New Taquería on Main Street

There’s a new eatery in Roscoe. It is the Taquería las Alteñas, on the northwest corner of 3rd and Main Streets, directly across the street from Vickie’s Gifts, where Peppy’s Mexican Imports used to be.

 

Open from Monday to Saturday from 6am to 4pm, the restaurant, owned by the Islas brothers--Octavio, Alfredo, and Alfonso--offers the option of eating inside or on the patio.

Super Quesadillas and Wet Burritos are prepared with a 14" flour tortilla. Tortas use a Mexican bread stuffed with the meat of preference: Pastor, Asada, Carnitas, and Chicken. The street tacos are confectioned using corn tortilla also with the option of any of the four types of meat, salsa, cilantro, and saute onions. And there are many more options to choose from, all big portions. 

 

For more information or phone-in orders, call 325-219-2916.

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ROSCOE SCHOOLS RESUME CLASSES

Since the school closure to in-person classes on November 17, all three divisions of Roscoe Collegiate—Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary—have resumed regular classes as of this Monday, the first day of classes after the Thanksgiving break.

Provost Andy Wilson reports that there are still 14 staff members and 8 students with positive Covid-19 diagnoses as well as 9 students quarantined.

He also says, “We are hopeful that the numbers will stay low enough to continue face-to-face instruction for the next two and a half weeks until Christmas break.  We appreciate the support that we have received from our parents during this trying time!”

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SEVERAL PLOWBOYS MAKE ALL-DISTRICT LIST

The 5-2A-II All-District selections have been made, and here are the Plowboys who made the list:

First Team Offense
Wide Receiver – Antonio Aguayo – Jr.
Offensive Line – David Diaz – Jr.
Utility Back – Kolten Hope – Sr.

2nd Team Offense
Offensive Line – Britt Justiss – Jr.

2nd Team Defense
Defensive End – Reese Kiser – Jr.
Linebacker – Jake Gonzales – Jr.
Defensive Back – Zackary Jordan – Sr.
Defensive Back – Zeke Murphy – Sr.

Honorable Mention Offense
Offensive Line – Xavier Lopez – Jr.
Offensive Line – Diego Vela – So,
Wide Receiver – Zeke Murphy – Sr.

Honorable Mention Defense
Linebacker – Richie Solis – So.
Defensive Tackle – Peyton Friedman – Fr.

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PLOWGIRLS RESUME WITH LOSS TO WESTBROOK

After canceling games to Ira and Post because of Covid-19, the Plowgirls resumed their season at home yesterday evening with a 53-33 loss to Westbrook. The Plowgirls started strong and early in the second quarter, the game was tied at 11-11, but then the Lady Wildcats pulled away with a commanding lead at halftime, 28-14, and coasted to victory from there.

Cameron Greenwood led the Plowgirls in scoring with 9 points, followed by Kady Ornelas with 8. Shauna McCambridge had 6, Carson Greenwood 6, and Mia Lavalais 4. McCambridge had 8 rebounds, Lavalais 5, Ornelas and Carson Greenwood 4, Cameron Greenwood 3, and Jacey Rodriquez 2.

Scoring by quarters:
                               1              2             3             4             T
Westbrook          11            17            16           9            53
Plowgirls             10             4             5           14           33

The Plowgirls next face Bronte at home Friday evening with the varsity game beginning at 6:30pm following the JV games that start at 4:30.

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 PLOWBOYS OPEN SEASON WITH WESTBROOK LOSS

The Plowboys kicked off their season last night at home against a well-oiled Westbrook squad, and the result was a 65-15 loss.

Zackary Jordan led the Plowboys in scoring with 8 points, followed by Antonio Aguayo with 4, Jake Gonzales with 2 and Parker Gleaton with 1.

Scoring by quarters:
                                1            2            3            4             T
Westbrook          24          23          10           8            65
Plowboys               5            2            4           4             15

The Plowboys next face Bronte here Friday evening at 8:00pm, immediately following the varsity Plowgirls’ game.

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COVID-19 SITUATION REMAINS SERIOUS

In the United States, the numbers of new cases and hospitalizations remain at record levels, although the number of deaths is still not as high as it was in May. Medical officials attribute the dropoff in deaths to better understanding of how to treat seriously ill Covid-19 patients.

In Texas, the numbers remain bad. A White House task force said this week that Texas needs to take more aggressive measures to combat the recent surge in Covid-19 cases with its “unsustainable increase” in hospitalizations. On Monday, the state had 8,900 Covid-19 hospital patients. The good news is that the number of new deaths decreased slightly last week from the week before. Hotspots remain El Paso, Lubbock, and the Big Bend region.

In the Big Country, the situation, while still critical, has at least slowed down its rate of increase in the past week. The number of active Covid-19 cases in Taylor County is now at 2,842, up from the 2,706 of last week, but is still almost double the 1,499 it was a month ago. Covid-19 hospitalizations are at 104, the same as last week, and the 22-county Big Country region ICU beds are still full. Saying that residents should do all they can to help keep Covid-19 numbers low, Abilene City Manager Robert Hanna is urging everyone to “Mask up, wash your hands, social distance.” Abilene hospitals have now had 117 total Covid-19 deaths, up from 103 last week and 89 two weeks ago.

Locally, the numbers also continue to increase. Nolan County now has 202 active cases, which is 43 more than last week’s 159 and over twice as many as the 94 of two weeks ago. Once again, the little chart for Nolan County in the Hard Times’ right-hand column warns of a high infection rate. Mitchell County now has 97 active cases, compared to 68 last week and 31 two weeks ago. Fisher County has 18 active cases compared to 13 last week. In Scurry County, on the other hand, the numbers are trending in the right direction with 118 active cases reported yesterday compared to 140 last week and 161 two weeks ago with no new deaths this week. Even so, the county had more new cases in November than in any month since the pandemic began.

Here are the Big Country’s county totals for the year as of yesterday (with last Tuesday in parentheses): Howard, 2,055 (1,680); Scurry, 1,629 (1,527); Jones, 1,610 (1,604); Erath, 1,339(1,315); Brown, 935 (908); Nolan, 780 (687); Comanche, 493 (470); Eastland, 369 (359); Runnels, 361 (346); Mitchell, 349 (319); Stephens, 328 (241); Callahan 223 (211); Coke, 204 (168); Coleman, 179 (178); Fisher, 162 (149); Knox, 122 (119); Haskell, 96 (96); Shackelford, 52 (49); Kent, 25 (25); Stonewall, 25 (24); Throckmorton, 23 (23);
 
Selected west Texas counties yesterday (with last week in parentheses): Lubbock, 32,236 (29,378); Midland, 7,276 (7,027); Wichita (Wichita Falls), 6,818 (6,461); Ector (Odessa), 5,150 (4,864); Tom Green (San Angelo), 3,432 (3,282).

Texas now has had a total of 1,168,111 cases (1,115,371 last week), 186,678 of them active (169,826 last week), and 21,379 total deaths (20,750 last week).

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WEATHER REPORT: COOLER WITH A RAIN

Cypress Street the day after the rain.

The Roscoe area got a nice rain for the first time in a while with about an inch that came with a cold front that arrived early Saturday morning. At 6:15, I was awakened by a lightning flash and a loud clap of thunder followed by the sound of rain hitting the roof. I also thought I detected some hail hitting the roof, but if it was, it was gone by the time I looked outside about a quarter-hour later. After the initial shower, the rain let up but then was off and on for the rest of the morning. By noon, I had .88” in my rain gauge, but also heard reports of over an inch in places. Kenny Landfried recorded an official .6" in east Roscoe.

That was the major weather event of the week. Temperatures were cooler than previously with only one day of the last seven reaching the seventies, and that was Thursday, when the high was 79°F. A north wind on Friday lowered the high to 56°, Saturday’s front brought the rain and a high of only 46°, and Sunday and Monday were also cool with highs of 47° and 49° respectively. Yesterday was considerably warmer with an afternoon high of 64° accompanied by a strong southwest breeze.

On Monday morning, we got a second freeze, the first since the big one in October, when the temperature dropped to 27°. This morning was also below freezing at sunrise with a reading of 30°.

Today will be cooler with a high of only 47° under partly cloudy skies accompanied by a strong north wind that will make it feel even cooler. Tomorrow will also be similar with the winds diminishing slightly and a high of 46°. Friday will be sunny with a lighter wind and a high of 58°, and Saturday, Sunday, and Monday will be almost the same with light north winds, sunny skies and highs of 60°, 60°, and 57° respectively. Lows will be in the mid to low thirties, and the chances for rain are almost nil.

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CAPTAIN McBURNETT’S TRIP TO WEST TEXAS

Unbroken Texas prairie.

Editor's note: Capt. E. B. McBurnett's account of his trip from Eastland is originally from the January 29, 1909, issue of the Roscoe Times. It also ran in the January 2, 2013, Roscoe Hard Times. It is the earliest written description we have of the Roscoe area before the railroad came in 1881.

In 1880 I was living at Eastland City, which was then the terminus of the T. & P. railroad. I wanted to find a home in the west, and an opportunity was offered me to see the country and at the same time make a little money by hauling a load of oats from Eastland for a contractor to a grading crew which he was working on the T. & P. grade at that time about at the Colorado river.

On October 27, 1880, in company with a boy of fourteen years of age, I left Eastland for the west, following the T. & P. right of way out by where Abilene, Sweetwater, and Roscoe now are to where Colorado [City] now stands. There I unloaded my wagons.
 
Hearing that there was plenty of turkey in that country, I decided to go out on a turkey hunt. We had one sharp knife and one shotgun that had fallen from the wagon, and the stock had been broken by the wheel running over it and one hammer had been knocked off. However, we wired the gun up and fixed it so one barrel would shoot and pulled out after some turkeys. Going south from the present site of Colorado City, we ran across a bunch of antelope, and I killed one of them and struck camp on the north side of Champion creek above Seven Wells.* We did not have any water that night for ourselves, so next morning at daybreak we started down the creek and at sunrise came to Seven Wells, which to me were a great and grand curiosity.

Here were seven wells as round as auger holes, with water running out one of them, all in solid rock, ranging in depth from about seven to fifteen feet. One of them seemed to be very deep, practically bottomless. In the sand rock near the wells are perhaps a hundred buffalo tracks just as plain today as when they were made. West of these buffalo tracks was a rock that had several names and dates on it; one date cut in the rock was 1830.

These wells were on what was called the “Centerline Trail,” traveled by California gold seekers who went from Mississippi, Alabama, and other southern states to California in search of gold. These wells were a favorite camping site for the weary traveler, and Big Spring was the next place where plenty of water could be had.

Two hundred yards down the creek on the northwest side I saw a rock clear of loose sand, and on this rock were four tracks, moccasin tracks, made by a person making long strides and traveling from the southwest to the northeast.

You that have never been to Seven Wells should go and see these curiosities for you will be well paid for your trouble.

This was on November 1, 1880, and I want to say that on this day I saw and heard more turkeys than I had ever heard before in my life, and I arranged everything for a turkey hunt that night. At “flying up time” I was ready with my little friend to assist me. For the first hour or two the turkeys were easy to get, but they soon got wild and I asked the boy to stay back until I could kill them; this he did for a while but he finally came running to me badly frightened, having seen something, he said. That night we got twenty-nine turkeys, and the next night we got ten and the boy was again badly scared. That night while I was lighting a lamp the boy came running to me and said, “Here is that thing now, going between us and the creek.” I turned my head to see what it was. I could distinguish the bulk of something about twenty feet away but did not pay much attention to it.

The next morning I went out early to get our horses and saw three very large panthers going to a bluff near where we had camped the night before, so we made up our minds to leave for home. We started out in a southeast direction, and it was not long before we were lost, as the day was cloudy and there were no roads. We were lost all that day and the next night. The following morning the wind was cool, so I decided it was from the north and took what I believed to be the northeast course in hopes of coming back to the road we traveled in coming out. I was right in my calculations and we struck the old “Centerline Trail” near where Roscoe is now located. We struck camp and then took dinner.

Right then I made up my mind that if there was anything in the looks of a country, this was the place for me, and here I would like to make my home.

I went back to Eastland City and disposed of my turkeys, 39 in all, at 75 cents apiece for the hens and $1 for the gobblers for Thanksgiving, thus making my trip a profitable one. I had fully made up my mind to come west, and I reached Nolan County again on April 12, 1881, and settled the place on which I now live. My place was the second one improved in this part of the country, the first one being settled by Houston Patterson, and our farms joined.

My house was built of lumber from the first carload shipped to Sweetwater, and I paid for it partly by hauling buffalo bones. The house was one of the first plank houses in Nolan County; there were probably a few others built out of lumber before this—lumber hauled by ox wagon from Round Rock in Williamson County, which at that time was the nearest railroad.

In 1881, when I settled, there were several log houses in the county made of cedar logs but none of any kind in the Roscoe divide.

The buffalo disappeared from this country between 1875 and 1880, but there was one killed by Frank Malone and Tom Poston, two campers, in July 1881 in what is now Seales pasture at Walker Springs. So far as I have been able to learn, this was the last buffalo killed in Nolan County.

* Seven Wells was a watering stop for buffaloes and Indians for thousands of years. Located six miles south of Colorado City off state highway 208, it is now under water, covered up by the creation of Lake Champion in 1967. In the late 19th and early 20th century, it was a favorite picnic spot for early settlers living in and around Colorado City.

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