Hastings to Host Book Signing for Local Killeen Author

MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - June 21, 2013 - PRLog -- The story of Killeen is aptly called "a tale of two cities." Killeen was founded on May 15, 1882 when the first Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway Company (GC&SF) locomotive arrived from east Bell County. The original town contained 360 acres purchased from Susan Spofford for $960.

GC&SF honored its assistant general manager, Frank Patrick Killeen, by naming the new town for him although he probably never visited his namesake. During its first 60 years Killeen developed into a busy agricultural center specializing in cotton and wool. It remained a town of approximately 1,200 until 1942 when a tank destroyer center was opened nearby and became Killeen's close neighbor both physically, economically, and socially displacing farms and ranches and converting the town from an agricultural to a military-based economy.

That conversion and Killeen's boomtown future were sealed in 1950 when Camp Hood, the tank destroyer center named for Confederate general John Bell Hood, became a permanent military installation and was renamed Fort Hood.

Join the authors for a signing:
Where:  Hastings
1500 Lowes Boulevard  Killeen, TX 76543
When:  June 22nd, 2013; 1:00 —3:00 p.m.

Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at (888)-313-2665 or online.

Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States.  Our mission is to make history accessible and meaningful through the publication of books on the heritage of America’s people and places.  Have we done a book on your town?  Visit www.arcadiapublishing.com.