December 10, 2018 - When Pam and I moved back to East Texas in 1990, it seemed everyone knew about Britain Creek… except us. I had been raised in Center, Texas… one of ten children… and we all thought that “a vacation” meant a trip with Daddy and Mother six miles from town to the sand hills of East Texas… to “Gunnel’s Cave” or to “Big Ditch”. Little did we know that Britain Creek… located between Patroon and East Hamilton… was a third Shelby County “hot spot”.
When we moved back to Shelbyville, a young boy said that he was going to Britain Creek to swim. “Brother Doug, it looks like a part of Arkansas or Missouri” “You won’t believe it when you see it”. Within a week, Pam, Brandon and I were flying down the gravelly Britain Creek road… and what we found was even more than unbelievable. Creeping slowly through the rugged… almost hidden road… we drove right up to the large flat diving rock and plunged into the most frigid spring water of our swimming memory. From there the creek meandered its way through beautiful rock formations nestled at the bottom of a steep ravine We watched scores of glistening… blue-bodied… red-tailed minnows fitting back and forth in the bright sunlight while beautiful Damsel flies crossed from bank to bank.
Eventually, we bought a house in San Augustine, Texas where Pam, our son Brandon and I spent two long years remodeling it. As we were painting one hot summer day, Pam hollered, “Let’s go to Britain Creek” and within twenty minutes, we jumped (clothes and all) into its cool water… and after a thirty minute soaking, returned to our house painting. We returned later that week, dug up a foot tall holly plant and transplanted it at our house Today that small plant proudly stands sixteen feet tall at the end of our minnow pond.
During Thanksgiving week Pam and I took our son Brandon and his 14 year old twin daughters to the Creek. After listening to the waterfall and explaining what Damselflies were, the girls asked if we could come back to the creek soon. “We sure can”, I answered, “And when we leave today, we’ll take our memories with us… but we’ll leave this beautiful Creek behind…
… just like we found it”.
