Bead-The Flat Clear Glass Teardrop TB

I maintain records on my trackables. For a US-based trackable, this one is unusual for its longevity and movement. In the six-year period, 2010-19, the owner released a total of 3,793 trackables in the United States (96%) and Europe (4%). This trackable is one of the 5% of the total that circulated for at least 5 years and had been moved at least 25 times. That is a target rate of at least five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days. The average drop rate of my trackables in the US is 124 days, in Europe it is 71 days. As of 5-Feb-24 this trackable had survived for 9.9 years and had been moved by 41 cachers, for an average drop every 88 days, or 4.1 drops per year. Please keep it moving, then drop it in a safe place!

No permission is needed to leave the U.S. While in the U.S., please drop it at an event, in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban, non-premium cache. Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and dry, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items. Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.

This is one of a series of large beads obtained from different places and converted into travel bugs. They are named Texas towns with interesting names or histories.

 Remnants of The Flat are now protected as the Fort Griffin State Historic Site, in Shackleford County. The town was situated between Fort Griffin and the Clear Fork of the Brazos River, the water source for the facility. Since the fort held the strategic hilltop, the town became known simply as the Flat.
 
 The town, even in ruins, retains its hard-won reputation for being one of Texas’ most lawless communities. Populated at one time or another by many of the more colorful characters of Western legend, the Flat had no municipal control since Shackelford county had yet to be organized. The roster of trouble-makers included Lottie Deno (renowned gambler), Big Nose Kate (perhaps a “sporting woman” and later a companion to Doc Holliday), John Wesley Hardin (gunfighter from the DeWitt county war), John Selman (lawman and later outlaw), John M. Larn (lawman turned rustler). Other persons who passed through included Pat Garrett, Doc Holliday, and his long-time friend Wyatt Earp.
 
 The misbehavior in the Flat got so out-of-hand that the commanding officer of Fort Griffin declared martial law in the mid 1870s. Undesirables from the Flat were banished to towns that were short of undesirables. With the riff-raff gone, the county was organized in 1874.  During this period buffalo hunters used the fort as a supply base. The Butterfield Stage route passed the Flat (East-West) and cattle drives passed the town going north to railheads in Kansas.
 
 The town peaked at 1,000 permanent residents - an enviable figure for the times. Transients added to that number while the buffalo roamed, but the population declined.  Albany had started accommodating the cattle herds that passed by and even the fort itself had its contingent reduced. Two events further accelerated the demise of The Flat in 1881- the fort was closed and the community was bypassed by the railroad.  The Flat did manage to hang on into the 20th Century but today the population consists of Fort Griffin park personnel.