Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2021 i Texas Highways Magazine

Common Ground We’re all Texans [“The Ties That Bind,” May]. That is what unites us. Kathy Hudson, Round Rock Toucan Jim’s Sounds like it’s going on my places-to-ride-to list [“Easy Breezy,” May]. Steven Dunlap Jr., Lytle Accordion King Flaco Jiménez is simply the best [“El Rey de Tejas,” May]! Love him, and whenever I hear him play it makes me smile. @theintellectualcat Park Places As a Houstonian since 1986, this article struck a dis-chord with me [“I’ll Give You My Last,” June]. Mr. Arceneaux’s understatement about improvements to Hermann Park, especially in the “more than a decade” since his last visit, was an affront to the amazing work of the Hermann Park Conservancy. Furthermore, Hermann Park has never been a “no-man’s-land.” There has always been the Houston Zoo, Miller Theatre,…

I dash around Laredo’s Plaza de San Agustín trying to stay dry. An unexpected downpour struck this normally arid city the night before, and every so often palms and shade trees drench my battered Stetson Open Road hat with leftover rainfall. Otherwise, everything here on this sultry Saturday spring morning is peaceful and slow-paced. Some of the buildings surrounding me are relics from the 1800s and range in style from Spanish colonial to the Gothic Revival of the city’s cathedral, standing at the east end of the plaza. It’s hard to fathom that Interstate 35, one of America’s busiest northsouth freeways, begins only a few blocks from where I’m standing. My whole life has been connected to I35. America’s system of “Interstate and Defense Highways” and I came into being…

RIVERS TEXIANS run the gamut from bucolic babbling brooks to churning whitewater, from rocky dry channels to wide and muddy waterways. The Blanco River, which winds 87 miles through the eastern Hill Country, stands out for exhibiting all of those characteristics at one time or another. I should know. The Blanco is my river. Twenty-eight years ago, our family moved to Wimberley to be near the Blanco. I’d been hooked on swimming at Barton Springs, Austin’s 68-degree spring-fed swimming pool. When it was time to move, we decided to jump ahead of the inevitable suburban sprawl while looking for another spring-fed place to swim. I was sold on the house my wife had found the minute we drove over the Blanco on Bendigo Crossing, a low-water bridge also known as…

HOTEL PAISANO, GIANT For years, the Reata Ranch set from 1956’s Giant slowly deteriorated on private property between Marfa and Valentine. Sadly, it’s no longer visible. However, the Hotel Paisano in Marfa is where several of the film’s stars and crew stayed, and the hotel promotes that fact with photos in the lobby, a gift shop full of Giant goodies, and the restaurant Jett’s Grill, named after James Dean’s character. 207 N. Highland Ave., Marfa. FARMERS AND MERCHANTS BANK, BONNIE AND CLYDE In the 1967 film, stars Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway rob this bank in Pilot Point as two of Texas’ most famous outlaws. The town hosts the Bonnie & Clyde Days festival every October. 100 N. Washington St., Pilot Point. THE GAS STATION, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE This…

When it comes to important dates in American history, July 4, 1776, has some stiff competition. May 11, 1971, was the day 25-year-old Mariano Martinez debuted his frozen margarita machine invention, forever altering the classic cocktail. Martinez’s lightbulb moment came to him four days after opening Mariano’s Mexican Cuisine in Dallas’ Old Town. He opened the restaurant with $500 of his own savings, a Small Business Administration loan, and contributions from friends and family. As his bartenders struggled to meet the demand for frozen margaritas made to-order in countertop blenders, he knew something had to change. Stopping by a 7-Eleven, Martinez was inspired to make large batches of deliciously consistent margaritas from the convenience chain’s Slurpee machine. After all, if it worked for carbonated beverages, he thought, it could work…

In the thick of summer, El Pasoans and visitors get to leave the scorching heat for the cool, scenic McKelligon Canyon Amphitheatre. Each Friday and Saturday July 2-Aug. 7, local thespians perform Viva! El Paso, an outdoor musical that explores the city’s history and culture. The show, a tradition since 1978, takes the stage for its 43rd season this year. The production began as a historical pageant with culturally significant dances mixed in, but it has adapted over the years. This year’s musical features a script by Marty Martin and new songs from El Pasoans Jim Ward and Cody Ritchey. The production focuses on love stories during different time periods in El Paso, from the time of Native Americans to the days of the Wild West to World War II.…

In southeast El Paso, where the city is quieter, the traffic not as heavy, and junkyards with broken yellow school buses are much more prevalent, the Roberto R. Bustamante Wastewater Treatment Plant is an unlikely beacon of hope. It’s about 1,000 feet from the Rio Grande and less than 2 miles from the Zaragoza Bridge, an international point of entry. Just as there’s a fence along the river, there’s a fence around the plant, with a sign proclaiming this is a construction zone. Canals with open gates dot the landscape. Not that those gates matter since, in mid-March, there’s no water here. Instead, the irrigation drains look more like ditches where tall weeds grow only to catch plastic shopping bags on days when wind races off the Franklin Mountains. On…

East Texas is prime beaver-viewing habitat, as they build and maintain dams along streams to help form the area’s signature wetlands. North of Dallas, Beaver Pond Paddling Trail in the Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area is a good spot to see evidence of beavers at work maintaining their habitat. The mile-long trail includes interpretive signage and views of herons, egrets, ducks, turtles, frogs, deer, and other wildlife. After nearly going extinct due to the 200-year fur trade, beavers now protect the wetland habitat crucial to many threatened and endangered species’ survival. SOUTHWESTERN WILLOW FLYCATCHER (endangered) WESTERN YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOOS (threatened) HOUSTON TOAD (endangered)…

Those who grew up making family trips to Caddo Lake tend to share a few indelible memories: looking for alligators on boat tours, paddling canoes into beautifully spooky cypress-shadowed sloughs, listening to campfire stories about Bigfoot living in the Piney Woods, and piling into the car for feasts at Big Pines Lodge. Open since the 1950s, Big Pines Lodge has always been a humble eatery. Historically, the restaurant’s hallmarks included mismatched tables and chairs, a jukebox, and a paddlewheel steamboat. The Karnack restaurant sits on Big Cypress Bayou, which flows into Caddo Lake, so many customers arrive by boat and tie up to the attached dock. Half a century ago, patrons came in droves for family-style catfish dinners, pint jars of Michelob on draft ($0.65), and small bottles of Lancer’s…

Johnny Nicholas is taking an important phone call at his Hill Top Cafe just outside Fredericksburg. With the sleeves of his faded pearl-snap shirt rolled up and his salt-and-pepper hair pulled into a ponytail, he chats with an Alaskan supplier about their fresh-caught Coho and sockeye salmon. Above him, twinkle lights droop from the ceiling and empty wine bottles glimmer green and gold on the windowsills. The walls are hung with old beer signs and playful taxidermy, like whitetail deer in cowboy hats and New Year’s crowns. A visit to this Greek-Cajun eatery reveals that Nicholas, an eclectic former member of the eight-time Grammy Award-winning Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel, is a hard-working restaurateur whose business recently celebrated 40 successful years. Nicholas was born in Rhode Island to…

In the rolling hills and prairies between Austin and Houston, you’ll find the heart of Texas Czech country. La Grange was founded in the earliest days of Texas and was a promising candidate to be the capital of the young republic. One hundred and seventy years later, trippers are sure to discover interesting attractions in the 4,700-person town. Weikel’s Bakery A trip to Czech country has to start with kolaches, and I’m not talking about pigs in a blanket (although I always order a couple of those too). This family business started in 1929 and now operates inside of a landmark gas station on the west side of town. The buttery pillows of bread with homemade fruit filling make this place a must-stop to load up on classic flavors like…

Cynthia Osaseri The visual artist crafted portraits of late-19thcentury Black legislators for “Reconstructing a Legacy” (Page 68). “For me, there is no such thing as a completed image, just pieces that are ‘done for now,’” the Atlanta, Georgia-based artist says. “So, when approaching this piece, it was about picturing these subjects as they may appear today, but beyond what is real. It is the hope that this image, the people and places within it, remains active and alive.” Osaseri has worked in book illustration, game art, graphic design, and now animation, specializing in environment and set design. W.K. Stratton Driving on a crowded highway is often a pain, but Stratton enjoyed his trip along Interstate 35 for “Rapture of the Freeway” (Page 14). “When I made the drive from Laredo…

When Nita Bankston sees the Sam Rayburn statue at the Bonham museum bearing his name, she imagines what it would’ve been like to meet the late congressman, who served as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives for 16 years starting in 1940. “Every town has a history, but it is rare that someone from your town influenced the history of the world,” Bankston says. Though neither Bankston nor Rayburn were born in Bonham, both adopted the northeast Texas community as their own. Bankston grew up in small towns in Tennessee and Texas, and moved to Bonham in 1994 with her husband, Justin Bankston, after they met at Texas A&M University-Commerce (then called East Texas State University). The seat of agriculturally rich Fannin County, Bonham is also a center of…

Michael J. Bodenchuk, the Hondo-based state director for the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s Wildlife Services, has been working with beavers since 1977. As a self-proclaimed fan of the rodent, much of Bodenchuk’s job has been promoting harmony between humans and beavers. Beavers were nearly absent from the state after the fur traders came through. How are there so many now? This is actually a pretty good conservation success story. Beavers were extirpated by the time settlers came through and the Hudson’s Bay Company was formed around trapping beavers. The state started reintroducing beavers in 1950, and there are now more beavers today than there have ever been in Texas. You said beavers mostly cause issues by flooding roadways. Beavers will build based on the sound of running…

Fifty-two African American men served as Texas legislators during the Reconstruction era that followed the Civil War. Though these representatives came from diverse backgrounds and accomplished much as lawmakers, most share a common distinction today: anonymity. The absence of 19th-century Black elected officials from many history books belies their importance. Collectively, they represented the first significant political achievements by Black Texans. The group included farmers, builders, lawmen, teachers, merchants, and preachers. Most of them were literate, which is notable considering the majority had been enslaved. And, all were Republicans—the party of Abraham Lincoln—in a state where secessionist Democrats had aligned with the Confederacy. The key to African Americans’ political ascension in Texas was Reconstruction, the federal government’s post-Civil War effort to rebuild the South and protect the rights of emancipated…