S.S. Emidio CA3
Nearby are portions of the hull of the General Petroleum Corporation tanker S.S. Emidio, which on December 20, 1941 became the first casualty of the Imperial Japanese Navy's submarine force action on California's Pacific Coast. The ship was attacked some 200 miles north of San Francisco and five crewmen were killed. Abandoned, the vessel drifted north and broke up on the rocks off Crescent City. The bow drifted into the harbor, where it lay near this marker until salvaged in 1950.

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Alamo Portland and Roman Cement Company TX98

Near this site in 1879, Englishman William Loyd discovered a blue argillaceous limestone believed to be a natural cement rock. Analysis by San Antonio druggist and chemist George H. Kalteyer confirmed the rock contained proper proportions of lime and clay to produce Portland cement. Loyd and Kalteyer, along with other investors, organized the Alamo Portland and Roman Cement Company, which was chartered in January 1880. This, the first Portland cement plant west of the Mississippi, began with on intermittent pot kiln. A second pot kiln was added in 1881, when the company name was changed to Alamo Cement Company. The tall stack Schoefer-type kiln was added in 1889. Cement from this plant was used in the construction of the State Capitol and the Driskill Hotel in Austin. Through the vision and leadership of Portland Cement pioneers Loyd, Kalteyer, and Charles Baumberger, who succeeded to the presidency following Kalteyer's death in 1897, the company flourished. In 1908 the plant relocated to a site later known as Cementville near Alamo Heights. The original quarry became the Japanese Sunken Gardens in Brackenridge Park. The kiln area was designated as Baumberger Plaza in 1944.

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Bataan Memorial Trainway TX11892
Bataan Memorial Trainway

With the arrival of the railroads to El Paso in 1881, the train tracks marked the northern boundary of the city. As El Paso grew, the tracks divided downtown and created a time-consuming barrier for pedestrians and motorists. In the early 20th century, a trainway was proposed to place the city's main railroad tracks below street level. In 1948, eight major contractors and 22 subcontractors began work on the project. Robert E. McKee General Contractor did the largest portion of the work-regrading the railroad lines, digging the entire trench and laying new tracks. A significant work of civil engineering, the trainway cost $5,500,000 and took more than three years to complete. Over 4,500 gondola cars of dirt were excavated and eight bridges were built over the tracks. A 1,700-foot overpass across cotton street, several blocks east of the trainway, completed the project.

The trainway was named in honor of prisoners of war who died in enemy camps during World War II. The name Bataan was chosen to honor those soldiers-both Filipino and American-captured by the Japanese Army after the fall of the Bataan Peninsula. Many of the American prisoners, including thousands from New Mexico and Texas, had trained at nearby Fort Bliss.

The trainway was officially dedicated on August 21, 1950, and Southern Pacific's "Sunset Limited" became the first passenger train to operate on the newly completed trainway. With the completion of the Bataan Memorial Trainway, traffic flowed freely and safely through downtown, aiding the city's growth and prosperity.

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Birthplace of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, USN TX10090

Typical early Fredericksburg home built 1866 by Carl Basse. Property of the Henke family since 1873. Heinrich Henke, early settler, Confederate freighter had butcher counter on front porch; meat processing was done in back yard; there the horses that pulled meat vending cart were stabled. Shop later built on foundation of stone walls surrounding lot.

He and his wife Dorothea (nee Weirich) added the long dining room and kitchen with sloped roof to accommodate their twelve children. Many of their furnishings are preserved by Udo Henke, a descendant.

In small room to rear of front bedroom, on Feb. 24, 1885, their daughter, Anna Henke Nimitz, gave birth to Chester William Nimitz, destined to command the greatest naval armada in history.

A 1905 honor graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Nimitz was chief of staff to commander, Atlantic Submarine Fleet, W.W.I. Installed first Naval ROTC unit in U.S. Navy, 1926; selected Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet after attack on Pearl Harbor; appointed Fleet Admiral, U.S. Navy, 1944. As representative of the U.S. he signed Japanese surrender documents of his flagship, USS Missouri, Sept. 2, 1945 in Tokoyo Bay. Admiral Nimitz died in San Francisco on Feb. 20, 1966.

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Birthplace of Major Gen. Claire L. Chennault TX7778
Major General Claire L. Chennault
(1890 - 1958)

Organizer-Commander of the famous "Flying Tigers" of the China-Burma-India Theater in World War II. An outstanding air strategist, Chennault had retired from a pioneer flying career when, in 1937, he was asked by Gen. Chaing Kai-Shek to help China develop an air force to combat threatening raids by Japan.

Four years later, with World War II spreading, he received permission from the U.S. to seek a corps of American airmen to help train the Chinese. A total of 252 men -- 87 pilots and 165 ground personnel -- joined the "American Volunteer Group." Its popular name resulted from a misunderstanding of the sharks teeth painted on the noses of the aircraft.

The Tigers formed three squadrons -- "Adam and Eve," "Panda Bears," and "Hell's Angels" -- supported by the expert pilots of the China National Aviation Corps, a daring supply transport group. So effectively had Chennault studied Japanese air tactics that his tiny band officially destroyed 539 enemy aircraft while losing only 90 itself. During 1941-1942, they checked Japan's invasion of China, then joined regular units.

Jack Cornelius, also a native of Commerce and a close friend of Chennault's, was a member of the first pursuit squadron of the Tigers.

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Charles Howard Roan TX818
CHARLES HOWARD ROAN
(August 16, 1923 - September 18, 1944)

Claude native Charles H. Roan volunteered for World War II service in the U.S. Marine Corps in December 1942. On active duty in the Pacific, he was killed in battle on Peleliu Island when he threw himself on a Japanese grenade, thereby saving the lives of four fellow Marines. For his heroic action he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. The medal was presented to his mother, Armstrong County Treasurer Lillabel Roan, in ceremonies here at the courthouse in July 1945. A U.S. Navy destroyer built in 1946 was christened the USS Charles H. Roan DD-853.

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Cornelia Clark Fort TX4058
CORNELIA CLARK FORT
(February 5, 1919 - March 21, 1943)

Born into an affluent Tennessee family, Cornelia Fort attended the Ward-Belmont School in Nashville and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in New York in 1939. She returned to a society life in Tennessee but was soon introduced to flying by a friend. In her first week in the air, Fort logged over 2,000 miles. She became an instructor in 1941, a year after her first flying lesson. She worked with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's civilian pilot training program at Fort Collins, Colorado, before taking a similar position in Hawaii. She was airborne with a trainee when Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor; Fort landed safely while under enemy fire. By 1942 she was part of the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) commanded by Nancy Harkness Love. Fort and 26 other women pilots ferried war planes across the United States. Fort was transferred to a new squadron in Long Beach, California. On March 21, 1943, she ferried a BT-13A airplane toward Dallas' Love Field. While flying in formation, her plane struck another aircraft. Available records indicate that Fort was the first American woman pilot to die on active military duty when she plunged into the rugged terrain of Mulberry Canyon, three miles southeast of this site. Shortly before her death at age 24, Cornelia wrote, "I am grateful that my one talent, flying, was useful to my country." On August 4, 1943, WAFS personnel merged with and helped create the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), led by noted aviator Jacqueline Cochran. The WASP's most famous training ground was Avenger Field at Sweetwater in nearby Nolan County.

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Doris Miller TX1255

Doris (Dorie) Miller was reared on a farm in McLennan County, Texas, and attended Waco's A.J. Moore High School. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was assigned to the battleship "USS West Virginia" in 1940. The "West Virginia" was docked in Pearl Harbor when it was struck by a Japanese torpedo on December 7, 1941. Moments after the torpedo hit, an explosion on a nearby ship showered the "West Virginia's" deck with burning debris and flaming oil. Miller helped move his wounded captain to safety, then maneuvered through the flame-swept deck and took over a machine gun position. Though never trained as an aerial gunner, he confidently shot down four enemy aircraft. Miller reacted with such extraordinary skill and bravery in the defense of his ship that he became the first African American to receive the Navy Cross. Fellow Texan Admiral Chester Nimitz awarded him the Navy Cross on May 7, 1942. Miller died when his ship, the "USS Linscombe Bay," was torpedoed in 1943.

The destroyer "USS Miller" was named in his honor in 1973. Miller, posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and honored by associations, cemeteries, parks, naval bases, and other organizations across the nation, is credited with helping break down the color barrier in the Navy.

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First Methodist Church of Oglesby TX9120

This congregation was organized in 1891 as the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and boasted 56 members in its first year. The Rev. J. David Crockett served as its first pastor. A church structure built in 1891 was destroyed by a tornado in 1893. A second structure completed by the congregation that year was replaced by this late Victorian-Era Queen Anne style building in 1912. It features a symmetrical form with a central gable and flanking bell towers. The church has sponsored an annual harvest festival to fund missionaries throughout the world, including Japan and Africa.

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Hubbard TX2588

Founded 1881, as a shipping center and supply point on the St. Louis and Southwestern Railway. Named for Richard B. Hubbard (1832-1901), Colonel in the 22nd Texas Infantry during the Civil War; Texas Governor 1876-1879; United States Minister to Japan 1885-1889. Banking and market town. Has mineral waters.

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