Texas Hill Country to Fredericksburg and Kerrville, to El Paso.
Today, what used to be the US 290 west of its junction with the I-10 at the Kimble County line has been undesignated completely in favor of the I-10.
However, parts of the original US 290 OST route are preserved along SH 290 between the Crockett County towns of Sheffield and Ozona. In addition, the OST passed though Ozona on Ave E, also known today as SH 163.
As a commemoration of the Centennial of Texas statehood, the Texas State Highway department commissioned pink granite blocks with bronze plates on top and bronze medallions on the front. 254 of these markers were designated county markers, and contained short facts about the organization dates, namesakes, and sometimes important events that took place in each county. One of these category of markers was placed in each Texas county, either at the county line, at the county courthouse, or in the newly-conceived roadside parks (we know them today as rest areas).
The Crockett County marker was placed in 1936 on the southeast corner of the park in the center of the Crockett County courthouse square, along Ave E/Old Spanish Trail in Ozona. Every traveler along the OST who passed by here would have seen this distinctive block of pink granite with the Centennial bronze logo in the center.
In 2016 it's still a lot of fun to seek these Centennial markers out. In 1936 they were brand-new and part of an important commemoration of Texas history.
Many of the pink granite blocks had their bronze plates replaced in the 1960s/1970s with more accurate or complete information, or to remove disparaging adjectives about Native tribes that were accepted in the 1930s but were recognized by he 1960s as being negative and hurtful.
It is a lot of fun to see a rare 1936 Centennial marker with its original bronze plate intact. All of these true relics of the Centennial marker program did not need any revisions to text to reflect changing attitudes.
The Centennial marker at the Crockett County courthouse is one of the rare original markers that did not need its bronze plate replaced. The text on this marker is the same as it has ever been, since the day it was placed.
The marker reads as follows:
"Formed from Bexar Territory
Created January 22, 1875
Organized July 7, 1891
Named in honor of
David Crockett
1786-1836
Member of the United States
Congress from Tennessee
Killed at the Alamo
Ozona, County Seat"
Submission Criteria:
Distinctive or Significant Interest
Website with More Information: [Web Link]
Address of Waymark:
Ave E and 11th Street
Ozona, TX
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