Wharton and All

“Wharton is a town with a lot of character … and a lot of characters,” proclaims Doc Blakely, cowpoke-quipster-in-residence for this burg of 9,300 perched on the high banks of the Colorado River, about 50 miles from the Gulf Coast.

The town’s character announces itself nobly in careful restorations of the 1889 Wharton County Courthouse, the railroad depot, and other vintage structures; visitors can also find lively displays in local museums of 20th-Century technology and horse-drawn carriages, shops that offer such rarities as antique silk kimonos, live theater, quirky roadside Americana, and a small-town landscape that spices up its Southern heritage with Western flair. Vivid murals throughout downtown reveal a legacy of characters and stories for local folks to live up to (“or down to,” as Blakely might add). There was colorful Sheriff T.W. “Buckshot” Lane, for instance, who burned down a dangerous Colorado River bridge to make the state build a safer one. Another mural depicts larger-than-life cattle baron A.H. “Shanghai” Pierce, who—according to county lore—campaigned to move the Wharton County seat from Wharton to the nearby hamlet of Pierce.

Shanghai failed in that effort, but debate in Wharton over whether to build a new courthouse in the 1880s became so heated that Texas Rangers were dispatched to the town to ensure the peace. But the structure was indeed built—and recently received a facelift. “That [the courthouse] was restored is a miracle,” says Ron Sanders, executive director of the Wharton Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture.

See the full article in the April 2008 issue.

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