Fly fishing is a much-romanticized pastime beloved by outdoorsmen the world over. Wading in pristine mountain streams and casting flies hand-tied out of animal hair towards wild and elusive fish are so enticing that movies such as A River Runs Through It practically make themselves.

Back in 1885, over 130 years ago, before its inscrutable list of 23 ingredients was locked away in two separate Dallas banks, no one had ever even heard of Dr Pepper, or, for that matter knew the recipe. That is, with the exception of pharmacist Charles “Doc” Alderton. In between concocting elixirs for cough syrups and stomach remedies at Morrison’s Old Corner Drug Store in Waco, Alderton unwittingly became a soda pop pioneer. It was here at this drugstore that Dr Pepper, the world’s oldest major soft drink, was born.

How many capital cities has Texas had? The answer, as with so many questions about Texas history, is: it depends. It depends on whether you are talking about French Texas, Spanish Texas, Mexican Texas, or present-day Texas. Nevertheless, forgotten history is full of surprises, and the story of Texas’s many capitals is no exception. 

In the summer of 1854, a destitute stowaway on a Texas-bound schooner was discovered and forced to work for his passage. After handling freight to pay for his travel, nineteen-year-old Abel Head Pierce, a native of Little Compton, Rhode Island, landed at the Texas port of Indianola five months after leaving home. The meeting between Pierce and the rich soil of the coastal plains of Texas might have been destiny. The young man would go on to amass a fortune in land and cattle, not far from where he first disembarked.