Gladewater

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. The town of Gladewater, Texas has a story that starts long before the name you know it by. Back in 1827, this community was founded as St.

Clair, sitting about three miles east of where it stands today. For decades, that was the story. A settlement, a name, a place.

Then 1872 came along, and the whole operation picked up and moved. New site, on Glade Creek and the Texas and Pacific Railway, new era. They weren't St.

Clair anymore. Now the question was, what could they become? For a good long while, the answer was: a town.

A modest, working town. Population hovering around five hundred souls. Farming, community, quiet days.

And then 1931 happened. Oil was discovered. You want to talk about a thing that changes the shape of a place, that's your story right there.

Five hundred people. Seven thousand people. That's what oil discovery did to Gladewater in 1931, turning it into a production and refining hub practically overnight.

The town didn't just grow, it transformed. Manufacturing took root. Clothing.

Medical services. Farming and dairy operations. Gladewater became a center for all of it.

But here's where the story gets genuinely unusual. Gladewater is home to the annual East Texas Quarter Horse Show, which draws folks from across the region. And then there's the rodeo, nationally known, sponsored by the Round-up Association every June.

Now, most rodeos have arenas. Gladewater has an arena too, but theirs sits inside an abandoned salt water disposal pit. You cannot build that kind of detail, friends.

That is the land writing its own story. And if that's not enough to hold your attention, the marker makes one more claim so remarkable it almost sounds like someone's pulling your leg. Gladewater is home to the richest self-supporting cemetery in the world.

The world. That line is on the marker, and the marker does not blink when it says it. From a founded settlement called St.

Clair in 1827, to a railway town in 1872, to an oil boomtown in 1931, to a community that hosts nationally known rodeos in salt water pits and lays claim to the richest self-supporting cemetery on earth. Gladewater didn't just grow. It accumulated wonders.

What the marker says

Founded 1827 as St. Clair, 3 mi. east. Moved to present site on Glade Creek and T & P Railway in 1872. Population increased from 500 to 7000 after discovery of oil in 1931, when it became production and refining hub. Manufacturing, clothing, medical, farming and dairy center. Home of annual East Texas Quarter Horse Show and the richest self-supporting cemetery in the world. Round-up association sponsors June rodeo, nationally known, in unique arena in abandoned salt water disposal pit. Historic sites marked.