Acker Bridge Today

So several years ago I learned that an old Frontier Brigade outpost was located just north of the Acker Community, in southern Stephens County. Kinfolk are buried not too far from there. After a tough winter, several childhood deaths and a doctor whose name I wll someday learn, and besmirch, my great-grandparents made the trip south on foot to the Cheaney Community in Eastland County. On foot, because the doctor required payment of their team, wagon and grain for his care of the now-deceased children.

So back then, I'm looking for the crossing of a finger of a creek, on the old road between the fort and the city that would later be Palo Pinto. I have a map. I find the crossing, and look to the north, because that's where these horseback Frontier Brigade heroes made it across then then-flowing creek. Studied it. Found it Maybe, if you stretch your imagination.

So today, on my way from Somewhere Else, I chance a glance to the south. This old girder suspension bridge is what I see. Is what I would've seen if I'd looked "other than the map" years ago. It didn't tie to the story from back then. But it's a story, nonetheless. A lesson, along an old path, with hopefully better eyes.

There's a bridge similar to this on the Gordon to Stephenville cotton trail. Built by a famous bridge maker, way back. I couldn't find a plate or label on this one, to confirm or deny. But it's cool, and out there, still.