History

Meet Comfort Tysen, the Texas State Capitol’s Longest-Serving Tour Guide

Meet Comfort Tysen, the Texas State Capitol’s Longest-Serving Tour Guide

When Comfort Tysen gives a tour, she puts her whole body into the job. On some days, the longest-serving guide ... Read More »

Seventy Years Ago, Cedar Choppers Ruled the Hill Country with Axes and Muscle

Seventy Years Ago, Cedar Choppers Ruled the Hill Country with Axes and Muscle

I had my one encounter with honest-to-goodness cedar choppers just about the time those “almost mythical, ... Read More »

Meet Isabella Neff, the Mother of Texas State Parks

Meet Isabella Neff, the Mother of Texas State Parks

Gov. Pat Neff, who established the Texas State Parks Board in 1923, wasn’t the only member of his family who ... Read More »

How Longhorn Cavern Was Carved by Hand

How Longhorn Cavern Was Carved by Hand

As soon as I descend the stairway leading into Longhorn Cavern, the temperature drops. A great rush of air ... Read More »

Freddy Fender Gets His Due with A Texas Historical Marker

Freddy Fender Gets His Due with A Texas Historical Marker

In the Rio Grande Valley town of San Benito, a small but lively crowd gathered in front of the former home of ... Read More »

Embracing Tradition and Texas Politics, Cornyation Reigns Over San Antonio’s Fiesta

Embracing Tradition and Texas Politics, Cornyation Reigns Over San Antonio’s Fiesta

This spring, the infectious spirit and vibrancy of Fiesta returns to the streets, theaters, and event spaces ... Read More »

The Cabinet Oak Project Celebrates Art, a Historic Tree, and LBJ’s Legacy

The Cabinet Oak Project Celebrates Art, a Historic Tree, and LBJ’s Legacy

If only this branch could talk. During a 2020 thunderstorm, a giant limb of a 300-year-old live oak at the ... Read More »

Austin’s Broken Spoke Dance Hall Finally Gets Its Texas Historical Marker

Austin’s Broken Spoke Dance Hall Finally Gets Its Texas Historical Marker

On what would have been James M. White’s 83rd birthday, friends of the White family, local musicians, ... Read More »

What the Heck Is Cattalo?

What the Heck Is Cattalo?

Charles Goodnight first encountered bison in late 1845. Moving from Illinois to Texas, his family stopped to camp ... Read More »

Snake Farms Were Big Business in the 1900s Rio Grande Valley

Snake Farms Were Big Business in the 1900s Rio Grande Valley

Nobody knows what compelled Joe Guerrero to make his living handling rattlesnakes. But as this circa 1908 ... Read More »

The Return of Dallas’ Legendary Longhorn Ballroom

The Return of Dallas’ Legendary Longhorn Ballroom

Asleep at the Wheel was getting ready to play the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas on May 13, 1975, when a reporter ... Read More »

Bobbie Nelson’s Grand Piano Finds a Home at the Bullock Texas State History Museum

Bobbie Nelson’s Grand Piano Finds a Home at the Bullock Texas State History Museum

After Bobbie Nelson passed away in March 2022 at age 91, her son Freddy Fletcher inherited the grand piano she had ... Read More »

Find Texas Events

Events Search - Quick

The May 2023 cover of Texas Highways Magazine

Get the Magazine

Save up to 62% off the cover price

Subscribe

True Texas in Your Inbox

Sign up for magazine extras, upcoming events, Mercantile specials, subscription offers, and more.