I’ve wanted to go to Burton for their Cotton Gin Festival for some years now, but somehow I manage to always have a trip out of Texas scheduled about that time. But… we did manage to go out to see the museum and tour the gin yesterday, which has increased my desire to ensure that we actually make it out next April. I really want to be able to photograph folks operating this historic 1914 cotton gin and see and hear its 1925 Bessemer Type IV engine run!
It’s really amazing to see a historic structure like this preserved so that future generations can see how things were done years ago. Years ago there were many more cotton gins in Texas… and at one point Burton had four. By the time World War II rolled around, there were two (this one and another one that closed in 1948). This one finally closed in 1973, just two years before I was born.
