Cross Plains Project Pride (2026)

22/09/2026

When Lynn Dee Smith drove down from Granbury to visit her son Riley during Parent’s Week-end at Tarleton State in Stephenville, it was an easy decision to arrange a quick visit to the Robert E. Howard Museum to just get away from the mad chaos of all the extra campus visitors.

Riley has long enjoyed the writings of H.P. Lovecraft and was interested in pursuing the whole Robert Howard picture as the two corresponded frequently about their writing styles and topics. He was indeed surprised to learn that Howard wrote a whole lot of stories other than the CONAN ones that he was familiar with. Thus, the museum shop was a bit overwhelming to him as he quipped, “Where in the world do I start?”

Riley is working towards a degree in Natural Resources Management with plans to become a Game Warden with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. An alternate plan is to change gears a bit and become a teacher at the college level.

Lynn had a noticeable reaction to the docent’s story of Michael, the blind visitor who had been able to read the cursive signatures on the quilt in Mrs. Howard’s bedroom. Then upon hearing the story of Michael “reading” the latch on the trunk and identifying the manufacturing company, she felt it herself, paused a bit, collected herself and explained that she teaches blind students in the school setting! After teaching at the lower elementary level for 12 years, she transitioned over to another career – that of being a “vision teacher”. Even as she continued in the regular classroom, she spent a year and half learning all about the eyes and to read Braille. After working with a mentor for a year, she now works for a contract company, teaching students who are unable to get into state sponsored facilities for some reason.

Three hours later, they headed back to Stephenville! Every day a new adventure at the REH Museum.

08/09/2026

Josiah Walker and Nick Elscott have been friends since the first grade in northern MN, so it was quite the reunion when Josiah came down to San Antonio to see Nick. AND it was quite the surprise for Josiah to leave the cool north and arrive in the hot south. Another surprise came into the conversation when Arlene mentioned canoeing in the Canadian Wilderness waters and visiting a small island where a lady made root b**r to sell along with a few snacks and souvenirs. The guys had never been to that island, but knew the story of such an island.

Josiah was the Howard reader of the pair, having read most of the CONAN stories and was just getting into some of Howard’s other genres. However, he was familiar with Allen Dean Foster who had visited the Museum a number of years ago and later donated a postcard that H.P. Lovecraft had sent to Howard from Canada. Foster had written a story of the “Star Wars, Close Encounters” movie that became a top seller. This book made the list of top selling books that used to run in the Abilene Reporter News.

Walker works as a mechanical engineer for the medical division of the Boston Scientific company that makes equipment to monitor, support diagnosis, and treat irregular heart rhythms, heart failure and sudden cardiac arrest. He feels that AI is becoming more and more important in that business as it can help produce the smallest of the equipment that has to be perfectly precise and adequate.

Elscott works as sales engineer for the San Antonio base of the Emerson Electric Company. Founded in 1931, the headquarters for this business is located in New York. From a small business the company has grown into a worldwide distribution of motor oils, lubricants and automotive products. With a large fleet of trucks, orders can be filled and delivered in short order.

Purchasing some books and shirts in the museum shop, they left to explore the town and find something to eat before heading back to San Antonio. As Elscott is a real car buff, he was disappointed that the Woody’s Museum was not open. Visiting that museum and attending the annual Robert E. Howard Days sometime would ensure that a return trip for the fellows.

07/09/2026

Chuck Estes and Julie Frybarger drove over from Abilene to see what all Cross Plains had to offer with the focal point being the Robert E. Howard Museum. Chuck is quite familiar with Howard’s CONAN character and had just recently started to explore his many other genres. Finding such a wide scope of characters and backgrounds, he wondered what inspired Howard in this general “nothingness” part of Texas in the 1920’s and 30’s. Looking at the large personal library of Howard’s and another collection of books that Howard often referenced certainly answered that question. Glancing through a collection of Dr. Howard’s personal books and hearing that Mrs. Howard loved poetry, he could easily see that Howard had grown up in a world of words.

Estes is retired from working with ACU and the city as a supervisor of maintenance on various building projects around Abilene. Some of his work was with the restoration of old buildings and some centered on new apartments and housing being built by the city. Thus, he could easily identify with the deteriorating condition of the museum.

Julie is a substitute teacher for the Abilene ISD, finding herself in classrooms of 7-year-olds to classrooms of 17-year-olds. She tends to enjoy the younger ones as their minds are more open and readily accepting of new concepts.

They had arrived early for their tour appointment and having explored the town briefly, had questions about the old Methodist and Presbyterian churches that no longer look like functioning churches. The rather empty Review office was quite intriguing also. Woody’s was definitely on the list as soon as they checked out the rather surprising assortment of eateries in town.

31/08/2026

Ryan and Michelle Banta visited the Howard museum to celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary. Michelle’s gift to Ryan was a trip to the Howard museum and beyond. They made their way from Bastrop, TX to Cross Plains, and from here they plan to travel to the
Fort Worth Stock Yards and onto Waco. Michelle said the purpose of this trip is to observe the beauty of the historical sites as well as the scars.

Ryan has been a Robert E. Howard fan since reading his first Conan story at about the age of 8 or 9. Additionally, he enjoys reading Kull, Bran Mak Morn and Solomon Kane. He is also a fan of H. P. Lovecraft and has been inspired by his writings. He admires both for their passion which is shown through their expression of the beauty of their environment as well as the darkness. Ryan added that Lovecraft wrote a beautiful eulogy to Howard, following Howard’s death in 1936.

Ryan owns Black Hearse Woodcraft, LLC in Bastrop and shared some photos of his truly beautiful woodcraft cabinets and curiosities.

Michelle works in the semi-conductor industry which provide the equipment to produce microchips. She is a customer programmer manager working with the larger companies that manufacture the chips.

For fun, Ryan enjoys music; specifically progressive rock and avante garde rock. He also plays rock and roll and jazz piano. They both agreed that when they moved from Albany, OR to Bastrop they knew they were finally home; loving the country surroundings and the lifestyle that Bastrop offers.

As they prepared to leave the museum, they planned to visit the Cross Plains Public Library, Woody’s Car and Baseball Museum, Backwood’s Grill and then travel onto the next leg of their
journey.

31/08/2026

Daniel and Renee Allsup drove up from Austin to basically visit the Robert E. Howard Museum, but arriving early and finding the Woody’s Car Museum open, they stopped to see what that offered. Totally surprised, impressed and astonished would be putting it mildly. Crossing over to the REH Museum for their scheduled tour, their first question was “how in the world did little ole’ Cross Plains land such an attraction as that?” Hearing that story brought the same reactions.

Both Daniel and Renee are new to the stories penned by Howard that made him into Cross Plains’ world-famous author. Daniel had seen the CONAN movie before meeting Renee but hadn’t really pursued Howard to any degree. Together they had recently watched the movie “The Whole Wide World” which explores Howard’s relationship with a local English teacher and decided we were the perfect destination for a Saturday day trip.

Hearing all the stories about Howard from the docent was quite the eye-opener for Daniel and he could imagine a growing book list of required reading to learn more about the wide scope of Howard’s stories.

Allsup works for the Morris & Dickson pharmaceutical distribution company in the warehouse department and proudly related the history of the company. Starting as a small apothecary in Shreveport, LA in 1843, the company quickly grew into a very successful business, and the dream of expansion was born. It is now the nation’s largest independent full line pharmaceutical distributor. Every related company in the country has access to their next-day delivery of drugs and related products to health systems, independent

Renee has recently started work with the Mobile Loaves & Fishes program there in Austin. This is a Christian social outreach ministry that has been working with the homeless since 1998. Rather than just feeding the homeless and providing temporary shelters, MLF is more abut empowering communities that enable the homeless to get back into a productive lifestyle.

Through the support of thousands of volunteers, Mobile Loaves & Fishes food trucks hit the streets of Austin 7 nights a week, 365 days a year to provide food, clothing and other life-sustaining items to hundreds and hundreds of homeless men and women who are struggling to survive. More and more of the homeless are finding a temporary place to rebuild their lives as they become involved in the work of the MFL communities. Living in tiny little shelters and sharing area restroom and shower facilities, they are encouraged to get involved in the communal gardens, grounds maintenance and building projects, that enables them to make a bit of money. But more importantly, they come to appreciate all the community offers in helping them get back on their feet.

Both Daniel and Renee feel very blessed to be working in such Christian environments and feel that they have been led into a lifetime of rewarding work.

Every day, a new adventure at the REH Museum.

28/08/2026

Once again, we are raffling off a meat package to support our local Cancer Walk. Between the Butcher Block and Project Pride, we are raffling off a $400 package of the winner's choice of cuts. Tickets are $1.00 for one, 6 for $5.00 and on up. Out-of-towners are welcome to buy tickets and come pick up your meat or donate it to our local Sr. Center or Food Pantry.

14/08/2026

Cross country travelers visit REH Museum
Enroute from FL to CA, Phil and Veronica Tinsman stopped to check an item of Phil’s bucket list. Phil has been a lifetime member of Project Pride for years and was finally able to visit the Howard home and to see where he wrote all those stories and poems. Imagine his surprise to find Robert’s room to be only 6 ft. wide and not much longer.
His introduction to Howard started when a teenage friend loaned him a book of one of Howard’s characters. He was hooked on the CONAN stories and began buying other fantasy stories by Howard. Interesting enough, he bypassed the comic books and went straight to the hard copy books. Although he is familiar with the fantasy stories, he was quite surprised to learn of the other genres written by Howard; namely boxing, westerns, comic westerns, detective, and a lot of poetry.
In Florida, Tinsman worked for the Aerojet Rocketdyne Co. which is a major American aerospace and defense company that specializes in rocket propulsion and energetic systems for space exploration and defense. His job was finding companies to supply the parts necessary to manufacture Aerojet Rocketdyne engines that have contributed to every successful NASA Mars mission, including powering the launch, entry, descent, and landing phases of the Perseverance rover mission.
Leaving FL, and bound for San Diego, Tinsman will be working with the General Atomics company, doing similar work, but will be more deeply involved with acquiring parts for the drones used in the military defense systems.
Veronica has spent the last 34 years working as a radiation therapist for cancer patients in the Cleveland Clinic in Palm Beach, FL. She shared the changes that have been made in this field since she started this line of work. Initially, they had to actually type in the treatment process for each patient and hand mix the complex ingredients to treat the patients. Now they use computers to enter the data necessary for specific treatment processes.
Leaving a nice donation towards the restoration project for the museum and finding a couple of books he didn’t have, they headed for Abilene for the night before hitting the road for San Diego. After finding a home out there, Veronica will return to FL to sell their house and move everything from the east coast to the west coast. AND they appreciated our hot dry weather compared to the hot muggy weather of FL.

27/07/2026

Sean Shultis had recently flown into DFW from North Carolina to conduct a two-week training course in Dallas and made a quick trip out to see the Robert E. Howard Museum. Having long been an avid reader of several of the various characters created by the local writer, he had always wanted to see where it had all happened. Making an appointment to see the museum shortly after lunch, he got to town early enough to enjoy a “really delicious hamburger” at Backwoods.
He had been introduced to Howard’s stories in a somewhat different way; a way shared by a few other visitors in that they had been stationed at some far overseas military base and somebody just shared one of Howard’s stories as something to do and they were hooked. After that he pursued more of the same in any way he could find.
Shultis served 20 years in the Army and retired as a Master Sargeant after being assigned to bases in Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Germany and finally back to Ft. Bragg to wrap up his career. Most of that time he had been involved with the paratrooper units; training them and leading them on the various missions. He commented that sometimes he led them out of the planes and other times, he pushed them out. In addition to these responsibilities, he had been a machinist and welder for the special forces.
Retiring, he put that latter experience to good use and now works for the Hobart Institute of Welding School in Troy, OH. And that’s what brought him to Dallas; to conduct a training course for experienced welders who want to become certified inspectors for various welding projects. With all the high-tech building going on across the state now, qualified inspectors are definitely in high demand.
In his spare time Sean pursues another unusual activity; that of writing and playing bagpipe music. His writing primarily focuses on the Irish/Scotch/Gaelic type of music as it generally represents his own heritage. He writes both traditional and original Celtic music and actually plays a variety of bagpipes with another guy in their own group called the Nor’easter Tippers and Pypes.
Every day a new adventure at the REH Museum.

24/07/2026

Since the Howard house was purchased by Project Pride in 1989, it has attracted visitors from at least 25 countries and virtually every state in the USA. The annual Robert E. Howard Days typically finds at least 125 folks from an average of 28 states and 5 or 6 foreign countries taking dead aim on Cross Plains and the REH Museum.
These visitors are serious readers, editors, researchers, illustrators and writers who enjoy all of the local writer’s many genres that were written in that little white house at the west edge of town.

Howard was a very unique author in that he wrote and sold short stories about such a wide range of characters, from a boxing protagonist to comic westerns, to serious westerns, to a Texan’s adventures in Afghanistan, and a puritan fighting wrong. In addition to his character short stories, he is credited with over 800 poems, ranging from religious to comic. And yes, he wrote fantasy stories and created CONAN the Cimmerian. It’s unfortunate that some folks think all he wrote were stories about CONAN and thus find it hard to accept his total range of creative talent.

The house was built in the early 1900’s and the Howards lived there from 1919 until the early 40’s when Dr. Howard moved to Ranger after Mrs. Howard’s and Robert’s deaths in 1936. It was a typical pier and beam style with the piers made from a stack of crossed bricks. It is a good three feet off the ground at the front and ground level at the back side, making an even more challenging problem. In time, the mortar between the bricks has deteriorated and the beams have been exposed to moisture seeping under the house.

And thus, the house is now experiencing severe damage to the floors with definite slopes in the rooms on the west side and in the hall. Rooms have been slightly rearranged to keep the weight of some furniture and visitors off of the weakest areas.

The Robert E. Howard Foundation has accepted the responsibility of restoring the house before it becomes unusable. Because the house received a Texas State Historical marker a number of years ago, the restoration work will need to be done by companies who are recognized as having the qualified and extensive experience in working on old historic buildings.

And this obviously will not come cheap! The Foundation has organized several projects to raise the necessary funds for this work. In addition to generous donations from individuals and foundations, they are pursuing a grant from a state historical source.

Project Pride has established a separate account at the local Liberty Capital bank to accept local donations. The silent auction and general donations at the recent REH Days as well as donations from regular visitors have netted over $11,000. One donor from a Foundation in NY recently sent $40,000 directly to the local fund for the project. In addition, the Foundation’s efforts have raised just over $75,000. It is expected that the work will definitely be over $125,000 as the house will most likely have to be lifted off the ground to do the necessary work.

Local folks, businesses and organizations are encouraged to get involved in the fund-raising efforts as the financial impact on Cross Plains since 1989 has been way up in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Without these visitors, our community coffers would take a definite hit. When Project Pride gets a call about arranging a visit, the visitors are encouraged to get to town to enjoy lunch around the tours. Frequently their response is “You mean there is a place in Cross Plains to eat?” Imagine their surprise when they hear the list of good eateries and a delightful coffee shop in town! Service stations are also a frequent necessary stop. When schedules coincide with Woody’s being open, they are delighted and totally impressed with that museum and their benevolence program. The Veteran’s Memorial, Butterfly Garden and Story Book Walk enjoy occasional visits, and the library is a definite stop if it is open. And thus, they spend money in town!

Does Cross Plains need the Robert E. Howard Museum?? That would be a resounding YES.

Donations may be sent to Project Pride at PO Box 534, or via PayPal or Venmo at [email protected] or made directly to the REH Museum Restoration fund at the bank.

Project Pride and the whole world of REH appreciate all support of this one-of-a-kind world-wide attraction.

21/07/2026

Enroute home from visiting friends in Breckenridge, CO with the hazy smoky air from the Canadian fires to their home in the water-logged Hill Country, Jason and Samantha Eisenmenger from Austin stopped to see the Robert E. Howard Museum. Having seen the “CONAN” movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was just a teen-ager, Jason was eager to see just where the story originated. Imagine his surprise to see the little white one-bedroom house at the edge of a small town out in the middle of nowhere Texas and to hear that Howard hammered out all those stories and poems from a tiny room a mere six feet wide!
The couple agreed that the term “middle of nowhere Texas” has definitely disappeared from the Howard story as his stories have been translated in languages all over the world, making “Cross Plains” the common denominator. Even more surprising to the couple was learning that folks from over 25 countries have taken dead aim on visiting Cross Plains because of this prolific writer who lived here 100 years ago.
Jason enjoys writing his own fantasy stories as influenced by Howard and thus has read the escapades of Solomon Kane, El Borak, Bran Mak Morn, Kull, and of course CONAN the Cimmerian. Hoping to purchase the book “One Who Walked Alone” that had inspired the movie “The Whole Wide World” that they had watched a number of years ago, he was disappointed to find none available. This is the story of the local high school English teacher and her friendship with Howard and their extensive conversations about books and writing them. The museum shop still looks very limited as it is still being restocked after a most successful REH Days in June.
Jason teaches British Literature and English at the Austin Community College. Students are required to take one advanced literature class and some find the British writers more fascinating that our American writers. High school students can get dual credits by enrolling at the Community College early and can pick up on Jason’s literature and government classes. Noting the bust of Cleopatra on display and hearing the story of Howard as a teenager choosing that as a souvenir when he had traveled with his father to a medical seminar in New Orleans, he could see that Howard’s collection of reading material covered a wide field indeed.
Equally impressive to Jason was the table display that included a note from the high school English teacher who wrote in the margin of one of Howard’s stories; “one day I believe you will be one of our major writers, develop your talent”. As a teacher himself, he knows what effect that kind of comment could have on a teen-ager who enjoys writing stories.
Samantha works in the marketing and communication arena at UT, helping faculty members with researching and writing papers as well as personally writing reports on scholarship recipients and various donors for the University records. Upon learning that the massive collection of Howard memorabilia, original typescripts, unfinished typescripts, etc. had been donated to the Harry Ransom Center on the UT campus by the late Glenn Lord’s family, they promised to check that out as soon as possible.
Disappointed that they did not have time to check out our local library and Woody’s Car Museum, they headed on home with the promise that they would return for the annual Robert E. Howard Days sometime.
That’s a promise we always like to hear.

Cross Plains Project Pride

22/09/2026

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31/08/2026

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