We went there so Kathy could check out its genealogical resources. It was originally called the Confederate Museum. The main display area exhibits paraphenalia about Texas Confederate regiments and explains Texas' unique role in the Civil War. Though Texans under Hood provided very reliable regiments for Lee's army, the state of Texas most important contribution to the war was supplying the Confederacy because Texas was the only Confederate state bordering a neutral country, Mexico. Mexico purchased southern cotton in exchange for important supplies. This important role ended when the Union completely controlled the Mississippi River with the capture of Vicksburg in 1863.
The museum now has exhibits about all major US wars including a fairly large collection of modern military weaponry. Not only rifles and machine guns, but also WWI hand grenades, bayonets and medieval-looking spiked maces and even a spiked-ball flail for hand-to-hand fighting.
In the afternoon, we looked at the 100 million year old dinosaur tracks in Dinosaur Valley State Park outside Glen Rose, Texas. Pictures on Flickr.
The tracks are in the limestone bottom of the very shallow Paluxy River which flows into the Brazos River. 100 million years ago this area was a beach on the ocean and several different types of dinosaurs vacationing on the beach left their footprints.
The nearby Creation Evidences Museum was closed by the time we got there. This museum is supposedly associated with Dr. Carl Baugh. Here is an older article with a picture of what it looks like today and an evolutionists critic of the museum's exhibits.
The Glen Rose dinosaur tracks were famous in the evolution-creation debate in the 1980s because the creationists claimed that some prints were actually human. Dinosaur and human prints appearing together would obviously disprove evolution.
We are camping in at Dave's campground west of Gainesville, Texas, a stone's throw from Oklahoma.
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