Texarkana Courthouse Fire Strongbox — Bowie County

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Texarkana Courthouse Fire Strongbox — Bowie County

Lost Treasure TX • Bowie County County
Description
Texarkana legend of a county-records strongbox lost when the Bowie County courthouse burned — shortly before the county seat moved from Texarkana to Boston.
Historical Notes
In the mid-1880s citizens of Texarkana successfully campaigned to make Texarkana the county seat. Shortly before Texarkana ceased being county seat, the courthouse burned and almost all the county records were destroyed. Residents of western and central Bowie County later campaigned for a county seat at the geographic center; the new courthouse was constructed in 1890 at Boston, twenty-one miles west of Texarkana. The present county seat remains at New Boston. Courthouse-fire folklore often claims clerks buried portable specie and strongboxes before flames consumed county archives. Coordinates mark the historic Texarkana courthouse district on the Texas side of State Line Avenue.
Status / Verification legend — Legendary or approximate

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