Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2021 i Texas Highways Magazine

Horsin’ Around Once, when Maddie Ferguson was riding her horse at a rodeo in Bowie, she overheard a young girl exclaim to her mom, “Oh my gosh, she’s a real cowgirl!” The 18-year-old Nocona High School graduate, pictured on the cover and above with her horse, Boonie, doesn’t mind the moniker. “Rancher” and “horse trainer” also capture facets of her lifestyle, but if you ask her what she does, she'll say “I run barrels.” Ferguson’s day-to-day routine on her family’s 600-acre ranch in Spanish Fort isn’t all that different from that of her ancestors, who worked the same land the family purchased in 1872. Most days, she wakes up around 5 a.m. to feed her horses and complete chores around the ranch. Then she might go into town and help…

TH: The above is excerpted from a poem Haines wrote to George Getschow, thanking him for his August story on the town. Down by the River Great article on Leakey [“My Hometown,” August]. For quite a few years, I would visit a dear friend who pastors a church there. Staying at my friend’s house, he insisted on introducing me to Mama Chole’s. Now my visits are not complete without at least a few meals at the best restaurant in town. Phillip E. Schwab, Fort Worth Spring in Your Step What happy memories your article on Aquarena Springs brought back [“When Aquamaids Reigned,” August]. We enjoyed the submarine theater, the glass-bottom boats, and staying in the hotel. Yes, I even remember the swimming pig. Now, all the aunts, uncles, and several…

M.L. Leddy’s custom boots start at about $1,400 for a pair of calfskin boots (best for riding and ranching), and customers can expect a one-year wait. A pair of shiny full-quill ostrich starts at $2,795. For a more affordable but still comfortable boot, the Leddy’s Vaquero brand starts at $400. They may not be made-to-measure, but the cowboys like them. For a fitting, here’s what to expect: Step One: Choose your toe box: round, pointed, or French toe (a combination of the first two). Step Two: Pick your heel height and shape. Step Three: Select among four scallop designs (the design of the top of the boot). Step Four: Decide on an arch. Try on sample pairs to see which feel the best. Step Five: Get measured. Relax and let…

Texas used to be horse country. In the 19th century, a vast swath of South Texas was known as the Wild Horse Desert, an unforgiving landscape of chaparral and scrub patrolled by herds of mustangs. These bucking broncos and faithful mares became a central part of Texan folklore. “Of all the monuments which the Spaniard has left to glorify his reign in America, there will be none more worthy than his horse,” said Frederic Remington, a Western frontier painter, in an 1888 Century Magazine interview. The first record of Spanish-imported mustangs in Texas dates to 1542. They likely got their name from the Spanish word mesteño, or “belonging to the stockmen.” The Spanish mustang spread rapidly throughout the continent, and its agility, toughness, and endurance made it the favored horse…

TO WARD OFF COWARDICE, NEVER WEAR YELLOW OR EAT CHICKEN ON THE DAYS YOU RIDE. This was one of the rodeo axioms my mother taught me as I was growing up. Placing your hat on a bed was a sure invitation for bad luck. And always respect rodeo clowns: They’re the best athletes in the arena, and they save lives. The last one perplexed me when I was young. Clowns were the guys who strutted around dusty small-town rodeos in ragged outfits while carrying out groanworthy banter with the event announcer. Sometimes they performed tricks with dancing burros or hoop-jumping dogs. Other times, they might drive around in a tricked-up old car with an exploding muffler and a radiator that could spew water like Old Faithful. The athleticism of rodeo…

At Cowboy-Up Chocolates in San Angelo, Charles Mullin greets customers as “Wild West Charlie,” a character who always wears boots and a cowboy hat. Mullin’s alter ego is part of the charm of this quaint shop that has been open since 2008. In 2019, Charles’ wife, Misty Mullin, purchased Cowboy-Up Chocolates from its founder, James Crowder. A larger-than-life personality, Crowder gave wooden roses to each customer, along with a business card with Western axioms inscribed on the back. “Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t,” reads Charles’ favorite. Not only is the store’s name fitting of the kitschy salesmanship and signature yellow rose- and Lone Star State-shape truffles inherited from Crowder, but it also pays homage to San Angelo’s frontier history and…

Other states were carved or born,Texas grew from hide and horn.Other states are long or wide,Texas is a shaggy hide,Dripping blood and crumpled hair,Some fat giant flung it there,Laid the head where valleys drain,Stretched its rump along the plain.Other soil is full of stones,Texans plow up cattle bones.—Berta Hart Nance With her poem “Cattle,” Albany teacher Berta Hart Nance won the Texan Prize at The Poetry Society of Texas’ annual competition in 1931. “For several years this prize has been won with a poem on cotton,” Nance wrote several years later. “I determined to try what I could do with cattle as a subject.” Nance, who grew up on a ranch in Shackelford County, was onto something: Her poem tapped into the cultural tradition of cowboy poetry, and to this…

When doing research for “The Original Cowboys” (Page 58), writer Katie Gutierrez realized she had never learned the histories of real-life vaqueros, despite having grown up in South Texas where they were historically abundant. “Looking at vaqueros as this really unrepresented, unknown entity that had so much to do with Texas ranching history made me really passionate,” the San Antonio-based writer says. “They had been left out of the cowboy mythology, and I wanted to see why that was.” Speaking with vaqueros made Gutierrez realize that while their lives were nowhere near easy, they wouldn’t want it any other way. “Too modern of an eye can make you almost victimize them in your head,” she says, “but that’s the total opposite of what they experienced and what they would want.…

While taking photographs this summer for “Fight or Flight” (Page 46), Dave Shafer visited the Jim Bowie Days Rodeo and Celebration in Bowie, between Wichita Falls and Fort Worth. Shafer was taking portraits of rodeo contestants when the sun descended behind the clouds, and he turned his attention to the arena. “The sun and clouds were my heroes at this moment,” Shafer says. “The crowd was full and excited. I just needed some compelling action.” Fortunately, the ranch bronc riders rose to the occasion. Shafer captured this cowboy as he was closing in on the 8-second buzzer, which marks the minimum time a rider must stay on the bronc to get a score. The rodeo is held annually at the Bowie Rodeo Arena during the last full week of June.…

If you want to feel like Texas royalty, get fitted for custom boots at M.L. Leddy’s. Like a king or queen on a throne, you kick back in an engraved leather chair in the back of the Fort Worth shop while Raz —he prefers his first name only—focuses on your feet. In his cowboy hat and well-oiled ostrich-skin boots, the 18-year veteran of the shop’s Stockyards location wraps measuring tape around the instep, the heel, and the ball of the foot with steadied precision. “One of the first things I try to get people to do is come in and look around,” Raz explains against a backdrop of shelves stacked with hundreds of boots—all varied in color, stitching, and design—that serve as imagination prompts. “It’s like you tell your husband…

On the banks of the Llano River on an April day, I stroll among cooks in late-19th-century ranch attire. They tend to cast-iron skillets and Dutch ovens over crackling fires alongside their vintage chuckwagons. What looks like a living history exhibit at a museum is actually the Llano Chuckwagon Cook-off, an annual event that typically draws 1,000-plus attendees. The competitors prepare feasts of meat, potatoes, gravy, bread, beans, and fruit cobbler the same way “cookies” did during cattle drives, which took place from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s. Cookies managed the chuckwagons—covered wagons created to store and transport food and cooking equipment—and in addition to being responsible for all meals, worked on other tasks such as cutting hair and mending clothes. Their legacies live on in modern chuckwagon experiences,…

The Bull-Dogger CIRCA 1900 Famed rodeo cowboy Bill Pickett was born in 1870 in the community of Jenks Branch, on the border of Travis and Williamson counties. After attending school through fifth grade, he worked as a cowboy in the Taylor area and observed that a herding dog could subdue a bull by biting through its upper lip. He taught himself the risky trick, which amazed spectators and landed him a job in Wild West shows traveling the U.S., Mexico, Canada, and England. Pickett’s innovation, dubbed “bulldogging,” evolved over time into the popular rodeo event known as steer wrestling. Pickett is also credited with being the first Black cowboy movie star, appearing in 1921’s Crimson Skull and 1922’s The Bull-Dogger. Pickett was friends with Western film stars Will Rogers and…

Jared Session is a man of the land—specifically, the Rolling Plains of the southeastern Texas Panhandle. Born and raised in Childress, Jared left only long enough to earn a degree in ranch and feedlot operations at nearby Clarendon College before returning to work on the Buckle L Ranch south of town. Now, he shares his love of the land and the rural lifestyle with his wife, Suzy Session, and their three children. Surrounded by some of the nation’s best cattle country, Childress took shape with the merging of two frontier towns and the arrival of the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway in 1887. As the Childress County seat, Childress became a center of trade and government, as well as a hub for agribusiness and ranching—a status it retains today.…

"One of the most interesting events to attend in Texas!"-The New York Times Campfires, Chili con Carne, and the Words of J. Frank Dobie Honoring Live Oak County’s most famous son, J. Frank Dobie, to celebrate Dobie’s works and contributions to literature, folklore, and storytelling. First Friday of November Oakville, TX 1hourand15minute drive south of San Antonio. Oakville is located between Three Rivers and George West, TX, right off IH37. Meet and greet with Texas Writers! Stick around after the show for our social hour! Shop books, mingle with the participants, and enjoy wine and dessert. For tickets and more info visit dobiedichos.com…

Mornings at the Oliver Saddle Shop in Amarillo are rarely quiet. The workshop is filled with the clinking of hammers tapping in nails, the scraping and cutting of leather, and the whirring of machines dating to the 1910s stitching together thick pieces of hide or cutting a strap just so. On cold days, you might find a few cowhands sipping coffee and swapping yarns next to the wood burning stove. But the noise doesn’t mean the scene isn’t peaceful. To step into the rich smell of leather and hear Richard Oliver and his crew working on their handmade masterpieces is to know instant cowboy Zen. This Panhandle institution is the oldest family-owned saddlery in the state. Richard’s granddad, C.W. Oliver, started the business in Vernon back in 1917. Richard’s father,…

When professional horseman and cowboy Pete Lichau was growing up in 1970s Sonoma County, California, he idolized actor John Wayne. Two of his favorite movies were True Grit and Rooster Cogburn, both Westerns that showed characters eating corn dodgers, a hush puppy-like snack. “As a little cowboy kid, whatever John Wayne ate, I was gonna eat,” Lichau says. So his mother dutifully recreated the on-screen treats. “That just elevated my mom to John Wayne status,” Lichau recalls. Corn dodgers originated as a survival food for pioneers during the Westward Expansion of the 1800s. They were made out of the only ingredients on hand in hard times—cornmeal, pork fat, salt, and water. They were fried in a cast-iron skillet or on a tine of a garden hoe and were used as…

Beginning in the 1880s, Czechs settled throughout Burleson County in large numbers. In 1984, descendents of those settlers interested in preserving their heritage gathered for a kolache bake-off, competing with their best recipes for the pastry made from sweet yeast dough and a fruit or cheese filling. The contest, held in the Central Texas town of Caldwell, grew into a full-blown festival, and in 1989, the state Legislature dubbed Caldwell the “Kolache Capital of Texas,” cementing the town’s pastry pride. This year’s 36th annual Kolache Festival, held in downtown Caldwell on Sept. 11, features live polka music, the Kolache Krunch 5K, a quilt show, hundreds of arts and crafts vendors, and more than 40 food vendors. Three downtown restaurants serve authentic Czech dishes, and bakeries crank out countless kolaches. “We…

If you’re a rodeo fan, the first thing to catch your eye about Brazilian-born bull rider Silvano Alves is his height. He stands 5 feet, 10 inches, which conventional wisdom would tell you is too tall to be good at riding bucking bulls or broncs. Most rough-stock riders are shorter, compact men with low centers of gravity that give them a balance advantage. But the 33-year-old Alves competes in the Professional Bull Riders circuit, which has been bucking traditional rodeo notions for more than 25 years. The PBR, as it’s known, showcases the best bull riders riding the strongest bulls in rodeo’s most popular event. Alves, a soft-spoken three-time world champion, is among the PBR’s rough-and-tumble elite. Products of Brazil’s ranching culture, cowboys like Alves have been dominant in American…