History

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

May 25, 2023 | By Clayton Maxwell

When Comfort Tysen gives a tour, she puts her whole body into the job.
On some days, the longest-serving guide at the Texas State Capitol will ascend the building’s ornate cast-iron staircases hundreds of times, greeting many of the people she passes there by name.

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

May 10, 2023 | By W.K. Stratton

I had my one encounter with honest-to-goodness cedar choppers just about the time those “almost mythical, gypsy-like people,” as Texas literary legend Edwin “Bud” Shrake referred to them in an essay, were disappearing from the Hill Country.

Meet Isabella Neff, the Mother of Texas State Parks

May 2, 2023 | By Traces of Texas

Gov. Pat Neff, who established the Texas State Parks Board in 1923, wasn’t the only member of his family who played a crucial role in developing Texas’ parks system.

How Longhorn Cavern Was Carved by Hand

May 2, 2023 | By Bobby Alemán

Freddy Fender Gets His Due with A Texas Historical Marker

April 26, 2023 | By Steven Hughes

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

April 21, 2023 | By Kirk Walsh

This spring, the infectious spirit and vibrancy of Fiesta returns to the streets, theaters, and event spaces of downtown San Antonio.

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

April 19, 2023 | By Clayton Maxwell

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

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

April 14, 2023 | By Jen Hamilton Hernandez

On what would have been James M. White’s 83rd birthday, friends of the White family, local musicians, politicians, and press, along with longtime patrons, gathered in the dirt parking lot under the storied oak tree outside the Broken Spoke in Austin.

What the Heck Is Cattalo?

March 28, 2023 | By Mary Beth Gahan

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

March 28, 2023 | By Traces of Texas

Nobody knows what compelled Joe Guerrero to make his living handling rattlesnakes. But as this circa 1908 photo shows, that’s exactly what he did while working for Frank B.

The Return of Dallas’ Legendary Longhorn Ballroom

March 23, 2023 | By Michael Corcoran

Asleep at the Wheel was getting ready to play the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas on May 13, 1975, when a reporter knocked on the bus door to tell them that their hero, Bob Wills, had just passed away.

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

February 28, 2023 | By Michael Corcoran

A Local Boy’s Pioneering Efforts To Protect the Big Thicket in East Texas

February 28, 2023 | By Traces of Texas

The Big Thicket of Southeast Texas is one of Earth’s most biodiverse regions, home to more than 4,300 documented species of plants, animals, and insects.

‘Moonshine Capital’ Glen Rose Recalls the Tumultuous Era of Prohibition

February 28, 2023 | By Kathryn Jones

The May 2023 cover of Texas Highways Magazine

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