Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2021 i Texas Highways Magazine

While many beach towns across the country can become indistinguishable in our minds, there’s no place quite like Galveston. That’s due partly to the city’s deep history—its first-known human visitors were the Karankawas, who hunted and fished on the island. It’s also the presumed location of the 1528 shipwreck of the state’s first historian, Ávar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. Galvestonians’ indefatigable spirit is equally compelling. Their resilience saw the port city through the devastation of the 1900 hurricane following its glory days in the late 1800s, and countless booms and busts over the ensuing century. In our cover story, contributing writer John Nova Lomax paints a definitive portrait of the town while illuminating its current renaissance. Lomax has an intimate knowledge of the coastal haven, which he calls an extension…

The corner of 22nd and Strand streets in Galveston’s Strand Historic District is sacred ground for Sam Collins III, a local historical preservationist. In 2012, Collins raised $1,900 for the Juneteenth Historical Marker near the intersection commemorating June 19, 1865, the day Union Gen. Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3 freeing enslaved people in Texas. “There are times when I’m in Galveston I drive by that marker and sit in my car, eat lunch, meditate, and just kind of be with the ancestors,” Collins says. On one such visit, Collins had an epiphany about fusing public art and Black history in an attempt to bring clarity and greater exposure to the story of Juneteenth. He saw the east wall of the Old Galveston Square Building, located right behind the…

Up and down the coast, there is abundant shoreline for casting into the canal, and those with access to a boat can explore many miles without worrying about running aground on oyster reefs or shallow bay flats. Common catches include the fish above. Bring a life jacket and beware of barge traffic and larger vessels that leave dangerous waves in their wake. Guided “Land Cut” expeditions to fish a remote GIW section between Kenedy Ranch and Padre Island National Seashore are also available.…

WITH THEIR GLINTING WATERS and meandering channels, resacas are a ubiquitous part of the landscape in Texas’ semitropical southern tip, where the Rio Grande flows into the Gulf of Mexico. These vestiges of the mighty river, which in Texas are found only in Cameron County, wind through towns, croplands, and coastal prairies. Though they are sometimes mistaken for rivers or lakes, resacas are actually ancient, abandoned distributaries of the Rio Grande, says Jude Benavides, an associate professor of hydrology and environmental sciences at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. “Distributaries are the opposite of tributaries; they are part of a river that branches off and flows away from the main channel,” he says. “They were formed over the course of anywhere from a few hundred to 10,000 years ago…

Ben Williams channels the legacy of his great-grandmother through his work at Highway Distillery in Houston. Lucille B. Smith was considered one of the first Black businesswomen in Texas, according to the Texas State Historical Association. In the 1930s and ’40s, she developed and marketed Lucille’s All-Purpose Hot Roll Mix; wrote a cookbook, Lucille’s Treasure Chest of Fine Foods; and started a culinary apprentice training program at Prairie View A&M University. Now, Ben takes on his great-grandmother’s mantle of industry “firsts” as the first Black distillery owner and founder in the Houston area. “Our family has been really fortunate to have this moment come about twice,” Ben said. “Being part of this family just gave you the belief that you can do whatever.” The “whatever” Ben chose is creating a…

In the aftermath of the devastating 1900 hurricane, Galveston faced the arduous work of rebuilding. Most famously, the town began constructing its signature seawall in 1902. Another crucial response involved raising the elevation of some 500 city blocks anywhere from 8 to 17 feet. To accomplish this herculean task, engineers enclosed two-to three-block sections with earthen levees, and workers using jackscrews and stilts manually lifted every structure, fence, streetcar track, and utility and water pipe. More than 2,000 structures were lifted as part of the grade raising, which required more than 15 million cubic yards of sand. Some of those buildings are still standing, such as St. Patrick Catholic Church on 35th Street, which was raised 5 feet using 700 jacks. The last cubic yard of sand was shoveled into…

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. O ODESSA–Known for breathtaking sunsets, wide-open spaces and warm West Texas hospitality; you’ll enjoy shopping, dining, unique cultural attractions and events. Discover Odessa! discoverodessa.org Jun 5 - Caveman Invitational PBR Event Jun 26 - Silver Spur Trade Show FS FORT STOCKTON–Lodging, Dining, Entertainment and History. Experience our Visitor Center, Historic Sites, Museum, Fort Grounds, Golf Course, and Unique Shopping, West Texas style. historicfortstocktontx.com July 17 - Reunion Festival Aug 14 - Main Street Dance A ALPINE–Natural beauty, unique nightlife and shopping, and a grand array of hotels and guest lodging make this…

“I’ve tried to take this photo at different times over the years,” says Kathy Adams Clark of her picture of the Galveston Fishing Pier. “Sea fog, high winds, and other conditions can prevent it.” But on this night in April 2016, the setting was just right. Clark, who’s based in The Woodlands, says she used a small lens aperture of f/22, which sharpened the lights and created the starburst effect. Along with fishing, the pier at 9001 Seawall Boulevard is home to Jimmy’s on the Pier restaurant, an espresso and ice cream bar, a bait and tackle shop, and bike and surfboard rentals.…

Running more than 400 miles along the Texas coast and over 1,100 miles to its terminus in Florida, the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway is an aquatic superhighway most noncommercial boaters will never travel in its entirety—though local sections are well known to paddlers, birders, and anglers. Longer than the Erie Canal in New York, the GIW strings together ports from Brownsville up past Corpus Christi to Freeport, Houston, and the Sabine River, extending into Louisiana and through the Mississippi Delta. Completed in the late 1940s as a commercial trade route, the GIW in Texas exists as one of the state’s most audacious engineering efforts. It’s no wonder the passage fascinates history buffs, boaters, and beachgoers of assorted stripes. Landbased travelers can best appreciate the shipping lane from high coastal bridges. Thirteen…

Just before sunset on a warm spring evening in San Leon, the sky is awash in peach-purple hues. On the large waterfront patio of Pier 6 Seafood & Oyster House, groups of patrons feast happily on large platters of raw and wood-grilled oysters and sip frozen cocktails. The scene is just as lively inside. At the bar, a skilled oysterman shucks fresh oysters so quickly and efficiently, it’s mesmerizing to watch. In the dining room, beneath a picturesque canopy of greenery and natural woven chandeliers, all the booths are filled. Diners who arrive without a reservation are quoted wait times in excess of an hour. That’s somewhat new for this tiny coastal town 40 miles southeast of Houston, which has become a must-visit destination for foodies since Pier 6 opened…

There’s a part of Texas where the freshwater of the Sabine River mixes with the salt of the Gulf of Mexico. It’s a place where cowboys, Cajuns, and the coast collide, making it feel as much like Louisiana as it does the Lone Star State. It’s time to pull your ship into port—Port Arthur, that is. Museum of the Gulf Coast This museum takes visitors on a journey through time, from prehistoric lizards, to the Spindletop oil boom, to modern celebrities who hail from the Gulf Coast. Folks from all over the world visit to trace Janis Joplin’s steps from her home in Port Arthur to rock ’n’ roll fame—and to see the replica of her Cabriolet Porsche with its distinctive psychedelic paint job. Art aficionados will appreciate the works…

In 2013, after a stint as a TV news reporter in Dallas and 24 years as the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department communications director, Lydia Saldaña began her current role as the communications director for the TPW Foundation. These jobs have given her a holistic view of the environment, which helped her write “Remnants of the Rio Grande” (Page 54), about South Texas’ distinctive resacas. “Everything I do and write about, and any assignment I have that’s not necessarily about conservation, I’m hardwired to talk about it,” the Fort Worth-based writer says. “It’s more than just the water you see, it’s everything that’s connected to it—its wildlife, its birds.” She sees the resacas, some of which formed 10,000 years ago and have since been harnessed by humans for agriculture and…

The swath of land between Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Orange became known as “the Golden Triangle” after the 1901 discovery of oil at Spindletop created an influx of wealth. These days, visitors might assume the nickname comes from the port and refinery lights that glitter at night along Sabine Lake and the Neches River. But amid the industrial activity, there are glimmers of the area’s agricultural past. In the town of Nederland, wedged between Beaumont and Port Arthur, the Dutch Windmill Museum, constructed in 1969 to look like one of Holland’s traditional windmills, pays tribute to the Dutch settlers who established rice and dairy farms here in the late 19th century. Their history is often retold by Carol Culp, the curator of the museum for the last six years. A…

Landen Addison was 9 years old when her father began cultivating watermelons at their family farm in Brownfield, about 40 minutes southwest of Lubbock. “I used to get so excited when our boxes of watermelon seedlings arrived and I got to help plant them,” she says. Although Landen, now 22 years old, grew up alongside her family’s watermelon crop, she didn’t know much about the statewide industry until she was crowned Texas Watermelon Queen in November 2019. As part of Landen’s title, awarded to her by the Texas Watermelon Association, she was expected to make appearances in her sash and tiara at events, festivals, and grocery stores. But the COVID-19 pandemic gave her the opportunity to do so much more. Since her public appearances were curtailed, Landen fulfilled her duties…

Growing up in Corpus Christi, Ashley Kidd splashed through waves on a boogie board and told her mom that one day she’d become a real surfer. Then, when she was about 5, her aunt showed her a hermit crab, and she discovered that fish and sharks also lurked under the Gulf of Mexico’s surface. “After that, I was traumatized by any type of water that had sea life in it,” Kidd says. “I wouldn’t even go into a lake until I was 12.” Eventually, Kidd’s mother persuaded her reluctant daughter to dip her toe into Medina Lake, where they had a vacation home, by promising (wink, wink) that no fish lived there. Kidd soon learned to wakeboard—akin to water-skiing on a surfboard—on the same lake. Then in 2009, when she…