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... some regular funding guaranteed and the creation of the county committees, the TSHSC could now start its preservation work. The most important of these early activities was the continuation, beginning in 1962, of the marker program begun during the centennial celebration. This project was also the result of the initiative of two influential TSHSC members, Tyler attorney Lee Lawrence and, especially, John Ben Sheppard of Odessa, former attorney general of Texas and president of the TSHSC between 1963 and 1965.⁽¹⁾ The first official Texas Historical Marker was erected in 1962 at Camp Ford, near Tyler. Today there are more than 13,000 all over the state, including other historical markers placed by the Texas Department of Transportation (then named Texas Highway Department) along state highways and roads. Markers are cast brass plates with an inscribed summary of the historic significance of the site or building. It was also in 1962 that the TSHSC placed the first Historic Building Medallion at Eggleston House in Gonzales. Medallions, which are round brass plates with a map of Texas engraved, mark historic structures worthy of preservation. During its long and successful existence, the marker program has been an excellent way not only to publicize the state's history at a popular level, but also to bring about preservation awareness among the public.⁽²⁾

The early actions of the TSHSC were essentially limited to identifying and marking historic sites. Thanks again to Sheppard's initiative, in 1962 the TSHSC finally issued the state's first official preservation policy, the RAMPS program (Record, Appreciate, Mark, Preserve, and Survey). The program adopted a twenty-one goals for historic preservation and marking to be carried out over a five-year period, as well as a springboard from which broader activities could be launched throughout the state. All county committees also adopted RAMPS as a guideline for their work. The most important RAMPS goal was to erect 5,000 historical markers in five years. To accomplish this, the TSHSC ordered the county committees to select and research twenty historic sites, buildings, or subjects in their area that deserved marking. The objective was reached on October 27, 1969, when the 5,000th marker was erected at the site of the historic Rocking Chair Ranch in the Texas Panhandle. Furthermore, RAMPS decided that Historic Buildings Medallions had to be accompanied by an interpretive plate. In 1964, the first of these new medallions was placed at Camp Ford, Smith County. Other RAMPS initiatives were to promote the preservation and restoration of historical structures; to survey historic printed materials around the state; to help the county historical committees to organize, finance, and publicize their preservation programs and museums; and to publicize in print all the work done.⁽³⁾

RAMPS was the first real statewide preservation plan of Texas. To implement its demanding objectives, the TSHSC hired its first permanent professional personnel, and, to permit its members to focus exclusively on preservation work, in 1965 it created a separate board for the THF. Once the TSHSC came to rely almost exclusively on state and federal money and volunteer contributions were no longer needed, the two agencies disconnected their activities. Today, the THC and the THF work separately and perform activist roles of their own.⁽⁴⁾

1. Curtis Tunnel, Executive Director, THC, interview with author, August 11, 1998, Austin, Texas, transcript in possession of author. For biographies of Lee Lawrence and John B. Sheppard see Wilson, First Quarter Century, 72, 75.

2. Texas Historical Commission, Guide to Official Texas Historical Markers, (Austin: Texas Historical Commission, 1975), vii; Wilson, First Quarter Century, 23. Evidence of the effectiveness of the Texas marker program is that seventeen other states and one Canadian province chose it as a model for their own initiatives. (Texas Historical Commission, "Local History Programs," June 1996, pamphlet on file at the Texas Historical Commission, Austin, Texas.)

3. Wilson, First Quarter Century, 22-25. For a complete text of the RAMPS program see ibid., 78-80.

4. Wilson, First Quarter Century, 25, 49. Dennis Medina, Librarian, THC, interview with author, August 11, 1998, Austin, Texas, transcript in possession of author. In 1971, the legislature studied whether or not to dissolve the THF, but it finally decided to keep the foundation alive with a separate preservation program. Since then, the most important activities of the THF have been the organization of history congresses, the financing of oral history projects, and the establishment of funds for the publication of Texana. (Malmros, "Texas Historical Commission Records," 3.)

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