Anahuac Disturbances
The Anahuac Disturbances were uprisings of settlers in and around Anahuac, Texas in 1832 and 1835 which helped to precipitate the Texas Revolution. This led to the territory's secession from Mexico and the founding of the Republic of Texas. Anahuac was located on the east side of the Trinity River near the north shore of Galveston Bay, which placed it astride the trade route between Texas and Louisiana, from there to the rest of the United States. In new attempts to curtail smuggling and enforce customs tariffs from the coastal settlements, Mexico placed a garrison there after 1830. American settlers came into conflict with Mexican military officers, rose up against them, they increased political activity and residents of numerous communities declared support for the federalists, who were revolting against the Mexican Government. After Mexico gained independence from Spain, it legalized immigration from the United States. Empresarios were granted contracts to settle immigrants from the United States and Europe in Mexican Texas.
As the number of Americans living in Texas increased, Mexican authorities began to fear the United States would want to annex Texas. On April 6, 1830 the Mexican government passed a series of laws restricting immigration from the United States into Texas; the laws canceled all unfilled empresario contracts and established customs houses in Texas to enforce the collection of customs duties. Mexican military officer Juan Davis Bradburn an American citizen, was appointed commander of a new customs and garrison post on Galveston Bay. In October 1830 Bradburn established a post atop a 30 feet bluff at the entrance to the Trinity River; the post became known as Anahuac. Bradburn was unpopular from the beginning of his tenure, he opposed the efforts of the state land commissioner to grant titles to settlers who lived near Anahuac. The Mexican Constitution of 1824 prohibited immigrants from settling within 26 miles of the coast, most of these settlers lived too close to the coast. Although the commissioner was able to grant the titles, settlers were angry with Bradburn.
In January 1832, Bradburn received a letter listing 10 men in his jurisdiction who wanted to separate Texas from Mexico. From that point on, "Bradburn became obsessed about the Anglo-Americans and their intentions, believing that every event was part of a conspiracy to detach Texas." In June 1832, two of Bradburn's soldiers attacked a female settler. Angry settlers feathered a neighbor who failed to aid her, they demanded. After Bradburn refused, local men organized a militia to protect the settlement from the Indians. Mexican law forbade residents from creating militias, so Bradburn arrested the ringleader Patrick Jack. After Bradburn received death threats, he released Jack. Tensions between Bradburn and the colonists escalated. Bradburn supported the Mexican law forbidding slavery. In August 1831 he gave asylum to three men; the owner retained local lawyer William Barret Travis to represent him in trying to get the slaves returned. In May 1832, Bradburn received a letter, ostensibly from a friend, warning that 100 armed men would come from Louisiana to reclaim the slaves.
When Bradburn realized that the letter was a hoax, he arrested William B. Travis for questioning, he intended to send Travis to Matamoros for a military trial on charges of attempted insurrection to separate the territory from Mexico. Conviction on this charge would lead to Travis's execution. Unfamiliar with Mexican law, the settlers were outraged that Bradburn could arrest the man without a warrant, a statement of charges, or trial by jury. Most assumed. Jack threatened Bradburn. Travis and Jack began plotting their escape, they attempted to smuggle letters to a fellow instigator. Bradburn intercepted the letters before delivery. Although settlers at first did not get involved, they became alarmed at learning that Bradburn was taking statements from potential witnesses without allowing Travis, Jack, or their legal representation to speak with the witnesses. Jack's brother organized a contingent of men to march from Brazoria to Anahuac. Men began arriving from other villages as well. One of the Brazoria councilmen, John Austin, stopped to consult Colonel Domingo Ugartechea, who commanded the garrison on the Brazos.
Ugartechea recommended. Bradburn's officers explained to Austin and company that the laws prohibited turning the accused men over to civilian authorities; the Brazoria men returned home. After they left, the Mexican officers discovered, they arrested two local men on suspicion of the theft. On hearing of the new arrests, the Brazoria contingent returned to Anahuac, they camped with other angry civilians several miles from Anahuac and elected Frank W. Johnson as commander; the group soon captured Bradburn's nineteen cavalry officers, trying to reconnoiter the Texan position. On June 10, the insurgents occupied buildings in northern Anahuac. Bradburn worried. Bradburn had Jack tied to the ground with weapons pointed at them. Bradburn threatened to shoot both men. Travis encouraged Johnson to lead an attack anyway. During the ensuing negotiations, the Texans offered to exchange the cavalry officers for Travis and the other prisoners. Mexican officers agreed to release t
Chihuahua (state)
Chihuahua the Free and Sovereign State of Chihuahua, is one of the 31 states of Mexico. It is located in Northwestern Mexico and is bordered by the states of Sonora to the west, Sinaloa to the southwest, Durango to the south, Coahuila to the east. To the north and northeast, it has a long border with the U. S. adjacent to the U. S. states of New Texas. Its capital city is Chihuahua City. Although Chihuahua is identified with the Chihuahuan Desert for namesake, it has more forests than any other state in Mexico, with the exception of Durango. Due to its variant climate, the state has a large variety of flora; the state is characterized by rugged mountainous terrain and wide river valleys. The Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range, part of the continental spine that includes the Rocky Mountains, dominates the state's terrain and is home to the state's greatest attraction, Las Barrancas del Cobre, or Copper Canyon, a canyon system larger and deeper than the Grand Canyon. On the slope of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains, there are vast prairies of short yellow grass, the source of the bulk of the state's agricultural production.
Most of the inhabitants live along the Conchos River Valley. The etymology of the name Chihuahua has long been disputed by linguists; the most accepted theory explains that the name was derived from the Nahuatl language meaning "The place where the water of the rivers meet". Chihuahua is the largest state in Mexico by area, with an area of 247,455 square kilometres, it is larger than the United Kingdom and smaller than Wyoming, tenth US state in area; the state is known under the nickname El Estado Grande. Chihuahua has a diversified state economy; the three most important economic centers in the state are: Ciudad Juárez, an international manufacturing center. Today Chihuahua serves as an important commercial route prospering from billions of dollars from international trade as a result of NAFTA. On the other hand the state suffers the fallout of illicit trade and activities at the border; the earliest evidence of human inhabitants of modern day Chihuahua was discovered in the area of Samalayuca and Rancho Colorado.
Clovis points have been found in northeastern Chihuahua that have been dated from 12,000 BC to 7000 BC. It is thought. Inhabitants of the state developed farming with the domestication of corn. An archeological site in northern Chihuahua known as Cerro Juanaqueña revealed squash cultivation, irrigation techniques, ceramic artifacts dating to around 2000 BC. Between AD 300 and 1300 in the northern part of the state along the wide, fertile valley on the San Miguel River the Casas Grandes culture developed into an advanced civilization; the Casas Grandes civilization is part of a major prehistoric archaeological culture known as Mogollon, related to the Ancestral Pueblo culture. Paquime was the center of the Casas Grandes civilization. Extensive archaeological evidence shows commerce and hunting at Paquime and Cuarenta Casas. La Cueva De Las Ventanas, a series of cliff dwellings along an important trade route, Las Jarillas Cave scrambled along the canyons of the Sierra Madre in Northwestern Chihuahua date between AD 1205 and 1260 and belong to the Paquimé culture.
Cuarenta Casas is thought to have been a branch settlement from Paquime to protect the trade route from attack. Archaeologists believe the civilization began to decline during the 13th century and by the 15th century the inhabitants of Paquime sought refuge in the Sierra Madre Occidental while others are thought to have emigrated north and joined the Ancestral Pueblo peoples. According to anthropologist current natives tribes are descendants of the Casas Grandes culture. During the 14th century in the northeastern part of the state nomad tribes by the name of Jornado hunted bison along the Rio Grande; when the Spanish explorers reached this area they found their descendants and Manso tribes. In the southern part of the state, in a region known as Aridoamerica, Chichimeca people survived by hunting and farming between AD 300 and 1300; the Chichimeca are the ancestors of the Tepehuan people. Nueva Vizcaya was the first province of northern New Spain to be explored and settled by the Spanish. Around 1528, a group of Spaniard explorers, led by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, first entered the territory of what is now Chihuahua.
The conquest of the territory lasted nearly one century and encountered fierce resistance from the Conchos tribe, but the desire of the Spanish Crown to transform the region into a bustling mining center led to a strong strategy to control the area. In 1562 Francisco de Ibarra headed a personal expedition in search of the mythical cities of Cibola and Quivira. Francisco de Ibarra is thought to have been the first European to see the ruins of Paquime. In 1564 Rodrigo de Río de Loza, a lieutenant under Francisco de Ibarra, stayed behind after the expedition and found gold at the foot of the mountains of the Sierra Madre Occidental.
Alley Theatre
Not to be confused with the Alley Theatre in Northern Ireland. The Alley Theatre is a Tony Award-winning theatre company in Texas, it is the oldest professional theatre company in Texas and the third oldest resident theatre in the United States. Alley Theatre productions have played on Broadway at Lincoln Center, toured more than 40 American cities, played internationally in Berlin, St. Petersburg. Under the leadership of Nina Eloise Whittington Vance, the Alley Theatre was founded in 1947 in a “former dance studio with an opening on Main Street. A brick corridor led from Main to the back of the studio, hence the name Alley Theatre.” In 1948, early paying members scouted Houston for a new location for the Alley landing on an abandoned fan factory on Berry Avenue. The Alley re-opened on February 1949, with a production of Lillian Helman's The Children's Hour. In 1954, Ms. Vance brought in Albert Dekker to ‘guest-star’ in Death of a Salesman; the Alley became a professional/Equity company. The Alley Theatre was invited by the United States State Department to represent the American Regional Theatre at the Brussels World’s Fair in 1958.
In 1962, the Houston Endowment gifted land worth $800,000 and grants worth $2.5 million were awarded to the Alley from the Ford Foundation for the new building at 615 Texas Ave. In the summer of 1963, the theatre raised more than $900,000 from Houstonians; these funds helped the theatre grow from its modest beginnings into one of the most prestigious non-profit resident theatres in the United States. Paul Zindel's The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds was staged at the Alley in 1964 and in 1971 Zindel won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the work. In 1996, the Alley Theatre won the Regional Theatre Tony Award and has toured 40 American cities and abroad, and is regarded as “one of the most respected resident companies in the country.”In 1977, Nina Vance was invited on the State Department tour of Russian theater, which led to an invitation from Nina to Galina Volchek, director of the Sovremennik Theater of Moscow, to come to Houston to produce Mikhail Roschin’s play, Echelon.
This marked the first time a Russian had been invited to the U. S. to recreate a play as it appeared in the Soviet Union. Having forged alliances with such international luminaries as Edward Albee, Vanessa Redgrave and Frank Wildhorn, landmark theatrical events at the Alley have included the world premieres of Jekyll & Hyde, The Civil War, in 1998, Not About Nightingales a newly discovered play by Tennessee Williams, which moved to Broadway in 1999 and was nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Play; the Alley is led by Interim Artistic Director James Black and Managing Director Dean R. Gladden. Texas Monthly writes, no other theatre “in Texas comes close” to the Alley and its “productions rival Broadway in quality, thanks to its resident acting company and top-to-bottom production staff.”On March 1, 2011, the Alley Theatre was awarded a Texas Medal of Arts Award by the Texas Cultural Trust, bestowed upon Texas leaders and luminaries in the arts and entertainment industry for creative excellence and exemplary talent.
The theatre was renovated in the mid-2010s but was flooded by Hurricane Harvey and sustained the worst damage of any Houston theatre. The Neuhaus Theatre, located on the building's basement level, was filled with seventeen feet of water; the company's prop storage, containing close to 100,000 props, was destroyed. In response to Harvey, the company commissioned a touring children's play, performed throughout Houston area schools; the opening of the new home of the Alley Theatre in November 1968 was a nationally chronicled event. It has two stages – the Hubbard Stage, which has 774 seats, the more intimate Neuhaus Stage, which has 296 seats; the Alley’s building at 615 Texas Ave. was designed by Ulrich Franzen, along with Ms. Vance, wanted to create “a building that sings from any viewpoint.” The theatre building has no right angles but does have wide bands and terraces and is “reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings.” Franzen selected the concrete exterior because he was inspired by Houston’s location and the warm weather of the Southwest.
There are three triangles in the main building and “the curves cling to and move around the triangles.”Franzen designed the Alley in what is known as the Brutalist style, popular from the 1950s through the mid-1970s. The term “brutalism” was coined in 1953 and comes from the French béton brut meaning "raw concrete". Concrete is the material most associated with Brutalist architecture; the Alley’s building is among many famous Brutalist structures, including Washington D. C.’s L'Enfant Plaza, the J. Edgar Hoover Building, the Metro stations, Yale University’s Art and Architecture Building, Boston City Hall, the FBI Academy, the Royal National Theatre; the new Alley Theatre became “the most modern, elastic theatre house in the world for the dramatic arts” thanks to Yale University professor George Izenour’s first-of-its-kind light grid, adjustable walls and analogue recorder. The tension wire grid, which Izenour described as similar to a bedspring, was made of a couple miles of aircraft cable, which formed a mesh 19 feet above the stage, allowing lighting technicians to walk on it before shows to adjust lighting and eliminated the need for footlights and curtains.
Houston architect Preston Bolton wrote of Franzen and the Alley building, “I believe the architect, Ulrich Franzen, has created a most successful building for the Alley Theatre – one that will receive much recognition for the city, enhance the excellent productions that are to come.”Newsweek wrote about the new Alley Theatr
A.D. Vision
A. D. Vision was an American multimedia entertainment studio that served as the largest American and British anime distributor in the late 20th to early 21st centuries. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, ADV Films was formed in 1992 by video game fan John Ledford and anime fans Matt Greenfield and David Williams; the company spent the next 17 years in the fields of home video production and distribution, broadcast television, theatrical film distribution, original productions and comic book publishing. In 2002, most of ADV Films' back catalog were used to program the Anime Network. For over 15 years, ADV released successful anime titles. Among them are Neon Genesis Evangelion, RahXephon, Full Metal Panic, Azumanga Daioh, Elfen Lied, Red Garden and Le Chevalier D'Eon; the company maintained offices in North America and Asia. In addition to North America, ADV Films distributed their home media releases in the United Kingdom and Germany. With declining fortunes in the mid-2000s due to low sales, ADV's collapsed and liquidated their assets in 2009.
Section23 Films, Sentai Filmworks, AEsir Holdings, Valkyrie Media Partners and Seraphim Digital. Ledford and Williams continue to work for these companies as mentors and creative consultants and most of ADV's back catalog were re-licensed by Discotek Media, Media Blasters, Sentai Filmworks, Maiden Japan, NIS America, Nozomi Entertainment, Viz Media, Ponycan USA, Aniplex of America and Funimation. Several times in the 2010s, Sentai Filmworks revived the ADV Films name to re-release the likes of Mezzo DSA on DVD, Kino's Journey on DVD and SD Blu-ray and Elfen Lied on DVD and HD Blu-ray. John Ledford, a native of Houston, started a Japanese video game and video console import business in 1990, he was introduced to anime. At the time, San Francisco-born Matt Greenfield ran a local anime club called Anime NASA, which included classmate David Williams. After consulting with Ledford, Greenfield joined him and Williams to found A. D. Vision, which opened for business on August 17, 1992. Ledford contacted Toho about optioning the rights to license Devil Hunter Yohko.
Shozo Watanabe, the general manager of Toho's Los Angeles office, expressed concern that A. D. Vision would not be able to handle the distribution of the film. Unable to find another distributor, Toho convinced A. D. Vision to license the series; that December, Devil Hunter Yohko became the first title to be released by A. D. Vision. In 2007, Japan's Sojitz announced that Japan Content Investments, an investment group run by Sojitz, Development Bank of Japan, film distribution company KlockWorx, planned to contribute money to A. D. Vision, in return for equity in the company. Ledford was to remain the majority shareholder and CEO. JCI subsidiary ARM planned to contribute money for ADV to use in acquiring new distribution licenses; the investment was to ADV Films to raise its output of new anime titles, which had dropped in 2006, back to previous levels or above. In return, ADV planned to assist Sojitz with the acquisition of North American and European content for importation into Japan. According to ADV, they reportedly had "big plans" for its manga line.
In August 2007, a notice was sent to retailers stating that ADV Films would be taking over the distribution and sales of Geneon properties in the US as of October 1. In preparation, Geneon United States laid off most of its sales division. Dentsu confirmed that the distribution deal was canceled through a press release on September 21, 2007 with no reasons given except that Geneon and ADV were "unable to reach a mutual agreement." In June 2006, ADV Films entered into a partnership with the Japanese Sojitz Corporation. This was done as a means of acquiring more titles in the Japanese market. From this point on all titles that ADV acquired were with Sojitz's help. However, in January 2008, ADV mysteriously removed a large number of titles from their website. All the titles removed were titles acquired since the Sojitz collaboration including Gurren Lagann, which had test disks sent out with dubbed episodes; as of May 2008, Gurren Lagann was licensed by Bandai Entertainment. ADV Films made booth appearances at the Anime Central 2008 convention, but they canceled their planned panel.
In July 2008, Funimation announced the acquisition of thirty of these titles. The titles removed from ADV's website are as follows: 009-1, 5 Centimeters per Second, Ah! My Goddess: Flights of Fancy, both the film and television adaptions of the Key visual novel Air, Best Student Council, Blade of the Phantom Master, Comic Party Revolution, Coyote Ragtime Show, Devil May Cry, the 2006 live-action horror film Ghost Train, Guyver: The Bioboosted Armor, Innocent Venus, Jing King of Bandits: 7th Heaven, Jinki: Extend, the 2006 anime remake of yet another Key visual novel, Kurau: Phantom Memory, Le Chevalier D'Eon, Moeyo Ken, Moonlight Mile, Nerima Daikon Brothers, Pani Poni Dash!, Project Blue Earth SOS, Pumpkin Scissors, Red Garden, Tokyo Majin, UFO Princess Valkyrie, the first anime of Utawarerumono, Venus vs. Virus, The Wallflower, Welcome to the NHK and Xenosaga. On October 20, 2008, it was announced that ADV had entered into a licensing arrangement with new licensor Sentai Filmworks; the highlight of the new partnership was that ADV would be distributing the anime television adaptation of the popular visual novel Clannad they acquired the distribution rights to Koharu Biyori, Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful, Tsukihime (previou
Globe Life Park in Arlington
Globe Life Park in Arlington is a baseball park in Arlington, located between Dallas and Fort Worth. It is home to the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball and the Texas Rangers Baseball Hall of Fame, it was constructed as a replacement for nearby Arlington Stadium and opened in April 1994 as The Ballpark in Arlington. Ameriquest bought the naming rights to the ballpark on May 7, 2004, renamed it Ameriquest Field in Arlington; the Rangers severed their relationship with Ameriquest on March 19, 2007, announced the park would be renamed Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Globe Life and Accident Insurance Company, a subsidiary of McKinney-based Torchmark Corporation, bought the naming rights for the facility on February 5, 2014. Voters in Arlington approved extending the sales and hotel taxes in November 2016 to fund Globe Life Field, a new ballpark set to be built in the area adjacent to the current ballpark and will open in 2020. In April 1989, Rangers owner Eddie Chiles sold the team to an investment group headed by George W. Bush.
The aging Arlington Stadium was outdated and did not have amenities that helped make other baseball franchises more profitable. As a result, the team could not compete with other big-city teams for good players. In an effort to fund the project through public money instead of private financing, the Rangers threatened to leave Arlington; the city of Arlington spent $150,000 on an advertising campaign to persuade voters to approve the funding through a referendum by printing brochures, placing telemarketing calls, planning a “Hands Around Arlington Day.” On January 19, 1991, over 65% of voters approved the deal, allowing the city government to cover 71% of the costs of building the new ballpark. The deal called for the city to raise the sales tax by half a cent to go toward construction. Both houses of the Texas Legislature unanimously approved the public purpose of the ballpark, Texas Governor Ann Richards signed it all into law; as part of the deal, the city created a separate corporation, the Arlington Sports Facilities Development Authority, to manage construction.
Using authority granted to it by the city, the ASFDA seized several tracts of land around the stadium site using eminent domain for parking and future development. Construction on the stadium, dubbed The Ballpark in Arlington, began on April 2, 1992 a short distance away from Arlington Stadium, the stadium it would replace, the new Ballpark in Arlington opened on April 1, 1994 in an exhibition contest between the Rangers and the New York Mets; the first official game was on April 11 against the Milwaukee Brewers. The largest crowd to watch a Rangers baseball game was on October 30, 2010, when 52,419 fans watched Game 3 of the 2010 World Series against the San Francisco Giants. On May 20, 2016, the Rangers announced that they intend to move from Globe Life Park to the new Globe Life Field, beginning with the 2020 season; the new air conditioned stadium will feature a retractable roof, which many argue could increase stadium revenue from those who would otherwise not want to sit in the heat during games as the season progresses throughout the hot Texas summer, in particular those that occur in the afternoon.
Voting for the new ballpark began on November 8 for residents in the city limits of Arlington. The ballpark was passed with a 60% favorable vote, it will open as early as the 2020 season. The new stadium would be built south of Globe Life Park, on the site of a current surface parking lot between Randol Mill Road and Cowboys Way. Space between the new stadium and Globe Life Park will be an entertainment complex called Texas Live!, developed by The Cordish Companies, expected to include sports bars, restaurants and a 300-room hotel to be developed in three phases. The first phase, dubbed "Rangers Republic", would be a two-level venue with multiple restaurants and providing interactive games and authentic memorabilia. Arena, a multi-level venue providing restaurants, a performance stage for concerts, an outdoor beer garden. Unlike Arlington Stadium, Globe Life Park will not be demolished. City officials announced that they would redevelop the structure as part of the Texas Live! complex. The redevelopment would have retained the ballpark's outfield office complex, the facade, most of the concourse would have been re-purposed.
Potential uses included re-purposing the concourse for condos and retail, as well as turning the current field into an amphitheatre. This will be the team's third ballpark in Arlington since they began in 1972. On December 5, 2018, city officials announced that Globe Life Park will become the new stadium for the Dallas team in the new XFL football league, beginning with the league's debut in 2020, coincidentally the same year the Rangers will debut in Globe Life Field. A prototype blueprint was released which depicts the new dimensions of the football field at the park. Many of the park's lower sections on the first base side, will be removed to make room for the rectangular field which will sit horizontally when viewed from behind home plate. New seats will be added to where the ballpark's outfield lies; the stadium was designed by David M. Schwarz Architectural Services of Washington, D. C; the Rangers chose to build a retro-style ballpark, incorporating many features of baseball's Jewel Box parks.
A roofed home run porch in right field is reminiscent of Tiger Stadium, while the white steel frieze that surrounds the upper deck was copied from the pre-1973 Y
Abilene, Texas
Abilene is a city in Taylor and Jones counties in Texas, United States. The population was 117,463 at the 2010 census, making it the 27th-most populous city in the state of Texas, it is the principal city of the Abilene Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a 2017 estimated population of 170,219. It is the county seat of Taylor County. Dyess Air Force Base is located on the west side of the city. Abilene is located between exits 279 on its western edge and 292 on the east. Abilene is 150 miles west of Fort Worth; the city is looped by I-20 to the north, US 83/84 on the west, Loop 322 to the east. A railroad divides the city down the center into south; the historic downtown area is on the north side of the railroad. Established by cattlemen as a stock shipping point on the Texas and Pacific Railway in 1881, the city was named after Abilene, the original endpoint for the Chisholm Trail; the T&P had bypassed the town of the county seat at the time. A landowner north of Buffalo Gap, Clabe Merchant, known as the father of Abilene, chose the name for the new town.
According to a Dallas newspaper, about 800 people had begun camping at the townsite before the lots were sold. The town was laid out by Colonel J. Stoddard Johnson, the auction of lots began early on March 15, 1881. By the end of the first day, 139 lots were sold for a total of $23,810, another 178 lots were sold the next day for $27,550. Abilene was incorporated soon after being founded in 1881, Abilenians began to set their sights on bringing the county seat to Abilene, in a three-to-one vote, won the election. In 1888, the Progressive Committee was formed to attract businesses to the area, which became the Board of Trade in 1890. By 1900, 3,411 people lived in Abilene, in that decade, the Board of Trade changed its name to the 25,000 Club in the hope of reaching 25,000 people by the next census. However, this committee failed when the population only hit 9,204 in 1910. Replacing it was the Young Men's Booster Club, which became the Abilene Chamber of Commerce in 1914; the cornerstone was laid for the first of three future universities in Abilene, called Simmons College, in 1891, which became Hardin–Simmons University.
Childers Classical Institute followed in 1906 Abilene Christian University, the largest of the three. In 1923, McMurry College was founded and became McMurry University. Much more Abilene succeeded in bringing Cisco Junior College and Texas State Technical College branches to Abilene, with the Cisco Junior College headquarters being located in Abilene. In 1940, Abilene raised the money to purchase land for a U. S. Army base, southwest of town, named Camp Barkeley, at the time twice the size of Abilene with 60,000 men; when the base closed, many worried that Abilene could become a ghost town, but in the post-World War II boom, many servicemen returned to start businesses in Abilene. In the early-1950s, residents raised $893,261 to purchase 3,400 acres of land for an Air Force base. Today, Dyess Air Force Base is the city's largest employer, with 6,076 employees. Abilene's population nearly doubled in 10 years from 45,570 in 1950 to 90,638. In the same year, a second high school was added, Cooper High School.
In 1966, the Abilene Zoo was created near Abilene Regional Airport. The following year, one of the most important bond elections in the city's history passed for the funding of the construction of the Abilene Civic Center and the Taylor County Coliseum, as well as major improvements to Abilene Regional Airport. In 1969, the Woodson elementary and high school for black students closed as the school system was integrated. In 1982, Abilene became the first city in Texas to create a downtown reinvestment zone. Texas State Technical College opened an Abilene branch three years later; the 2,250-bed French Robertson Prison Unit was built in 1989. A half-cent sales tax earmarked for economic development was created after the decline in the petroleum business in the 1980s. A branch of Cisco Junior College was located in the city in 1990; the Grace Museum and Paramount Theatre revitalizations, along with Artwalk in 1992, sparked a decade of downtown restoration. In 2004, Frontier Texas!, a multimedia museum highlighting the history of the area from 1780 to 1880, was constructed, a new $8 million, 38-acre Cisco Junior College campus was built at Loop 322 and Industrial Boulevard.
Subdivisions and businesses started locating along the freeway, on the same side as the CJC campus, showing a slow but progressive trend for Abilene growth on the Loop. Abilene has become the commercial, retail and transportation hub of a 19-county area more known as "The Big Country", but known as the "Texas Midwest", is part of the Central Great Plains ecoregion. By the end of 2005, commercial and residential development had reached record levels in and around the city. Abilene is located in northeastern Taylor County; the city limits extend north into Jones County. Interstate 20 leads west 148 miles to Midland. Three U. S. highways pass through the city. US 83 runs west of the city center, leading south 55 miles to Ballinger. US 84 runs with US 83 through the southwest part of the city but leads southeast 52 miles to Coleman and west with I-20 40 miles to Sweetwater. US 277 follows US 83 around the northwest side of the city and north to Anson but heads southwest from Abilene 89 miles so San Angelo.
According to the United States Census Bureau, Abilene has a total area of 112.2 square miles, of which 106.8 square miles are land and 5.4 square miles are covered by
Arlington Stadium
Arlington Stadium was a baseball stadium located in Arlington, United States, located between Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. It served as the home for the Texas Rangers from 1972 until 1993, when the team moved into The Ballpark in Arlington, the team's current home since 1994; the stadium was built in 1965 as Turnpike Stadium, a minor league ballpark seating 10,000 people named for the nearby Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike. The Fort Worth Cats of the Texas League moved there as the Dallas-Fort Worth Spurs, played there for the next seven years, setting many Texas League attendance records after it expanded to 20,500 seats in 1970. However, the stadium's real purpose was to attract a major league team to the Metroplex, it had been built to major league specifications, was designed to be expandable to up to 50,000 seats. Due to its location in a natural bowl, only minimal excavations would be necessary to ready it for a big-league team. Although it was built for baseball, its general shape was similar to the major league multi-purpose stadiums that were beginning to emerge in the mid-1960s.
The Metroplex had been mentioned as a possible expansion site since the 1950s, Arlington Mayor Tom Vandergriff figured that Arlington, halfway between the two cities, would be the best site for a prospective major league team. In 1971, the struggling Washington Senators announced their intentions to move to the Metroplex as the Texas Rangers; the stadium was expanded to seat over 35,700 people, was renamed "Arlington Stadium". It was the fourth former minor league park converted for use by a major-league team, after Baltimore's Memorial Stadium, Kansas City's Municipal Stadium and Minnesota's Metropolitan Stadium; the park had a skeletal, jerry-built feel, it was obvious that it had once been minor-league. An upper deck wasn't added until 1978, it had the largest bleacher section in baseball. Unlike most stadiums built during this time, there were few bad seats, due to its natural-bowl location and the field being 40 feet below street level. Early in the stadium's existence, the stadium could be converted for football by swiveling the third-base grandstands into the outfield.
In the process, people sitting in the left-field bleachers had their view cut off. When a football game was played at the stadium, an auxiliary press box, located near the first base side, was used. With the 1978 renovations, the stadium was locked in its baseball configuration for the remainder of its existence. Although it had been built for baseball, Arlington Stadium had a number of drawbacks. After the addition of the upper deck, there was no roof, thus no protection from the oppressive Texas heat. For nearly all of its existence, it was the hottest stadium in the majors, it was not unheard of for game-time temperatures to be well above 100 degrees. Combined with the Rangers' mediocre performance, this held down attendance during the 1970s. Due in part to the heat, the Rangers scheduled nearly all of their games from May through September at night. Other than nearby amusement park Six Flags Over Texas, there was no neighborhood around the park. In his book Storied Stadiums, Curt Smith described it as "small, not intimate".
The scoreboard in the Rangers' early days was a long, horizontal rectangle with a panel shaped like the state of Texas. It was replaced after the 1984 season with a new scoreboard and series of billboards that ran from foul pole to foul pole. "Cotton-Eyed Joe" was played during the seventh-inning stretch for fans to dance to instead of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". Arlington Stadium was the first major league ballpark to sell nachos; the stadium, had two advantages. First, before installation of the wrap-around scoreboard and billboards, the predominant gusty winds from the south knocked down many fly balls that would otherwise have been home runs. Second, the large number of metal bleacher seats would come in handy on Bat Night, the promotional game where children age 13 and under would receive a real bat that could be pounded on the bleachers; as Bat Night would be the only sell-out for the poor Rangers squads, the spectacle of 10,000-15,000 kids banging their bats all at once would create a deafening sound.
The stadium began to show its age and inadequacy, the City of Arlington approved the construction of a new stadium for the Rangers. The last game was played in Arlington Stadium on October 3, 1993, resulting in a 4-1 win by the visiting Kansas City Royals, witnessed by 41,039 fans. Following the 1993 season, the Rangers moved to The Ballpark in Arlington, built nearby, Arlington Stadium was demolished in 1994; the foul poles and home plate from Arlington Stadium were moved to the new ballpark, along with some of the bleachers. The bleachers were painted green, but their original blue color is visible in spots where the green paint has chipped. Home plate was inserted into place at the Ballpark in Arlington by Tom Schieffer, Richard Greene, Tom Vandergriff, George W. Bush; the site of the old stadium is just west of the Arlington
