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This is the Hedrick Building, a 10-story office tower constructed in downtown San Antonio in 1928. Its original exterior...
09/24/2026

This is the Hedrick Building, a 10-story office tower constructed in downtown San Antonio in 1928. Its original exterior featured warm brick, carved terra-cotta ornamentation and Spanish Colonial-inspired details, including floral patterns and figures of conquistadors near the top.

In 1963, architect and engineer Wyatt C. Hedrick modernized the aging building. Its historic exterior disappeared beneath sheets of red, white and silver metal, creating the smooth, geometric appearance popular during the mid-20th century. New elevators, air conditioning and aluminum doors were also installed.

At the time, covering older façades was widely considered progress. Across the United States, building owners concealed elaborate masonry behind inexpensive metal panels, hoping to make properties appear cleaner and more modern without paying for demolition and reconstruction.

The Hedrick Building eventually lost its tenants and remained vacant for decades. When renovation work began in 2017, crews slowly removed the metal panels and discovered that much of the original façade had survived underneath. The process revealed decorative terra cotta, brick columns and window openings that had been hidden from public view for more than half a century.

The photograph captures both eras simultaneously: the fashionable 1960s exterior being peeled away to expose the craftsmanship of 1928.

Added Fact: The building’s 1963 modernization reportedly won a local award for innovative renovation, but according to a later developer, the prizewinning design appeared obsolete only five years later.

Title: Farm boy of Minnesota cut-over land, Lake of the Woods County, Minnesota.Creator(s): Vachon, John, 1914-1975, pho...
09/23/2026

Title: Farm boy of Minnesota cut-over land, Lake of the Woods County, Minnesota.

Creator(s): Vachon, John, 1914-1975, photographer
Date Created/Published: 1939 Sept.

Medium: 1 negative : nitrate ; 35 mm.
Reproduction Number: LC-USF33-T01-001502-M2 (b&w film dup. neg.) LC-DIG-fsa-8a04672 (digital file from original neg.)

Rights Advisory: No known restrictions. For information, see U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black & White Photographs.

In 1859, the Brazos Indian Reservation in Young County was closed, and the Native families living there were forced to l...
09/23/2026

In 1859, the Brazos Indian Reservation in Young County was closed, and the Native families living there were forced to leave Texas entirely and relocate to Indian Territory in present day Oklahoma. 😔 The reservation had been established just a few years earlier as an attempt to settle Caddo, Tonkawa, and other Native groups on protected land, but escalating conflict with nearby settlers made that arrangement short lived.

Armed escorts accompanied the removal, and families left behind homes, farmland, and communities they had only recently begun to rebuild. It was one of several forced removals that emptied Native communities from Texas soil during this era, a history that doesn't get discussed nearly as often as it should.

Understanding what happened at Brazos matters, not to dwell in sorrow but to remember accurately. Texas history includes chapters that are difficult, and telling the full story means making space for the communities who were here long before statehood and who paid a steep price during it. 🕊️

Had you heard about the Brazos Reservation removal before, or is this a piece of Texas history that's new to you?

The first summer at Black Canyon was not simply difficult. Men worked without shade in temperatures above 120 degrees Fa...
09/23/2026

The first summer at Black Canyon was not simply difficult. Men worked without shade in temperatures above 120 degrees Fahrenheit, hanging from ropes, drilling into cliffs, and hauling machinery across ground untouched by major construction equipment.

Outside the canyon, the United States was deep in the Great Depression, with unemployment approaching 25 percent. When the Bureau of Reclamation advertised jobs, thousands arrived with their families, building makeshift camps in the desert because even dangerous work was better than no work.

Six Companies, Inc. won the federal contract in 1931, with a $49 million budget and a 1938 deadline. Employment eventually exceeded 21,000 people, while the daily peak reached 5,251 workers.

The most exposed men were the high-scalers, who swung from ropes hundreds of feet above the canyon floor to remove loose rock. Sixteen workers and riverbank residents died from heat prostration between June 25 and July 26, 1931, and the official construction death toll later reached 96, with 112 deaths counted when indirect causes were included.

The concrete created another danger. A structure this large could crack from internal heat, so engineers poured it in interlocking columns and pumped refrigerated water through cooling pipes. More than a million tons of chilled water circulated through the dam, reducing curing time from an estimated 125 years to 18 months.

Dedicated by Franklin D. Roosevelt on September 30, 1935, Hoover Dam began transforming the Southwest through electricity, flood control, and irrigation. Beneath its polished concrete, the Great Depression, the desert heat, and thousands of human risks remain locked into the structure.

The human history of Greenland stretches back over 4,500 years, beginning with successive waves of Paleo-Inuit migration...
09/23/2026

The human history of Greenland stretches back over 4,500 years, beginning with successive waves of Paleo-Inuit migrations across the frozen channels from North America. Starting around 2500 BCE, distinct groups such as the Saqqaq, Independence, and Dorset cultures adapted to one of the most hostile environments on Earth. Armed with microblade stone tool technology, bone harpoons, and specialized cold-weather survival strategies, these early populations relied heavily on hunting sea mammals, fish, and land game like muskoxen and caribou to survive the high Arctic conditions.

In the late 10th century, a completely separate wave of human arrival occurred when Norse settlers led by Erik the Red established farming colonies along Greenland's southwestern fjords around 985 AD. Unbeknownst to the Norse at first, another profound shift was taking place in the north: the Thule people, direct ancestors of today’s Greenlandic Inuit, began expanding eastward from Alaska across northern Canada. Equipped with large skin-covered boats (umiaks), sea-going kayaks, dog sleds, and sophisticated whaling harpoons, the Thule were exceptionally skilled maritime hunters capable of thriving in deep freezing conditions.

By the 15th century, changing global climate patterns brought about the Little Ice Age, making the region colder and harsher. Unable to sustain their agrarian lifestyle or keep trade routes open with Europe, the Norse settlements gradually disappeared. The resilient Thule culture, however, adapted seamlessly to the changing conditions, enduring through the centuries to become the primary modern Kalaallit population. Today, Greenland's identity remains deeply tied to this ancient Indigenous heritage, blend of Arctic survival, and long history of cultural contact.

In 1978, 15-year-old Mary Vincent was hitchhiking near Berkeley, California, when she was picked up by 50-year-old Lawre...
09/23/2026

In 1978, 15-year-old Mary Vincent was hitchhiking near Berkeley, California, when she was picked up by 50-year-old Lawrence Singleton. Singleton drove her to Del Puerto Canyon near Modesto, California, where he brutally r***d and assaulted her. To cover up his crime and ensure she would not survive, Singleton used a hatchet to sever both of her arms below the elbows before throwing her off a 30-foot cliff into a ravine and leaving her for dead.

Despite experiencing catastrophic blood loss and severe trauma, Vincent demonstrated extraordinary will to survive. She used dirt and mud to pack her bloody stumps to stanch the hemorrhage and slow down the infection, preventing herself from bleeding to death. She then hauled herself up the steep embankment of the ravine and walked nearly three miles along Interstate 5 until she managed to flag down a passing couple, who immediately dialed emergency services.

Vincent survived her injuries, received prosthetic forearms, and went on to provide crucial courtroom testimony that led to Singleton's conviction and a 14-year prison sentence. Singleton served less than eight years before being paroled due to prison overcrowding, a release that sparked widespread public outrage and legislative reform regarding violent crime sentencing. Vincent later advocated for victims' rights, though her assailant went on to commit another murder in Florida in 1997, for which he was sentenced to death before dying in prison in 2001.

It was November 1864. Sherman cut his army loose from its supply lines and marched roughly 60,000 Union soldiers into Ge...
09/22/2026

It was November 1864. Sherman cut his army loose from its supply lines and marched roughly 60,000 Union soldiers into Georgia with no normal lifeline back to the North. For weeks, Washington had little idea what was happening behind Confederate lines. What Sherman was destroying along the way would become one of the most controversial and studied campaigns of the Civil War, and its legacy is still visible in how wars are fought.

Following a daring escape from the Oregon State Penitentiary in June 1902, Harry Tracy sparked one of the largest and mo...
09/22/2026

Following a daring escape from the Oregon State Penitentiary in June 1902, Harry Tracy sparked one of the largest and most desperate manhunts in American history. Fleeting through the dense wilderness and farmlands of the Pacific Northwest, the relentless outlaw evaded hundreds of posse members, state militia units, and tracking dogs. Along his escape route, Tracy engaged in multiple fierce gun battles, taking the lives of several lawmen and civilians while demonstrating an uncanny ability to outmaneuver surrounding forces.
By July 1902, the high-stakes pursuit reached its climax when a determined posse cornered Tracy in a remote wheat field near Creston, Washington. Refusing every demand to surrender, Tracy engaged the surrounding lawmen in a relentless exchange of gunfire, fighting with brutal resolve despite being heavily outnumbered. During the intense shootout, a well-aimed bullet shattered his leg, severely crippling his mobility and effectively cutting off any remaining hope of physical escape.
Knowing that capture meant facing public ex*****on at the gallows, the severely wounded outlaw chose to end his life on his own terms. As posse members cautiously closed in on his position through the tall wheat, Tracy turned his firearm on himself, bringing a sudden, quiet end to the bloody standoff. His violent demise removed one of the region's most feared fugitives and marked one of the final chapters of true frontier lawlessness in the Pacific Northwest.
The fierce resistance exhibited by both the pursuing lawmen and Tracy himself came to symbolize the definitive end of the Wild West outlaw era. Historic relics recovered from his final stand, including his C**t Single Action Army revolver and leather rig, remain preserved as silent witnesses to that violent chapter of frontier history, illustrating the desperate bravery and lawlessness that defined America's final frontier days.
God bless his soul, and God bless all those brave lawmen who risked their lives to bring peace and order to the American West.
What are your thoughts on Harry Tracy's notorious escape and his dramatic final stand in Washington? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

On April 29, 1945, American troops under the 45th Infantry Division entered the Dachau concentration camp in southern Ge...
09/22/2026

On April 29, 1945, American troops under the 45th Infantry Division entered the Dachau concentration camp in southern Germany. Upon arrival, soldiers discovered thousands of emaciated survivors alongside the bodies of thousands more, including boxcars packed with dead prisoners near the entrance. The horrific scene prompted immediate confrontations between liberated inmates, U.S. soldiers, and the remaining German camp guards.

In the chaotic hours following the camp's capture, former prisoners confronted their former captors on the camp grounds. U.S. troops disarmed and rounded up the SS guards, leaving many prone on the ground while survivors berated and struck them. During this time, a shovel was handed to a survivor, who used it to hit an SS guard lying in the dirt as nearby American personnel looked on.

The situation quickly escalated into widespread retaliatory violence, known as the Dachau liberation reprisals. An estimated 35 to 50 SS guards were killed during the events, some shot by American soldiers, while others were beaten to death by liberated inmates. A military investigation into the summary ex*****ons was later conducted, but no U.S. personnel or survivors were formally court-martialed for the killings.

Traces of Texas reader Mamie Bavouset graciously shared this nifty snapshot of her great aunt Ethelyn Drew and Ethelyn's...
09/22/2026

Traces of Texas reader Mamie Bavouset graciously shared this nifty snapshot of her great aunt Ethelyn Drew and Ethelyn's husband, Louis Smith, in Galveston in the early 1920's. I have two observations: It's interesting how formally they're dressed, being on the beach and all with other folks in beach attire. And also, it looks like Louis is mad and Ethelyn's like "I'm not talking to you!" I see that they have their luggage with them, so it may be that they just arrived or are just leaving. Just speculating on a Friday afternoon. In Texas.

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