Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2019 i Texas Highways Magazine

Often, the most gratifying parts of travel are the places or moments that take us by surprise. In honor of recent staff promotions, I asked our newly minted managing editor and writers-at-large to share a rewarding discovery they’ve made in their nearly 70 combined years of writing about Texas. I hope their revelations inspire one of your own. "It's humbling—how many warm souls there are who have great stories to tell." Michael Hoinski, managing editor: For the last day of summer break, my wife and I took our daughter and her friend to Hamilton Pool in Dripping Springs. I’m embarrassed that after living in Austin for almost 15 years, it was my first visit there. Hello—love at first sight. The natural beauty, the refreshing water, and the hikes in and…

Soft Landing Good article about Apollo’s 50th anniversary [“Remembering the Moonshot,” July]. However, Mr. Brinkley didn’t mention that the first thing to touch the moon, on that first human landing, contained materials made by Texans in Graham at the now closed Hexcel manufacturing plant. The energy absorption material contained in the legs of the lunar module was made there and provided the astronauts with a safe and cushioned landing on the moon. Wayne Williams, Burleson A Tragic Turning Point The New London school explosion [“The Day a Generation Died,” August] was and still is a horrific tragedy with the loss of lives of students and teachers. But in recalling how terrible the explosion was, the lives that were lost, and the awful aftermath that is depicted in the New London…

Drive west along Farm-to-Market Road 170 from the border town of Presidio, leaving all convenience stores and gas stations behind, and you’ll travel two slim lanes of humped, serpentine blacktop, its edges collapsing like desert crust. The road’s convolutions mirror the Rio Grande to the left but after just a few miles, the river’s water diminishes, occasionally disappearing altogether. In its place, dense mesquite thickets and catclaw thrive along its dry bed, a thorny border wall of its own making. On both sides of the road, the country unravels in a sparse scrubland accentuated by towering yuccas and ocotillo, the signature plant of the Chihuahuan Desert—its bony branches like torches tipped with scarlet flames. Shallow arroyos drain this tilted landscape and low, swelling hills give way to rising, rocky elevation.…

For every person now alive, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke once wrote, there stand 30 ghosts, “for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living.” So it stands to reason that wandering spirits abound in a vast state like Texas. From the barren deserts of the west to the thick woodlands of the east, specters have been reported to haunt defunct hospitals, active schools, lonely highways, and thriving hotels. Whether you believe in the afterlife—or just enjoy a spine-tingling tale—you don’t have to look far in Texas for a haunting. Sometimes, you just need to look over your shoulder……

125 W. Mills Ave., El Paso. EL PASO’S PLAZA THEATRE opened as an opulent movie palace in 1930, operating for 55 years before shutting down in 1985. The theater then remained dark for about two decades before a grand renovation took place, turning it into a performing arts center in 2006. Not surprisingly, the Plaza spent its 76 years from inception to rebirth accumulating ghost stories. “We managed to revive this historic theater before it was too late,” says Gary L. Williams, senior program officer with the El Paso Community Foundation, the organization that saved the Plaza Theatre and then partnered with the city of El Paso to restore it to its former glory. “The dust and cobwebs may be gone, but it appears the ghosts have remained.” Some of…

Mother Nature’s autumnal coloration of leaves before she applies her cruel winter grip is a visual gift typically associated with areas of the country that actually experience four distinct seasons. In Texas, where for the most part it’s oppressively hot and dry in September and October, green can abruptly give way to brown, without displaying even a hint of the kaleidoscope of oranges, reds, and yellows typical of a postcard New England fall. There are hidden pockets of the state, however, where the trees, beneficiaries of just the right weather conditions, offer one final, dramatic blush. Follow our photographers to these special places for some of the best foliage in the state—from the Nolan River in North Texas and Garner State Park in the Hill Country, to the Canadian River…

TOMMY SHANNON, RAISED IN THE Panhandle town of Dumas, stands well over 6 feet tall, skinny and long-limbed, as if crafted in the image of the white ’63 Fender Jazz bass that’s taken him all over the world. Shannon was laying down the bottom line with that Fender in Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble during the 1980s; the great glam-blues band Krackerjack in the 1970s; and the Johnny Winter Trio at Woodstock in 1969, to name just a few notable musical ensembles. Not many bass players can say they’ve been playing the same instrument for over 50 years. And if basses could talk, Shannon’s bass could tell some stories, like about the time Jimi Hendrix played it. “I was playing in this club in New York,” Shannon recalls, “and somebody…

For “What Lies in the Shadows” (Page 36), photographers were tasked not only with working in reportedly haunted areas but also with making sure the photos captured the locations’ eeriness. Nathan Lindstrom, who shot Bragg Road in Saratoga, used special equipment to give a spectral glow. “My studio manager, John Maxwell, and I set up large strobe lights in the middle of the road to create the effect of a train coming,” he says. “Then John pulled a generator and fog machine up and down the road to give a supernatural vibe to the lights shining toward the camera.” While the photographers didn’t experience anything paranormal, there were some hair-raising incidents. “I was setting up the camera on a tripod in the stairwell [at Yorktown Memorial Hospital] when a cat…

Snow Fall While fall in much of the state brings only slightly cooler temperatures, pockets like the higher elevations of the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park feature a seasonal display of trees dressed in oranges and yellows. Photographer Darren Huski was fortunate to encounter a rare fall-winter combination when, he recalls, he “arrived in the park in a blizzard and awoke to find the Chisos a mixture of vivid color and fresh snow."…

At fun runs across the country, it’s not uncommon to see participants goofily dressed in animal costumes for effect, but at Marathon 2 Marathon, a race occurring each October in West Texas, it’s the spectators who assume the role of the beast. In this case, though, the antelopes, rattlesnakes, javelinas, roadrunners, coyotes, and jackrabbits are real. Exotic wildlife, a big sky, and an expanse of high-desert landscape are ntegral components of M2M, the Boston Marathon-qualifying run held in Marathon, named after the city in Greece that inspired the modern-day race. Last year’s event, the 16th annual, more than tripled the size of the town, considered an entry point for Big Bend National Park. The community of around 420 souls welcomed nearly 540 registrants, along with family and friends. Part Trans-Pecos…

Often the most exceptional things are found by accident. That’s what happened at Twistflower Ranch, 5,800 acres of West Texas mesas and canyons, named for the rare bracted twistflower that bathes the arid landscape with delicate purple blossoms in the spring. Around 2004, owners Mike McCloskey’s sons, Ted and Kevin, were exploring when they discovered a cave with a spring bubbling out of it. Mike McCloskey invited an archeology buff to check it out. As they hiked down, they stopped for a breather in the shade of a rock shelter—not quite a cave—set back into the bluff. While talking, the archeologist stopped mid-sentence, pointed to the limestone façade, and shouted, “Rock art!” And that’s how the McCloskeys discovered the 2,000-year-old pictographs tucked away on their land It’s also partly why…

In 1831, Mexico gave the people of Gonzales a cannon to ward off Native American attacks. Four years later, Mexican troops came to get the howitzer back and were greeted by a lone star flag baring a taunt: “Come and Take It.” The firing of that cannon was the start of the Texas Revolution, and today, the cannon sits in the Gonzales Memorial Museum, the centerpiece of the Come and Take It Celebration, a three-day festival booming with Texas bravado. The festivities take place in downtown Gonzales, which has three town squares, so there’s plenty of room for carnival rides and live music, plus the popular chicken flying contest. (That’s flying, not frying, unfortunately.) A downtown parade is followed with a reenactment in Pioneer Village of the battle of Oct.…

TEXAS WILDFLOWERS BURST into bloom on printed goods by Aletha St. Romain. A New Orleans native now based in Austin, St. Romain is a trained illustrator with a talent for bringing native flora to life in exquisitely detailed watercolor paintings. Prints of her colorful bouquets embellish notecards as well as aprons and tote bags made of 100-percent organic Texas cotton. You don’t have to wait until spring to enjoy the bluebonnets. She got the idea to paint wearable artwork when she met a woman who had been displaced by Hurricane Katrina. “She was so complimentary of my artwork. I offered to give her a painting, but she didn’t have any walls on which to hang art,” St. Romain says. “I asked if she’d like an apron so she could wear…

The Texas Butterfly Festival promises visitors “the best butterflying in America.” It might seem like hyperbole were the claim not backed up by the fact that the Rio Grande Valley contains a greater diversity of butterflies than anywhere else in the country—more than 300 species and counting, or roughly 40 percent of the butterflies in North America. You can see a great deal of them at the festival, which takes place the first week of November at the National Butterfly Center in Mission. All of those butterflies—condensed within a region that’s easy to traverse over a weekend—make a fall tour of the Valley a must-do on any Texas bucket list. The weather in tropical South Texas is inviting year-round, but the very best time to see butterflies is October and…

728 W. Main St., Yorktown. 210-748-4475 FROM THE OUTSIDE, Yorktown Memorial Hospital looks like the definition of “haunted”: a 30,000-square-foot building with a granite and concrete façade and overgrown bushes around its sides. Broken windows lead into a black interior; the door is chained shut. Inside the building, a cool breeze wafts down the dark hallway, leaves press against dusty windows, and wasps crawl along the walls. Originally built in the 1950s and managed by the Felician Sisters of the Roman Catholic Church, the sprawling facility contains two main floors, a basement, two wings, a chapel, and an observation tower. The hospital closed in 1986, says current caretaker Stephanie Mayfield, after a new facility opened in nearby Cuero. From then on the building operated as a drug rehab facility, but…

BEFORE BECOMING A BUILDER OF CUSTOM BAJO SEXTOS, Jacob Salinas was a budding bajo player with big dreams. He wanted to own a Macias bajo, made in the San Antonio shop founded by Martín Macias, a native of Mexico who settled in San Antonio in the 1920s. But the price was far more than a 13-year-old could afford. After trying to get by with more modestly priced instruments made by a different San Antonio luthier, he picked up a few tips from watching the luthier work, then learned the rest by trial and error. “He never gave me any measurements or anything,” Salinas says. “I just watched him a few times, then I came home and started putting wood together.” In 2011, Jacob and his wife, Soraya, built their own shop…

As you explore, you'll find an amazing range of relaxation and adventure, natural beauty and urban culture, fine art, fine dining, small-town charm and big-city amenities … but what you will remember most is the warm, West Texas hospitality. FORT DAVIS Explore, Wander and Unwind in Fort Davis! Experience the mile-high climate at the Davis Mountains State Park, Fort Davis National Historic Site, Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and McDonald Observatory where you can relax beneath "the Darkest Skies in North America"! Hike, bike or take a scenic drive through the Davis Mountains and encounter wildlife, birds and breathtaking sunsets. Then settle into the friendly, small town camaraderie of Fort Davis! fortdavis.com November 11 - Veterans Day Program at the Fort December 7 - Frontier Christmas MIDLAND-Midland is a great place…

NOV.18,1949 High schools and universities across Texas are gearing up for the autumnal tradition of homecoming, when alumni return for special events like the homecoming football game. Fort Worth photographer Calvin Littlejohn (1909-93) captured this Friday night scene, complete with traditional homecoming mums, at I.M. Terrell High School. The school opened in 1882 as Fort Worth’s first black school under segregation and operates today as the I.M. Terrell Academy. With his focus on the African American community, Littlejohn left behind an invaluable record of 20th-century life in Fort Worth. His photos, which are archived at the Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin, are the basis for the 2009 book, Calvin Littlejohn: Portrait of a Community in Black and White. Know of any fascinating vintage…