James L. Rock and W. I. Smith, Southern and Western Texas Guide for 1878 (St. Louis: A. H. Granger, 1878), pp. 60, 143-144, 211-213; Laura Jack Irvine, "Sketch of Colorado County," American Sketch Book, vol. 7, 1882, or the more convenient reprint in Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, vol. 8, no. 1, January 1998, pp. 38-46. Though Rock and Smith report that Columbus had "a population of nearly or quite 4,500" (p. 60) and "a population of about 4,000" (p. 211), Irvine's 1881 estimate that Columbus contained "two thousand souls" (p. 43) and the local newspaper's own estimate of 2500 at the beginning of 1883 (see Colorado Citizen, January 18, 1883) must be regarded as more accurate. The same newspaper declared that Weimar had about 700 people and Oakland about 260, and characterized Borden, Eagle Lake, and Osage as "villages." Though alligators were common on Eagle Lake, they could also be found in other parts of the county. An alligator measured at 12 feet, 8 inches was killed near Weimar in June 1880 (see Colorado Citizen, June 10, 1880). In his confession to a murder near Eagle Lake, James Stanley mentions that a man had killed two ducks the same evening (see Colorado Citizen, October 18, 1883). Various other accounts of hunts in the Colorado Citizen reveal the presence of beaver (November 7, 1878 issue), eagles (April 29, 1880), wildcats (May 20, 1880), deer (July 28, 1881, September 22, 1881), and prairie chickens (August 11, 1881).