The route we’d taken to get to the
Battleship Texas didn’t have a
lot eatery places visible to us. We ended up at a Denny’s close to Clear Lake
University League City , while there
was the Challenger 7 Memorial Park, as that appeared to be a “park” in the
truest sense of the word (and not a museum), we passed on that. We were
heading here for something else we found in the visitor’s brochure kiosk:
Butler Longhorn Museum
I’m not a cow person (except for
the diary products and meat I can get from them), but I figured Dad would like
this. The purpose of this place was to showcase the unique breed with the
Longhorns were, and how to keep a pure bloodline (as it’d been crossed with
other bovine strains). The proprietor, Monica Hughes, gave us a guided
tour of each of the three floors, and went over the information in brief.
That was actually nice for her to hit some of the highlights and answer
questions, as we were able to go back through the area at our own pace and read
the various displays.
On the ceiling of the second floor
were hundreds of Longhorn skulls mounted there. Monica explained they
were going for the Guinness Book of World Records for the number of skulls, and
they were currently at 264. She didn’t know how many they needed to make
(or break) the record. This was also useful to show the variation in the
horns.
Also displayed were many items from
the pioneer-era farms, and John Wayne getting familiar with the animals during
his filming of The Alamo. I liked the doors to the “gun room,” as
handguns had been mounted on in an artistic style.
There was a lot of information
here, and this was really a good find. See, it pays to go off the beaten
path sometimes. I look for interesting things wherever I go, and one was
the art project here. From a distance, this longhorn head doesn’t seem
like much, as it appears to be just a metal-crafted sculpture. When we
looked up close, that’s where the wow-factor came into play.
An artist named Terry Jones (no
connection to Monty Python) took all the items which had been gathered in a
police evidence room (after their associated cases had been closed), and
crafted them together. While pistols had up the large majority of the
material, there were also locks, tools, and portions of gears. This was
very similar to the dolphin sculpture sitting off the main square in Georgetown , TX Butler Museum
In addition to the main building,
there was also an annex area where school children would meet for educational
presentations. There was also a statue of a Longhorn which gets brought
to other locations, and has some nice murals throughout.
Monica
also showed us something interesting on the property. Some trees as they
grow get interesting branches or markings on them. This particular tree
had a natural heart-shape on the trunk. As this wasn’t a carving, but a
natural occurrence, this was pretty kewl.
Seeing all these Longhorns had made
us hungry, and steak was the only things which would satisfy us. I knew
there were a number of places in the area we could go, but we decided on
convenience, and ended up at Saltgrass Steakhouse. My parents had never
been to this regional chain before, as when they visit Austin we go to Texas Land & Cattle.
(A Longhorn Steakhouse, which would’ve been more appropriate today
because of the name, was just up the road, but we opted for the closer place.)
Figure this would be last “large meal” of the trip, as my parents would
want to eat light the next night (before their flight out). Between the
copious amounts of meat we had, followed (back at the hotel room) by our various
alcoholic diversions, we were pretty stuffed.
For more information on the places visited or mentioned:
Challenger
7 Memorial Park: http://www.visithoustontexas.com/listings/Challenger-Seven-Memorial-Park/20032/436/
### 30 ###
No comments:
Post a Comment