| |
Wise County
Courthouse
©2007 Bill Morgan. All
rights reserved
WISE COUNTY - If architects, contractors, stress
engineers and the like were to get invited on a job-related time travel jaunt,
most would probably head for the building of the Great Pyramids of Egypt.
I'd set the dial for Decatur, Texas in 1896.
You think of the
Pyramids and you see images of slaves tugging on huge ropes, inching ponderous
square stones ever higher while the pharaoh's foremen whack their backsides
with bullwhips.
I think of the Wise County courthouse and see a bunch
of guys in overalls running around the square, waving their arms and yelling
"Where the hell's number 417?" while donkeys hee-haw behind them.
Maybe it went easier than that, but consider the possibilities: granite for the
courthouse was quarried 180 miles south at the Hughes Llano Quarries in Burnet
County, chiseled to specified size and shape, then numbered and shipped 180
miles north to the construction site. That's where the stones were assembled in
numerical order and raised to their assigned location on a spindle powered by
donkeys plodding in a circle. The spindle would raise huge granite blocks as
high as 75 feet above ground level where workmen set them in spaces
corresponding to the numbers written on them back in Burnet County--a 3-D
jigsaw puzzle in stone.
This and similar methods were used in several
Texas courthouses and other granite-wrapped buildings. Those old Egyptians had
donkeys and camels. I wonder if archaeologists and Pyramid detectives over the
centuries have given the Wise guys' method any thought?
Buy A
Print
11x17 prints on sturdy stock of the Wise County Courthouse
are available on my ordering page. The cost is $20 for the first print and $16
for additional prints of this, or any of the other 11 courthouses, purchased at
the same time. (Add $3 for shipping) |
|
|
