Human Flower Project

Monday, September 06, 2010

High Hill: Ghosts with the Mostest

What’s a miracle? When five thousand people return to a tiny rural town in Texas and a wildflower covers the pastures with summer snow.

Thistles in a window at St. Mary’s Church, High Hill, TX
Photo: Human Flower Project

The church picnic season in Fayette County, Texas, with its auctions, stew dinners, polka masses, is winding down, and so, praise be to God, is the Texas summer.

Yesterday was the annual St. Mary’s picnic at High Hill, a place some call a “ghost town.”

The railroad once planned to make it a stop on the route between Houston and Austin, but citizens declined, so the tracks (and later, Interstate 10) ran through Schulenburg instead, a few miles to the south. High Hill maintained its topographical prominence, pride, and the fine old Catholic church, but its population dwindled.

Yesterday’s church picnic drew many thousands of people back, though, in celebration of St. Mary’s 150th anniversary. Some might say that the High Hillfolk were short-sighted to refuse the railroad’s offer, but they were indeed wise to schedule their annual picnic for the Sunday before Labor Day. The worst of summer is typically over: this year the air was fresh and the temperatures quite merciful – in the low 90s.

Continue Reading