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 Bowie City Council will meet at 6 p.m. on June 23.
The agenda includes both old and new business items.
City Manager Bert Cunningham will make his report on the 2026-27 budget process, bid opening for the Glenn Hills lift station on July 16 and the bid for Rock and Pillar repairs.
In new business a pair of planning and zoning committee recommendations for replats at 107 E. Nelson and 412 Green will be reviewed. An ordinance adopting an office of emergency management amending a present ordinance will be offered.
Old business will see the second reading of the pickleball court reservation fee ordinance and the ordinance prohibiting drilling and mining or the reopening of an abandoned well or mine in any public park in the city limits.
A HEAT ADVISORY will be in effect from noon until 9 p.m. today (Thursday). Please plan accordingly.
Hear Audio Alert:https://hrpow.us/oeFZANN
Montague County Sheriff Marshall Thomas has confirmed human skeletal remains were recovered on June 13 in the Sunset area, and they could possibly be those of a flight attendant believed to have been murdered almost a year ago in the Fort Worth.
The murder suspect, Dennis William Day, 66, admitted in June 2025 to strangling Rana Soluri, 47, an Envoy flight attendant who lived with Day during that last year. She was reported missing by a co-worker on June 11 and had not been seen or heard from since March 2025.
Day initially denied any involvement, but later admitted to the murder and indicated he dumped her body somewhere in the Montague County area. Lawmen have scoured the areas in questions in both Montague and Wise County, but found nothing.
Sheriff Thomas said on June 13 the SO received a call of possible skeletal remains in the Brushy Creek area north of Poss Dyer Lane on Farm-to-Market 1749. A deputy went to the scene and confirmed it was human remains.
Investigators responded and kept the scene secure overnight until staff from the University of North Texas Forensic Anthropology Center could arrive and made the recovery on June 14. A Texas Ranger and staff from the Fort Worth Police Department also were on scene.
“There is no determination made yet on how long it has been there,” said Thomas. “The anthropologist was pleased to recover most of the skeleton in these conditions. Heavy rains previously made the past searches difficult. We are working jointly with Fort Worth to make an identification and if it is the victim in their homicide.”
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