Up For Sale, the Old Spanish Trail Restaurant in Bandera Serves Up Cowboy History
The Old Spanish Trail in Bandera, one of the oldest continuously operating restaurants in Texas, is on the market for a cool $3.25 million.
For Female Country Singers From Texas, There’s Something in the Water
When Miranda Lambert won the Country Music Association’s “Entertainer of the Year” for 2022, it was the first time the honor has gone to a woman in over a decade—and only the ninth time ever.
Author Jesse Sublett Delves Into Austin’s Criminal Underbelly
When I was gigging regularly in bands in Austin and elsewhere in the 1970s, I would daydream I was a character in a black-and-white movie, playing in nightclubs that were fronts for underworld characters, where criminal plots were hatched backstage and crime bosses conducted business over cocktails.
Who Was the Historic Figure Behind Texas Jack Wild West Outfitter in Fredericksburg?
Like thousands of other Texas pioneers, Virginia native John B. Omohundro headed for the Lone Star State after the Civil War, in which he had served as a Confederate scout.
JewBoy Burgers Bring Cultures Together
Polka Music? Czech! Kolaches? Czech! Get Ready for Slavnost in La Grange
For a long time, Czech influences on Texas culture have been overlooked, often overshadowed by the history and traditions of the German immigrants who settled in Central Texas.
Roman Bust Discovered In Texas Dishes On Life As a Famous Antiquity
Texas Highways has obtained an exclusive interview with the Roman bust purchased for $34.95 at an Austin Goodwill store in 2018 by local antiques seller Laura Young.
Everything Goes to the Dogs at the Buda Wiener Dog Races
After the usual trumpet fanfares, the racers, distinguished by different colored bandanas around their necks, are guided into their posts.
It Wouldn’t Be Wedding Season in Texas Without the Grand March
The dance starts with our elders. Two old-timers who know what it means to spend decades together in marriage and come out wealthier in love.
Take a Vegetarian Road Trip Through the Texas Hill Country
As a vegan who has lived in different parts of the country and now resides in Texas, I’m happy to see that alongside its population boom, the state has also experienced growth in its vegan food culture, especially in its largest cities.
For His New Project, Darden Smith Found Inspiration and Healing in West Texas
Pitmasters Share How To Make a Texas-Style Smoked Burger
In Johnson City, It’s Out With Midcentury Furniture, In With Vintage Motorcycles
If you’ve driven through Johnson City on US 290 in recent weeks, you may have noticed a change at the corner of Main and Nugent streets.
Where in Texas to Learn the Olympic Sport of Curling
Every four years during the Winter Olympics, the American public gets swept up in the perfectly placed stones, cerebral strategies, and surprising suspense of curling.
The City of Austin Celebrates Musician and Artist Daniel Johnston With a New Mural
With Austin Perpetually Booming, Conservationists Secure More Protection for Beloved Hamilton Pool
Hamilton Pool has drawn people to its sparkling pool and limestone overhang for at least 8,000 years.
Now Boarding: Banksy Artwork at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport
One of Austin’s most interesting small art galleries isn’t downtown. It isn’t on the University of Texas campus, or near the fashionable Domain shopping and dining district, or on the hip East Side.
Austin’s Driskill Hotel Marks 135 Years as a Nexus of Texas Culture, Politics, and Society
At one point in 2007, I found myself between jobs and needing to come up with my half of the rent for the apartment I shared with my then-boyfriend, now husband.
Remembering Pearl Harbor at Fredericksburg’s National Museum of the Pacific War
Inside the Pearl Harbor Exhibit at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, the sound of a submarine pings in the darkness.
Hippowood? Hutto Plays Host to the Filming of an HBO Max Series that Recounts a North Texas Murder
When HBO Max’s Love and Death television series begins airing sometime next time year, viewers throughout Central Texas are likely to spot some familiar landmarks and landscapes.
After a Fire and a Pandemic, the New Braunfels Tradition of Wurstfest Returns
It was a sad year for sausage when, in 2020, the gigantic New Braunfels German food, beer, and music festival Wurstfest was canceled.
It’s Closing Time for Longtime Austin Institution Dry Creek Cafe and Boat Dock
Back in the day, the Dry Creek Cafe and Boat Dock was the place that clued you in to the fact you were in Austin now, not somewhere else in Texas.
After a Lost Year and a Postponement, Old Settler’s Music Festival Returns near Lockhart
The Little Festival That Could is coming back.
“We’re excited about getting the family back together,” Diana Harrell, director of the Old Settler’s Music Festival, says.
The Eastside Kings Festival Celebrates the Blues Music that Shaped Austin’s Scene
As an ambassador of Texas blues music, Eddie Stout has played bass in a number of bands, organized overseas tours for local blues musicians, and recorded more than 40 blues and roots artists for his Dialtone Records and Pee Wee Records labels.
New Safari-Style Tents Offer Hassle-Free Camping at Lake Bastrop North Shore Park
Five minutes after arrival at Lake Bastrop North Shore Park, my friend and I are relaxing around the firepit as flames crackle and the sky darkens into a canopy of stars.
History, Memories Sold as ‘Austin City Limits’ Backdrop Goes on the Auction Block
The word “iconic” gets thrown around way too much for my liking, but it does exist for good reasons.
EXCLUSIVE: Willie Nelson Shares “Dear Texas” Letter From His New Book
Gruene Hall’s Frank Schlather Day Celebrates the Man With the Big Thirst and Bigger Heart
As Hondo Crouch was to Luckenbach, and beer-drinking goat Clay Henry was to Terlingua, so was Frank Schlather to Gruene.
The “Gayborhoods” of Texas
Texas’ “gayborhoods” aren’t just neighborhoods with rainbow-painted crosswalks at their intersections; they’re historic communities where Texas pride and gay pride intersect in ever-fascinating unison.
Texas Peach Growers See a Bountiful Crop Despite the February Freeze
Sprechen Sie Texas Deutsch? How a Variation of German Once Ruled In Fredericksburg
Of all the towns where German is still spoken in the state, aka the Texas “German Belt,” that fading ember burns the brightest in Fredericksburg.
Take A Nostalgia Trip at the Gillespie County Airport in Fredericksburg
While the National Museum of the Pacific War is the premier destination for World War II history in Fredericksburg, just 3 miles away from this revered landmark, via State Highway 16, another wartime experience takes flight at the Gillespie County Airport.
A Reader’s Maiden Voyage Into the World of Lonesome Dove
On January 1, I started doing what I’d been planning on doing for almost a year: reading the many books about Texas that I wasn’t exposed to until I was an adult.
Beyond Oktoberfest: Meet Fredericksburg’s Lesser-Known Traditions
This month, the city of Fredericksburg kicks off its 175th anniversary with a yearlong celebration culminating next May.
Fredericksburg’s 175th Anniversary: 4 Things to Check Out This Weekend
Fredericksburg has a long history of attracting enterprising people looking for land and new opportunities. During the 1840s, thousands of Germans immigrated to Texas and, under an effort led by the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas, the town was founded on May 8, 1846, by Baron Otfried Hans von Meusebach.
Roadside Oddity: The Giant Longhorn Skull of Bandera
Presiding over the southern approach to the rootin’ tootin’ cowboy town of Bandera, fixing its steady-yet-vacant gaze on the Medina River, is a giant polyurethane foam and fiberglass sculpture of a Longhorn skull.
At Austin’s Curtain Theatre, the Stage Is Set for Its First Show Since the Pandemic
It’s a few days before opening night of the Baron’s Men’s production of The Tempest, and the cast and crew are rehearsing the first scene of the fantastical Shakespeare comedy.
How To Be a Boss Like Barbara Jordan
Big power can come in small packages. The brightly colored board book Boss Texas Women, by coauthors Kristen Gunn and Casey Chapman Ross, may be for children, but it packs a wallop of inspiration for all ages about the women who’ve changed Texas.
A New Biography Portrays Lady Bird Johnson as Much More Than Just a Flower Girl
After a year of the ongoing pandemic and, more recently, the Great Texas Freeze, all Texans will welcome the colorful blooms of this wildflower season.
A Lucha Libre Movie at SXSW Calls Attention To Femicide in Juárez
A woman stood inside a wrestling ring in Juárez. She wore a red leotard over her fishnet tights.
From Hurricane Katrina to COVID-19, an Englishman’s Love of Music Prevails in Small-Town Texas
San Marcos’ Famed Sundance Records Pops Up This Week Before Reopening Permanent Store
The appearance of a pop-up record shop outside Zelick’s Ice House in San Marcos this week is a sign of something new and completely different for the booming college town between Austin and San Antonio.
The Historic Austin Pizza Garden Building Seeks a New Lease on Its Long Life
Traveling south out of Austin on US 290 through the growing community of Oak Hill, hundreds of drivers a day cast curious glances at a historic-looking roadside landmark.
The Host of Spring Baking Championship Reveals His Five Favorite Texas Bakeries
Rejuvenate Your Spirit With a ‘Boulder Bathing’ Trek at Enchanted Rock
I was in need of a mental break from the pandemic. During the isolating weirdness of 2020, I was hyper-focused on work projects and spending way too much time on Zoom.
Jaston Williams of ‘Greater Tuna’ Fame Takes a Shine to Lubbock’s Mysterious Lights
From movies to music to theater, the pandemic has hit the entertainment industry particularly hard. But some performers have risen to the challenge, staging performances any way they can.
Know Before You Go: What to Expect When Visiting the Texas State Capitol in Early 2021
With Fans Like Barack Obama and Beyoncé, Deborah Roberts Opens a New Exhibition in Her Hometown of Austin
Born and reared in Austin, Deborah Roberts started to gain attention when her mixed-media collages were shown to great acclaim in New York City in 2017.
Every Day is a Green Day in Austin
In 2017, a developer wanted to turn an office complex into a mixed-use development, but to do so he needed to cut down several mighty oak trees protected by a city ordinance.
