The Cotton Gin Festival in Burton, Texas

Eric and I wanted to visit the Texas Cotton Gin Museum in Burton, Texas.  We just happened to go there the weekend of the Cotton Gin Festival.

 

 

 

Visitors take Horse

Drawn Wagon Rides.

 

 

 

 

Locals display their Cars and Trucks... 

 

 

 

 

 

Ford Model T Cars in front of

 a 1960s Pickup Truck.

 

 

This Ford is very interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's a 1963 Ford Econoline

Pickup Truck.

A 1945 World War II Willys Jeep

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1934 Buick Coupe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Vendors' Tents line the street.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Children are invited to be

Farmers for a Day.

 

We walk past the Cotton Patch.

I am reminded of the fields we

drove past in Mississippi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Burton's Historic 1914 Cotton Gin

This building Texas was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991 and has been recognized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers as the earliest survivor of an integrated cotton ginning system used in the United States.

Cotton, full of seeds, sits in a

 wagon, waiting to be moved

 into the Gin.

A Bale of Cotton, ready to be

sold, sits on the dock, waiting 

to be picked up & taken to 

market.

A Cotton Picking Machine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Texas Cotton Gin Museum 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cotton was picked in the 1800s

 by Slaves & Share Croppers.

 

 

 

The Seeds were picked out by hand until Eli Whitney patented the Cotton Gin in 1794.

The original Cotton Gins were

small & processed more Cotton

than picking by hand, making 

the crop viable on a larger

scale.

 

Cotton Bales were weighed before

they were shipped to market.

The Industrial Revolution allowed Cotton to be deseeded by large scale powered engines.  Burton's Cotton Gin was built in 1914 with a Steam Engine.  A Bessemer Oil Powered Engine replaced the original engine in the 1920s.  A total of 59,899 Bales of Cotton were processed Cotton  at the Gin until 1974, when it closed.

The Gift Shop

 

The US produces 35% of the world's Raw Cotton and is a major Exporter throughout the World.