TOURIN' TEXAS         A FREE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER                                       PAGE 2

   HISTORIC BARTLETT
If you can't see the pictures your browser doesn't support Java(tm).

FROM THE DOWNTOWN INTERSECTION. Without having to worry about traffic I stood at the very middle of the intersection while taking these pictures and the cars that passed didn't honk or yell or nothin'. Neither one of them.

Here is a town waiting for something to happen.  With all the ingredients of a major tourist attraction, Bartlett seems to have it all except tourists and shops. But don't let that hold you back.  There are a few antique shops   which will treat you like royalty and the town itself is something to behold.  

k, I'm going to ruin the surprise. Bartlett is beautiful. As you pull into town and look down the wide cobblestone streets you feel like you've slipped back in time. We arrived on a exceptionally pleasant Saturday afternoon and immediately parked Nigel the Land Rover so we could stroll around downtown. There were three other tourists -- a husband, wife and young son -- on the other side of the street otherwise we would have had the whole place to ourselves. There must have been more visitors, but after counting the cars parked in front of each business and subtracting one for each I ended up pretty close to zero.
     Once on the street Ms Intrepid and I were immediately transfixed. Not just by the remarkable antiquity of the place but by the plaintive Irish folk music of fiddle, drum and pipe that filled the empty streets with a presence all its own.  It was as if some unseen movie director had called "silence on the set" just before we arrived and "cue the music" as we parked. Now I understand what "ethereal" really means.
       Quicker than thought we were struck by another paradox.  From the looks of the stores, now mostly vacant, there was a style and elegance to the exteriors and the signs that hinted of an economic boom sometime within the last twenty years. But what could have happened?
        We followed the music. Down to the right of the vacant Clark Street storefront we found its source -- just beyond an open door with a sign that read "Private Residence". We were hoping for a quaint Irish pub but all we saw was an empty kitchen with an abandoned broom leaning against the doorway...
        I learned later that in 1914 the population of Bartlett was 2,200 and today its under 1,500. In 1931 there were 95 businesses in town. Today there approximately 15 and if you subtract all the non-tourist enterprises you end up pretty close to zero again.
       With so little to do and enough pictures for an article we headed out of town. More Blackland Prairie, hills and curves and weathered barns greeted us. Even now, in January, the grass was as green as Ireland.  With grazing cattle and horses gathering around full stock tanks (ponds to folks not familiar with the term) the drive was so picturesque I forgot to take pictures. All the while we wondered what had happened to clear out Bartlett in the recent past and I was wishing out loud that I had at least left a business card thanking the unknown homeowner for the music.
       Then we realized we were lost. The map didn't help. We were somewhere in the white space on a county road that wasn't marked.  The highway sign to Davilla straight ahead meant we were going in the opposite direction from Salado. So we turned around and returned to Bartlett.
       Back in town we decided to leave that business card. I wrote "Thanks for the music!" on the reverse and just as I was walking away the homeowner Mr. Mulligan invited us in for a visit.
       In mere moments the mystery of the sudden demise of the town was revealed and the ethereal (there's that word again) quality of movie set and sound suddenly made sense.  Back in the 1990s two movies were shot in and around Bartlett.
       The first movie was The Newton Boys, a film about the most successful bank robbers in American history (if you don't count the savings and loan thieves of the 1980s) starring Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke, Skeet Ulrich and Vincent D'Onofrio as the Newtons, with Dwight Yoakum as their explosives expert; and Chloe Webb and Julianna Margulies were the film's love interests.
     The other movie filmed in Bartlett was The Stars Fell on Henrietta, produced by Clint Eastwood and starring Robert Duvall as an aging wildcatter in Depression-era Texas.
       During the production of both films many of the storefronts were touched up and aged signs with pretend names were installed on the downtown businesses.  Perhaps someday soon life will imitate art and several ambitious business types will move in and help Bartlett realize its full potential.

     PAGE 1: INTRODUCTION  /  PAGE 2: BARTLETT
     PAGE 3: SALADO   /  PAGE 4: POSTSCRIPT: JARRELL

HOME  |   CONTENTS  |  NOV 2001  |  DEC 2001  |  JAN 2002
FREE WALLPAPER  |  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
VISIT SAN MARCOS

BOOKMARK THIS SITE
TYPE CTRL-D NOW

Texas Hill Country Wine: Torrie de Pietra Vineyards and Winery near Fredericksburg