Bead-Grit Brown Woodgrain Stone Donut TB

I maintain records on my trackables. They have 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. The average drop rate of my trackables in the US is 124 days, in Europe it is 71 days. As of 15-Nov-23 this trackable had survived for 2.6 years and had been moved by 14 cachers, for an average drop every 68 days, or 5.3 drops per year. Please keep it moving, then drop it in a safe place!

No permission is needed to leave the U.S. While in the U.S., please drop it at an event, in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban, non-premium cache. Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and dry, 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.

Grit is near Honey Creek, six miles northwest of Mason in central Mason County. The area was settled around 1889 by cotton growers. Residents wanted to name the community after Maj. Gen. Frederick Funston of Spanish-American War fame, but had to change their minds when the post office was established, since there was already a Funston, Texas.  The community was then named Grit, probably because of the area's gritty soil. 

The post office was established in 1901.  The town once had stores, a cotton gin and a blacksmith shop.  In its early years, Grit was served by the Honey Creek school and church. The first Grit school was built in 1908, and a Baptist church was organized soon thereafter.  The church met in the Grit school building until 1924, when a large tabernacle was built. 

Grit's population was reported as thirty from the mid-1920s until 1968, when it was sixty-three.  It continued to be reported at that level into the mid-1980s, but had dropped to thirty again by 1990 and remained at that number in 2000.  As of 1976 Grit consisted of a store, a post office, a community building, and scattered dwellings.  The post office was lost by 1980.