10 Small Texas Towns to Visit Now
From Bastrop to Port Isabel, these hamlets with fewer than 20,000 residents offer larger-than-expected fun ... Read More »
Spend a 3-Day Weekend in Revitalized Brownwood
Bringing Back Brownwood A downtown resurgence reinvigorates a World War II-era military town by Paul BrownPhotos ... Read More »
Beyond Oktoberfest: Meet Fredericksburg’s Lesser-Known Traditions
This month, the city of Fredericksburg kicks off its 175th anniversary with a yearlong celebration culminating ... Read More »
The San Marcos River Brings Life to Martindale
Virginia Parker Condie and her teammates set two records as they paddled to a fourth-place finish in the Texas ... Read More »
Getting Away to Galveston—Off-Season and Al Fresco
It’s rarely too chilly for a stroll by the sea. Even during the winter, the Texas Gulf Coast enjoys mild weather ... Read More »
How Corsicana Has Captured Hearts by Defying Small-Town Stereotypes
I used to pass small towns and feel sorry for the people who lived in them. What could you do there? Who could you ... Read More »
Jacob Janda Preserves History and Memories in Giddings With Custom Gravestones
Giddings is a town that keeps to itself. Ask the locals, and they’ll tell you they live here because they always ... Read More »
Musician Justin Treviño Finds the Heart of Hardcore Country in Brady
To go to the heart of Texas, literally, you must go to Brady. On the northwestern edge of the Hill Country, Brady ... Read More »
Touchdown in These Four Lesser-Known Texas College Towns
Even though the state is still deadlocked in oppressive summer heat, something in the air changes in August. ... Read More »
It’s a Small-Town World, After All
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"><!-- ... Read More »
A Small-Town Enthusiast Embarks on the Revitalization of Bartlett in Central Texas
Robert Zalkin dares to dream small. Beginning in mid-2019, the native of the small town of Liberty, New York, began buying 15 buildings in Bartlett, a once-thriving cotton center 50 miles north of Austin on State Highway 95. He was drawn to Texas because of the welcoming people and economic feasibility of such a project. He intends to enliven the small town by preserving and repurposing its downtown, which he’ll document on Instagram at @downtownbartlett. “I drove through quite a few Texas towns,” Zalkin said, “but when I stepped out onto the red brick streets of Bartlett, it was magical. I felt the old ghosts and knew immediately this was the one.” Read More »