Military, Waters, Grand Hotels, and Trains

So much to see out and about in Mineral Wells! I culled a LOT of pictures (we had 389 pictures between the two of us) but this is still a long post! I hope you enjoy it and/or get something out of it that you didn't know before!

Our first stop was at the re-creation of the entry gate for Fort Wolters - I commented to Dwayne that the helicopters looked very small and he said it was because they were trainers.

"Primary Helicopter Center Fort Wolters Texas"

 A little further in, an information plaque:
Located in the counties of Palo Pinto and Parker, Fort Wolters' history dates back to the days of "old" Camp Wolters, created in 1923 as a National Guard training area under the guidance of General Jacob F. Wolters.
On October 13, 1940, the U.S. Army activated Camp Wolters as an infantry replacement center, with the support of Mineral Wells community leaders. Additional lands were bought or donated to the army by local residents to expand the camp to over 7,500 acres. In less than four months, more than 100 buildings were constructed. The original buildings of "old" Camp Wolters were converted into a P.O.W. camp for German prisoners from north Africa. The prison camp was closed on August 15, 1946, as the last prisoners were returned to their homeland.
At its peak, Camp Wolters was home to more than 30,000 soldiers per training cycle. Among the notable war heroes that passed through the camp were Lt. Jack Knight and Audie Murphy, both of whom were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
After World War II, Fort Wolters was deactivated as an army training facility and reactivated in 1951 as Wolters Air Force Base. In 1956, it was designated Camp Wolters Army Base, and was used for helicopter flight training with more than 1,000 helicopters stationed at three different heliports. The base was expanded to cover nearly 722,000 acres of land for flight training purposes. In 1963, it was designated Fort Wolters. The fort also became the site of a Nike missile installation until it reverted once again to the National Guard after the Vietnam War. Fort Wolters was officially closed for military service on February 1, 1973.

Dwayne amidst the recognition of the Medal of Honor recipients who were from Wolters.

Then we drove down into Mineral Wells... we stopped to look at the now-closed Baker Hotel. Dwayne told me that, when they were at the ROTC training camp associated with Fort Wolters, when they had leave, a number of the boys would pool their funds and spend a night or two at the Baker Hotel. I asked him if the hotel thought that was a good idea... he did not seem to think they had any problem with it!

 We then happened upon a city park that shared information about the city...

The water well drilled in 1880 produced water that "tasted funny", but the first setter's wife, Mrs. Lynch, was helped with her rheumatism by drinking the water.

 Mineral Wells gained fame as the home of "Crazy Water". Water from the Crazy Well allegedly cured a woman suffering from dementia. Later chemical analysis confirmed that the water contained lithium, now used in modern treatments for mental illness.
Mineral Wells exploited the Crazy Water craze with a hotel, a large sign welcoming visitors to the "home of Crazy" and dehydrated Crazy Crystals. Mary Martin and "Crazy Gang" country music legends Hank Snow and Bill Monroe promoted Crazy Crystals across the country on the Grand Ole Opry.

As other Texas resorts faded, Mineral Wells flourished with the building of new resort hotels. After a 1925 fire destroyed the old Crazy Hotel, the new owners replaced it with the elegant seven-story hotel featuring a roof garden, dancing pavilion and medical suites. However, it was soon dwarfed by the fourteen-story Baker Hotel.
Hotelier T.B. Baker hosted a gala opening in November 1929, just three weeks after the Black Friday stock market crash. His elegant hotel boasted 450 air conditioned guest rooms and a variety of services including babysitting, beauty and barber shops, physicians' offices, a stockbroker, a drug store, a bowling alley and a gym.
The Baker Hotel dominated the Mineral Wells skyline with Spanish Renaissance architecture inspired by the grand Arlington Hotel at Hot Springs, Arkansas.
The Baker's guest rooms were colorful and modern. They were air conditioned, had ice water circulating to them, and the lights and fans were turned on or off when the guest locked or unlocked the room door.

The grand ballroom on the rooftop featured famous bands every night in addition to stunning views in all directions. Bands like Lawrence Welk and Guy Lombardo attracted the rich and famous, including Will Rogers, Clark Gable, Marlene Dietrich, Tom Mix and Ronald Reagan.
Will Rogers and other celebrities made regular appearance in the grand hotels of Mineral Wells.
In the 1930s the Crazy Radio Gang promoted Crazy Crystals in live radio programs broadcast across the country from the lobby of the Crazy Water Hotel. The program featured the Jack Amlung Orchestra with local "Crazy Girl" Mary Martin and stars from the Grand Ole Opry.
The Baker Hotel was the second hotel in the country to have its own swimming pool. An activities director arranged tennis, golf, or horseback outings for guests.

Now... that's the same "Baker Hotel" that a group of teenagers from the ROTC camp (including my sweet husband) would come to on leave. Dwayne also confessed that one of the guys would get alcohol and they would use the ice from the ice machines in the hotel and spend their time drinking... do YOU think the hotel was ok with this?

There was a water tower, caboose, and part of a railroad track within the park. The park was at the location where the train would turn around to return to Weatherford.

I found this interesting - "railbanking saves unused railroad corridors by converting their use from transportation to public recreation on an interim basis.... recreational use keeps them intact for future transportation needs or for use during a war or natural disaster." I thought that the creation of trails on old rail beds was just because the railbed was relatively level and wide... I didn't know that there was a potential plan for it be be used as a railbed again in the future!

The view of the trail heading east... it is about 20 miles to Weatherford.

The caboose and the short length of the original track that remains.

After reading about "Crazy Water", we decided we needed to visit...

 Famous Mineral Water Company
Edward P. Dismuke (1860-1957) came to Mineral Wells about 1900. He and Cicero Smith built a recreational lake west of town in 1904, complete with picnic areas and a scenic railroad. When they dug a well for drinking water, they discovered a new supply of mineral water. After first selling the water in the Dameron Hotel, Dismuke opened the Famous Mineral Water Company in 1913, dispensing the water and other products from a drinking pavilion. The Famous Mineral Water Company wells are the only ones in town stil accessible to the public.

Memorabilia from the Baker Hotel and other notable places around Mineral Wells...

...including a room key from The Baker Hotel. I wonder if that is one that the boys from ROTC camp used?!?!?

Crazy Water is sold by the case... there were a number of cases at the door addressed to be picked up by FedEx or UPS... being shipped to people all over the US.

A neat display case of even more "stuff" from Mineral Wells' history.

Individual bottles of the water - numbers 1-4 - available for sale. It is available bottled in plastic or glass. There are some made up as "Crazy Fizz" (carbonated).

They had the water in a big water bottle dispenser so we tried 1, 3, and 4 (2 wasn't available - the lady in the shop said that if we combined 1 and 3 we'd have about what 2 was like). I couldn't taste anything in any of them... and so far we haven't noticed any health benefits accruing from the sips that we sampled!

 Chemical makeups of the waters: http://drinkcrazywater.com/crazy-water-waters/
I think she indicated that #1 was like distilled water made from one or more of the others - most of the minerals removed.
Benefits of the various minerals: http://drinkcrazywater.com/crazy-water-benefits/

Way down at the end of the bar is the lady who was running the shop - she is filling big 5 gallon containers. While we were there, two different guys came in to get containers filled - one with 3 5-gallon containers and the other with 9. The guy with 9 mentioned that he doesn't get there very often because it is a long drive!

Out behind the shop is the bath house where you can soak in the waters instead of (or maybe, in addition to) drinking them.

The top of the arch says "FAMOUS"...

Pretty garden area outside the shop...

That little green building east of the shop, inside their garden, is one of the wells...

... and that little green building out west of the shop is another of the wells.

 After our detour to "drink the waters", we headed to where Dwayne remembered the ROTC camp to be...

There was an information sign and garden at the bottom of the small hill...

Dwayne thinks he attended camp in the summer of 1962 -- so not long before it was closed.

Up on the hill, we saw what appeared to be footings for a building.

Dwayne had originally thought this area was where the sleeping tents were, but we decided that it was probably the mess hall.

There is a housing development all around this area, and a golf course beyond it, but it appears that this area of the foundation stones is not going to be developed, but rather left to remember Camp Dallas here.

It was neat to visit this place that brought back memories for Dwayne.

 We wrapped up our day with visiting The National Vietnam War Museum (http://www.nationalvnwarmuseum.org/). There are a lot more things there than we saw... I suspect that there was a lot more that we could have learned... but we were ready to get back to the bus.

One of the items at the museum was a 1/2 size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial located in Washington, DC.

 While we were there, I used the lookup tool to see if there were folks from where I grew up (Providence Forge, New Kent, Quinton, VA). I found two servicemen from Quinton: William Martin Valentine and Dennis Harold Guthrie. I wonder if William Martin Valentine was related to Karen who kid-sat us when we were pre-teens on the farm?

Dennis W Guthrie is about halfway down - first one on the line...

William M Valentine is about 8 lines from the bottom of the picture at the end of the line.

I remember visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in DC... this wall was every bit as moving for me.

So... if any of my friends are in Mineral Wells at some point - there are lots of things to see and do!