When County Line Magazine featured Trammel’s Trace in the May/June 2022 issue we recognized the significance of the ancient road, in the settling of East Texas. Now Texas Country Reporter’s Bob and Kelli Phillips share historian Gary Pinkerton’s vision of the road’s role in Texas history on television stations throughout the state.
The show premieres Saturday, February 25, and Sunday, February 26, at regular Texas Country Reporter times on local television stations. Pinkerton is author of Trammel’s Trace — The First Road to Texas from the North and now shares his experiences of tracing the ancient road through eight counties with television audiences statewide — a dream come true for him after many years of promoting the topic.
“I sent a ‘message in a bottle’ letter to Bob and Kelli Phillips of Texas Country Reporter some years back, hoping they might do a story about Trammel’s Trace,” Pinkerton says. “It finally came to fruition in early 2022 when they trekked to the family farm to film an episode.”
Saturday showtimes include 3 a.m. on KTVT and 6 p.m. on KTXA 21 in the Dallas and Fort Worth area and at 6:30 p.m. on KXII 12 (CBS) in Sherman and Denison. It also airs in Texarkana and Shreveport stations at 6:30 a.m. on KTAL 6 (NBC) and at 6 p.m. on KSHV 45 and at 10:30 p.m. on KLTV 7 (ABC) in Tyler and Longview and KTRE 9 (ABC) in Lufkin and Nacogdoches.
Beaumont and Port Arthur viewers can see the show at 10:35 p.m. Sunday on KFDM 6 (CBS). The national cable channel RFD-TV features the episode at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 3.
For Pinkerton and other fans of his first book, the premiere of Trammel’s Trace on Texas Country Reporter confirms the road’s significance in the state’s history — as he described in the County Line Magazine article.
“From about 1819 into the 1850s, Trammel’s Trace was the primary route for entry into Texas for Anglo immigrants coming by way of Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and Arkansas,” Pinkerton wrote. “After Texas statehood in 1845, the population of East Texas grew substantially, and roads began to spring up all around.”
The program hits home with the Rusk County native in a personal way.
“My 90 year old mother Joan is in the opening scene,” he says.
