Glen Rose, and Dinos, a la Nuke

Our Texas dulcimer fest has called Glen Rose its home for almost a quarter-century. This is my first trip to this part of the state, a string of little towns that dot the horse pastures and cattle ranches in a rolling part of Texas. Stephenville, maybe the biggest city just a little south of Ft. Worth, lies about an hour down US 67, and the whole area is a hub of horses. I see signs taped onto store doors around Glen Rose for riding lessons, horse training, breeding.

The animal that Glen Rose is best-known for is the dinosaur, though. The local chamber likes to call it The Dinosaur Capitol of Texas, using the “alternate” spelling of capital to suggest we might find a massive building, like all capitols, where the dinos can be found. On the town square a dinosaur footprint, carved out of the nearby limestone, sits next to the town’s museum. Glen Rose claims to be the only city in Somervell County, the second-smallest county in Texas. That’s probably because Pecan Plantation sits 10 miles away in Hood County, and Walnut Springs is 12 miles away in Bosque County. The borders run close here.

That dino track needed a nuclear nudge to get onto the square. The block of rock came out during the creation of the Comanche Peak nuclear power plant, which sits about 5 miles from Glen Rose, one of just two Texas nukes on the state’s grid. Driving the hills and valley roads you can see the massive transmission lines running toward the plant. As we check in up in Granbury, 14 miles from Glen Rose, I spot a poster next to the hotel’s front desk: Emergency Evacuation Procedures in case of an accident. It’s worded matter-of-fact like the aircraft emergency cards you see in jet liners, assuring residents that "If evacuation is recommended, stay calm, you'll have plenty of time to leave." My favorite phrase from this “escape the nukes” placard advises folks to roll up their windows in their cars and "If you use your car air conditioning, set it on "inside" or "maximum" so it does not pull in outside air." Somervell County is a peaceful, beautiful place, so naturally Texans would abide a nuclear shadow over its grassy hills.

Granbury manages to sport a harbor, not a bad trick for a city that’s 300 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. The Brazos River Authority has dammed up the river to create Lake Granbury. We ate at a floating dockside restaurant. You wouldn’t expect to be in what the chamber calls “the Threshold of the infamous ‘Texas Hill Country’“ and yet feel the restaurant's flooring sway beneath you.