Sulphur River Gallery 32
Winfield (Before)
This gallery contains photographs
of Highway 67 between Mount Vernon and Mount Pleasant, and the
sequence of views here and in the subsequent gallery are from
west to east, particularly in the area of Winfield, which is about
halfway between Mount Vernon and Mount Pleasant. Although these
two galleries have nothing to do with Sulphur River itself, they
are placed here for a reason. During the 1970s, Lakes Monticello
and Welsh were constructed to cool adjacent power plants. (Lakes
Cypress Springs and Bob Sandlin were constructed as recreational
lakes.) These lakes flooded some of our most scenic local geography,
the same sort of breathtaking, environmentally sensitive wetlands
that will be flooded by the proposed Sulphur River reservoirs.
Electricity produced by Texas Utilities at both the Monticello
and the Welsh power plants is transferred by a series of power
lines directly to the DFW Metroplex. To produce this electricity,
not only did they need lake water to cool the plants, but they
also stripmined (and still are!) much of the countryside west
and north of Mount Pleasant for coal to power these plants. This
stripmining began at Winfield. West of Winfield, the terrain of
the land still looks much like it always did. However, east of
Winfield, after the stripmining was complete, Texas Utilities
rebuilt the countryside. I must admit that they did a very artistic
job on this reconstruction, but it does not resemble at all the
countryside that used to exist. So here, for comparison, is Winfield
"Before & After" the stripmining.
These first two photos were taken
at a little roadside picnic area west of Winfield.
Historic Ripley Community was once
located along modern Highway 67. All over Northeast Texas there
are historical markers commemorating historical events and places.
A number of such historic sites will be flooded by the proposed
Marvin Nichols and George Parkhouse Reservoirs.
SAVE OUR HISTORY!
These are two highway views just
west of Winfield.
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