Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2020 i Texas Highways Magazine

AN ADVENTUROUS SPIRIT BROUGHT VIRGINIA NATIVE CHARLEY PRITCHARD and his wife, Holly, to Texas in 1999, when they purchased the historic Mission Ice manufacturing plant to establish Luling Icehouse Pottery. Charley developed an interest in clay as a student. After “taking to the wheel” in an elective course, he found his calling in the 200-year-old pottery making tradition of this area and changed degrees to reflect his new passion. “Out of all the types of pots that we make, the coffee mug can be the most humble and intimate. It has to feel good in the hand and comfortable. We love traditional stoneware and create every piece of pottery with intention and gratitude.” Shop more Luling Icehouse Pottery products at shop.texashighways.com. Blue Star Chip & Dip Server $60.95 ITEM 37776…

Thanks for the great article about Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel. I learned about the band from Ray’s brother Hank who lived near me in Pennsylvania and who I am proud to call a friend. I have been a fan since my teens. I took up playing fiddle because of them. Hugh McGinley, Machiasport, Maine The Arts Issue My husband and I have subscribed to the magazine since the 1970s. My husband, Jim, actually wrote for the magazine from 197577. We have seen the magazine go through many phases over the years, but the [September] issue is outstanding because what makes Texas unique is its diverse creative people, and your issue highlighted just that. The article by ire’ne lara silva and the associated artwork were excellent and very…

The earliest Texas breweries, founded circa 1850, often didn’t label their bottles, according to beer historian Charlie Staats. That’s hard to picture with the extensive advertising we now see for local brews. It wasn’t until the 1860s, with the emergence of full-color lithography—a method of printing that sped up the sign-making process significantly—that beer advertising took off. Some of the earliest beer ads were vivid posters displayed in saloons that showed factory scenes from the breweries, lavish banquet spreads, or Victorian-era women. As the number of commercial breweries expanded, the need for advertising grew. After Prohibition, signs were important tools as fewer breweries competed for larger shares of the Texas market. One of the most impressive open-to-the-public collections of Texas beer signs is at the Moravia Store, a bar and…

Houston writer Bryan Washington burst onto the national literary scene in the spring of 2019 with the publication of his debut story collection, Lot. The 13 interconnected stories move around the streets and neighborhoods of Houston while giving voice to a constellation of vivid, complex characters who readers don’t commonly hear from, such as a half-Black youth coming of age into his queer identity and a music-loving Jamaican sex worker. Washington’s indelible writing has garnered numerous awards and praise over the past year. Barack Obama selected Lot as one of his favorite books of 2019, and the story collection won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, a national honor for rising African American fiction writers. “Houston can be many different things to a lot of different folks simultaneously.…

A quote from one of our stories this month struck me as an apt metaphor for creating a travel magazine during a pandemic. Texas A&M professor Andreea Botezatu describes the qualities of natural wine as reflecting “a sense of place, of time, the conditions of the year … They’re an expression of the moment.” Typically, our goal is to share stories that are rooted in place but unbound by time, so a reader can pick up any issue at any moment and be inspired to take a trip. In a normal year that means planning most of our content about 12 months before it publishes so we can capture seasonal photography and allow writers the time to travel, research, and fine-tune their stories. Perhaps more than any other 2020 edition,…

Photographer Theresa DiMenno encountered this scene of bald cypress and box elder maple trees along the Guadalupe River near the Gruene Historic District of New Braunfels last November. “Fall is my favorite season in general,” says DiMenno, who lives in Austin. “The sky seems bluer, and I’m drawn to the contrast of leaves against sky.” She noticed this spot at the end of a day she’d spent searching for fall colors along River Road. It was after sunset, so she used a tripod and slow shutter speed to take the picture. “This enabled me to get the correct exposure since it was dark and also to capture the smooth flow of the water,” she says.…

KING RANCH VISITOR CENTER 2205 SH 141 West, Kingsville. Book tours online. 361-592-8055; king-ranch.com The antelope appear along State Highway 77 in the purple morning, drifting through the tall grass an hour north of Brownsville in knots of hoof and horn. Groups of tawny females and deer-size calves graze on the scrub brush. Blue-grey bulls flick their ears, standing stock-still. Then headlights sweep past on the road, and the animals’ enormous shoulders explode into motion as they flee into the savannah. The antelope are nilgai, a heavy-shouldered, long-necked species that can reach 600 pounds yet run up to 30 mph—or slightly faster than world-record sprinter Usain Bolt. They’re from India and Pakistan, so the sight of them grazing along the coastal prairies of South Texas may seem incongruous. But an…

ROAM RANCH Fredericksburgroamranch.com If you’re a young couple who just sold your company for a princely sum, you might be tempted to buy the most lush, pristine acreage you can find and live in luxury. But not if you’re Taylor Collins and Katie Forrest. The husband and wife founded EPIC Provisions, a protein bar business inspired by their Paleo lifestyle, which follows a diet that relies heavily on meat, nuts, seeds, fruits, and vegetables. The snacks are a fusion of jerky and energy bars, with flavors like chicken sriracha and wild boar with bacon. After three years in business, EPIC sold to General Mills in 2016 for $100 million, according to Inc. magazine. The following year, Collins and Forrest purchased 450 acres of overgrazed and overfarmed ranchland along the Pedernales…

Laverne Brackens’ quilts are hypnotizing. They’ve been exhibited at the Texas Memorial Museum of Science and History and acquired by the Berkeley Art Museum in California. They’ve earned her a National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship in 2011. And this past June, her work was recognized in The New York Times, in an article about a contemporary of hers, quilter Rosie Lee Tompkins. But a young Brackens wasn’t looking to gain recognition for her quilting. Over 30 years ago, she experienced a work accident that left her with no option but to go into early retirement. This put her on a journey through incorrigible restlessness that led her to embrace a family tradition that has now stretched over four generations. “I had to have something to do with my…

Ask three vintners what it means to make “natural wine” and you’ll get three different answers, probably accompanied by a shrug. “Oh, the loadedest of loaded questions,” says Regan Meador of Fredericksburg’s Southold Farm + Cellar. “At this point, it’s more of a marketing term, and we shy away from those.” Unlike products labeled “certified organic” or “non-GMO,” natural wine doesn’t have a checklist of attributes or an independent seal of approval. And yet, natural wine production is on the rise across the country. Currently, there are three Texas outfits—Southold, La Cruz de Comal Wines, and Robert Clay Vineyards—growing grapes and making wine following the natural credo. Think of natural wine as less is more. Growers do as little as possible to the grapes on the vine, and winemakers do…

A trip to Taylor provides the essentials of any Lone Star diet: slow-smoked barbecue and cold local beer. Along with the incredible food, the Central Texas town features fascinating people and history. Put on your stretchy pants and get ready for a gutbusting good time. Louie Mueller Barbecue Known as the “Cathedral of Smoke,” this spot is one of Texas’ most beloved barbecue joints. Since Louie Mueller first started serving barbecue in 1949, it’s been a no-frills kind of place. The rub is just salt and pepper, but you’ll feel like you’re tasting magic as you bite down on brisket, sausage, and the restaurant’s world-famous beef ribs. The walls are filled with photos and old business cards, making it appear frozen in time. Grab a tray and experience a true…

Say Cheese? CLEBURNE, 1890 Early photo portraits usually feature stern-faced subjects, but Betsy Elliott of Houston found this playful image of her great-grandparents William and Lucille Van Eaton (seated in front) that shows not all 19thcentury portraits were completely serious. This photo was taken not long after Lucille had come from Virginia to visit an aunt who lived in Cleburne. William saw Lucille arrive at the train depot and immediately decided he would marry her. “I am aware it is asking a great deal of the young lady to leave her relatives and friends for a country home on the Brazos,” William wrote to Lucille’s mother, “but justice to the love we have confessed for each other demands that I make this request of you.” Lucille’s mother gave her blessing.…