Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2019 i Texas Highways Magazine

We started discussing our list for this month’s cover feature on “Small Towns To Visit Now” more than a year ago. Even so, we were still debating final picks up until a few weeks before press time. With more than 3,000 cities and towns to choose from, we tapped writers across the state to help us curate a list that would represent the best of small-town Texas in all its charm and diversity. Our aim was not to present a definitive ranking of best small towns (that would take us years to agree on) but a collection of under-the-radar places that are forging new identities through revitalization, reinvention, or recovery from big setbacks. We wanted our list to inspire discovery, so we skipped the small towns that already have well-established…

PORT ISABEL, POP. 5,055 Searching for sunken treasure? You’ll find it in Port Isabel at the Treasures of the Gulf Museum, home of shipwrecked booty from a 16th-century Spanish flotilla laden with gold. Uncover culinary riches at Joe’s Oyster Bar & Grill, where everything is Gulf fresh, then walk off the meal with a visit to the Port Isabel Lighthouse State Historic Site (1852), for a walk up 75 winding stairs and rewarding views. At the Port Isabel Historical Museum, a two-story fish mural on the building’s façade—first painted in 1906 and recently restored—depicts more than 200 Gulf fish species. —E. Dan Klepper NOCONA, POP. 2,981 Some 6 million Longhorns tramped up the Chisholm Trail through Nocona—named for Comanche Chief Peta Nocona. In 1879, Joe Justin opened his first boot-making shop just…

Texas is perhaps the most self-contained state in the union, with the mindset of an island continent: Anything you need, you can get right here. That includes the itinerary of a world traveler. To visit Paris, London, Palestine, Athens, and Dublin, your gas card is the only passport needed. Borders crossed: zero. Oh, you’ll rack up more miles than Willie Nelson’s bus driver in this ironic sojourn. The French and British cities of Paris and London, respectively, are actually closer together than their Lone Star counterparts. But Earth, just north of Lubbock, is only 470 miles from Mars, in Van Zandt County. Planet Earth is about 34 million miles from the Red Planet on the other hand—and not a Buc-ees along the route. Sometimes the Texas towns were named by…

When Victoria Cappadona was growing up in McAllen in the 1970s, she would pluck ripe beans from wild mesquite trees and pop them in her mouth, savoring their sweetness. Around 6 inches long, the beans looked like strands of brown beads dangling in bunches from the scrubby trees characteristic of the South Texas landscape. “That was candy for a lot of kids,” Victoria remembers. Little did she know that she would later play a role in reviving this obscure ingredient for a new generation with her line of Cappadona Ranch products—including mesquite bean flour. Because mesquite beans are legumes, which have high fiber and are a good source of protein, some dieticians praise their nutritional benefits. Victoria; her husband, Justin Cappadona, a fellow South Texas native; and their three sons…

There was a time when most Texans lived over yonder. But over the past century, the percentage of Texans living in rural areas versus urban areas flipped: Today, 85 percent of us live in cities, while only 15 percent live in the country, according to the Texas Demographic Center. It’s an understandable trend. With booming job markets, diverse cultural offerings, and fast-paced living, Texas’ major cities project an undeniable metropolitan magnetism—catalysts for ever-expanding urbanization. But the more we congregate in big cities, the more we cast our longing eyes outward. Beyond the subdivisions and traffic jams, our state’s small towns beckon travelers with the simple promise of room to breathe. Here we chronicle 15 such towns (no greater than 20,000 population) that are thriving with reinvention, revitalization, or recovery—places to…

ATHENS, POP. 12,797 Start your day in this East Texas town with a visit to the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center, home to a largemouth bass hatchery, fishing pond, walking trails, water wildlife displays, and a museum dedicated to fishing ephemera. After taking in the Dive Show at the underwater aquarium, try your own hand at scuba diving at Athens Scuba Park, where clear waters fill an old brick quarry. Among the sunken treasures to explore: Ray Price’s old tour bus. The park also offers swimming, snorkeling, and kayaking. —Ashley Slayton SONORA, POP. 2,762 Locals tout the Caverns of Sonora, their subterranean National Natural Landmark, as the most beautiful show cave in Texas. They aren’t exaggerating. See for yourself on a 1-hour-and-45-minute, nearly 2-mile tour of its crystal “palace.” Or sign up for…

To receive free travel information from the following destinations, simply circle the number on the attached reply card that corresponds to your selection, fill in your name and address, and drop it in the mail. To find our advertiser information online, go to texashighways.com/advertiser-information. Free TRAVEL INFO 1 Abilene Convention & Visitors Bureau 2 Bastrop County Tourism 3 Beaumont Convention & Visitors Bureau 4 Blanco Chamber of Commerce 5 Brady/McCulloch County Visitors Center 6 Brauntex Performing Arts Theatre Association, Inc. 7 Brazosport Convention & Visitors Council 8 Briscoe Western Art Museum 9 Bullock Texas State History Museum 10 Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch 11 Cedar Park Tourism 12 City of Angleton 13 City of Bryan 14 City of Grand Prairie 15 City of Longview-Tourism 16 Clute Convention & Visitors Bureau 17…

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. Know of any fascinating vintage Texas photographs? Send copies or ideas to letters@texashighways.com.…

Dallas 2.25 hours Austin 4.75 hours Houston 5.5 hours San Antonio 5.75 hours A Texas legend tells the story of a Comanche woman who was testing the depths of the Red River and called to her companions on the bank, “Wee-Chi-Tah!” meaning “waist deep.” With time, her assessment was adopted into the name of a town that grew nearby—Wichita Falls. Located a 30-minute drive from the Red River border with Oklahoma, Wichita Falls is a close-knit community of approximately 104,000 people accustomed to traveling around Texas—not Texas traveling to them. Growing up in Wichita Falls, I noticed my hometown didn’t attract many visitors. Downtown was full of empty aging buildings. Restaurants opened and closed every other year, and stores in the mall changed constantly—none offering the fashionable choices found in…

UNCERTAIN, POP. 93 Set among the moss-draped pines, towering cypress, and lily pad-strewn sloughs of Caddo Lake’s western shoreline, Uncertain makes an ideal jumping-off point for fishing trips and paddling expeditions. Adding to the blissfully eccentric vibe—note the “sasquatch crossing” signs—is Spatterdock, five whimsically decorated guest houses and a collection of mosaics and metal art on the lake shore. Proprietors Dottie and Billy Carter provide kayaks, canoes, and bicycles for guest use, and Billy’s nearby Johnson’s Ranch Marina offers guided lake tours, where you keep company with turtles, water fowl, and the occasional gator.—June Naylor TURKEY, POP.384 Looking up at the dramatic bluffs of the Caprock Escarpment, the little town of Turkey is home to the historic Hotel Turkey, which has welcomed guests since 1927. The hotel serves catfish on Friday nights…

HALLETTSVILLE, POP. 2,625 That fiddles, kolaches, polka, and sausage all have their own festivals in Hallettsville pretty much sums up the Lavaca County seat. This is Czech/German country, with a painted church (St. Mary’s) and the impressive Lavaca Historical Museum. The best time to visit is on the fourth weekend of April, when the Knights of Columbus Hall hosts the Texas State Fiddle Championship, known as the Fiddlers Frolics. The KCs also host the state straight domino tournament, which started in the early 1950s and draws upwards of 200 players in late January. —Michael Corcoran CARTHAGE, POP. 6,521 As the old homeplace of Tex Ritter and Jim Reeves, as well as one the best white bass runs in Texas, Carthage deserved to be recognized long before mortician Bernie Tiede shot wealthy widow…

Location is important for practically any dining establishment. For Midpoint Café in Adrian, location is everything. The restaurant would likely not exist if it wasn’t precisely 1,139 miles from Chicago and 1,139 miles from Los Angeles—the halfway point on storied Route 66. As critical as location may be to Midpoint’s existence, the three women running the six tables, six booths, and five counter stools make the difference. That would be Brenda Hammit, her sister Carrie O’Leary, and their mother, Sandy Adams, who together took over Midpoint in early 2018. It’s the tail end of lunch on an early spring day, and the café hums with activity inside, while outside, a family of six from Oklahoma on their way back home from Albuquerque poses for a photo in front of the…

Newsman Walter Cronkite would, in his later years, recall it as one of the worst stories he ever covered. Morning dawned over New London on March 18, 1937, with clear skies and mild temperatures. Along Main Street, students made their way to school. Despite the pall of the Great Depression hanging over the nation, the future looked bright for the schoolchildren of Rusk County, thanks to a sea of oil and gas quivering below their feet. Seven years earlier, thousands had celebrated as the earth shuddered and the Daisy Bradford No. 3 drilling rig shot a black fountain of oil into the sky. The town opened London Junior/Senior High School two years later, a showplace built on oil revenue. In 1934, the local football stadium became one of the first…