Ellis County High Point Trip Report
two areas - one with BM Eskridge (890+ ft)
Date: November 11, 2002
Authors: Bob Martin and Scott Surgent
On US-67 just south of Midlothian and roughly 10 miles south of the Dallas county highpoint, exit at Ward
Road and turn left under the freeway, entering into an enormous industrial complex. This is the Texas
Industries (TXI) plant(s), makers of steel, concrete and other building products. Continue south on Ward
Road past the complex, staying on the obvious main road for roughly 2 miles (from US-67). The road will
rise and come to a large radio tower. We parked here.
The first area is at the radio tower itself. We squeezed through the decaying fence and found the benchmark
"Eskridge" with no problem; the witness post is visible from the road. We walked the perimeter of the
buildings and out back to our vehicles.
The second area is about 1/3 mile east, an obvious ridge easily seen from our vantage point on the road.
We hopped a fence and followed a cow path down into a thicket of trees, then up the other side, breaching two
more fences in a direct line-of-sight walk to the highpoint (turns out there was an open gate we could have used).
We found the HP mound and stepped on it, but didn't stay long. We could hear the beeping of the
work trucks in the TXI quarry just to our north.
Coming back, we were met by two dogs on the main road, barking vehemently at us. I hopped the fence
first and tried to make friends with them; they calmed a bit, barked intermittently then ran around playfully
with us as we walked back to our vehicles. Probably local strays.