Closed for Good

Old general store in Granger, Texas. Granger is a fairly charming little town in eastern Williamson County. It is several miles north of Taylor and a few miles south of Bartlett, a town bisected by the Williamson-Bell county line. Taylor was once the dominant city in the county, a crossroads for two major railroad lines, a major cotton shipping center. Granger is also along one of those rail lines (as is Bartlett), and was once thriving. These communities are all in the blackland prairie, a very fertile soil for farming, and much cotton (along with other less dominant crops) is still grown here. But typical Texas politics in the late 50s illogically routed the new Interstate 35 (today known as, among other things, the NAFTA Highway, it runs from Mexico to Canada. Or, if you prefer, from Canada to Mexico.) much farther west. This routing of the freeway, done to appease various political factions, started a death knoll for Taylor and Granger. The closure of this general store can't be blamed on Wal-Mart coming to town. Instead, blame politicians who pander rather than looking out for the people they're supposed to represent.

I like Granger. It still has spunk, but it is sad for me to visit this town and to see remnants of what it once was and could have been. Taylor seems to be having a bit of a resurgence, and is close enough to Austin to start becoming a commuter suburb. Both these towns have fodder for days of walking around with a camera, and I want to do that before long.