A walk through time
More than 10,000 years in and around this corner of Navarro County, in order, from an ancient sea floor to today. Each stop is marked by what backs it: the record, someone's account, or legend.
- On the record
- documented.
- As told
- an account we can credit to a person or a publication, not confirmed by the record.
- Legend
- told locally, unproven.
Long before people
Deep time
Long before people
The sea floor
Deeper, and just to the northwest, lies Kemp Clay: the floor of a sea from the last age of the dinosaurs.
More than 10,000 years ago
The creeks draw people
More than 10,000 years ago
An Ice Age spear point
Archaeologists recorded over 300 prehistoric sites along Richland Creek, from an Ice Age spear point to camps that followed acorns, deer, fish and mussels.
For centuries
Hunting country
Tawakoni, Kichai, Waco, Caddo, Comanche and others later hunted this country.
By the 1700s
Tawakoni country
By the 1700s, this was Tawakoni country. The Tawakoni, one of the Wichita peoples, first appear in European records in 1719, on the Canadian River.
Before the plough
The prairie
This is the Northern Blackland Prairie. Its native grasses included little bluestem, big bluestem, Indiangrass and switchgrass, shaped by fire and bison.
1838–1873
Surveyors and settlers
October 1838
The Surveyors' Fight
In October 1838, about 25 surveyors were working west of here, near present-day Dawson, mapping land grants promised to veterans of the Texas Revolution, in country the tribes still hunted. It is remembered as the Battle Creek Fight, or the Surveyors' Fight, and a state marker stands at the common grave.
1842–1845
Mercer's Colony
Families of Mercer's Colony clustered around the ridge between 1842 and 1845 for protection.
1844
A mountain's name
In 1844, Eleazar Nash came from Massachusetts and named the Pisgah settlement; he later left for the California gold rush. On this ridge, two of the early settlements were called Mount Pisgah and Mount Nebo.
About 1850
The Old Springfield Road
The Old Springfield Road carried travelers between Houston and North Texas and crossed Richland Creek at the Love bridge. By about 1850 there was a stage inn near Richland Crossing.
9 February 1855
Nubbin Lane
Near Pisgah Ridge, overlapping surveys and friction between old settlers and newcomers set the Love family against Dr. William Nicks Anderson, agent for the Mercer Colony. On 9 February 1855, on a stretch of the Old Springfield Road called Nubbin Lane, William M. Love shot Anderson.
1869
A gunfighter teaches school
Between those two killings, by his own account, the gunfighter John Wesley Hardin taught school on the ridge. All of this comes from Hardin's autobiography, published in 1896, and we pass it on as he told it.
19 May 1873
Eighteen years later
Eighteen years passed. On 19 May 1873, William Love was killed near the same spot. Ham Anderson, the widow's son, and Alec Barekman were charged.
1871–1907
Rails and ridge towns
1871
The railroad passes by
In 1871 the railroad came through Richland instead, and the ridge towns began to drain away.
1872–1907
Pursley
The nearest named community is Pursley Probably named for W. H. Pursley, who settled some 1,200 acres after the Civil War, it had a post office from 1872 to 1907.
1890s
Two saloons
Richland had two saloons in the 1890s.
1891
A post office for one year
Pisgah got its own post office in 1891 and lost it the next year.
About 1900
Pisgah's last busy years
Around 1900 it still had a school, stores, a church and a cotton gin with a gristmill.
1894–1960s
Outlaws, storms and oil
9 June 1894
Drilling for water, striking oil
On 9 June 1894, a crew drilling a new water well for the city of Corsicana struck oil instead. The strike grew into Texas's first commercial oil field.
1927
Outlaw ridge
In October 1927, robbers hit the First State Bank of Richland, and their getaway car was seen in the Richland Creek bottom. The next month, a car used by bank robbers from Tehuacana was found burned on Pisgah Ridge.
6 May 1930
The Frost tornado
On 6 May 1930, a tornado struck the town of Frost, killed at least 22 people there and destroyed much of its business district.
1950s
The ridge loses its peak
Its high point, 561 feet, was leveled by a landowner in the 1950s.
Mid-1960s
A cemetery and a few houses
By the mid-1960s, it was a cemetery and a few houses.
1987–today
The lake and the lights
1987
A new lake
On 14 July 1987, Richland-Chambers Reservoir began to hold back water. By May 1989, the lake was full.
Before the water came
What the lake covered
Before the water came, SMU archaeologists recorded 194 historic sites in the basin, dating from about 1840 to 1940. They included log cabins, the houses of what the archaeologists called frontier plantations along Richland Creek, tenant farms and a brick kiln.
August 2009
A report from Freestone County
Navarro County's count in the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization's online database, as of September 2026: zero. The nearest report on their books is from August 2009.
2011
A marker for the feud
A Texas Historical Commission marker placed near Richland in 2011 tells the story.
2019
More deer
In 2019, the state noted several years of white-tailed deer growth in Navarro County.
2020
A lion passes through
Texas Parks and Wildlife has not confirmed a lion in Navarro County, or any county around it, since its records began in 1982, as of September 2026. The closest confirmed, in Dallas County in 2020, was most likely a young male passing through.
2022
The red lights
Stay out after dark and the western horizon starts to pulse red. The project came online in 2022, with a capacity of about 299 megawatts.
26 September 2026
Who walks here now
The ranch's cameras have caught a sounder of five or six.
- Wild hogs
- 6
- Deer
- 5
- Raccoons
- 2
Most seen in one camera frame, night of 26 September 2026. Partial count. · Full moon
Sources
- Handbook of Texas Online (TSHA): "Corsicana Oilfield"; "Frost, TX"
- Significant Tornadoes 1680–1991 (1993), via Tornado Talk
- Texas Water Development Board, "Richland-Chambers Reservoir"
- Every other stop's sources are listed on its story page.
Corrections: if something here is wrong, or you know more, write to [email protected].