When photographer Mabry Campbell took the shot of the Houston Water Wall that graces our cover, his aim was to make a well-documented sight look unrecognizable, disorienting even.

Photo: Where the Fields Meet the Silos and the Texas Sky Near Austwell

August 27, 2020 | By

It’s a Small-Town World, After All

July 30, 2020 | By

Discover the Natural Beauty of These Iconic Texas Wildflowers

February 27, 2020 | By

Photographer John Dyer Drove 5,500 Miles to Document Texas’ Outer Limits

October 31, 2019 | By

In the spring of 2019, John Dyer set out to see what the edge looked like close up. Dyer is a San Antonio-based commercial photographer who has authored photography books on vaqueros and conjunto music, written two novels, directed several short films, and shot numerous magazine covers including Selena for the May 1995 issue of Texas Monthly. But he’d never taken on a project quite like this.

Century-Old Image Captures a Bastrop County Mining Band

July 23, 2019 | By

In the first half of the 20th century, Bastrop County was a hotbed for lignite mining as companies extracted the low-grade coal for fuel. The mine companies recruited workers from Mexico, and several mining towns sprang up between Bastrop and McDade. In the town of Phelan, a community band took shape, performing throughout the county in concerts and parades. This picture of the Phelan Band was taken about 5 miles north of Bastrop at the Glenn-Belto Mine during a Diez y Seis de Septiembre celebration. This spring, the Bastrop County Historical Museum opened a new permanent exhibit documenting the local coal-mining boom.

Vintage Mural in Hamilton Post Office Depicts Texas Rangers Singing in Camp

June 24, 2019 | By

Across Texas, murals in post offices and other buildings date to a New Deal-era federal program designed to put artists to work while beautifying public places with depictions of local culture. About 90 such murals survive in the state, including painter Ward Lockwood’s Texas Rangers in Camp in the post office in Hamilton, a Central Texas town. “From the spontaneous remarks of visitors in the post office, I am sure that the mural is the most popular one I have done,” once wrote the late artist, a member of the famed Taos Society of Artists who was teaching at the University of Texas at Austin when he created the work. Shauna Melde, a 33-year post office employee, says the painting remains popular. “People in Hamilton frequently say they remember coming in as kids and seeing the mural,” Melde says. —John Lumpkin

Photo: The Texas Basket Company in the 1930s

April 30, 2019 | By

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.

The Surrender of Santa Anna

March 28, 2019 | By

In 1886, 50 years after the Battle of San Jacinto, Austin painter William Henry Huddle set out to interpret a critical scene from the conflict with his painting, The Surrender of Santa Anna. Huddle’s oil-on-canvas work, which has hung in the South Foyer of the Texas Capitol since 1891, depicts the morning after the April 21, 1836, clash as Texian fighters presented Mexican Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna, dressed in the white pants of a private, to Texas Gen. Sam Houston, who is reclined with a battle wound to his leg. The decisive victory secured the rebels’ independence from Mexico, a turning point Texas honors annually on April 21, known as San Jacinto Day. Huddle’s painting includes more than 30 historical figures, among them scout Erastus “Deaf” Smith (seated on a log), Secretary of War Thomas Jefferson Rusk (to the rear left of Houston), and Col. Mirabeau B. Lamar (left of Rusk).

Photo: Lightning Over Sweetwater

March 28, 2019 | By

The wide-open spaces and generally flat landscape make the plains of Texas a prime location for wind energy production. With nothing to block the view for miles, the environment also makes for some spectacular storm viewing. The two combine in this electric image of a storm passing over a wind farm near Sweetwater.

Photographer Captures the Evening Light of Texas’ Blackland Prairie

March 27, 2019 | By Gary Borders

On most evenings, as the sun sinks below the horizon in the Blackland Prairie, photographer Andy Sharp is in his aged Honda chasing the light somewhere on a country road or in a small town. Sharp has rambled about for 10 years, since he and his wife moved to Taylor in Williamson County.

Photo: The Window in the Chisos Basin

January 31, 2019 | By

Big Bend National Park boasts several distinctive and must-visit geological features, and the Window in the Chisos Basin is among the most iconic. The natural break in the rim serves as a picturesque frame for the distant desert landscape below. The Window can be seen from various parts of the basin, including the Chisos Mountain Lodge’s restaurant patio. However, a moderately difficult descent of less than 1,000 feet over a couple of miles of Oak Creek Canyon along the Window Trail provides the most spectacular view.

Find Relics of Rural Justice in Guidebook to Texas’ Tiny Jails

January 17, 2019 | By TH Staff

Long before the tiny home craze, Texas was home to an abundance of tiny jails. A night in the slammer was never meant to be a lot of fun—but you really didn’t want to find yourself in a Lone Star lockup more than a century ago, as evidenced by the new book The Texas Calaboose and Other Forgotten Jails by Bryan-based archeologist William E. Moore.

Our Favorite Photos From 2018

January 2, 2019 | By TH Staff

How Beaumont Photographer Keith Carter Redefined the Artform

December 21, 2018 | By Wes Ferguson

He’s one of the world’s great photographers, with a legendary sense for the mystery in the mundane. But right now he’s at home in Beaumont, and his longtime assistant, Cathy Spence, is calling for help from a side door.

Downtown Christmas Lights in the Capital City in 1947

November 28, 2018 | By

Austin had a population of about 115,000 when photographer Neal Douglass took this picture of Congress Avenue looking north to the Texas State Capitol on New Year’s Day 1947. The streetscape has changed over the past 71 years, and Austin has grown 10-fold to about 1 million people. But the electric Paramount Theatre sign, which was replaced in 2015, and the State Capitol building, which was completed in 1888, still anchor the storied strip.

Photo: A Male Cardinal Adds a Splash of Color to a Cold Day

November 28, 2018 | By

Scarlet possumhaw berries and the bright plumage of the male northern cardinal add a splash of warmth to an otherwise cold winter day. While possumhaw is found in Central and East Texas—sprouting berries in fall and winter—northern cardinals can be spotted year-round through most of Texas. Like this iconic winter bird, other songbirds, gamebirds, opossums, and raccoons all dine on the possumhaw’s conspicuous berries.

Photo: The Guadalupe Mountains Tower Above the West Texas Desert

October 25, 2018 | By

Range Roving

Rising from the Chihuahuan Desert north of Van Horn, the Guadalupe Mountains crest at the four highest elevations in the state—Guadalupe Peak, Bush Mountain, Shumard Peak, and Bartlett Peak. Though slightly shorter, El Capitan stands out as a distinctive limestone cliff towering some 3,000 feet above the road—making it a popular stop for photographers. The range contains some spectacular geological features, including part of the fossilized Capitan Reef, much of which can be seen within Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

New Photography Book by Michael Cirlos Showcases the Diversity of the Alamo City

July 23, 2018 | By Julia Jones

Humans of San Antonio features images of people from all walks of life—including street dancers, homeless men and women, and artists—and includes quotes that tell deeply personal stories. Michael Cirlos, the photographer behind the project as well as the book’s author, writes in the introduction that he always started the conversation with a simple question: “What is one memory you never want to forget?”

Finding Unique, Hidden Attractions on Route 66

February 14, 2018 | By

While not a typical destination, this weathered barn along the route east of Amarillo— now Farm-to-Market Road 2161—takes on a warm glow with photographer Clark Crenshaw’s addition of LED lighting. From Conway, head about 5 miles west along FM 2161 to find the deserted outbuilding along the south side right before the road curves toward Interstate 40. Visit nps.gov for more information.

After the Most Destructive Wildfire in Texas History, Bastrop State Park Rises from the Ashes

February 14, 2018 | By

In September 2011, the most destructive wildfire in Texas history raged through the loblolly pines of Bastrop State Park. The deadly fire burned 32,000 acres in the area—including 96 percent of the 6,565-acre park.

Behind the Lens of Dallas Photographer Laura Wilson

January 12, 2018 | By Heather Brand

For more than four decades, photographer Laura Wilson has been documenting the American West—and Texas in particular.

2017 F1 United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas Photo Essay

October 23, 2017 | By

This Historic Haunt in Jefferson Serves Killer Burgers

October 9, 2017 | By Julie Stratton

If it is a Friday or Saturday night, after dinner, head northwest for a block on Austin Street to the corner of Austin and Vale streets for the Historic Jefferson Ghost Walk.