From the Annals of the Franciscans –  In 1709, an expedition led by Franciscan fathers Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares and Isidro Félix de Espinosa reached the site of what is now the city of San Antonio and named the nearby springs San Pedro Springs.   Capt. Pedro de Aguirre and a small company of soldiers accompanied the expedition.  The stated purpose was to befriend (and ultimately convert) the Tejas Indians who were believed to be encamped on the Colorado River. The expedition continued on and reached the Colorado on May 19.  However, the Tejas encampment was not discovered.  In fact, the Tejas were at least another 40-50 miles north of the Colorado.  The friars’ orders did not permit them to explore beyond the Colorado and they also received information that the Tejas were not particularly well-disposed to interference from Spaniards.  Consequently, the expedition turned back and moved south of the Rio Grande.

From the Annals of the Iceman –  In 1978, George Gervin scored 63 points for the San Antonio Spurs in the final game of the regular season to edge out the Denver Nuggets’ David Thompson for the NBA scoring title.  It was one of the closest contests for the NBA scoring crown ever.  Gervin was unstoppable for the Spurs against the New Orleans Jazz.  But Thompson did not go down without a fight as earlier that same day he scored 73 points against the Detroit Pistons. for the season, Gervin averaged 27.22 points per game to Thompson’s 27.15.

Gervin would lead the league again in 1979, 1980 and 1982, making him one of just three NBA players to ever capture  at least four scoring titles.  Only Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan have claimed more scoring titles.  Gervin  ended his career with nine NBA All-Star and three ABA All-Star appearances and scored  26,595 points over his NBA/ABA career with a scoring average of 26.2 points per game.

From the Annals of the Beachcombers –  In 1968, First Lady Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson officially dedicated the Padre Island National Seashore.  Attempts to establish a Texas state park on Padre Island had been underway and unsuccessful since at least 1936.  Ongoing struggles between private and public interests foiled any state effort to protect the island from further development.  However, in 1958 Sen. Ralph Yarborough introduced a bill to establish a national park on the island.  The bill was finally passed in 1962 and a five year process of condemnation of private holdings began.  The Park Service bills the result as the “longest undeveloped stretch of barrier island in the world.”   The Seashore separates the Gulf of Mexico from the Laguna Madre, one of a few hypersaline lagoons in the world.   The park is a popular tourist destination featuring wide beaches for swimming and fishing and stark natural beauty. The park also provides a safe nesting ground for the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle and a haven for 380 bird species.  It also has a rich history as the location of several Spanish shipwrecks and Native American encampments.

From the Annals of the Gunslingers –  In 1886, one of the biggest gun battles in the history of the American West occurred in Laredo – and politics was involved.  The fighting began during a celebration parade the day after city elections.  The two political factions in Laredo and Webb counties were the Botas and Guaraches. The Botas (“Boots”), led by Raymond Martin and José María Rodríguez, represented the elites in the upper class but had some support from the working class and poor. A reform group called themselves the Guaraches (“Sandals”) to symbolize the lower class, and were led by Santos Benavides.  The Guaraches won only two seats on the Laredo city council prompting the Botas to celebrate the next day. The Botas paraded the streets of Laredo promising to bury a Guarache in effigy.   The Guaraches attacked the Bota parade and a massive gun battle ensued involving as many as 250 men.  Order was only restored after two companies of the Sixteenth United States Infantry and one company of the Eighth Cavalry intervened. The official number of dead was put at 16, but some reports claimed that at least 30 were killed with more than 45 wounded. 

From the Annals of the Great Fair –  In 1968, Hemisfair in San Antonio opened.  The theme of the Fair was the Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas and featured pavilions from 30 countries and 15 corporations.  The 92 acre site at the southeastern edge of downtown San Antonio was largely cleared for the Fair despite housing a number of historic structure. At least 24 structures were saved for use during and after the Fair.  The “urban renewal” plan of the Fair was much criticized and is something of the poster child for how not to do urban renewal.   Highlights of the Fair included the Tower of the Americas,  the Texas Pavilion, Czechoslovakia’s Lanterna Magica – a short movie with live characters emerging from the screen, and the controversial movie US at the U.S.pavilion which showed the beauty and poverty of America in a spectacular theatre.  Today about 50 acres of the original site are designated as HemisFair Park, the Texas Pavilion is now the Institute of Texan Cultures at UT-San Antonio, the U.S. Pavilion is a federal courthouse and the Tower of the Americas is still operating.

Red visited HemisFair twice – once with family and once with his junior high class.   I visited the major pavilions, ate lunch at El Chico with my friend and lost some money on the midway. It was also the first time I ever touched a computer.  I entered my birthdate to see what events in history had happened on that date.  Prophetic, eh?

From the Annals of Texas Trash –  In 1840,  slave smuggler Monroe Edwards was found to have forged a bill of sale for 171 slaves that he had smuggled up the Brazos River to his plantation Chenango near Brazoria.  Edwards and his partner Christopher Dart intended to keep the slaves for sale after the Texas Revolution (fought in part to preserve slavery in Texas) ended.  Dart  pressured Edwards to sell the slaves and split the profits.  Instead, Edwards altered a letter from Dart to appear as a bill of sale to himself.  Dart sued and won an $89,000 judgment against Edwards. To add insult to injury, Edwards was also indicted and jailed.  He made bond and immediately fled to Europe claiming to be a veteran of San Jacinto and an abolitionist. He was run out of Europe after the Texas Envoy to England threatened to expose him.  Upon returning to the U.S., he continued his nefarious ways engaging in several major forgeries.  He was arrested and convicted in a celebrated trial that was subject of daily reports in the New York press.  Upon conviction he was sentenced to Sing Sing prison.  In 1847, his plan to escape failed and he was beaten to death by prison guards.  A perhaps fitting end for a notorious piece of human filth.

From the Annals of the Texas Polygamists –  In 1858, Mormon leader Lyman Wight died near San Antonio while attempting to lead his band of Mormon fundamentalists back to the North after he had a premonition of the coming Civil War.  Wight was an early convert to Mormonism when he met Joseph Smith in Ohio in 1826.  Wight was among the 50 Mormon leaders tried in Missouri for treason and other crimes that resulted in the Mormon migration to Utah.  After Smith and his brother were murdered by a mob, Wight was opposed to Brigham Young ascension to leader and the move to Utah. Wight refused to accept Young’s authority – claiming that Smith had instructed him to found a Mormon colony in Texas.  Wight led his 200 followers to Texas in 1845, and received John O. Meusebach’s permission to found the Zodiac colony near Fredericksburg in 1847.  The Mormon community quickly established itself as vital part of the area’s economy operating the first sawmill in Gillespie County and supplying seeds, lumber and flour to the German immigrants in the area. In 1848 Young sent two messengers to Texas to convince Wight to come to Utah.  Wight, nicknamed “the Wild Ram of the Mountains” by his fellow Mormons for his stubborn independence, refused. He was disfellowshiped by the Mormon church in 1849. In 1851, after a flood destroyed much of Zodiac,  Wight and his followers left Gillespie County settling near Bandera before fleeing the state for good.

From the Annals of Valor –  In 1945, the Marines raised the US Flag on top of Mount Suribachi, a 550 foot-high extinct volcano at the southern end of Iwo Jima.  The Marines of Company E, Second Battalion, 28th Marines had fought their way to the top for three days. They first planted a small flag to signal the victory to other units on the island.  They later raised a larger flag.  This act was caught in perhaps the most indelible image from the Pacific War.  The Pulitzer Prize winning photograph by AP photographer Joe Rosenthal shows six men raising the flag on Mount Surbachi.  Harlon Block of Weslaco was the Marine guiding the base of the flagpole into the volcanic ash. Block never saw the famous picture.  He was killed in action a week later as his unit advanced in the direction of Mishi Ridge. Block was buried in the Fifth Marine Division cemetery at the foot of Mount Suribachi.  He was brought home for burial in Weslaco in 1949.