Welcome to Shin Oak Ridge

Welcome to the fictional town of Shin Oak Ridge, population 4,532. It is located in Copete County, deep in the heart of Texas. Deep, in fact, in the limestone, cedar brake, live oak and bluebonnet heart of the heart. A thriving little town before the 1930's, it straddled State Highway 411, a major artery from Austin to the Highland Lakes and west Texas beyond. Three busy cotton gins kept busy in season, and the railroad depot was central to the town. That heyday is gone forever, there is no depot, the occasional freight train doesn't stop, and the highway moved a mile out of town before it too was superseded by the new interstate fifteen miles away.


Main Street and downtown are laid out in a roughly north-south direction. Only a few struggling businesses are left. Others moved over to the highway, creating a strange dichotomy of trade. Divisions abound. Old Town resents New Town. The old timers resent the newcomers, a newcomer being anyone whose family hasn't been present for at least four generations. There are divisions on party lines, church lines, and business lines.


The school district is the biggest industry in town. School board elections are hotly contested and the meetings are highly attended. City politics are a close second. Although the town has existed since 1858, the city was only incorporated eight years ago. That was an election that sharply divided the town once again and along totally new lines, although many of the old-timers were on the "let's leave things the way they've always been" side, and many newcomers took the "if we don't do it now one of the big cities will swallow us up!" approach. The fight hasn't ended. It is re-fought with every city election, indeed with every city council meeting.


The city has no budget for law enforcement, or many other institutions. Instead, Shin Oak Ridge has an agreement with Copete County for patrols by the County Sheriff's department. For the most part, the Sheriff leaves the duty to Precinct 3 Constable Stan Hart, and most especially Deputy Constable Pen Sadler. Pen is an experienced officer and knows this town. His family is one of the older ones. More importantly, he lives just outside the city limits.



Soon we will further explore my fictional town and its citizens.

Riding around - Research for Images and Background

I haven't had a chance to ride the Shadow the last few days. Seems like every time I started to, one of those passing (small) thunderstorms would start up, or at least threaten. Today, it looked better, and it seemed not quite so hot, so I set out. I needed to go West to McDade and check the post office, but I also had been intending to check out a couple of small ghost towns running back to the East from here. I picked up a fairly good map of Lee County last week at the county clerk's office in Giddings. I rode to McDade, very pleasant ride as usual, got the mail, snagged a fountain Coke at the Valero, and consulted my map. (McDade is actually in Bastrop County on Highway 290, a few miles East of Elgin.)
I could see a series of county roads running back through the boonies leading back toward Moab and Fedor. I took Marlin Street North out of McDade and followed it to Paint Creek Road. Small problem, I passed it up, since it was un-marked by signage. I figured it out, though and back tracked a bit. I followed Paint Creek quite a ways, then a left on Stockade Ranch Rd., and a right on Roberts Road. Good riding till Roberts. From there on the county road was only about one lane wide, and gravel. Pretty soon, possibly around where Roberts crossed into Lee County and became County Road 333, I found several stretches of deep soft sand. The road wasn't much more than two tire tracks through sand. I was truly wishing for a dirt bike at this point, but I kept going, very slowly. Intermittent stretches of gravel and dirt were actually welcome after the sand. 
This kept on till I reached the junction of 333, 331, and 334. This cross roads was my first checkpoint, the community of Moab. Nothing could be seen there except a thicket of trees and fields, although my reading in The Handbook of Texas mentioned two cemeteries. If there were any buildings, I didn't find them. County road 333 became 331 and continued on to the East till it met 309. A right on 309 led me to FM 1624 and the community of Fedor. 
Fedor, at least has a few houses around, a church, and a volunteer fire department. The Handbook of Texas says the community had 86 residents in 2000. A quick turn on 324 and I found the old feed store. 

Fedor Feed Store

My goal reached for today, I headed back North on 1624 to Lexington for fuel and drink, then back home by way of 696 West. It was a very pleasant ride, except for the sand.

The Shadow - My Research Assistant