Oh Wise Abdul of Asphalt and Aggregate: Is there validity to the story, passed down by generations, that in the 1800s someone put a sign on the side of the Southwest Trail near the Red River crossing in Hempstead County? The sign said "Stop! Turn Around! There is nothing on the other side of this river but dry land and rattlesnakes. You will starve to death." What's on the other side? Why, Texas. -- Fifth Generation Arkansan
Dear Fifth: Disparaging Texas comes natural to Arkansans, no matter how long they or their families have lived in this small, wonderful state. At our house, we're careful about this, because we have a grandson who was born in Bryan-College Station, home of Texas A&M.
Can a body be more Texas than that?
So we're torn, but intrigued by the question, and found an expert. He is Scott Akridge of Bradford (White County), who wrote the entry on the Southwest Trail for the online Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
In that entry, Akridge writes that the Southwest Trail refers to a network of routes from roughly St. Louis to the Red River valley of northeast Texas. Most of the trail passed through Arkansas, from the Current River in Randolph County to the Red River west of Washington in Hempstead County.
But what about that scurrilous sign, the one that casts an ugly eye toward our neighbor?
Likely untrue, Akridge told us, but with its roots in Arkansas, perhaps in Hempstead County, the implication being that only the not-too-smart went to Texas. "While the story of the sign may have its roots in the 19th Century, it has all the earmarks of being a 20th-Century story aggravated by a long rivalry over football and a more recent population-driven thirst for Arkansas water."
If the sign actually did exist, Akridge said, it sure didn't work. Tens of thousands of Anglo-Americans passed through Arkansas and Louisiana on their way to settle Texas. So humongous is the population of Texas that the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex has about7 million people, which Akridge pointed out is more than twice the population of Arkansas.
Two more things about which to think.
First, this brings to mind the initials GTT, or "Gone to Texas." The Texas Historical Society says the acronym came into use in the first half of the 19th century. Hmm ... about the time the Southwest Trail was rolling. Also the time when Texas had a reputation for "producing and harboring outlaws." So to say someone was GTT was to suggest it was for a disreputable reason.
Second, The Mahatma has been in the news business long enough to remember when Jerry Jones, of Rose City in North Little Rock, bought the Dallas Cowboys. Oh, how those Texans squealed like stuck hogs.
It can be honestly said that America's Team is actually Arkansas' Team.
This would feel good, we admit, if the Cowboys were.
Mahatma@arkansasonline.com
Metro on 06/25/2016