East Texas History Featured Along Houston-Anderson County Line
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
GRAPELAND – A biting north wind cut across Guiceland Cemetery, rattling bare tree limbs and sending cast members pulling their coats tighter as they waited for the next call of “action.”
Far from a Hollywood soundstage, on this freezing, windswept stretch of land along the Anderson and Houston county line, East Texas history was coming back to life.
Several camera crews jockeyed for position Sunday as local residents, dressed in early 1950s clothing, gathered solemnly around the grave of Gus Engeling, the Texas game warden killed in the line of duty in 1951. Period vehicles lined the road — from an antique hearse to World War II-era Army jeeps — forming a funeral procession carefully choreographed to match the era.
Producer Chris Seagler moved through the scene like a field general, coordinating actors, vehicles and cameras with precision. When a curious neighbor’s truck eased down the cemetery road, filming stopped.
“This is supposed to be 1951,” Seagler reminded the crew, waiting patiently until modern life cleared the frame.
The cemetery scene is part of Anderson County, an independent film currently being shot across Anderson and Houston counties that tells the true story of Engeling’s death and the events that followed. Seagler said authenticity has been the guiding principle of the production.
“We’re dedicated to making this the most authentic story we can,” he said. “We’re filming at the actual locations where this happened. You can’t recreate that.”
Seagler’s path to filmmaking was unconventional. With a background in teaching theology, ancient philosophy and history — and fluency in Hebrew and Latin — he said his love of history eventually led him to the film industry.
“I never dreamed I’d be an actor or a filmmaker,” Seagler said. “But I ran into some stuntmen on a movie set, got invited out, and my first movie was with Lee Majors. From there, it just kept going.”
Seagler estimates he has worked on nearly 50 films, alongside actors such as Billy Bob Thornton and on productions connected to Taylor Sheridan. But despite that experience, he said Anderson County is the most personal project he has undertaken.
“I grew up hearing about Gus Engeling,” Seagler said. “There’s a wildlife management area named after him near where my family’s from. As a teenager, I heard this game warden had been murdered by a poacher, and the body was hidden in a swamp. The whole county searched for days. The Texas Rangers came in. I knew it was a powerful story.”
What began as a tribute to a fallen game warden evolved into something more complex as research unfolded. Seagler said he interviewed family members on both sides — Engeling’s family and the family of the man convicted of killing him.
“When we found out the poacher had 13 kids he was feeding by hunting and fishing, it changed everything,” Seagler said. “He wasn’t some faceless villain. He was a church hymnist. A family man. And when he was executed, those kids lost their breadwinner.”
Seagler said the discovery forced the filmmakers to rewrite the script.
“We owed it to both families to tell this honestly,” he said. “Gus Engeling was an honorable man doing his job, but the other man had a story too. That’s what makes this real.”
Engeling, a World War II veteran who served in Europe, is honored in the film not only as a fallen game warden but also as a soldier. Sunday’s cemetery shoot depicted a military funeral — a scene Seagler called one of the most challenging to assemble.
“We had to find a 1940s hearse, World War II military vehicles, everything,” he said. “Putting that together was probably the hardest thing we’ve done.”
Filming has already taken the production to the Anderson County Courthouse, the historic jail where the accused was held and Huntsville, where the execution took place. Seagler said cooperation from communities and officials has been overwhelming.
“Everybody has been so supportive,” he said. “That’s not always the case when you’re making a film, but here it has been.”
Local residents have played a key role as extras, many of them familiar with the story long before cameras arrived.
“It’s like a home football game,” Seagler said. “Everybody comes out. The old-timers especially, they all know this story.”
The film, titled Anderson County, is expected to require four to five months of filming, followed by extensive post-production work. Seagler said two distributors are already waiting to see the completed project.
“Warner Brothers has looked at some of the scenes and said they look like big-budget films,” he said. “We’re scraping by and paying for this ourselves, but we believe in it that much.”
Seagler hopes the film will not only honor Engeling and fallen game wardens nationwide, but also showcase East Texas to a wider audience.
“At the end of the movie, we’re going to show the beauty of East Texas,” he said. “I want people all over the world to see how special this place really is.”
More information about the project, including behind-the-scenes footage and donation opportunities, is available at AndersonCountyMovie.com.
As cameras rolled again and the funeral procession crept forward, modern time faded briefly into the background — replaced by a cold December day in 1951, recreated frame by frame on the soil where history first unfolded.
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
