Dowdy Ferry, and other things while rambling around...

This is the Wheatland Church... a pretty little building with beautiful stained glass windows...

and the cemetary that is associated with it is really quite a nice, peaceful little place.

and there is a line of twisted little trees in the cemetary which I intend to go back a photograph again when they have leaves and I have a little more time... I think they're what we used to call silver maples... the leaves are very dark green on the top and startling white on the bottom... the slightest breeze makes the trees seem to shimmer as the leaves flashes the white underside... They're not really suited to the area that well... which is why they develop these bonsai-like twisted shapes...

And this is Dowdy Ferry... right on the line between Dallas and Hutchins...

Actually, the dowdy ferry bridge... In most places, if you have a river, people are down on it... boating, fishing, etc... but here in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area... that just doesn't seem to be the case.

There's very little access to the Trinity River throughout most of the area... I pulled over to see the historical marker for Dowdy Ferry, and eventually walked down under the bridge to take thise pics... It's not the most attractive of rivers, I'll grant you, and the Trinity used to have alligators. Not anymore, but people don't seem to want much to do with it...

Anyway, according to the Marker, Illinois native Alanson Dowdy came to the DFW area in 1846 and was was granted a license to run a ferry in 1854. At the time, it was the southernmost crossing of the Trinity, and he charged $1 for a wagon with 4 or more animals, 10 cents for a man & horse, and 5 cents of a person on foot.

The first bridge was built here in 1888.