Flathead LbNA #50710

This box is more about the engine than the car, although the design of the 1939 Ford was somewhat of a breakthrough. The famous Ford Flathead was the first independently designed and built V8 engine produced by the Ford Motor Compan for mass production and ranks as one of the company's most important developments. Before the 1932 introduction of this engine (and the accompanying Ford V8 automobile), almost all production cars aimed at the average consumer used straight-4 and straight-6 engines. "Multi-cylinder" engines (like V-8s and even V-16s) were produced, but were not intended for mass-consumption. In the United States. The Flathead was 4th on the Ward’s 10 Best Engines of the 20th Century list. My stamp is of a 1939 Ford Deluxe Sedan and, although you can’t raise the hood to see it, sports the famous Flathead V8 engine. This car carried many families on the highways of Texas from the end of the depression years and into and through the war years of the early 1940’s, undoubtedly stopping off at this historic roadside park.

Directions: The Old Mill Creek roadside park is located on Hwy. 290 (north side) 10 miles west of Brenham, Texas, and is home to the Flathead letterbox. It was built in the 1940’s as a part of the Texas Highway Department’s attempt to provide pleasant places of rest for weary travelers. If you’re going west toward Austin, access is easy, but be careful and vigilant if you are going east to Brenham. During the summer small fish are stranded in pools when the water in the creek stops flowing, along with tadpoles and crawdads. If you happen to visit, throw a few crumbs of bread in the water to witness a feeding frenzy by these dainty denizens of the deep (okay, shallow, but that spoils the alliteration).

To the Box: When you pull in off the highway, go straight ahead to the first picnic table on the left and park, unless, of course, it is occupied. Sitting at the table with your back to the highway, you’ll see a large oak tree on the bank of the creek/ravine, which limbs reaching toward the ground. Across from it is another tree, growing in the fence line. Cross over the ravine at that point (it’s usually dry, but if not, take appropriate precautions, including coming back another day). You’ll be able to go through to the other side of the fence. Go left to the third fence post. Uphill is a medium cedar tree and beyond it another similar cedar with a snaky dead vine on it. The Flathead is behind that tree at its base, covered with rocks. Please use good judgment if someone is in the park. It is, after all, a public and somewhat secluded spot, and the box will be there another time.