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Bowie County, Texas
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===Explorations and county established=== French explorer [[Bernard de la Harpe|Jean Baptiste BΓ©nard de La Harpe]] founded the military fort [[Le Poste des Cadodaquious]] in 1719.<ref name="Le Poste des Cadodaquious">{{Handbook of Texas |name=Le Poste des Cadodaquious|id=qbl08|author=Britton, Morris L |retrieved=May 14, 2010}} Texas State Historical Association</ref> The fort remained in continuous use until 1770. The Red River Expedition of 1806 which passed through Bowie County,<ref name="Red River Expedition">{{Handbook of Texas |name=Red River Expedition|id= upr02|author=[[Dan Flores|Flores, Dan L.]] |retrieved=May 14, 2010}} Texas State Historical Association</ref> headed by Thomas Freeman and Peter Custis, was of great diplomatic and economic importance to [[Thomas Jefferson|President Thomas Jefferson]]. Bowie County was established in December 1840 and reduced to its present size in 1846. [[DeKalb, Texas|DeKalb]] was the temporary county seat, with [[New Boston, Texas|Boston]] becoming the permanent county seat in 1841.<ref name="DeKalb, Texas">{{cite web |title=DeKalb, Texas |publisher=Texas Escapes β Blueprints For Travel, LLC. |url=http://www.texasescapes.com/EastTexasTowns/DeKalb-Texas.htm |access-date=May 14, 2010}} Texas Escapes β Blueprints For Travel, LLC.</ref><ref name="Boston, Texas">{{cite web |title=Boston, Texas |publisher=Texas Escapes β Blueprints For Travel, LLC. |url=http://www.texasescapes.com/EastTexasTowns/Boston-Texas.htm |access-date=May 14, 2010}} Texas Escapes β Blueprints For Travel, LLC.</ref> Bowie County, in the years leading up to the [[American Civil War]], was settled mostly by Southerners who brought their slave labor to work the cotton fields. By 1860, slaves outnumbered whites 2,651 to 2,401. The county voted 208β15 in favor of [[Texas in the American Civil War|secession]] from the Union.<ref name="Bowie County" /> While Bowie was never a battlefield in that war, it was occupied during Reconstruction. Between 1860 and 1870, the population declined. The occupation, and the new legal equality of blacks, became a hostile situation that fostered Cullen Baker. [[Cullen Baker|Cullen Montgomery Baker]] (b. ''circa'' 1835 β d. 1869)<ref name="Ten Deadly Texans">{{cite book |last =Anderson |first =Dale |last2=Yadon |first2=Laurence |pages=29β51 |title =Ten Deadly Texans |publisher=Pelican Publishing|year=2009 |isbn=978-1-58980-599-6}}</ref> was a twice-widowed, mean-spirited drunk who killed his first man before he was 20. When Thomas Orr married Baker's late wife's sister, thereby denying Baker that opportunity, Baker attempted to hang Orr. Legends abound as to his activities in Bowie and [[Cass County, Texas|Cass]] Counties, including a rumored tie to the [[Ku Klux Klan]]. His exploits turned him into a folk hero dubbed "The Swamp Fox of the Sulphur River".<ref name="Sulphur River, Texas">{{Handbook of Texas |name=Sulphur River, Texas|id=rns19|retrieved=May 14, 2010}} Texas State Historical Association</ref><ref name="Cullen Montgomery Baker, Reconstruction Desperado">{{cite book |last=Crouch |first=Barry A |last2=Brice |first2=Donaly E |title=Cullen Montgomery Baker, Reconstruction Desperado |publisher=Louisiana State University Press|year=1997 |isbn=978-0-8071-2140-5}}</ref> He was a [[Confederate States Army]] veteran who joined two units, designated as a deserter from the first, and receiving a disability discharge from the second.<ref name="Cullen Montgomery Baker">{{Handbook of Texas |name=Cullen Montgomery Baker|id=fba23|author=Crouch, Barry A |retrieved=May 14, 2010}} Texas State Historical Association</ref> [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]] allowed him to focus his anger toward what many at the time believed was a Union intrusion into their lives. Baker and his gang conducted a vicious rampage against citizens he perceived as being on the wrong side of the black labor issue, at William G. Kirkman and the [[Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands|Freedman's Bureau]] in Bowie County, and at the soldiers of the Union occupation. Kirkman unsuccessfully pursued Baker, killing one of Baker's men in the second attempt. Like [[Francis Marion|Swamp Fox Francis Marion]], Baker always managed to elude capture, often with the help of local citizens. Kirkland was murdered by "person or persons unknown",<ref name="Bowie County">{{Handbook of Texas |name=Bowie County|id=hcb11|author=Harper Jr., Cecil |retrieved=May 14, 2010}} Texas State Historical Association</ref> but Baker boasted of having done the deed. In December 1869, Thomas Orr and a group of neighbors killed Baker.<ref name="Cullen Montgomery Baker" /> A local legend has it the deed was accomplished with [[strychnine]]-laced whiskey. When the [[Texas and Pacific Railway]] was constructed through the county, a new town named [[Texarkana, Texas|Texarkana]] was founded.<ref name="Texas and Pacific Railway ">{{cite web |title=Texas and Pacific Railway |publisher=Texas and Pacific Railway|url=http://www.texaspacificrailway.org/structures/tx/el-paso |access-date=May 14, 2010}}</ref><ref name="Texarkana, Texas">{{cite web |title=Texarkana, Texas |publisher=Texas Escapes β Blueprints For Travel, LLC. |url=http://www.texasescapes.com/EastTexasTowns/Texarkana-Texas-Arkansas.htm |access-date=May 14, 2010}} Texas Escapes β Blueprints For Travel, LLC.</ref> Bowie was hit hard by the [[Great Depression]]. Measurable relief came late when the [[Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant]] was established in 1942. The base was active until 2009.<ref name="Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant Deactivates">{{cite web |title=Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant Deactivates |last=Montgomery |first=Rebecca J |publisher=United States Army |url=https://www.army.mil/article/28379/lone-star-army-ammunition-plant-deactivates/ |access-date=May 14, 2010}} =United States Army</ref> The [[Red River Army Depot]],<ref name="Defense Distribution Depot Red RiverRed River Army Depot (RRAD)">{{cite web |title=Defense Distribution Depot Red RiverRed River Army Depot (RRAD) |publisher=GlobalSecurity.org|url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/red-river.htm |access-date=May 14, 2010}} GlobalSecurity.org</ref> opened in 1941, remains active. The two installations occupied almost {{convert|40000|acre|km2}} and provided job opportunities for thousands.
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