Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2023 i Texas Highways Magazine

The undercurrent of this month’s river stories is the tenuous stability of our beloved waterways. A combination of factors, including drought, population growth, and water rights issues, threatens the viability of some of the state’s most popular swimming holes and rivers. One expert, in a story about the Narrows on the Blanco River, suggests a simple step we can all take to help turn the tide—introduce a child to a treasured body of water. When more people love our rivers, more people invest in their survival. In kind, I asked staff members to share their favorite rivers. Tyson Bird, digital strategies manager: One of the most spectacular sunsets I’ve ever seen was while camping at Guadalupe River State Park. The sky filled with pinks and oranges, reflecting in the glittering water,…

About 40 miles north of Amarillo sits Lake Meredith, the only Texas lake along the Canadian River. Formed by Sanford Dam, it’s a popular spot for camping, water sports, and fishing—particularly for walleye. Photographer Sean Fitzgerald shot this view of the national recreation area from an overlook near the Sanford-Yake Campground. He became enamored with the Canadian River and its stories more than a decade ago and turned that interest into the photo feature “Force of Nature” (Page 42). “The area around Lake Meredith has been home to people for many thousands of years and across very different cultures,” he says. “I can’t help but wonder how many of them stood on that bluff watching the sunset as I did, just to enjoy a special moment in a special place.”…

IT’S HIGH NOON on a scorching Saturday in August, and I’m standing on the banks of Hinman Island in Landa Park in New Braunfels, the main public access to the Comal River. Dubbed “the longest shortest river in the world” by locals, the cool river is a hot spot in the summer. I’m watching a parade of folks of all ages and walks of life plop down in clusters of multi-colored inflatable tubes. A steady line of tubers enters the river across from Hinman Island at Texas Tubes, one of the main launch sites. Before long, the 60-foot-wide waterway is filled bank to bank with several hundred tubers. It creates a traffic jam just upstream from the Tube Chute, the city-owned concrete waterslide that’s the highlight of most Comal tubing…

Probably the most loathed insect in Texas, the mosquito is a nuisance during the summer months. But Clute, an hour south of Houston, celebrates the mosquito on the last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of each July. “We’re down here on the coast, it gets hot, and we have tons of mosquitoes,” says Will Blackstock, Clute parks and recreation director and chairman of the festival. “We can’t get rid of them, so we might as well have a party to celebrate them.” The Great Texas Mosquito Festival, which began in 1980, attracts around 13,000 visitors to Clute annually, with popular events such as mosquito calling and the Mosquito Legs contest. For the mosquito calling contest, participants give their best interpretation of a mosquito call. “Everyone is different. Some go up and…

The impulse to get away from the grind of daily life is not a new one. This circa 1905 photo shows a group of well-dressed picnickers gathered on Salado Creek in southeastern Bexar County. Salado Creek is an intermittent stream that meanders for 38 miles. Rising in northern Bexar County, it runs almost due south through eastern San Antonio before emptying into the San Antonio River. It has been known as Salado Creek since about 1716, when Friar Isidro Félix Espinosa noted its salty waters—salado means “salty” in Spanish—in his diaries of an expedition led by Captain Domingo Ramón. Prior to that, it had been a favored campsite for Native American tribes since the late Pleistocene era. Salado Creek was also the site of the Battle of Rosillo Creek in…

Austin-based writer Bobby Alemán found a tradition worth emulating. Last year he learned of Josephine Mandamin, an Anishinaabekwe grandmother from Thunder Bay, Ontario, who completed a “water walk” around Lake Superior 20 years ago. Mandamin circumnavigated the lake—a distance of 1,300 miles—all while carrying a pail of water weighing 30 pounds. For her, it was both an act of defiance against those polluting her community’s water and a way to honor our most precious natural resource. Alemán decided to follow the example set by “one of the most extraordinary people I’ve ever come across” and planned his own water walk toward the Narrows, a hidden site on the Blanco River (“Braving the Narrows,” Page 54). The journey gave him a newfound respect for the waters that are Texas’ lifeblood. Featured…

Bandera’s roots as a cowboy haven date to just after the Civil War. The town used to host teams of drivers and Longhorns as they forged their way north on the Western Trail, heading to Kansas and Nebraska to sell Texas cattle. The route’s tenure was cut short after Longhorns spread disease to northern livestock, resulting in a ban on Texas cattle in other states and territories. But the Central Texas town’s reputation for cowboy culture endured. Since the 1920s, rodeos, dance halls, and dude ranches have wrangled tourists from all parts of the world. Bandera’s Kelly Scott grew up dazzled by Roy Rogers and the image of the American cowboy. He found himself shoeing and driving horses and wagons in Bandera, and even playing cowboys in TV shows and…

In a field of brickellbush, hundreds of monarch butterflies move with the grace of a Disney fairy waving a wand. They circle back and forth in figure eights all around us, flashing black and orange wings dotted with white, as they fly from stem to stem undisturbed. My guide, Jim, and I take off our hats while wife, Vanessa, takes out her camera. We stand there, spellbound. It’s only later that I realize the scene was likely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But maybe our whole trip was. We were there last October to find a place called the Narrows. This limestone gorge on the Blanco River has hidden, almost tropical pools where honey-combed rock walls, skirted with maidenhair fern, shimmer with the water’s reflection—a Texas oasis like no other. After hearing about…

I’m sitting at a bar in La Grange with my dad, watching a band made up of guys I vaguely know from high school. They’re playing a cover of “So Close” by the Eli Young Band on 9 p.m. on a Friday night in March. I’ve got a flight of frozen daiquiris in front of me: A “pina bahma” (piña colada), a strawberry, a peach Bellini, and my dad’s favorite—a White Russian. I never imagined country music and tropical drinks could work so well together. Mac’s Daqs Bar & Lounge, just a five-minute drive from where I grew up, feels like a fever dream. Opened last November, it’s in a former Chevrolet dealership, with tall ceilings and gleaming white floors. Concert posters cover the walls, an overhead disco ball greets…

The city of Austin is a crossroads—a place where hippies and cowboys commingle, where blackland prairie meets limestone hills, and where the eastern and western halves of the state collide. Texas’ capital city boasts new, inventive ideas about art, cuisine, and entertainment. Austin’s a big place, so we’ll tackle the city’s west side, where a Hill Country adventure awaits. Mount Bonnell Just east of Lake Austin, Mount Bonnell is one of the highest points of elevation inside Austin city limits. This is where you can see the Hill Country in all its glory. This “mountain” has been a tourist destination since the 1850s, when people started climbing the 102 stone steps to the top—775 feet above sea level. You may need to take a breather once you summit. But don’t…

State Park Spelunking Went through Longhorn Cavern for the first time when I was 6 [“Out From Under,” May]. I’m 68 now and have been in the cavern at least a dozen times. You can sense the history of the place even before you go underground. Steve Bratton Sea Rim State Park I don’t think 18 inches would be high enough to keep gators from climbing up on the platform [“Water Bed,” May]. Of course, they are the experts, not me. Jean Kidwell McDaniel Making a Dent I was at NTSU—now UNT—in the ’70s and could tell there was potential there [“All the Right Notes,” May]. Wishing the best for Denton! Bruce Pfieffer Daytrippers While the June issue on weekend escapes is superb, my wife and I in our mid-80s…

If you’re familiar with Nocona, a small town about two hours north of Dallas-Fort Worth, you probably know it for its leatherworking heritage. This is where H.J. Justin started his cowboy boot empire, Justin Boots, and is a place made famous in the early 20th century by Nocona Boots and Nokona Ballgloves. Even today, it’s home to talented craftspeople who can turn hides from cows and even more exotic animals into any number of beautiful and functional items. While leather goods are undeniably a big part of Nocona’s cultural fabric, new and noteworthy attractions are joining the mix. It’s a bustling town steeped in history with a rejuvenated main street dotted with art galleries, boutique shops, and eateries. Nocona is an eclectic mix of old and new Texas, surrounded by…

1845 - Prince Carl Solms from Germany settles New Braunfels. He chooses the site for its proximity to the Comal River. 1881 - Banker William Clemens constructs the Clemens Dam, adjacent to the present-day Tube Chute, for a cotton textile mill that never comes to fruition. 1898 - Henry Landa establishes Landa’s Park near downtown. Now called Landa Park, the beloved city park comprises 196 acres. nbtexas.org 1910 - Professor F.E. Giesecke, who taught architecture at Texas A&M, buys more than 60 acres to establish a summer school for incoming college students. 1918 - With 56 acres purchased from Giesecke, Otto and Martha Warnecke establish Camp Warnecke. Tubing is a popular pastime at the family resort, which is featured in Life magazine in 1951. 1925 - New Braunfels holds a…

The deep-water port of Texas City has long been known for its refineries, shrimp boils, and the longest human-made fishing pier in the world at 5.3 miles. But it now also lays claim to one of the most bonkers Southern characters on TV: Judy Gemstone, as played by native Edi Patterson in HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones. The show’s writer, producer, and actor grew up in Texas City and draws inspiration for her character from her hometown. “I’ll always love Texas City,” Patterson says. “It made me who I am.” In the series, Judy is the daughter of a wealthy, corrupt Southern televangelist named Eli Gemstone (John Goodman) and sister to associate pastor Jesse (series creator Danny McBride) and youth pastor Kelvin (Adam Devine). She’s a grown woman with the temperament…