Description: Thurber: Dirt road that meets another road in distance; smoke stack in distance; red fire house with white roof to left; in far left, building that now (2008) houses the eponymous Smokestack Cafe. The historic plaque can be seen at the base of the smokestack, but cannot be read.

Description: An early panoramic view of Lake Mineral Wells. The lake was built by the city of Mineral Wells for a municipal water supply in 1920. Rock Creek, in Parker County, was dammed to impound a lake approximately a mile wide and five miles long. An island, visible in the center of this picture, was initially accessible only by boat, but eventually a wooden walkway connected it to the concrete dam. In World War II, with the increased need for water due to the building of Camp Wolters and its expansion into the largest Infantry Replacement Training Center in the nation, the dam at Lake Mineral Wells was raised and the island was covered by water. Lake Mineral Wells eventually partially filled with silt, and another water supply was sought. In the mid 1960s, Palo Pinto Creek was dammed by the city to form Lake Palo Pinto approximately ten miles southwest of the county seatl of Palo Pinto County, the current source of Mineral Wells' municipal water supply. Lake Mineral Wells was donated to Texas Parks and Wildlife in 1980 and became the focal point of Lake Mineral Wells State Park. Due to its proximinty to the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex, Lake ...

Description: In 1919, Rock Creek in Parker County was dammed up to form Lake Mineral Wells, the third lake built as a water supply for the popular resort town. This photo appears to be on the east side of the lake where the boat docks were. From the beginning the lake has been a popular recreation area and is now part of Mineral Wells State Park.

Description: Businesses at the SW corner of W. Hubbard St. and S. Oak Ave., the location of the original Colonial Hotel. (Originally built in 1906 by J.T. Holt for his second wife who would not live in the country, and renamed the Damron Hotel about 1917 when Agnew and Bessie Damron traded a ranch for it. The hotel burned in 1975.) The small white building in the left foreground is the back view of Cole's House of Flowers (where Davidson's Hardware burned in the Damron Hotel fire), next to it is Hill's Style Shoppe and Mineral Wells Office Supply. The vacant lot in the foreground is where the Damron hotel was located. At the far left edge of the picture, to the east across Oak Ave., is Lynch Plaza on the site of the former Oxford Hotel that burned in 1983 along with the First National Bank. Lynch Plaza is named for J.A. Lynch, Mineral Wells' founder, drilled a well at this location and discovered the mineral water that made Mineral Wells the most popular health spa in the nation at the turn of the twentieth century. Obscurely in middle distance, at the right edge of the picture, south and across ...

Description: Cole's House of Flowers was built on this location in 1980 after a fire had destroyed the Davidison Hardware and the Damron Hotel buildings in 1975.