If ever there was a town you could say had an identity crisis, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more likely candidate than Texarkana.

Straddling the border between Texas and Arkansas, Texarkana functions like two towns butting up against one another by circumstance.

Although officially it's considered one town, it actually functions with two separate mayors, two separate police and fire departments,

and two separate municipal governments.

The United States government and the Republic of Texas drew the boundary lines back in 1841, splitting it in half with everything labeled

East being Arkansas and everything labeled West belonging to Texas.

They used to have two separate post offices for each state until they finally decided to split the difference and build a joint facility right on the state line in 1892.

That post office was demolished in 1930 to make room for the new facility which is still there today.

Naturally over the years there were a few rivalries that sprung up between the two halves.

This being Texas, the home of Friday Night Lights, high school football is king.

And the annual football game between the Texas High Tigers and the Arkansas High Razorbacks would sometimes break out in fistfights in the stands.

Until the events of 1946, the worst tragedy the town ever encountered occurred during a violent storm that struck in

1882. The lightning and fierce winds drove people indoors. Unfortunately

many of them decided to take shelter inside the Paragon Saloon and

gambling house. A bolt of lightning struck the building next door, which was still

under construction. Strong winds blew a section of the building's wall onto the saloon, which shattered part of the building and knocked over several kerosene lamps.

A fire broke out in the building, and at least 40 men perished in the resulting destruction.

One of them, who was hopelessly pinned beneath the rubble, chose to take his own life with a

gunshot to the head rather than burn to death.

By the 1940s, Texarkana had gained something of a reputation as a crossroads

and was sometimes referred to as the gateway to the southwest.

With four major highways intersecting, four rail lines, and even a small airport, the town became

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