Love Bug-Panhandle Black Stone Outline

I maintain records on my trackables. They have the goal to circulate more than five years and to be moved by more than 25 cachers. That is a target rate of five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days. The past average drop rate of my trackables in US is 124 days, in Europe it is 71 days. Please keep it moving, then drop it in a safe place!

If in the US, 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 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 heart-shaped items obtained from different places and converted into travel bugs. They are named for Texas Panhandle-South Plains towns with interesting names or histories. Much of the text comes from the online Texas Almanac or texasescapes.com.

Panhandle (originally named Carson City) is a town and seat of Carson County. The original city name and county honor Samuel Price Carson, the first secretary of state of the Republic of Texas. The population was 2,589 at the 2000 census.  Panhandle's history has been closely tied to the railroad, but oil and agriculture have been the mainstays of the economy.  City Hall is located in a former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe depot.  Temple Lea Houston, the eighth and last child of the legendary Sam Houston, built a home near Panhandle. In 1881, he was named district attorney for the 35th Judicial District.  He was elected to the Texas State Senate in 1884, two years before he actually met the minimum age requirement of twenty-six. Houston was known for favoring legislation popular with frontiersmen.

Thomas Cree and wife bought land here in 1888. Because there were no trees they built a dugout home. Cree traveled 35 miles at his wife’s request to find a sapling and planted it at their homesite.  He watered it from a nearby buffalo wallow. The tree never grew much but lived many years despite blizzard, heat, and drought. Gov. John Connally dedicated an historical marker in 1963 to the first tree in the Panhandle. The Bois d'Arc tree was accidentally poisoned in 1969, but a replacement tree and markers are on US 60, five miles South of town.