Big Sky National Monument - Stonewall, TX

Lyndon Johnson is not a president often associated with the Antiquities Act. In his term, he enlarged four existing national monuments and established another two, most of which he did only at the behest of others. The exception to this is Big Sky National Monument. Set close to his ranch in Stonewall,Texas, Lyndon used to load VIPs into the back of his Lincoln Continental and go careening across the open prairies that would one day become the monument. He’s quoted saying that he loved seeing the faces of those unfamiliar with the Texas sky, crushed under the weight of it. And admittedly, there is something magical about the skies over the Lone Star State, something countless have commented upon. It’s in every song and story the state has to offer, the wide panorama of open sky that ensures storms can never sneak up on you, that teaches you from an early age how small you are in the world. It’s only fitting that a state obsessed with size would be blanketed by an equally big sky. Previ

Ol' Rip's Mausoleum - Eastland, TX


Like all saints, the body of Ol' Rip has been venerated since the day he defied death. The sad fact was that though he survived thirty-one years entombed without food, air, or water, he did not last a year after his release. It's hard to say why death finally deemed it time to descend upon him. Perhaps he had evaded the reaper in hiding away, or perhaps he had simply been jostled too much by his loyal devotees. His casket was placed on display in the courthouse for a year, during which time not a day went by when his grave did not fail to attract hosts of weeping acolytes, their flowers, and their money, money which was used to design and erect a mausoleum for Ol' Rip in the Eastland City Cemetery. 

Made of marble with bronze decorations, the mausoleum is by far the most impressive grave in the cemetery, and one of the most hotly fought after locations by the sects of Rip's disciples who fight not only for their own place near the holy Rip, but also for possession of his shrine. The mausoleum changes hands every few years, its decorative panels of bullfrogs and horned toads switched out for one another, a different banner hung from its walls, a different guard set up at its door. Fights can break out any day of the year except for January 19th, the anniversary of the one Rip's departure into the arms of heaven, when both sides allow an armistice.


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