Vintage Mural in Hamilton Post Office Depicts Texas Rangers Singing in Camp
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 Read More »
A Refurbished Baker Hotel Signals a New Beginning in Mineral Wells
The venerable but long-vacated Baker Hotel, which opened in Mineral Wells in 1929 and once hosted personalities such as Judy Garland, Clark Gable, and president Lyndon Johnson, is poised to surge back to life under a newly announced $65 million renovation slated for completion in 2022. Read More »
How the Texas “Moth Man” Identified 900 Species Along the Trinity River
About 10 years ago, Stuart Marcus, refuge manager for the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge, arrived early one morning at his office to find that a tiny visitor had stopped by. Sporting glistening spiked hair and garbed in an exotic dayglo fuchsia/tangerine/black ensemble, this emissary from the order lepidoptera might well have been saying, “I’m here to introduce you to my tribe.” Read More »
Horse Racing, Ferris Wheels, Dancing—Find it All at the Gillespie County Fair in Fredericksburg
The fairgrounds draw horse racing fans from El Paso to Beaumont and Amarillo to McAllen. “People like watching the races here because they can get so close to the track,” says Billy Roeder, who recently retired after 28 years as a Gillespie County commissioner. Read More »
Summer Getaway: A Weekend in Seguin
Seguin’s mix of Hispanic and Czech/German culture can be heard in the Mexican polka “Viva Seguin,” made famous in the early ’40s by Santiago Jiménez Sr. It’s an instrumental about a lyrical town, with a beat everyone can dance to. Read More »
Cisco’s Keeps Up With a Rapidly Changing East Austin
Austin’s East Sixth Street has seen quite a bit of change in recent years. This once-scrappy strip of bars and music venues is now a corridor of expensive condos and trendy restaurants, sleek and packed with tourists. Longtime Austinites—or those who visited in earlier eras—might be excused for thinking they were in a different city altogether. Read More »
Alamo Drafthouse Will Start Screening Movies at Willie Nelson’s Luck Ranch in 2020
Alamo Drafthouse, the Austin-based movie theater chain, is bringing its Rolling Roadshow series to Willie Nelson’s Spicewood ranch, Luck, starting in 2020. Read More »
Last-Minute Weekend Plans: Milton Reimers Ranch Park
Hill Country summer favorite Hamilton Pool has been reservations-only since 2016 due to the swimming hole’s popularity. But if you’re still looking for a scenic place to cool your heels, there’s a more secluded spot five minutes away. Read More »
50 Years After JFK’s Moonshot, Historian Douglas Brinkley Recounts Its Lasting Influence on Texas
Rice University professor of history, CNN presidential historian, and perennial bestselling author Douglas Brinkley takes us to the moon this summer with his newest book, American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race. Released in time for the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing in July 1969, Brinkley’s historical page-turner brings to life the personalities and interplaying forces that made this American triumph possible. Read More »
Cucumber Gin and Tonic Recipe
For scorching July temperatures, it doesn’t get more refreshing than Elk Store’s Cucumber Gin and Tonic. Bartender Nia Gramatikakis developed this recipe using Elk Store’s signature gin, which features 11 botanicals and has been distilled eight times. Read More »
Learn How to Make the Perfect Brisket at This Adults-Only Summer Camp
On the first morning of Camp Brisket, professor Davey Griffin begins to sharpen his knives before a rapt audience of barbecue aficionados. Griffin is wearing thick safety glasses, blue Kevlar gloves, and two aprons tied around his waist—a white apron on top of another one made of chainmail. On Griffin’s head is an Aggie-maroon hardhat. Safety first, brisket second. Read More »
San Antonio’s Juneteenth Educates Future Generations
Texans are celebrating Juneteenth with events across the state this week, including today’s state government holiday. Read More »
Find Texas Events
[gravityform id="1" title="true" description="true"]