- -How It Relates to Eagles “Desperado” Album-
- -Dalton Days Is Held Annually in Downtown Longview-
- -Other Longview Info + Where We Usually Stay (Fernbrook RV Park Review Below)
After high school, Tom & Teri were in a Speech class together during an LSU-Shreveport summer session. It was getting down to the wire for each student to do a speech project in the classroom (and on video), and Tom had put off his preparations. Tom was going through his vinyl record collection and was contemplating doing his report on album cover art. Tom came across one of his favorite albums – Eagles “Desperado”. During high school, while trying to understand the concept that may have inspired the Eagles album, Tom had read many books about the Doolin-Dalton Gang, which is related to the Eagles “Desperado” album. With less than a day before Tom’s speech at LSU-S, he decided to do his speech on the “Dalton Gang”. With very little preparation, Tom managed to do a great speech and garner an “A” grade for his speech. Tom is known for his story-telling (sometimes, embellished, or “Hollywooding the story”, as Tom puts it), so doing his Speech class project wasn’t difficult for him.
Don Henley, of the Eagles, is from Linden in this East Texas region.
After being lawmen, and reports of several months with no pay for their efforts, three Dalton brothers join some others in what many called the “Dalton Gang”. This all occurred during the late 1880s and early 1890s. Those in the gang were a part of many train and bank robberies. It’s reported that Bill Dalton never joined his 3 brothers in their robberies, but was a spy for the gang and kept them informed. The Dalton Gang attempted to rob 2 banks, at the same time, across the street from each other, in Coffeyville, Kansas, and 2 of the 3 Dalton brothers involved, were killed. After that, Bill Dalton joined with Bill Doolin to form “The Wild Bunch” or “Doolin-Dalton Gang”. The Daltons were related to the Younger brothers, who were part of many robberies with Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang, which were on the scene several years before the rise of the Dalton Gang, and Doolin-Dalton Gang. These days, you don’t have to go to a library to get the information, like Tom did “back in the day”, and you can use internet search sites to get more further info.
When we heard there was a “Dalton Days” weekend in Longview, Texas, around the time of year that Bill Dalton & a few other outlaws robbed the Longview First National Bank (May, 1894), we decided to attend and see what this event was all about. One of the Old West’s biggest shootouts occurred during the bank robbery, with over 200 shots fired from the outlaws and law enforcement, as well as citizens in Longview that responded to the holdup. More info on this Gregg County Historical Museum web page HERE. We took a tour of that museum, and were impressed with the historical collection inside. It’s worth a visit to that museum, if you’re in the Longview area, or attending “Dalton Days” (the date for the next “Dalton Days” can be found on the Greg County Historical Museum website). The event has more than just the Dalton Gang bank robbery re-enactment (very exciting! And, LOUD at times, which adds to the excitement!). Other activities during this event, include blacksmith demonstrations, Wild West shows, children’s activities, vendors, food trucks and other concessions. We, thoroughly, enjoyed the time that we attended “Dalton Days”, and the time in the Gregg County Historical Museum was time well-spent.
Longview has a lot to offer visitors to the area. In the coming weeks/months, we’ll share some of our photos from some wonderful music festivals that we’ve attended in, and around, the Longview area. We’ve also enjoyed viewing the vehicles in some of the car shows in that area. Teri has contemplated the thought of driving her ’69 Chevelle to one of this area’s car shows.
When in the Longview area over the years, we’ve always stayed at Fernbrook RV Park, which is located just south of Longview, and near Longview’s East Texas Regional Airport. where the annual Great Texas Balloon Race is held. This is huge hot air balloon week-long event, that ends with a very large weekend crowd at a hot air balloon festival that is held at the airport. Soon, we’ll post some photos and videos of our fun at the Great Texas Balloon Race and festival. Tom keeps busy gathering photos, and going through Teri’s spiral notebook (record of our travels over the years), and posting it all in our website Journal.
TomsMaHauL Review: Fernbrook RV Park is a great place for RVs of all sizes. There are MANY pull-through RV spots with full-hookups, level concrete pads, well-cared for grounds, pool (which we’ve used often during pool season) & many other amenities and offerings. A safe place. Weddings and other activities are held at the beautiful “Mary’s Place”, which is on the grounds of Fernbrook. We have booked RV stays at Fernbrook RV Park many times, over the years.
We invite you to keep returning to our website, as we’ll have further information, and our photos and videos, of some other fun events that we’ve attended in the Longview, Texas area.
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We welcome you to check out some of the places that we enjoy exploring around the ArkLaTex region and… beyond the outer parameter. Visit our Journal page HERE
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You’re Trippin’ With Tom & Teri. Our location is a space in time. No matter where you go, there you are, and at the moment, We Are HERE.
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Tom shares some of our motorhome preparation, maintenance & projects…along with expecting the unexpected. Visit our Projects page HERE
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Also, visit us at TomsMaHauL on Facebook HERE
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We’re checking our email inbox, and checkin’ it twice. We’ll check it again, to see if you checked in. Email: info@TomsMaHauL.com
