My Hometown: Mayor Elaine Kocian Steps Up for Schulenburg
Located at the intersection of Interstate 10 and US 77, Schulenburg may be best known as a reliable stop for a kolache fix. But with its roots in German and Czech settlement, this little town offers outsized cultural attractions, including spectacular painted churches, the Texas Polka Music Museum, and the Stanzel Model Aircraft Museum. Schulenburg was incorporated as a railroad town in 1875, and the arrival of a Carnation Milk condensing plant put the town on the map in 1929. Read More »
Sedrick Huckaby Makes Art for the People: From the Streets of Poly to a U.S. President
Sedrick Huckaby is a Big Momma’s boy. The Fort Worth contemporary artist is devoted to the spirit of his late grandmother, Hallie Beatrice Carpenter, or “Big Momma,” and finds inspiration in her century-old home. Located in Fort Worth’s Polytechnic Heights neighborhood, or Poly to locals, the house’s raw shiplap walls are adorned with Huckaby’s paintings of family and neighbors. Huckaby creates works here, but next year the space will take on new life when Huckaby opens it as a project space for artists, tentatively called Big Momma’s House. Read More »
Calling on All Manner of Higher Powers, This San Antonio Shop Has Just the Thing for Your Earthly Problems
In the spirit room of Botanica La Caridad, a retail store in San Antonio, wooden statues of West African deities are crammed up against a bucket of sticks and machetes, garlanded with chicken’s feet and anchored by a cross. In the opposite corner stands a masked mannequin with rolled-up cash tucked discreetly beneath its long red dress and unopened bottles of wine. Read More »
Summer For Procrastinators: Honky-Tonks in Dallas
Where to indulge your Urban Cowboy fantasy in the heart of the big city Read More »
Century-Old Image Captures a Bastrop County Mining Band
In the first half of the 20th century, Bastrop County was a hotbed for lignite mining as companies extracted the low-grade coal for fuel. The mine companies recruited workers from Mexico, and several mining towns sprang up between Bastrop and McDade. In the town of Phelan, a community band took shape, performing throughout the county in concerts and parades. This picture of the Phelan Band was taken about 5 miles north of Bastrop at the Glenn-Belto Mine during a Diez y Seis de Septiembre celebration. This spring, the Bastrop County Historical Museum opened a new permanent exhibit documenting the local coal-mining boom. Read More »
Big Bend Fossils Reveal New Dinosaur Species
Recent research reveals that fossils found in Big Bend National Park 35 years ago belong to an entirely new species of duck-billed dinosaur. Read More »
Play Lotería and Eat Raspas at a Traditional Kermesse
A kermesse or kermes is a festival or bazaar hosted by a Catholic church to raise funds from summer through late fall. Read More »
8 Summer Art Exhibits to See Now
Giant LEGO dinosaurs, superhero-themed paintings, and photographs of famous musicians are currently on exhibit at museums in Texas—but they won't be for much longer. Read More »
My Hometown: A Weslaco Native on the Bicultural Beauty of His Rio Grande Valley Burg
A stroll through downtown Weslaco feels like a visit to a bygone era, when department stores and hardware shops in Spanish colonial buildings lined the streets. Founded in 1919, Weslaco grew into a farming hub, famous as the home of the ruby red grapefruit and 1015 onion. The same mild climate that attracted farmers makes Weslaco a hotspot today for winter Texans—typically retirees from cold climates—and birders, who come to see Rio Grande Valley specialties like the green jay. When the town slows down in the summer, locals refresh with icy raspas and beach trips to nearby South Padre Island. Read More »
5 State Symbols to See This Summer
Though bluebonnet season has wilted to a close, the summer is still full of opportunities to see the state’s identifying flora and fauna. Read More »
How “Poet of the Story” Katherine Anne Porter was Shaped (And Conflicted) by Growing up in Texas
She won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. President Kennedy praised her work. Vivien Leigh starred in her movie. Her life rivaled the character drama of Hemingway’s—four marriages, countless affairs, stints in New York and Paris and Mexico. But you may have never heard of Katherine Anne Porter. And even here in her home state, you’re even less likely to know that this 20th-century master of the short story could be the best writer ever born and raised in Texas. Read More »
Stories of Suffering and Salvation from Colonial Texas’ Western Edge
For the colonists who settled Texas, the Colorado River represented boundless potential—lands thick with alluvial soils, timber, and game. But as the edge of civilization, the Colorado also meant danger—a treacherous obstacle that was prone to flooding, deadly to cross, and a harbor for native tribes. Read More »