Bead-Utopia Blue Green Glass TB

This trackable has the goal to circulate more than five years and to be moved by at least 25 cachers. That is a target rate of five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days.   As of 29-May-21 it had survived for 6.6 years but it had been moved by only 3 cachers, for an average release every 801 days. Keep it moving!

No permission is needed to leave the U.S. While in the U.S., please drop it in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event where there is no security. Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items. Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.

This is one of a series of large beads obtained from different places and converted into travel bugs.  They are named for Texas towns with interesting names or histories.  Much of the text is from the online Handbook of Texas or texasescapes.com.

Utopia is on the Sabinal River, twenty-three miles north of Sabinal in Uvalde County.  Archeologists have found evidence of Paleo-Indians in the canyon.  Spanish explorers made several excursions into the area to take careful inventory of tribes, to note the flora and fauna of the area, and to name the rivers, mountains, and streams.  They labeled the Sabinal River as Arroyo de la Soledad.  In 1790 Juan de Ugalde united Comanches, Taovayas, and Tawakonis and led a decisive victory over the Apaches at the site of future Utopia.  The Spaniards also found silver and dug a shaft on the east side of Sugarloaf Mountain, five miles south of Utopia. This mine was seen by John C. Duval in 1836.  

William Ware, a soldier in the Texas Revolution, moved to the canyon with his son and six slaves in 1852, thus fulfilling a resolution he had made in 1835, when he first saw the place.  With 600 head of cattle and two ox-drawn wagons full of seeds, fruit trees, food, and tools, they had to move large boulders to get the wagons through the pass into the canyon.  More settlers arrived in 1853, and by 1856, a store-post office was built by Charles Durbon, who became the first postmaster of Waresville.

Settlers had friendly contact with Tonkawa Indians who had come to plant crops for their people, who were due to come later. The Kickapoos raided many times during the early years.  Lipan Apaches captured Frank Buckelew in 1866 and held him captive for eleven months. They also raided Mr. Kincheloe's home that same year while he was away.  His wife was lanced seventeen times, and Mrs. Ann Bowlin was killed.  Warfare continued until 1876.  

By 1904 the population of Utopia was 147.  The town had telephone service by 1914.  By 1946 the town had seven businesses, three churches, a post office, and a population of 150.  In 1952, when Utopia celebrated the centennial of Ware's arrival, Governor Allan Shivers spoke to a crowd of 3,000 people in the park.  In 1956 the Sabinal River was dammed to impound a small municipal lake.  Many residents moved away in the drought-plagued 1950s. The population reached a low of sixty in the early 1960s, but by 1965 prosperity had returned.  Ranches leased land to hunters, beef prices rose, and the population grew.  A cedar mill was constructed, the Memorial Library was established, civic clubs flourished, the town started a museum, and real estate establishments came into being. Tourism flourished after Lost Maples State Natural Area officially opened in September 1979.