The Bolivar Oral History Project. The BOHP was launched as part of the broader Bolivar Archeological Project.
These initiatives were sponsored by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) in response to proposed road improvements to FM 455 in Denton County. A survey in the town of Bolivar at the intersection of FM 455 and FM 2045 revealed the remains of two nineteenth-century sites that would be impacted by the road-widening activities: the Sartin Hotel and the Tom Cook Blacksmith Shop. From 1882 until his death in 1898, freedman Thomas Cook Sr. owned and operated this blacksmith shop. Excavations at the two sites took place from November of 2020 to February of 2021.
Researchers partnered with local African Americans for the duration of the Bolivar project. These stakeholders included Quakertown descendants and the lineal descendants of Tom Cook and his wife, Lethia Perry. An oral history project was one of the outcomes of the community engagement. In 2022 and 2023, Cook descendants William Howard Clark and Halee Wright, University of Texas archeologists Maria Franklin and Tara Skipton, and Stantec archeologists Alex Menaker and Doug Boyd collaborated with stakeholders on the BOHP. Eight African Americans, including five Cook descendants, were interviewed. There are three major themes represented by the oral histories: family history and relationships, Southeast Denton’s community over time (churches, Black-owned businesses, education, Fred Moore School), and Black heritage sites.