Nine-year-old Caleb Ging lives on his family farm just south of the small Central Texas community of Coupland. His friend Libby Fischer was born on the same day in the same hospital, so she calls him her “twin brother.”

Libby and her family live in a home they recently built just east of Coupland.

Caleb and Libby and their families are worried about the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) paving over their land. The Coupland area was in the first Corridor route area unveiled by the Texas Department of Transportation in 2004. The Master Development Plan of Cintra, the Spanish corporation that has the contract for the TTC, shows the almost quarter-mile-wide Super Corridor coming through Caleb’s family farm.

Not only would it ruin the land that has been his family for over 100 years, but also it would bisect the Coupland community, cutting off part of the Ging land and other families on the west side of Coupland from friends, family, and historic community institutions like Coupland School and St.

Peter’s Church of Coupland.

Feeling strongly about doing something to save his family farm, Caleb has written a letter to Gov. Rick Perry. Rather than just mailing his letter, his parents Scott and JoAnn Ging helped him post it on an antique cotton trailer, and Caleb’s message can be seen on Highway 95 just south of Coupland, in front of his family’s home, which used to be his grandparents’

home.

Caleb’s letter says, “Dear Governor Perry, About the Trans Texas Corridor, it will go right through my back pasture, which has been in the family for over 100 years. When I grow up I want to live on this farm with my family.

My name is Caleb Ging and I am 9 years old. So please don’t take our land to build the TTC. Sincerely, Caleb.”

On the other side of the trailer, signs say, “Keep taking our land and someday we will all be hungry” and “Please do not support the taking of 584,000 private acres of land mainly through condemnation for a 1200 ft.

right of way from nearly one million Texas citizens. Help us fight the Trans Texas Corridor.”

ACRE (Anti-Corridor/Rail Expansion) is a volunteer group dedicated to fighting the Trans-Texas Corridor and rail expansion that threaten to destroy our historic agricultural community of Coupland. We join with Caleb and Libby to ask Governor Perry, “Please don’t take our land to build the TTC.” Governor Perry can grant our request by signing the legislation that that is on his desk that places a two-year moratorium on private toll contracts, including the Trans-Texas Corridor.

Attached is a photo of Caleb Ging standing next to his letter. His parents are Scott and JoAnn Ging.

Also attached is a photo of Caleb Ging and Libby Fischer standing next to the messages on the other side of the cotton trailer. Her parents are Jon and Dawn Fischer.

Photos by Dawn Fischer.