Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2019 i Texas Highways Magazine

“People automatically associate Kilgore with oil and Rangerettes,” says Shelley Wayne, who should know. Wayne’s husband works in the petrochemical business, her daughter was a Rangerette, and Wayne herself was a member of Kilgore College’s world-famous drill team before becoming its choreographer. But she adds, “There is much more to this town.” Founded in 1872 by the Great Northern Railroad, Kilgore changed dramatically with the discovery of oil in 1930. Derricks soon crowded downtown, comprising the “World’s Richest Acre”—today a collection of restored derricks along a manicured downtown strip. Kilgore College opened in 1935, and in 1940, the newly formed Rangerettes took the field at halftime of Kilgore Rangers’ football games, establishing a precedent for drill teams and precision line dancing. After serving as captain of her high school drill…

THE OUTBACK OASIS MOTEL, 800 W. US 90 in Sanderson. 432-345-2850; outbackoasis motel.com The hills outside of Sanderson teem with snakes: longnosed snakes with rusty stripes; rock rattlers and diamondbacks; tiny, cat-eyed nightsnakes; and coachwhips like swift red racers. Walk the right roadside bluff at the right time, and you might see the most sought-after prize of all: the gray-banded kingsnake. The West Texas town is a treasure trove of desert reptiles, and the Outback Oasis Motel holds many of its finest jewels. Roy and Ruth Engeldorf operate the Outback Oasis. It’s one of the only motels in Texas that caters particularly to reptile lovers. The property has snake photographs and posters on the stucco walls of its office, metal imprints of little horned lizards on its porch, and a…

I’m in one of my favorite parts of Texas—the Brush Country south of San Antonio—with miles and miles of chaparral lying ahead of me. I like it because it’s an expansive place with a rich history. It’s here where American cowboy culture grew out of the vaquero way of life and, to this day, both vaqueros and cowboys work on large ranches in South Texas. Good boots are part and parcel for anyone working cattle from the saddle. It’s not surprising, then, that South Texas is home to many first-rate bootmakers. In the world of custom cowboy boots, the Rio Grande Valley in particular is known for its bootmaking heritage, both for the number of bootmakers concentrated in the four-county area at the southern tip of Texas and for the…

Food has always been instrumental in establishing a sense of place—especially during Texas’ journey from settlement to statehood. Between the 19th and 20th centuries, Texas cuisine was shaped by the variety of ethnicities arriving into the territory as well as those who were already here. Ingredients, and the meals they composed, were determined by what could be locally gathered, raised, or hunted, then prepared in manners that had been used for generations or replicated the flavors of home. One of those ingredients was mayhaw, a small, cranberry-like fruit that ripens beneath the hardwood timbers of the East Texas floodplains. “Who would deny themselves the pleasure of living in grand old East Texas, where mayhaws, that make the best jelly in the world, grow wild in the woods?” editor W.L. West…

Turkey celebrates its hometown boy with Bob Wills Day on the last Saturday of each April with performances by Western swing bands. The Bob Wills Museum showcases Wills memorabilia, and the old Texas Playboys tour bus is parked downtown. bobwillsday.com Nov. 1-2, Greenville hosts the annual Bob Wills Fiddle Festival & Contest. Performers this year include Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys under the direction of Jason Roberts, Jody Nix and the Texas Cowboys, and Riders in the Sky. bobwillsfiddlefest.com Cowtown Birthplace of Western Swing in Fort Worth celebrates the 90th anniversary of Western swing with a music festival in November 2020 at the Historic National Hall. The group is raising funds to build a Western swing museum. birthplaceofwesternswing.com The Heart of Texas Country Music Museum in Brady celebrates the history of…

Outside, the night is humid and flat. But inside, it feels like the setting of a Raymond Carver story. Standing by the stone archway entrance to the bar, like two cylindrical centurion guards, is a pair of 10-foot rusted tanks. They face a hotel lobby full of old-fashioned leather chairs and couches and checkered tile mixed with exposed industrial beams and pipes and valves. Through the archway is a huge Castilian chamber, a sort of steampunk-chic bar and lounge with tall cement pillars, an arched cement ceiling, an unfinished wooden floor, and a faintly glowing brick fireplace. In the corner, a man in a pink polo shirt talks quietly into his phone. Two other men, still wearing their golf clothes, share cocktails and laughs on the couches by the entrance.…

One of the great pleasures of roaming Texas roads is driving our scenic trails. Travel the Texas Brazos Trail, Forest Trail, Forts Trail, Hill Country Trail, Independence Trail, Lakes Trail—don’t forget the Mountain, Pecos, Plains, and Tropical trails—and you’ll see a whole lot of natural beauty. I would like to nominate a new trail, or set of trails, for Texas highway wanderers to blaze for a different kind of beauty. Let’s call it “The Great Texas Wind Turbine Trail.” The presence of thousands of wind turbines—on average 300 feet tall but as tall as almost 600 feet, with three propeller blades of at least 115 feet in length—has radically transformed much of the state’s landscape over the past 20 years, especially in the wide-open western half. Wind turbines are so…

ARMANDO VERA’S STOIC FACE lights up with a smile when customers mention how far they’ve traveled to eat at his restaurant, Vera’s Backyard Bar-B-Que. Patrons make sojourns from Dallas, Austin, and even El Paso to order pounds of his barbacoa de cabeza de res a la leña en pozo—beef-head barbacoa slow-cooked over mesquite in an in-ground pit that’s 7 feet long and lined by bricks. The restaurant was established by his father in 1955 on Southmost Boulevard in Brownsville. Vera is tall and blocky with a mustache that has yet to sprout gray hairs. He’s an imposing figure—even when he’s sitting at a table, readers perched on the bridge of his nose beneath the brim of his mesh ball cap, reviewing receipts. He’ll scan the dining room filled with out-of-towners…

The Texas State Forest Festival, founded in 1938 and held as a county fair until 1953, is a fall staple in Lufkin. This year’s event features more than 20 rides, live music, a beer garden, and market and food vendors, so there’s something for everyone in the 20,000-plus crowd. A homespun highlight is the annual hushpuppy championship—now in its 48th year—where fried-food fanatics compete to see if their special ingredient causes their iteration of the Southern delicacy to soar to the top of the judges’ list. Attendees can also enjoy an event Paul Bunyan wouldn’t miss: the All-American Lumberjack Show. This 35-year tradition features axe throwing, tree climbing, and log rolling. Texas State Forest Festival, Sept. 18-22 George H. Henderson Jr. Expo Center, 1200 Ellen Trout Drive, Lufkin 936-634-6644; texasstateforestfestival.com…

I have traveled all over the world, and one of the best trips I have taken was through rural Texas—from El Paso to Galveston. Sometimes it was so remote I couldn’t get anything on my car radio. A great state.Tom Jeffris, Janesville, Wisconsin KATHERINE ANNE PORTER’S TEXAS I took my Hamilton High School students to Indian Creek. We sat by Katherine Anne Porter’s grave and read one of her stories. Donna Anglin, Hamilton FRIO 101 I grew up in Texas but never made it to Garner State Park. Made my first trip this Memorial Day. It was fantastic, and the Frio River was so beautiful. The trip sparked an interest to rent a camper for our next trip in the fall. Gina Bischoff Ferriera, The Woodlands Small Town Talk I…

In 1914, National Geographic published an article about the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, a remote Buddhist country tucked between India and China. El Paso resident Kathleen Worrell, who was married to the dean of the college that became the University of Texas at El Paso, was intrigued by the photographs of Bhutanese fortresses and monasteries. She also noted a resemblance between the rugged Himalayas and the Franklin Mountains that soar over El Paso. Three years later, as the college’s new campus was being built in the Franklin foothills, Worrell saw an opportunity. She asked her husband: Why not construct those buildings in the Bhutanese style? More than a century later, her idea is reflected in almost all of the buildings at UTEP. Their sloping walls are accented near the roof…

Last year, Forbes magazine published an article by economist Panos Mourdoukoutas arguing that Amazon stores should replace outdated libraries to save taxpayer money. Forbes later pulled the op-ed but it didn’t seem to matter as a number of libraries were already inspired to evolve faster than a shush from the circulation desk. In Texas, libraries are coming alive by implementing grand renovations that feature open floor plans full of light and casual meeting spaces; cuttingedge gadgets and makerspace technology; and connections with nature and the environment. A leader of the renaissance is the new, $125 million Austin Public Library’s Central Library, completed in 2017. This LEED Platinum-certified building—meaning it’s “green”—is outfitted with a bicycle corral for 200, a “tech petting zoo” for visitors to interact with new technology like 3-D…

Brownsville Coffee Shop #2 Get your first tortillas de harina of the day and a cup of coffee here before venturing farther into La Southmost. Otro Rollo The tacos al pastor are served in a unique way: rolled at the center in wax paper, resembling a large sushi hand roll, in order to help soak up the grease. Taqueria La Vaquita 4 Order the tostadas, which are flat, crispy tortillas topped with a mound of beef, onion, cilantro, and avocado buried under white cheese. Tacos Matamoros #2 Find more beef tacos at this dependable local chain.…

RUSSIAN BANYA 2515 Rosemeade Parkway, Suite 401, Carrollton. Open Tue-Fri, Noon-10 p.m.; Sat-Sun, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. 214-483-5050; russianbanyaofdallas.com Communal public bathing has been a part of many cultures—from Turkish hammams to Roman baths—for centuries. While traditional bathhouses are much less widespread this days, there are still places where you can take part in the age-old tradition of not just getting clean but also being cleansed. At Russian Banya in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton, a Slavic feast follows intensive sauna sessions. The bathhouse and restaurant is the only one of its kind in Texas. Inside, a row of snowy Russian birch trees hung with Khokhloma-patterned oven mitts opens up to the kitchen and dining room, where Chef Niyara Alieva stirs up fragrant dishes like dumplings, soup, and stuffed cabbage from…

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. Texas Basket Company Carrying tomatoes is delicate work. And as the tomato industry boomed here in the early 1900s, so did this historic basket company—100 years old this year and one of the largest commercial basket manufacturers in the U.S. Stop in and get a bird’s-eye view of the factory floor as the makers create these incredible works of functional art. Don’t skip the shop, where you can buy baskets of all colors, shapes, and sizes to carry all of your…