August 29, 2019 | By Chet Garner
From the local Tomato Bowl football stadium to the countless painted concrete tomatoes that adorn businesses and parks all over town, Jacksonville is bursting with tomato pride. But what one might not expect is that a day trip here is as ripe and flavorful as the town’s signature crop.
May 29, 2019 | By Matt Joyce
The Jacksonville manufacturer, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, has churned out millions of veneer baskets since it opened in 1919, surviving amid changing times from its home along the railroad that first brought this East Texas town to life.
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.
Published monthly by the Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Highways, the official travel magazine of Texas, encourages travel to and within the Lone Star State and tells the Texas story to readers around the world.
