Dudleys Diary

called Paddling The Wild Neches by Richard M. Donovan. Dudley is looking forward to reading this book. The Neches River runs though a part of East Texas that is near and dear to Dudley's heart. Dudley spent some of the best years of his life in this area of Texas and has a lot of great memories of hunting and fishing and four wheeling in his Jeep. The photo above is of the Old Texas State Railroad that runs between Palestine and Rusk. That is the author of the book in the canoe floating past the river bridge. It is a shame that a flood washed out the old wooden trestle bridge several years ago and it was replaced by a bridge built of concrete. Dudley remembers more than one wood train and vehicle bridge spanning this river. They are all gone now, so much for progress. The Texas State Railroad was sold to a private company a couple of years ago. The company that bought it also runs The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad that Dudley and wife rode years ago. All of the profits from the sale of this book are going to a fund to try and save this area of the Neches River from being taken over by the City of Dallas that wants to build a big lake and flood a large portion of the river between Palestine and Rusk. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to establish a Wildlife Preserve to protect this area from development. Dudley remembers the smiles on his little kids faces when they rode on the Steam Train down though the Neches River bottom. It would be ashamed if those kind of memories are not available to future generations.