NEWS
Second Monday Trade Days readies 125th anniversary party
Bowie’s Second Monday Trade Days celebrates its 125th anniversary with a weekend full of activities Aug. 11-12.
Second Monday Trade Days was launched in August 1982 as stockmen from Montague, Clay and Wise Counties conceived the need for a central market.
Virg Young, Charley young and Tom Southard of Bowie, Charley Sharp of Sunset, Lewis and Jim George of Decatur and a number of other stockmen were active in launching the movement.
Bowie was selected as a central point and the second Monday of the month picked as the weekend with the first event in August, 1893.
An article in the Aug. 4, 1966 Bowie News states the initial gathering was on a vacant area of land adjoining the north side of Montague Street. A large livestock barn was located at the corner of Montague and Smythe Streets convenient to the trade yard. This barn had been a stock trading center sometime when the monthly events began. Work horses and mules constituted the trade offerings for quite a number of years.
Thousands of them were on the trade yard and other parts of town most every trade day. Vendors also set up along the railroad tracks that ran through downtown as the offerings grew as the consumer’s needs changed. The event grew, evolved and eventually moved to Pelham Park and become a city operation on May 14, 1976.
Celebrating a tradition that dates back to 1893, the celebration will have a bit of western slant with cowboy music, gunfights and a chuckwagon. All activities are free except those noted with a fee. There also will be many giveaways during the day. Food vendors will be on hand selling food on the grounds.
Read the full story about the celebration in your weekend News.
The second community meeting on needs for an emergency room or hospital in Bowie is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Nov. 19 at the Bowie Community Center.
This is the second meeting to discuss these needs following the closure of the Faith Community Health Center emergency room on Oct. 6, just shy of a year of operation. More than 200 people attended that first meeting, where discussion centered on the creation of a taxing district to support any sort of medical facility.
Citizens in the Bowie area are encouraged to attend and take part in these discussions.
The Bowie City Council has moved its Nov. 18 meeting to 6 p.m. on Nov. 19 where three new council members will take the oath of office.
Councilors include Laura Sproles, precinct two, Brandon Walker, precinct one and Laramie Truax, precinct two. After the votes are canvassed and the oaths given, a mayor pro tem will be selected.
The new members will jump right into training as City Attorney Courtney Goodman-Morris provides an orientation and discussion of duties for council members.
City Manager Bert Cunningham will make his monthly report on the following topics: Nelson Street, which opened last Thursday, update on the sewer line replacement project, substation transformer placement and information on medical companies.
A closed executive session on the Laura McCarn vs. City of Bowie lawsuit is scheduled. The suit arose in November 2022 when the city broached selling some 25 acres it owns on Lake Amon G. Carter, originally part of the land purchased for the 500-acre Bowie Reservoir completed in 1985.
McCarn challenges the ownership of the property stating it should revert to the original owners since it was not used for the lake.
This 24.35 acre tract is located at the end of Indian Trail Road surrounded by the lake and the Silver Lakes Ranch subdivision.
One of Bowie’s major thoroughfares, Nelson Street, was reopened Thursday after one busy block has been closed since August 2021 when a section of the street failed.
Construction finally came to an end on Thursday when the street, including the Nelson and Mill intersection were reopened. Mayor Gaylynn Burris, City Manager Bert Cunningham, Councilors TJay McEwen and Stephanie Post, Engineer Mike Tibbetts and Public Works Director Stony Lowrance met at the site Thursday morning and removed the barricades. It only took a few minutes for vehicles to start arriving and drivers were excited to go through on the new roadway.
This section of Bowie has endured flooding and drainage problems for many years and in the summer of 2023 the city council finally bit the bullet and sought bids for the repair work expected to top $3 million. In August 2021 a one block section of Nelson was closed when a large sinkhole appeared on the north side of the street. Traffic had to be diverted including all the school traffic flowing from the nearby junior high and intermediate.
Read the full story in the weekend Bowie News.
Top photo – (Left) Mike Tibbetts, engineer with Hayter Engineering, talks with Bowie City Manager Bert Cunningham as they look over the massive drainage project on Nelson Street.
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