The Texas Basket Company is a Century-Long Link to Jacksonville’s Tomato Capital Heritage
The Jacksonville manufacturer, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, has churned out millions of veneer baskets since it opened in 1919, surviving amid changing times from its home along the railroad that first brought this East Texas town to life. Read More »
How Chef Mary Bass Gives Back to Galveston
A Galveston native, Bass started her career by launching a bakery business, Viva la Cake Balls. She later became executive chef at Haak Vineyards & Winery in nearby Santa Fe in 2013, before becoming executive sous chef at BLVD Seafood when it opened in 2015. In 2018, Galveston.com named her “Best Chef on the Island” for the fourth consecutive year. Read More »
Alamo Drafthouse’s Live Comedy Show Roasts the Stars of the Silver Screen
Created nearly two decades ago with inspiration from the popular TV comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000—the original name was Mister Sinus Theater 300—Master Pancake offers an interactive experience at Alamo Drafthouse theaters in Dallas, Katy, San Antonio, and Lubbock, but primarily in Austin. Read More »
Photo: Vintage Postcard Depicts Galveston’s Seawall Boulevard in the 1940s
The balmy excitement of a summer evening on Seawall Boulevard suffuses this vintage Galveston postcard. While the image is undated, the buildings point to the era of the 1940s and ’50s. Existing landmarks include the seawall, which the city constructed after the hurricane of 1900; the 1911 Hotel Galvez, still in operation; and Murdoch’s Bathhouse, a souvenir shop that has been rebuilt multiple times since the late 1800s. The postcard also depicts landmarks lost to time: the wooden Mountain Speedway roller coaster, built in 1921 and knocked down after Hurricane Carla in 1961; the 1929 Buccaneer Hotel, an 11-story building demolished in 1999; and, stretching over the water, the 1923 Balinese Room, a pier that succumbed to Hurricane Ike in 2008 and was famous for its history as an illegal casino. Know of any fascinating vintage Texas photographs? Send copies or ideas to [email protected]. Read More »
A Relative of German Settlers Retraces Her Ancestors’ Arduous Path to the Texas Hill Country
My three children are sixth-generation Texans, and if you had told me, a roller-skating suburban New York girl, ... Read More »
In San Angelo, A Celebration Remembers the Mysterious ‘Lady in Blue,’ Who Evangelized to Jumanos
The young Franciscan nun in the cobalt-colored cloak was, quite literally, a vision in blue to the Jumano Indians of the Desert Southwest. Though she never left her convent 5,000 miles away in Spain, Sor Maria de Jesus de Agreda mysteriously appeared before the indigenous people of what is now the San Angelo area, delivering an evangelistic message. They called her the “Lady in Blue.” Read More »
Death of Singer Leon Rausch Marks the End of an Era in Western Swing
Hired by Bob Wills in 1958, Leon Rausch was the voice of the Texas Playboys for six decades, so his death ... Read More »
Ullberg’s Oversized Wildlife Sculptures Wow at Retrospective Exhibit in Corpus Christi
Kent Ullberg, Waiting for Sockeye, 1994, Bronze Size matters—not only in the jungle but in the civilized world ... Read More »
One Man’s Half-Century Project to Heal a Hill Country Landscape
In 1969, a San Antonio fried-chicken tycoon was struck by a life-changing idea: He would find, buy, and heal “the sorriest piece of land in the Hill Country.” Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, the Bamberger Ranch Preserve sprawls across 5,500 acres of grassy hills and wildflower meadows in Blanco County. When visitors arrive May 5 for the annual family day and picnic, they will repeatedly drive across a perennial stream that cascades through a series of waterfalls and d Read More »
Laguna Gloria Debuts its $3 Million Renovation
The Austin sculpture park upgrades its entrance with a new café and more Read More »
New Exhibits Debut at National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth
Photo by Rhonda Hole New exhibits at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame extend the Fort Worth ... Read More »
Photo: The Texas Basket Company in the 1930s
This undated photo of a Crystal City farmer driving a truck packed with spinach baskets hangs on an office wall at the Texas Basket Company in Jacksonville, which celebrates its 100th year of operation in 2019 (see “A Century of Baskets,” Page 22). Crystal City, the seat of Zavala County, is a hub of South Texas’ Winter Garden Region, where winter conditions are prime for growing spinach, onions, carrots, and broccoli. Before the introduction of plastic bushels, regional spinach farmers were big customers of Jacksonville wooden-basket factories. Zavala County remains Texas’ top producer of spinach, and Crystal City celebrates the harvest every November with its Spinach Festival. Read More »