Looking at photos of the 2011 fires around the McDonald Observatory brought back some old and fond memories (I would like to claim this photo but it is not one of mine).
When I was entering the 1st grade in 1956 my parents bought a new home. It was located on several acres just a few hundred yards outside of the eastern city limit sign of Paris, Texas on US Highway 271.
Next to the house was a cleared lot that I had been told was the location of a former owner’s house. My two old maid great aunts said this was part of a farm that had belonged to one of Paris' most prominent citizens. He was a banker. But, in their word, he was a bit eccentric.
His name was McDonald and he had never married. They told me he had accumulated a fortune for those days and had no direct heirs. From there my imagination took over. In the late summer the rains are scarce in this part of Texas and the grass dies off leaving a hard, cracked and dusty surface. One day I was playing in the lot when I discovered a rusty relic. It was a tapered rectangle in shape with a thick and crude head. It was a square nail about 3 inches long. I kicked around some more and found others.
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This is the McDonald home and source of a treasure trove of square nails and other objects located on what is now Clarksville Street in Paris, Texas |
I had found remians of McDonald’s house and somewhere near I envisioned a hoard of gold coins. Too young to realize that bankers had other places to stash their cash I began my hunt for buried gold coins.
So, as any treasure hunter would do, I got a hoe, shovel, and rake and went to work. Pretty soon I had an old shoe box filled with small iron spikes. I found some other rusty items I couldn’t identify and tossed them in my collection as it grew. I even found some bricks mortared together that were part of the foundation of a pier and beam structure. Off and on over the next few years my brothers joined me in this quest and each of us accumulated a collection of corroded objects such as door hardware and nails.
The dreams of finding this gold begin to diminish as I discovered in bits and pieces about the previous owner.
William Johnson McDonald is immortalized today for a gift of $1,000,000.00 he bequeathed to the University of Texas upon his death in 1926 to study the stars. As a result I have always felt a personal connection to the oddly shaped but aesthetically attractive McDonald Observatory structure located near Ft. Davis in far West Texas.
And I understand why a couple of generations of my family might have found him eccentric. His study of astronomy was a distant and obscure obsession that had few subscribers in Paris. He by-passed his relatives and gave his fortune away unsolicited to The University of Texas. The gift had come as a surprise to the University's president and governing board.
He was born in 1844 at Howland near the future site of Paris and his family was among some of the earliest Anglo settlers in the state. Even today a large swath of East Paris bears the unofficial name of Johnson Woods from his maternal side. He father was a lawyer and wealthy enough to send him off to McKenzie College located at Clarksville, TX.
McKenzie College was one of the largest, if not the largest, institute of higher learning in the state at the time. It was founded by a local Methodist minister and was loosely associated with that denomination until it closed in 1868. During college he left to join the Confederate Army and served for about a year while in his mid-teens. He resumed his education after The Civil War.
Credit Line: Archival Photographic Files, [apf6-04160], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.
He supported himself for the next two or three years by teaching school and plying the printer's trade while studying law. He opened a law office in Clarksville in 1881 and became recognized as one of the best civil lawyers of Northeast Texas. He also prospered financially; from a small beginning as a moneylender, he advanced to the presidency of banks that he organized in Clarksville, Paris, and Cooper. On the establishment of the First National Paris bank in 1887, he moved to that city, where he lived for the rest of his life.
Frank Clark wrote a piece involving McDonald that appeared in the July/Aug 1997 issue of Paper Money on page 119. "In 1889 McDonald (1844-1926) was the original founder of The Delta County Bank. It was a private bank that operated out of a grocery store. In 1891 it was chartered as the First National Bank in Cooper, TX, charter number 4500. It is the oldest bank in Delta County." Paper currency issued by the bank is some of the rarist to find.
He died in Paris on February 8, 1926, leaving an estate of over a million dollars, the bulk of which he bequeathed to the University of Texas to establish an observatory. His heirs contested the will, and the university eventually made an out-of-court settlement by which it received $800,000. In 1939, the telescope of the University of Texas at Austin McDonald Observatory was dedicated.
The observatory is located on Mount Locke near Fort Davis. The university, having no astronomy faculty, signed a thirty-year collaborative agreement with the University of Chicago in 1932, whereby Texas financed the telescope and Chicago provided the astronomers.
World War II severely restricted astronomical research in many parts of the world, but McDonald gained the services of several refugee European astronomers.
At the end of the war McDonald astronomers received many awards from American and European astronomical societies. Another telescope was added years later. Construction of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope on Mount Fowlkes, adjacent to Mount Locke, began in 1994, and it became operational in 1999.
Text from McDonald Observatory Historical Marker
McDonald Observatory is one of the great observatories in the world. It was build in 1930, under terms of legacy from William Johnson McDonald (1844-1926) a Paris, Texas, banker interested in the stars. A well-educated man, McDonald lived frugally. As a hobby he read science books, and viewed the stars and planets through a small telescope. His will granted to the University of Texas $800,000 "to build an observatory and promote the study of astronomy."
The site of McDonald Observatory, situated on Mt. Locke in Jeff Davis County in West Texas, was selected because of its high ratio of clear nights, its 6,800 foot altitude, its distance from artificially-lighted cities, and its quite low latitude that permits observations of southern skies.
The observatory was operated for its first 25 years mainly by astronomers from the University of Chicago, more recently by astronomers from the University of Texas. Until 1948, its 82-inch telescope was second largest in the world. Its fine work and site have resulted in the addition of other telescopes, including a 107-inch instrument sponsored jointly by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the University of Texas.
Discoveries have included interstellar polarization and the satellites of several planets.
The observatory's three largest instruments are the 362" Hobby-Eberly telescope on 6,600-foot Mount Fowlkes, and the 107" Harlan J. Smith and 82" Otto Struve telescopes located on 6,800-foot Mt. Locke. The observatory is located just 17 miles from Fort Davis on Texas Highway 118.
Operated by the University of Texas at Austin, the observatory has several large research telescopes and hosts astronomers from around the world. Self-guided tours are possible from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm. Solar viewing sessions are conducted twice daily at 11:00 am and 2:00 p.m. Daily tours follow Solar Viewing Daily. A telescope equipped with a safe filter and camera provides dramatic views of our sun and its many features.
The observatory's evening Star Parties held on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays should not be missed. Beginning after sunset, the star party showcases interesting stars, planets, and other astronomical objects with live views through telescopes from 8 to 22 inches in size. A tour of the stars and constellations is presented by knowledgeable staffers, while equally interesting live presentations take place in the new Frank N. Bash Visitor Center's multimedia theater. The Star Party is a rare opportunity for the entire family to learn about the heavens from experts under one of the darkest skies in North America. Bring a jacket, since the mountain air cools quickly. The Observatory is closed only on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year¹s Day.
A gift shop in the Frank N. Bash Visitor Center offers astronomy related merchandise, and the StarDate Cafe offers delicious snacks or full meals.
For more information please call (432) 426-3640 or Toll Free 1-877-984-7827
or visit their website at http://McDonaldObservatory.org
Accurate information for opening hours, tours can be found at http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/visitors/programs/
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