DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the marker tells it, and I'm just along for the ride. Every summer from 1900 to 1910, something remarkable rolled into Canyon, Texas. And I do mean rolled — on horseback, by train, by buckboard, by covered wagon.
Several thousand people, every year, converging on one place for one purpose. That's not a gathering. That's a migration.
These were the Civil War Veterans Reunions, and for a decade running, they were the beating heart of social life in this part of the world. Picture the scene when all those people arrived and started making camp. Tents going up across the grounds, fires being kindled, the smell of meals cooking in the open air.
And gathered around those fires, men who had lived through something the rest of the crowd could only imagine. Members of the Stonewall Jackson Confederate Veterans Camp swapping stories — not just among themselves, but with veterans from the other side too. Men of both North and South, sitting down together, trading tales of a war that had ended a generation before but clearly still lived in the telling.
Now, the veterans weren't the only ones with something to do. The politicians showed up, naturally, and delivered their patriotic speeches. Families spread out across the grounds and watched balloon ascensions — which, I don't care what century you're in, watching a balloon rise up into the Texas sky is a spectacle.
There were farm and garden shows, ball games, and for those who liked their entertainment with a little more dust and danger, contests in bulldogging and bronco busting. For ten straight summers, Canyon was the place to be. And then, like the veterans themselves, it passed into memory — but not before leaving its mark on everyone who was there to see it.
What the marker says
Celebrated annually in Canyon 1900-1910, these reunions were a focal point of social life. Each summer several thousand people arrived by horseback, train, buckboard, and covered wagon. Here they pitched tents and built fires to cook meals. Members of the "Stonewall Jackson" Confederate Veterans Camp exchanged tales with many other veterans of both North and South. Politicians delivered patriotic speeches; families saw balloon ascensions, attended farm and garden shows and ball games as well as contests in bulldogging and bronco busting.