Authentic Texas Spring 2018

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VISIONARY VOLUME 3 SPRING 2018 EDITION

How Gov. John Connally transformed the state’s tourism industry

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FROM THE TEXAS HERITAGE TRAILS LLC TEXAS TRAVEL is the theme running through this ninth quarterly issue of Authentic Texas. Fifty years ago, Gov. John B. Connally (1917–1993) established the Texas Travel Trails — one of the key components in the governor’s efforts to focus attention on statewide tourism resources. Modern-day successors to the governor’s Travel Trails are the 10 Texas Heritage Trail Regions now under the guidance of the Texas Historical Commission (THC).

In 2016, Texas Heritage Trails, LLC, answered Gov. Connally’s challenge by creating Authentic Texas, a magazine focusing on heritage tourism places, stories and events. Producing Authentic Texas is a collaborative effort. Seven of the 10 Heritage Trail Regions of the THC are members of the Texas Heritage Trails, LLC, including the Texas Brazos, Forts, Lakes, Mountain, Pecos, Plains and Tropical Trail Regions. The magazine is published in cooperation with Open Sky Media. Stewart Ramser of Austin and Alpine has served as publisher since the publication’s inception; Tom Buckley of Austin serves as editor, and Martha Gazella-Taylor of Austin is the designer.

On Jan. 11, 2018, the THC honored the Texas Heritage Trails, LLC, for the organization’s accomplishments and leadership in the preservation of Texas’ historic places with the Award of Excellence in Media Achievement. (See photo.) This award celebrates excellence in reporting by print or electronic media to increase awareness of the state’s historic and prehistoric resources.

To date, the publication, which is supported by paid advertising, has provided more than $850,000 in free editorial coverage to Texas heritage tourism and historic preservation subjects. The quarterly magazine is available by paid, annual subscription at AuthenticTexas.com, via single-copy purchase at select Barnes & Noble and H-E-B stores in Texas, and at no charge via tourism literature organizations statewide.

The success of the magazine is largely attributable to wonderful advertisers who’ve believed in the vision of creating a high-quality magazine filled with Texas heritage stories. In return, content has focused on the authentic places, people and experiences of the Lone Star State.

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AU THENTIC TEXAS

Many individuals with diverse interests exemplify the authenticity of Texas subjects. Cover “authentic personalities” to date have included restaurateur Tom Perini, former U.S. and Texas AWARD-WORTHY: (from left to right) THC first lady Laura Bush, Apollo Chairman John Nau, LLC president Rick astronaut Alan Bean, Big Stryker, Forts Trail LLC manager Jeff Salmon Bend National Park ranger and THC executive director Mark Wolfe.

Cindy Ott-Jones, Fort Worth Stockyards champion Steve Murrin, Texas Ranger Christine Nix, musician “Little Joe” Hernández and filmmaker Richard Linklater.

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Travel Trails and in homage to Gov. Connally’s vision for creating a viable travel industry in Texas, this issue features John B. Connally as our Authentic Person. The Authentic Place is HemisFair Plaza in San Antonio, which in 1968 was the site of the Southwest’s first-ever world’s fair.

Gov. Connally established tourism as a cornerstone of the Texas economy, but it wasn’t the first effort to jump-start tourism. Also highlighted is the Trail of Six Flags, a marketing partnership of Texas cities predating the governor’s Travel Trails.

Thank you for your interest in experiencing Texas’ unique heritage. We hope this magazine provides ideas and inspiration for further exploration.

Thanks and Happy Trails, Rick Stryker President, Texas Heritage Trails LLC

Contents SPRING 2018

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48

38

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AUTHENTIC PERSON

AUTHENTIC PLACE

AUTHENTIC THING

When John Connally became Texas governor in 1963, he inherited a state that wasn’t as competitive in the multi-billiondollar tourism industry as destinations like Florida and California. By the time he’d left office in 1969, Connally had transformed tourism in Texas — one of his signature achievements.

The year 1968 marked the 250th anniversary of San Antonio’s founding in 1718, and as part of the celebration, the city hosted HemisFair ’68, a six-monthlong international exhibition. The event welcomed some 6.4 million visitors through its gates and helped establish the city's tourism industry.

The farm-to-market road is to Texas what the freeway is to California: not just a roadway but a symbol of the culture.

Conceived as a way to help farmers get their crops to market, the first such road was opened in 1941, and in 1949 the Texas legislature guaranteed permanent funding for new farm-to-market roads.

AU THENTIC TEXAS

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

FEATURES

Contents DEEP IN THE ART

Roadside Rest Stops

While on assignment in Texas, Ryann Ford was captured by the state's rest stops, which resulted in her book The Last Stop.

65 HAPPENINGS

LEGACY

80 TEXAS ORIGINALS

Bob Phillips

FM 390, ONE OF THE STATE'S MANY FARM-TO-MARKET ROADS, P. 44

A modern-day Charles Kuralt tells the stories of authentic Texans on his television show The Texas Country Reporter. war effort, are receiving muchdeserved recognition.

LOCAL

Menard

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TEXAS ICON

Armadillo

The nine-banded armadillo — the state's official small mammal — has an exceptional sense of smell and, when startled, jumps vertically.

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YONDER

Seminole Canyon

Archaeological formations and cave pictographs — painted in vivid earth tones — await visitors.

Poteet

The city's signature event, the Poteet Strawberry Festival, has been delighting attendees for 70 years.

New London

Eighty years ago, on March 18, 1937, an explosion at the London School took the lives of nearly 300 people, mostly children.

Sweetwater

The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), who were vital to the WWII

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Presidio de San Sabá, built to protect nearby Mission San Sabá, has a compelling history and an undeniable significance to Texas' past.

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CITY LIGHTS

Corpus Christi’s Whataburger Field

The 2017 World Series champions, the Houston Astros, owe a debt to the AA affiliate that's produced some of its key players.

Cleburne

The Cleburne Railroaders are playing professional baseball again — after 111 years.

Texarkana

One city, two states — and lots of visitor photos taken at the intersection.

Alpine’s Kokernot Field One of professional baseball’s most beautiful fields is in Far West Texas and has an intriguing history.

LIFE

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ARCHIVE

TRAIL DRIVES

Trail of Six Flags

Six cities are linked by the tourism trail officially dedicated in 1962.

Heritage Travel

Travel Trails

Items from the State Archives are being displayed in a new exhibit.

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Celebrations throughout the year honor Texas' rich cultural heritage.

HISTORIES

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The tourist village has a fascinating transportation history, and is rebounding after I-35 construction dealt a blow to area businesses.

EATS & DRINKS

Gaido’s Elgin Sausage Stagecoach Inn Dairy Queen

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Salado

Trails in This Issue Brazos 57, 64, 66, 84 Forest 22, 32 Forts 24, 26 Hill Country 20, 59, 82 Independence 39, 54, 62 Lakes 30, 56, 58, 59, 60 Mountain 34 Pecos 18 Plains 59 Tropical 28, 54

EATS & DRINKS: P. 56, Gaido's

COURTESY TEXAS ARCHIVE OF THE MOVING IMAGE; DAVID SHANKBONE/FLICKR

Departments

TRAILS MAP THE TEXAS HERITAGE TRAILS program is based on 10 scenic driving trails created in 1968

by Gov. John Connally and the Texas Highway Department (now the Texas Department of Transportation) as a tool for visitors to explore the Lone Star State. The trails were established in conjunction with HemisFair, an international expo that commemorated the 250th anniversary of the founding of San Antonio.

In 1997, the State Legislature charged the Texas Historical Commission with creating a statewide heritage tourism program. The THC responded with a program based on local, regional and state partnerships, centered on the 10 scenic driving trails. Today, each trail region is a nonprofit organization governed by a regional board of directors that supports educational and preservation efforts and facilitates community development through heritage tourism.

PUBLISHER

Stewart Ramser ADVERTISING

Julie A. Kunkle, Associate Publisher Christina Olivarez, Advertising Director Senior Account Executives: Jeff Carlyon, Macaulay Hammond, Denise Janove, Margaret Kennedy, Roxanne Levine, Tina Mullins, Misty Pennock, Maxine Pittman, Jasmine Allgood Ward Abigail Stewart, Advertising Sales Manager Jillian Clifton, Advertising Sales Coordinator Lisa Reiley, Advertising Design & Production ART DIRECTOR

Martha Gazella-Taylor, Gazella Design EDITOR

Tom Buckley

PLAINS TRAIL REGION

COPY EDITORS

Julie Seaford, Danielle Drews, Anne Herman, Michael Marchio, Bailey Poland LAKES TRAIL REGION FORTS TRAIL REGION

MOUNTAIN TRAIL REGION

CONTRIBUTORS

Diann Bayes, Mike Carlisle, Allison Causey, Ryann Ford, Loretta Fulton, Trey Gutierrez, Heather Juarez, Terrell T. Kelley, Stacy New, Lea Thompson EDITORIAL BOARD

PECOS TRAIL REGION

BRAZOS TRAIL REGION

HILL COUNTRY TRAIL REGION

FOREST TRAIL REGION

INDEPENDENCE TRAIL REGION

TROPICAL TRAIL REGION

Coleman Hampton, Texas Brazos Trail Region Jeff Salmon, Texas Forts Trail Region Patty Bushart, Texas Lakes Trail Region Robert Alvarez, Texas Mountain Trail Region Bill Simon, Texas Pecos Trail Region Kay Ellington, Texas Plains Trail Region Rick Stryker, Texas Tropical Trail Region EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS OF PARTICIPATING TEXAS HERITAGE TRAIL REGIONS

Andrea Barefield, Texas Brazos Trail Region Margaret Hoogstra, Texas Forts Trail Region Jill Campbell Jordan, Texas Lakes Trail Region Wendy Little, Texas Mountain Trail Region Melissa Hagins, Texas Pecos Trail Region Barbara Brannon, Texas Plains Trail Region Nancy Deviney, Texas Tropical Trail Region

Legend

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Texas Heritage Trails LLC 3702 Loop 322 Abilene, TX 79602 AuthenticTexas.com (325) 660-6774

BRAZOS TRAIL TexasBrazosTrail.com

INDEPENDENCE TRAIL TexasIndependenceTrail.com

FORTS TRAIL TexasFortsTrail.com

MOUNTAIN TRAIL TexasMountainTrail.com

FOREST TRAIL TexasForestTrail.com

PECOS TRAIL TexasPecosTrail.com

Texas Heritage Trails LLC member organizations are participants of the nationally award-winning Texas Heritage Trails Program of the Texas Historical Commission.

HILL COUNTRY TRAIL TxHillCountryTrail.com

PLAINS TRAIL TexasPlainsTrail.com

Texas Heritage Trails, LLC dba Authentic Texas is a member of the Texas Travel Industry Association and is a Go Texan partner.

LAKES TRAIL TexasLakesTrail.com

TROPICAL TRAIL TexasTropicalTrail.com

AU THENTIC TEXAS

Texas Heritage Trails LLC is owned and operated by seven nonprofit heritage trails organizations.

LOCAL TEXAS ICON p. 14 H YONDER p. 18 H CITY LIGHTS p. 28 H FEATURES p. 38

STORIES IN

STONE

WILLIAM WARBY

Seminole Canyon State Park & Historic Site

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LOCAL TEXAS ICON

LITTLE

Armored ONE Texas’ Nine-Banded Armadillo The state’s official mammal is an unusual nine-banded critter fond of lawn work by

WENDY LITTLE

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NATURAL GARDENER The armadillo "possesses attributes that distinguish a true Texan," proclaimed the Texas Legislature in 1981 — "a deep respect and need for land, and a fierce undying love for freedom."

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WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

he menace Who in Texas hasn’t stepped out of their door in the morning to a scene that looks like someone’s taken an auger to their grass and garden overnight? While it could have been an angry neighbor with a grudge, or bored teenagers playing a cruel prank, the most likely culprit is a cat-sized, armored, and mostly nocturnal mammal, the armadillo. This disruptive little critter is called dasypus novemcinctus, the nine-banded, longnosed armadillo, and it’s found everywhere Texas east of the Trans-Pecos Region.

What happened in your yard last night simply boils down to a hungry armadillo. Armadillos are foragers and diggers. They use their exceptional sense of smell to track down various types of foods — predominately invertebrates such as beetles, cockroaches, wasps, yellow jackets, ants, scorpions, spiders, snails, and grubs — all of which can be found in your luscious lawn and in the rich soil of your garden.

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The myth Around the world, there are roughly 20 species of armadillo, but the nine-banded variety is the only one found in the United States. Some think armadillos can roll up into a ball, but that’s only true of the three-banded species found in South America..

What is true though, is that where armadillos are most prolific, most residents and visitors encounter them as roadkill more often than seeing them alive and doing their thing. Why? It’s not because they aren’t intelligent, but because their eyesight is terrible and hearing is not that great either. When startled on the blacktop, an armadillo jumps vertically, causing it to actually strike the car instead of the other way around.

The critter could have easily stayed still and the car would go right over, causing no harm.

And while there isn’t much information about the evolution of the armadillo, it is known that its closest relatives, the sloth and the anteater, go back 50 million years. So who are we in the twenty-first century to tell this strange creature how to act around motorized vehicles?

“Another fact to consider is how far north they occur,” says John Karges, a former naturalist and the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge.“It was speculated that winter temp extremes would prevent them from going far north, and the thinking was that in some multiyear warm cycles they would push north (maybe

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into south easternmost Nebraska), but being a semi-tropical animal, they'd perish in prolonged ultra-cold cycles and survive only farther south in Kansas and southern Missouri.”

But, Karges observes, they are rare in the Trans-Pecos.

How they are made If this little creature weren’t weird enough already, its mating and reproduction processes certainly should be noted. In the northern hemisphere, where the nine-banded armadillo is found, mating occurs July through August. A single egg is fertilized, but implantation (the attachment of the fertilized egg to the uterus at the start of pregnancy), is delayed three to four months to insure the young will be born at the best time.

Once implanted, the zygote splits into four identical embryos, each developing its own placenta.

If conditions are right and Mama Armadillo is healthy, she will give birth to identical quadruplets in spring. The young will live in the burrow, feeding on mother’s milk, for about three months. Then the mother leads them out and teaches the next generation how to dig, forage, and make gardeners very unhappy.

Cute and cuddly?

Maybe not so much, but ... armadillos are used in medical research, being one of the only mammals other than humans that can contract leprosy.

In addition, once mama and babies leave the burrow, usually in six months or so, the abandoned home often becomes inhabited by snakes, rabbits, opossums, rats, skunks, and burrowing owls —rendering quite a nice service to fellow animals.

“I love armadillos,” says Kami Rapp, native Texan, daughter of a veterinarian and, as a child, keeper of an armadillo she named Lone Star after her father brought home an orphaned juvenile. “Lone Star lived in a cage in our breakfast room and he loved to eat crickets, so my dad was constantly catching them for him. I took him to show and tell at school. Pretty sure all the other kids thought I was weird, but I didn’t care.

He was cool, and the other kids were clueless.”

Once Lone Star grew big enough to survive on his own, Rapp and her father set him free on the family ranch.

We Texans may not have the most adorable state mammal (if you’re partial to the raccoon, the beaver, or the squirrel) or the most majestic (if elk, moose, bear, or bighorn sheep tend to inspire you more), but we love our armadillos and are happy to share space with them. Even if they make us crazy.

Stay out of our gardens and off the roads, little feller.

LOCAL YONDER

CANYON DWELLING: Archeological artifacts and cave art date back to the earliest human habitation in this part of the Trans-Pecos area.

Seminole Canyon tells a rich story — with breathtaking views

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MELISSA HAGINS

SEMINOLE CANYON State Park and Historic

Site, just west of Comstock, Texas, might have taken its name from the U.S. army scouts stationed in the area in the nineteenth century, but it’s the region’s much older human record that draws most of the visitors there today.

I was fortunate to tour the park last fall with superintendent Randy Rosales, who grew up in this remote area and is a wealth of information about the canyon’s history. Rosales led us down into the limestone canyon on a path that would’ve been treacherous when wet. But the breathtaking views were worth the effort. I had never seen anything so beautiful.

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The people who inhabited this rocky, steepwalled canyon some 4,000 years ago left their traces in the form of stylized pictographs — a treasure trove of hundreds of images painted in vivid earth tones. “They used mostly ground-up rocks and minerals mixed with other local ingredients,” Rosales explained to our group, “to create the paintings on the walls of the rock shelters.”

Our trek took us eventually back up several steep stairs to the Fate Bell pictograph site, one of 18 different areas in the canyon adorned with ancient paintings, and one of the few open to the public on guided tours.

The creators of these paintings depicted ani-

U.S. Highway 90 Comstock, TX 78837 (432) 292-4464 tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/ seminole-canyon Visitor Center is open daily from 8:00 am to 4:45 pm

Langtry Roy Bean Museum and Travel Information Center TX-25 Loop & Toress Avenue Langtry, TX 78871 (432) 291-3340 Daily 8 am–5pm

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SEMINOLE

PECOS TRAIL REGION

MELISSA HAGINS

History Via Pictograph

Seminole Canyon State Park

mals and plant life. But they survived primarily on plants, Rosales said. “They did hunt animals,” Rosales says, “but few lived in the canyon, and you weren’t guaranteed a successful hunt.”

According to Rosales, the pictographs are a way for different generations of the canyon to tell their stories. One group would paint what happened while they were living, and the next group would come along and add their story. There’s evidence of where they slept and ate while living in the rock shelters, too; Rosales pointed out several rocks that, given the indentations of blades in the rocks, would have been used by Indians to lean against while making meals or cutting things up.

Though the canyon’s paintings were recorded in the 1920s, the park was opened to the public only in 1980.

And just how did it get its name? That would be in honor of the detachment of 100 men the U.S. Army called Seminole-Negro Indian Scouts, who were brought to the region in 1870 and later garrisoned at nearby Fort Clark. The scouts protected the West Texas frontier from the Apache and Comanche bands between 1872 and 1914. The complement of scouts was known for its exceptional cunning and toughness. Not one was ever wounded or killed in combat, and four earned the prestigious Medal of Honor.

A visitor center onsite tells this story, as well as that of ancient pictograph-makers, and the canyon’s native animals and plants. Displays also present the history of Comstock, which was once a railroad town and later a ranching community.

Visitors will also find miles of great hiking trails and camping sites — and memories, like mine, to be long savored and remembered.

WINDOW TO THE PAST: Eighteen areas of the canyon feature ancient paintings that span generations, allowing inhabitants to tell their individual stories.

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STRAWBERRY FIELDS: Locally grown strawberries (left) have been Poteet's claim to agricultural fame since 1920; Helen Franklin (below) was crowned the city's Strawberry Queen in 1949.

YONDER

Berry, Berry Sweet

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ALLISON CAUSEY

ALTHOUGH the strawberry traces its domestic history back to Brittany, France, during the late 18th century, it’s certainly taken root in a Texas city named Poteet.

Located approximately 25 miles South of San Antonio down Texas Highway 16, the city was once the home of Henry and Ida Mumme, one of the first families to settle in Poteet and invest in the development of the community.

In 1918, at the San Antonio Produce Market, Henry befriended a renowned strawberry farmer named Gustav Aigner. Two years later, Aigner relocated his family to Poteet and began cultivating strawberries there. He grew the berries

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AU THENTIC TEXAS

so successfully guests from San Antonio were invited to sample the newfound sweet, red treats.

A headline in the San Antonio Express read, “Crimson Berries Beckon Hungry Tourists to Poteet.” The town now had its claim to fame and was swiftly dubbed the “Strawberry Capital of Texas.”

Strawberries continued to thrive in the agriculturally rich climate of Poteet during the 1920s and 1930s. During World War II, many area farmers were taken away from their fields to defend their county. Upon the return of these veterans, the community saw a need for an incentive to encourage farming again. The Poteet Rotary

71st Poteet Strawberry Festival April 13–15, 2018 9199 N. State Highway 16 Poteet, TX 78065 strawberryfestival.com

Local (830) 742-8144 San Antonio Metro (830) 276-3323 Toll-free (888) 742-8144

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POTEET

HILL COUNTRY TRAIL REGION

POTEET STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL OFFICES

Poteet’s signature festival has celebrated the strawberry for more than seven decades

RED-LETTER DAY: Tyler Stewart of Poteet wins first place in the food contest for his mini strawberry cheesecake monkey breads; Leonard Jr. and his wife Irma, of Sanchez Family Farms, on Growers Row.

Club founded the first official Poteet Strawberry Festival in April of 1948 for this very reason. The festival was a huge success, with over 5,000 people coming to taste the delicious berries.

The famous berries and festival garnered the attention and adoration of people from across the state and nation. Since the festival’s conception, local growers work tirelessly to produce and showcase the finest berries in the United States.

The luscious berries can be identified by their boxes, which read “Fresh Produce — Poteet, Texas,” so festivalgoers know they’re experiencing the authentic, sweet Poteet strawberry. Local growers are also invited to sell their berries on “Growers Row” on the festival grounds. Growers vie for highest honors, with the top flats being auctioned off.

The festival, traditionally held the second

weekend in April, is something the whole family can enjoy. Over 30 community groups and charitable organizations participate in the festival to raise money by selling food — with many dishes containing Poteet strawberries. In addition, you can experience concerts by nationally known countyn and Tejano stars, regional bands, a carnival, parade, food contest, rodeo performances and more.

While the primary focus is to promote the Poteet strawberry, festival proceeds also go to scholarships for Poteet youth.

The festival has a major impact, with more than 100,000 people each year pouring upwards of $10 million back into the economy.

Seventeenth-century English writer Dr. William Butler once said of the strawberry, “Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did.”

Strawberries are the best of the berries — we agree. And the best way to experience this marvelous treat is to visit Poteet, the “Strawberry Capital of Texas,” and enjoy this locally grown treasure in person.

Allison Causey is the technology marketing manager for the Abilene Convention and Visitors Bureau.

She’s also had the pleasure of serving as a Strawberry Festival food judge.

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THE DAY THE CLOCK STOOD STILL: (clockwise from left) A granite cenotaph memorial to the victims, depicting 12 life-size figures; rescue workers search through the wreckage; one victim's gravestone.

YONDER

Out of the Darkness

Eighty years on, the day everything changed in New London hasn’t been forgotten

March 18, 1937, a majority will greet you with a blank stare.

For the citizens of New London in the Piney Woods of East Texas, however, the answer is automatic. The tragedy that occurred mid-afternoon that day would affect the community for years and still stands as one of the deadliest disasters in the history of the state. But the lessons learned from it yielded benefits that

AU THENTIC TEXAS

HOURS Mon.–Fri., 9 am–4 pm Lunch available 11 am–2 pm facebook.com/newlondonmuseum

DIANN BAYES

IF YOU ASK MOST Texans what happened on

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10690 S. Main St. New London, TX 75682 (903) 895-4602

still resonate across the globe.

Situated in one of the richest school districts in the nation at the time — in the rich East Texas oil patch — London School was approaching the end of its scheduled instruction that Thursday. Shortly after 3 p.m., a loud boom could be heard from miles across the oil-welldotted land. The school building, relatively new, had exploded.

Oil workers and other citizens from New

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NEW LONDON

FOREST TRAIL REGION

PHOTOS COURTESY DIANN BAYES

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London School Museum, Cafe & Soda Fountain

Dees, the last remaining rescue worker, passed away in January of this year at age 102.

Following his retirement in 1979, he made every effort to visit the New London Museum and Café on a weekly basis to offer visitors a firstperson account of the tragedy.

Visitors from around the world may pay their respects and learn more about the tragedy at a museum located across the street from the present-day West Rusk High School. A 32-foot-high granite cenotaph was erected on the site in 1939, and in March 1987, on the 50th anniversary of the explosion, the London Ex-Students Association placed a marble monument on the north side of the Cenotaph.

COURTESY DIANN BAYES

GLOBAL REACH: Adolf Hitler's condolence telegram sent to the school. "On the occasion of the terrible explosion, which took so many young lives," it reads, "I want to assure your excellency of my and the German people's sincere sympathy."

London and the surrounding communities arrived at the school to render aid. The building housed 5th through 11th graders, in addition to post-graduates. The afternoon of the explosion, the PTA was also meeting at the school.

“Bodies were laid out around the perimeter,” Marvin Dees, at the time a 20-year-old Pinkston Oil crew member, was quoted as saying. “We couldn’t believe what we were seeing.”

Dees and a number of volunteers grabbed peach baskets from one of the trucks FOR FURTHER that had stopped READING to assist, filling the Ron Rozelle, baskets with debris My Boys and Girls Are in There as they searched (nonfiction; Texas A&M for possible surUniversity Press, 2012) vivors. They were Ashley Hope Perez, later referred to as Out of Darkness (fiction; Carolrhoda Lab, 2015) part of the Peach Basket Brigade.

Approximately 300 souls lost their lives due to the explosion. No one can say with accuracy how many lives were saved. News spread quickly, as families flocked to nearby hospitals and morgues. The story was covered by a 20-year-old Texas journalist on his first national assignment: Walter Cronkite.

The ensuing investigation revealed that stress leaks had developed in the pipe couplings below the floor, and the school was filled with odorless gas. A science teacher turned on an electric sander, causing a spark that led to the explosion.

In the aftermath of New London’s horrible accident, legislation was passed, first by the state government and later by the Federal Government, requiring a chemical be mixed into natural gas to give it a detectable odor.

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YONDER

Earning Their Wings

Recognizing the women who flew military aircraft during World War II

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LORETTA FULTON

homecoming. Davis died in 2017, as did Florence literally, for the Women Airforce Service Pilots Mascott, who graduated in 1944.

The Air Race Classic traces its history to (WASP) Museum in Sweetwater, Texas.

1929 when the first Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Air Over the Memorial Day Derby took off from Santa Monica, weekend, banners will fly for the National WASP Calif. After lapses and name changes, annual homecoming of the women WWII Museum the race started up again under the who flew important missions during 210 Avenger Field Rd. Sweetwater, TX 79556 name Air Race Classic.

World War II, and again in June for (325) 235-0099 This year, the pilots will take the activities leading to the start of waspmuseum.org off from historic Avenger Field on the 42nd annual Air Race Classic.

Air Race Classic June 19. Beginning June 15, the Those events will be part of a airraceclassic.org pilots, who come from all over the seminal year in WASP history: the first group of women who trained VISIT SWEETWATER United States, will be treated to a sweetwatertexas.org Texas-sized welcome courtesy of the at Avenger Field in Sweetwater WASP Museum. earned their wings 75 years ago in Ann Hobing, executive director of the 1943. Three of those originals, Nell Bright, Edna Davis and Barbara Heinrich, attended the 2016 museum, has been planning authentic Texas

SERVICE CALL: With male pilots in short supply after the Pearl Harbor attack, Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) flew every aircraft in the Army's arsenal and were vital to the war effort. Their contributions are commemorated at the museum in Sweetwater.

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AU THENTIC TEXAS

SWEETWATER

â&#x20AC;˘

FORTS TRAIL REGION

PHOTOS COURTESY NATIONAL WASP WWII MUSEUM

MAY AND JUNE 2018 will be banner months,

AT EASE: (left to right) Pilots Millicent "Millie" Young, Shirley Kruse, Shutsy Reynolds, Dorothy Lucas, Florence Mascott, Mildred "Jane" Doyle, Roby Anderson, Kay Hilbrandt, Nell Bright and Barbara Heinrich attended the 2017 WASP Homecoming.

activities to entertain the women when they aren’t touring the museum or getting their planes ready.

“We’re thrilled we’re going to be able to do that,” Hobing said, recognizing the opportunity for public awareness and education.

The WASP history is a fascinating one. The women weren’t significantly recognized for their war effort until 2009 when they were awarded a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award given by Congress. They didn’t earn veteran status until 1977.

Despite the lack of official acknowledgement of the WASPs, people familiar with their history are amazed. The WASP program was a merger of two previous all-female pilot organizations that were formed to free up male pilots for combat during World War II — the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron and the Women’s Flying Training Detachment.

The WASP program came to Sweetwater in 1943 from Houston after a merger of the two predecessors. Sweetwater Municipal Airport got a new name when the women came. “Avenger Field” was chosen through a contest, appropriately won by a woman. “In her mind,” Hobing said, “it was avenging the bombing at Pearl Harbor.”

Several training classes were going at all times, Hobing said, and the 75th anniversary commemorates all the women who graduated in 1943. In the two years the program existed at Sweetwater, 1,074 women graduated. The first class of women, who started training in Houston, graduated on May 28, 1943.

There’s something poetic to Hobing about the Air Race Classic pilots coming to Avenger Field to commemorate the achievement of women who helped pave the way for them. The women pilots of the early 1940s had the same spirit of adventure as the women who will fly in the 2018 race. “To me,” Hobing said, “that’s one of the most exciting aspects of the Air Race Class experience.”

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YONDER

Menard County’s Spanish Colonial jewel by

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to the Alamo in its historical significance to Texas’ past. It’s closely allied to the site of a bloody massacre in 1758, when native Indians destroyed the nearby Mission San Sabá it had been designed to protect.

For more than 260 years, in fact, the Presidio de San Sabá has been attracting a diverse collection of visitors for a number of reasons.

Newcomers have been traveling from afar to the Central Texas site (Menard, seat of the county of the same name) since 1757, when more than 300 Spanish family members, priests, soldiers and prospectors came from San Antonio with their livestock, pets and worldly goods to establish a permanent Spanish presence on the San Sabá River.

This “hidden” Spanish Colonial jewel is now

AU THENTIC TEXAS

VISIT THE PRESIDIO DE SAN SABÁ

TERRELL T. KELLEY

IT'S VIEWED by some historians as second only

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VISIT MENARD

menardchamber.com

being discovered by more and more Texans as well as tourists from other states. International guests from 12 countries and counting have also found the site a compelling draw and a rich microcosm of the era of Spanish Colonial expansion in Texas. The Presidio has become the defining historical and cultural landmark for Central Texas, memorializing this period in stone.

Through the centuries following Spanish abandonment of the area, the Presidio’s ruins have provided shelter and safety for countless travelers, from California-bound Forty-niners to the region’s first settlers. Of note, in 1863 the Presidio was the birthplace of the first Anglo child born in Menard County. During the trail drives of the 1870s and ’80s, the walls of the Presidio were also used to hold cattle moving north up the Great Western Cattle Trail. The broad, well-worn path

191 Presidio Road Menard, TX 76859

presidiodesansaba.org

HOURS Open Daily 8 am-5 pm

MENARD

•

FORTS TRAIL REGION

COURTESY JOHN COBB

Hidden Treasure

FORTRESS: The entrance to Presidio de San Sabá, which features the Spanish imperial overseas flag, was reconstructed in 2011.

sailed with Christopher Columbus aboard the Santa Maria in 1492, that yielded both the tragically martyred Franciscan leader of the failed 16thcentury San Sabá Mission, and his cousin, who personally funded it.) Ray Rickard, a descendent of pioneer Menardians and a longtime member of the campaign to fully restore the Presidio, has led this international effort, which is supported locally.

Rickard hopes that “this cordial gesture of goodwill across the centuries might serve as a platform for beneficial interaction between present-day citizens of our two cities.”

But the best way to experience the Presidio de San Sabá and its beautiful riverside location is to come in person. A group of hard-working, smalltown volunteers assisting the county government, with support from the Texas Forts Trail and the Texas Historical Commission, have created a welcoming site with interpretive panels, walking trails around the ruins and a picnic shelter complete with butterfly garden.

Menard County’s “hidden” Spanish jewel awaits further discovery by all who seek to go off the beaten path to find a unique and historically significant experience on the banks of the beautiful San Saba.

Nos vemos! (We’ll be seeing y’all!)

TERRELL T. KELLEY is president of the Presidio de San Sabá Restoration Corporation and chairman of the Menard County Historical Commission.

MELTONBARKER.ORG

that countless cows and horses carved in those years as they waded across the San Saba can still be seen just across from the site.

In social media alone these days, the site attracts some 7,000 virtual visitors monthly via Facebook.

Red Steagall, cowboy icon and 2006 Poet Laureate of Texas, came to Menard in 2017 to feature the largest and most strategically important Spanish fort in Texas on his television show, Red Steagall Is Somewhere West of Wall Street. The segment aired on the RFD network and can still be viewed online. Similarly, archaeologist Monty Dobson, the creator, host and executive producer of the award-winning PBS television series America from the Ground Up, also filmed an episode on the Presidio. Dobson travels America to uncover hidden history from an archaeological perspective, making Menard’s Spanish jewel a perfect choice.

The historical link DON’T MISS between Menard and Colonial Spain has been formalized with the Lazy Ladle Café 509 Ellis St. recent establishment of Menard, TX 76859 a Sister City relationship (325) 396-2069 between the Menard lazyladlecafe@yahoo.com and Cortegana, Spain, Ojeda’s Café the ancestral home of U.S. 83 at TX Hwy. 190 the Terreros family. (It Menard, TX 76859 was this distinguished (325) 396-2112 family, whose ancestor

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LOCAL CITY LIGHTS

Field of Dreams – and Champions AS FANS OF the Houston Astros

and Texans everywhere cheered their team to the 2017 World Series, a little-known fact might have escaped all but the most diligent baseball trivia buffs.

At least nine players on that World Series roster once wore Corpus Christi Hooks uniforms.

“Not only did Sports Illustrated predict the Astros’ World Series Championship in 2017,” says Mike Coffin, Hooks director of broadcasting, of that now famously prescient 2014 article, “they put [World Series] MVP George Springer on the cover!”

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MIKE CARLISLE

That cover featured outfielder Springer joined by other former Hooks alumni: first baseman Yuli Gurriel, second baseman José Altuve, third baseman Alex Bregman, shortstop Carlos Correa, outfielder Derek Fisher and pitchers Chris Devenski, Dallas Keuchel, Lance McCullers Jr. and Joe Musgrove. Adds Coffin, “Nine on the roster coming from the Hooks’ draft picks — versus expensive free agents — paid off!”

Fans today can catch a glimpse of potential champions of the future for the price of a minor league ticket at Corpus Christi’s

Whataburger Field. Surrounded by other waterfront attractions like the USS Lexington and Texas State Aquarium, Whataburger Field, completed in 2005 at a cost of $25 million, is built on land once populated with cotton warehouses at the Port of Corpus Christi. Rustic attributes, from huge wood beams, massive cast iron knuckles and furnaces — all covered in corrugated siding — still stand in the back of the playing field, reminders of the docks’ storied past.

In addition to the unique cotton presses, fans enjoy games against the backdrop of huge ships

• CORPUS CHRISTI

Corpus Christi Hooks Baseball Club Whataburger Field 734 E. Port Ave. Corpus Christi, TX 78401 (361) 561-4665 cchooks.com

Houston Astros Minute Maid Park 501 Crawford St. Houston, TX 77002 (713) 259-8000 astros.com

VISIT CORPUS CHRISTI visitcorpuschristitx.org

MIKE CARLISLE

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In Corpus Christi, future stars are groomed at Whataburger Field

LARGER THAN LIFE: Believed to be the largest bronze statue of a baseball player — at 18 feet tall — “For the Love of the Game,” by Seth Vandable, depicts a young ballplayer standing at the entrance to Whataburger Field.

The scoreboard behind Whataburger Field’s left-center field is framed by century old cotton press and furnaces.

HISTORIC CONFINES: (clockwise from top left) The scoreboard behind left-center field is framed by a century-old cotton press and furnaces; fans watch the games against the backdrop of the Harbor Bridge, cotton warehouses and passing ships through the Port of Corpus Christi; Whataburger Field Clock.

MIKE CARLISLE

Spectators enjoy the scenic backdrop of the Harbor Bridge, cotton warehouses, and passing ships through the Port of Corpus Christi.

maneuvered through the Port beneath the Harbor Bridge, often bathed in colorful LED lighting.

The Hooks play a major part in delivering family-friendly entertainment, but Whataburger Field provides more than just top-notch minor league baseball. It hosts local high school and college baseball events, puts on music events such as “Pops in the Park” by the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra, and gives back to the community through organizations like the Miracle League.

Like Houston, Corpus Christi stands to benefit from a World Series victory, an excellent return on its municipal investment. But Houston had to bring home the bacon first.

Back in 2011, considering the Astros’ annual last-place finishes — including the worst record in the league that year — the time had come for farm-raised World Series champions. All major league teams rely on a farm system, but the Hooks were part of a unique and successful system based

on solid scouting and a commitment to putting math over cash to shape the team.

Soon, the minor league Hooks had become the major league Astros. “It’s like a gardener who sows the seeds, then fertilizes and waters,” says Hooks president Ken Schrom. “When that garden grows, you get the fruits of your labor.

Well, all these guys, when they were here starting out … you could tell they were good, but honestly, to put a core group like that together and watch what they’re doing at the highest level — it’s incredible.”

These days, fans across the Coastal Bend have even more reason to eagerly anticipate baseball season. New fans will join the longtime faithful to watch the cultivation of Series champions at their hometown ballpark. Perhaps they’ll all get a chance to watch the next World Series Champion MVP on the turf of Whataburger Field, first wearing a Corpus Christi Hooks uniform.

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CITY LIGHTS

DEPOT DOINGS: The Railroaders, who now play their games at the Depot at Cleburne Station, competed for just one season, in 1906, before last year's return.

This year, the team looks to improve upon its second-place divisional finish in 2017.

Comeback Kids

The Cleburne Railroaders have returned to professional baseball – 111 years after winning a championship

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HEATHER JUAREZ

Temple, but that was just the begin- named team was a member of the ning of the railroad industry in Texas League. And although the Cleburne. Central machine shops Railroaders won the Texas League were constructed in 1898 and 1899, pennant, the team disbanded after the 1906 season, though several of doubling the city’s population. its players went on to successful In 1906, with the city’s major league careers. population growing, the need Nine of the 1906 for entertainment grew • Cleburne club, in fact, as well. Folks from CLEBURNE played in the majors. Tris Cleburne had been Speaker, from the Hill obligated to take the train County town of Hubbard, into Fort Worth if they wanted went from the Railroaders to to see a baseball game. But in 1906 the smell of hot dogs and popcorn the Boston Red Sox and became was in the air for the season opener one of the greatest players in baseof the Cleburne Railroaders minor ball history, hitting .345 for his league baseball team. The aptly career and being inducted into the

The Depot of Cleburne Station 1906 Brazzell Blvd.

Cleburne, TX 76301 RailroaderBaseball.com

VISIT CLEBURNE visitcleburne.com

VISIT HUBBARD CITY hubbardcity.com

MONICA FARAM

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CLEBURNE, TEXAS, has long been a center of transportation activity.

From the early wagon trail between Fort Belknap to Fort Graham known as the Johnson County Road … to the Chisholm Trail… to the bivouac during the Civil War for Johnson County units, people have been coming through — and to — Cleburne. By 1881 the railroad was king of transportation, and Cleburne was just the spot for a modern transportation hub. No wonder the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway came to town.

Its arrival brought train travel from Fort Worth through Cleburne to

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NEW HOME: The Depot Ballpark, home of the Cleburne Railroaders

MONICA FARAM

Baseball Hall of Fame. His hometown honors him with a historical marker in front of City Hall and with a baseball field in his name.

Fortunately, the story of the Cleburne Railroaders doesn’t end here. After more than 100 years, Cleburne is a baseball comeback town — in a captivating venue to boot. The still-named Railroaders, an independent team in the American Association, play their home games at the Depot at Cleburne Station, one of the most appealing professional baseball parks with its railroad theme. In fact, the Depot was voted “Best of the Ballparks” by Ballpark Digest in 2017. (The Depot is also home DON’T MISS to FC Cleburne, a minor league soccer Burger Bar team, and hosts con109 N. Anglin St. certs and other events Cleburne, TX 76301 (817) 645-9031 throughout the year.)

The park has more Layland Museum than 4,000 seats for 201 N. Caddo St. spectators, along Cleburne, TX 76301 with a museum that LaylandMuseum.com retraces the history of the team. Following a game, fans can take the field and retrace the steps of their favorite players. (If you’re lucky enough to catch a ball, you can get it autographed by a player, too.)

The 2017 Railroaders didn’t quite reach the heights of their 1906 predecessors, but the team did manage a second-place finish in the South Division of the American Association — an encouraging start to the franchise’s second professional venture.

So here’s a chance to spend some time soaking up the history of Cleburne while enjoying the national pastime. All aboard!

HEATHER JUAREZ is the tourism and marketing director for the Cleburne Convention & Visitors Bureau; she serves on the Texas Lakes Trail board of directors as vice president.

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CITY LIGHTS

STATES OF MIND: (from left) A visitor straddles the two-state dividing line; the Perot Theatre, built in 1924 by the Saenger Amusement Company, closed in 1977 but was reopened after a $2.5 million restoration.

State Line Post Office & Federal Building

For Texarkana, being situated in two states at once is a plus

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IT ISN'T THE easternmost portal

into the state of Texas, but it’s likely the best known owing to its conjunctive name and unique attractions.

Straddling the TexasArkansas border along I-30, Texarkana boasts two mayors, two police forces and two fire departments; is listed on historic pres-

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PATTY BUSHART

ervation registers in the counties Line Avenue — until you reach the 500 block, that is, where the of two states; and has national north-south roadway parts historic district designations in both of those states. Hence • at the U.S. Post Office TEXARKANA and Federal Building. its motto, “Twice as Nice.”

This prominent strucHowever, the duality ture, built in 1931, sits doesn’t end there. precisely in the center of the The dividing line between avenue and serves both states.

Texas and Arkansas follows State

HOURS

Mon.–Fri. 7 am–6 pm Sat. 7–11 am State Line Display open 24/7

Draughon-Moore Ace of Clubs House 420 Pine St. Texarkana, TX 75501 (903) 793-4831 texarkanamuseum.org

TOURS

Tues.–Sat. 10 am, 1 pm and 3:30 pm Sun. 1 pm and 3:30 pm

Perot Theatre

221 Main St. Texarkana, TX 75503 (903) 792-4992 trahc.org/perot-theatre Upcoming performances and events March 3, April 7, April 21 and May 26

VISIT TEXARKANA texarkana.org

FROM LEFT: COURTESY PATTY BUSHART; COURTESY CINEMA TREASURES

Twice as Nice for Travelers

500 N. State Line Ave. Texarkana, AR 71854 (903) 792-3794

FROM LEFT: COURTESY MAIN STREET TEXARKANA; LONE STAR HISTORIANS

DECKED OUT: Built in 1884, the Ace of Clubs House has three groups of octagonal rooms — meant to resemble the leaves of a club — opening on a rotunda backed by long rectangular rooms.

No other federal building in the country is situated in two states, and folks interested in roadside oddities get a kick out of the photo op set up outside. The post office inside has been beautifully maintained, and tours are free during regular business hours. Special tours are also available by appointment.

Two blocks to the west is the DraughonMoore House, better known as the Ace of Clubs House. Legend has it that Confederate veteran and early Texarkana mayor James Draughon built his residence in 1885 with $10,000 won in a game of poker with an ace of clubs. The 22-sided building features three octagonal-shaped wings joined by a rectangular wing that, when viewed from above, resembles the puppyfoot from a deck of playing cards.

The house operates today as a museum, with each room restored to represent a different time period in the history of the home. In addition to the period restorations and grand stairway inside, visitors can view the immense shoe collection of Mrs. Olivia Smith Moore, who owned more than 500 pairs of shoes from Dallas’ exclusive retailer Neiman Marcus.

Venture south in the Arts and Historic District, and you’ll come to the elegant Perot Theatre, which has stood on Main Street for more than nine decades. Built in 1924 by the Saenger Brothers of Louisiana, the Italian Renaissance structure was fashioned as a combination house with facilities to host live acts as well as feature films.

The Perot closed in 1977 but reopened in 1980 following a $2.5 million restoration funded in part by the Perot Foundation, whose founder, H. Ross Perot, is a Texarkana native. The performing arts theater host concerts, musicals, plays and other performances year-round.

Of course, if you cross the line into Texas’ neighboring state to visit the P. J. Ahern House, tour the 1894 City Market or even enjoy a Haunted Texarkana Ghost Walk, just make sure you come on back to the flip side.

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CITY LIGHTS DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH: Kokernot (KOH-kuhr-not) Field is, according to Sports Illustrated, "quite possibly the world's most beautiful ballpark." It opened in 1947.

Best Little Ballpark in Texas Alpine’s Kokernot Field was built with Texas-sized dreams

hats and ties and women wore dresses to attend just about any event, well-dressed fans poured into a little ballpark in Alpine where an exhibition game between the St. Louis Browns and Chicago White Sox took place.

Far West Texas is full of surprises, from the Chisos Mountains to an artsy faux Prada store in the

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WENDY LITTLE

middle of nowhere, from the mysterious Marfa Lights to the dark skies above the McDonald Observatory.

So who’d expect to find a ballpark so scenic and inviting that it was dubbed the “Best Little Ballpark in Texas (or Anywhere Else)” by Sports Illustrated in 1989, and the “Yankee Stadium of Texas” by Texas Monthly a decade later (in its March 1999 issue)?

In 1946 Herbert Kokernot Jr. (known as Mr. Herbert to locals), the owner and operator of the iconic Kokernot 06 Ranch and a lover of baseball since childhood, took over a local semipro baseball team, the Alpine Cats. The deal included a less-than-ideal-stadium, with just some old wooden planks as seats, tin for shade and chicken wire surrounding the outfield.

ALPINE

Kokernot Field

400 Loop Rd. Alpine, TX 79830 (432) 386-3402 alpine.pecosleague.com

VISIT ALPINE

visitalpinetx.com

VISIT BIG BEND visitbigbend.com

ALEXANDRIA DEVON/VISITALPINETX.COM

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BACK IN 1951, when men wore

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MIKE MARVINS/VISITALPINETX.COM

COMING HOME: These days the Alpine Cowboys, of the Pecos Leauge, play their home games at Kokernot. The stadium has also hosted the Sul Ross State Lobos and the Big Bend Cowboys.

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LEAFLET/FLICKR

HERE'S THE PITCH: Big Bend rancher Herbert Lee Kokernot, owner of the Kokernot 06 Ranch, married his love of Alpine with his love of baseball, constructing the stadium for his semi-pro team at a cost of $1.25 million in 1947.

Kokernot took great pride in his family name and their generations in the ranching business 15 miles outside of Alpine — and he was determined to build a baseball empire worthy of his ranch’s 06 brand. At the field he had the official brand placed along the fence and gates. He even used the red and white of his beloved Hereford cows as the team colors. When his father first saw the field, he said, “Son, if you’re going to put the 06 brand on something, do that thing right.”

In 1946, construction began to do that thing right. The red granite walls came from rock quarried from the 06, the clay for the base paths was shipped in by boxcar from Georgia, and the turf was sourced from different types of grasses found in the region.

The 10-foot-high fence went in place. By the time Kokernot Field was ready for play in May 1947, it had cost $1.25 million, five times as much as Chicago’s Wrigley Field 33 years earlier.

It would seem that money was no object in Kokernot’s plan to build the empire that reflected the game he loved. Upon the park’s reopening, the semipro Cats were renamed the Alpine Cowboys.

With Kokernot’s passion, seemingly unlimited funds, connections throughout the nation’s leagues and aggressive recruiting tactics — including some of the most generous salaries in the league (plus cash-in-palm rewards for home runs) — the Cowboys immediately established themselves as the best semipro team in the Southwest. Exhibition games included popular players like Satchel Paige, Don Newcombe and Johnny Podres. As a teenager, future Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry pitched briefly for the Cowboys.

By 1958, stadium lighting was installed. But prior to that, Kokernot toured the state, counting the lights in other stadiums. He wanted to make sure his field had the most.

As much as those first 12 seasons of the Cowboys were a success, semipro leagues were shrinking in popularity nationwide. In 1959, Kokernot reluctantly hitched his Cowboys to the farm system of the Boston Red Sox, making Alpine the smallest town in the nation with a professional baseball team.

However, being associated with the pros didn’t sit well with Kokernot. He didn’t like some of the rules that came with being part of the pros, so the arrangement ended after the 1961 season.

As Nicholas Dawidoff wrote in Sports Illustrated, “There were things about these ’fessionals, as he called them, that Mr. Herbert couldn’t abide. In the old days when a slight rainfall softened his infield, Mr. Herbert had simply called the game off, telling ticket holders to use their stubs the next day. You couldn’t do that with the pros.” Local ballplayer Ray McNeil remembered, “Mr. Herbert told me, ‘I’m fed up with this ’fessional baseball. Why, they trade these boys right and left, selling them off like cattle.’”

After that, the Sul Ross Lobos became the only team playing at Kokernot Field. And in 1968, even the baseball program at the university was discontinued, and the field went dark. Kokernot then gave the field to the local high school, but without his personal oversight, it fell into disrepair. Kokernot

BRIANA WILDE /VISITALPINETX.COM

was heartbroken and wasn’t seen around town much after that.

In the fall of 1983, Sul Ross University brought back the baseball program. The university leased the old ballpark and spent $150,000 updating it and returning it to its original glory.

Kokernot died in 1987, three years after the Lobos resumed playing at Kokernot Field. In 2009 a team called the Big Bend Cowboys organized to play as a pro ball team. In their second season, the team won the league championship.

Today, the Alpine Cowboys call Kokernot their home. In fact, Herbert Kokernot’s great-granddaughter, Kristin Lacy Cavness, serves as general manager of the team and is president of the non-profit Cowboys organization. And the park is just one element of the team’s appeal: Alpine, situated at roughly 4,500 feet, enjoys mild summers, making it an ideal venue for a summer ballgame.

The Alpine Cowboys compete in the Pecos League against teams from New Mexico, Kansas and Colorado.

(The Cowboys are the lone Texas team in the league.)

The season runs from the end of May through July.

Details on Alpine's upcoming season can be found at alpine.pecosleague.com and on their Facebook page (search Alpine Cowboys Baseball).

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AUTHENTIC PLACE

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WORLD

CLASS

FIFTY YEARS AGO,

HEMISFAIR BROUGHT

THE WORLD

TO SAN ANTONIO.

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LEA THOMPSON

AN ANTONIO is defined by its people and the stories they share. Neighborhoods, art and architecture help tell those stories. San Antonio’s shared cultural and geographic ties with Mexico, the indigenous tribes and Spanish missionaries who colonized the area, and generations of immigrants predate the city’s 1718 founding and shape its unique identity.

Now in its tricentennial year, San Antonio has a rare opportunity to reexamine historic milestones including HemisFair, the site of the 1968 World’s Fair, an event that established the city’s now $13 billion tourism industry and transformed its landscape and celebrated its international connections.

“I don’t think those connections ever left,” says Maria Berriozabal, a San Antonio activist who credits her time as a HemisFair employee, from 1965 to 1968, with inspiring her political career. “They’re what makes us a hospitable city, a friendly city, a soft city.”

Today, a modernized HemisFair offers 40 acres of green space, parks and mixed-use developments that bring people to work, shop, eat, live and play in downtown San Antonio, but the original installation was aimed at boosting the local economy and commemorating the city’s 250th anniversary. Developed by local business leaders and championed by U.S. Rep. Henry B. González, HemisFair grew from a shared idea to a citywide project in 1965, when the city was officially selected to host the 1968 World’s Fair.

The World’s Fair theme, “Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas,” meant to highlight the city’s close ties with Latin America and position the area as a site that would bridge cultural gaps through technology and innovation.

The city’s identity shifted to marry its rich history with a promising future.

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Even with public enthusiasm and support, HemisFair was plagued by financial troubles from the start. Just weeks after its opening, the World’s Fair ran out of funds and threatened to halt the event. In response to the financial emergency, Frost quickly secured a bank loan and raised the $3 million needed to continue the fair and its events.

“Launching the tourism industry required everything the city had,” Frost says. “It required every political element and the business community, who underwrote the loan, and those employees working in the hospitality industry.”

Fair employees and visitors also dealt with ride and elevator breakdowns, hot Texas weather, power failures and a monorail accident, which killed one Missouri tourist and injured dozens more. Despite the logistical issues, the fair remained a popular family destination from spring to early fall.

Though HemisFair brought more than 6 million visitors and international coverage to San Antonio, attendance fell short of leadership’s

CRYSTAL MOON

“The most important year in the history of sive efforts taking in place in San Antonio were San Antonio, even more so than 1845 or 1718, echoed by major cities across the country.

“Through HemisFair, I learned about the was 1968,” says Tom Frost, chairman emeritus of Frost Bank, who helped oversee the HemisFair different parts of my city,” Berriozabal says, “and I development from the outset. “HemisFair is was able to meet with elected officials throughout what put us on the map, especially in the hospi- the country and from countries around the world.”

Despite the groundbreaking tality and tourism industries.” work that led up to the fair, Local leaders like William “Bill” R. Sinkin, H. B. Zachry Institute of Texan Cultures there were few visible remind801 E. César E. Chávez Blvd. ers of the changes taking place and Frost worked with city San Antonio, TX 78205 outside the office buildings. officials to select 92 acres of (210) 458-2300 Crowds gathered for land, located just south of downtexancultures.com HemisFair’s grand opening, on town, as the future home of HOURS April 6, 1968, just two days HemisFair.

Mon.–Sat. 9 am–5 pm after the assassination of Dr. However, the tract slated Sun. 12–5 pm Martin Luther King Jr. Despite for construction happened to Tower of the Americas the country’s somber political include Germantown, a neigh420 Pine St. mood and heavy security for borhood that was home to many (210) 223-3101 toweroftheamericas.com dignitaries on opening day, there African-American families. was widespread excitement for Named for its immigrant founders, who arrived to San Antonio Con Safos Cocina y Cantina the World’s Fair.

607 HemisFair Plaza Way Opening-day visitors eagerin the mid-to-late 19th century, (210) 514-5006 consafos-sa.com ly lined up to ride the minithe area also included historic monorail, view the educational buildings and homes. A handful HOURS exhibits and artwork on loan of the historic structures were Tues.–Thurs. 5 pm–12 am Fri. 5 pm–1 am from 33 nations including saved, but residents were evenSat. 2 pm–1 am Mexico, Spain, France, Japan tually forced to relocate before Sun. 2 pm–midnight and Italy. Crowds flooded construction began.

Closed Mondays through the corporate pavilCity leaders were able to Paleteria San Antonio ions, sponsored by the likes secure $156 million in federal 510 S. Alamo St., Suite 104 of General Electric and Cocaand local funds to develop a (210) 954-6753 Cola, before moving onto the number of structures, includpaleteriasanantonio.com national cultural pavilions for ing the Texas State Pavilion, HOURS international food, dance and the present-day Institute of Mon.–Tues. 11 am–8 pm eclectic musical performances.

Texan Cultures (ITC), the U.S. Thur.–Sun. 11 am–9 pm Closed Wednesdays “There was so much excitePavilion, the present-day John ment and so many people,” H. Wood Federal Courthouse, FIND EVENTS, Berriozabal says. “My family and the fair’s architectural DESTINATIONS AND MORE AT: and I went countless times after centerpiece, the Tower of the San Antonio Tricentennial church on Sunday afternoons Americas. santonio300.org to ride the monorail, to see difThe development also VISIT SAN ANTONIO ferent exhibits and eat the difhelped to spur construction visitSanAntonio.com ferent foods. For me, there was for the Hilton Palacio del so much to learn from places Rio, which Zachry built in a headline-grabbing 202 days, and extended the I’d never known before. I felt such pride seeing Riverwalk east to become a tourist and business- Los Voladores de Papantla, ‘The Flying Indians,’ friendly area. The structural changes and progres- as they flew through the air.”

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: LEA THOMPSON; BOB SMITH; NAN PALERMO

FAIR PLAY: (opposite page) A wall of lanterns at Luminaria in HemisFair Park. (clockwise from above) Yanaguana Garden, a green space that features impressive landscape elements, public art and local events, inside the Institute of Texas Cultures on the HemisFair grounds; visitors silhouetted against a glowing Texas flag; a jungle gym at Yanaguana Park.

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expectations. The fair recorded an $8.5 million loss, but it also launched San Antonio’s tourism and hospitality industries.

“Ultimately, HemisFair was a success,” Frost says. “It showed that when we, as a city, work together, we know how to make things happen.”

The event cemented San Antonio as a place of industry and international interest, but for many residents, daily life remained unchanged.

For Berriozabal, HemisFair was a positive, if not temporary, experience for most of the city.

“Fifty years later, people still want to know, ‘Did HemisFair have a meaningful, immediate impact on its employees’ lives, politics

oped for the park over the years, but they never found funding support, says Andres Andujar, CEO of Hemisfair Park Area Redevelopment Corporation (HPARC), the organization behind the revitalization.

Calls to improve HemisFair Park emerged in the early years of the 21st century, when former Mayor Phil Hardberger approved ongoing study efforts for park redevelopment. Former Housing and Urban Development secretary Julián Castro followed suit when he designated $30 million in bond funding toward the project and area improvements, part of his “Decade of Downtown” plan to reactivate the area for residents.

TOWER OF THE AMERICAS: The iconic building, designed by architect O’Neil Ford for the 1968 World’s Fair, stands at 750 feet tall and provides visitors with a unique view of downtown San Antonio.

and careers?’” Berriozabal says. “For MexicanAmericans, the answer is generally ‘no.’ There was no change for our barrios, or for our lives, but we were lucky to be taken out of our world and see something really big for a little while.”

Because of the fair’s financial losses, HemisFair leaders were unable to purchase any of the international art pieces on loan and soon returned the works to their respective nations.

Without permanent art pieces or a clear context for the area’s architecture, there was little evidence the event had taken place. The city eventually installed a fence around HemisFair, while parcels of land were gradually incorporated into new developments like the Convention Center, city and county office buildings and an expansion of the ITC. For several decades, the grounds remained largely inaccessible to the public.

Nearly a dozen master plans were devel-

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Since 2011, Andujar has led HPARC to collaborate with many local organizations and institutions — the ITC, managed by the University of Texas at San Antonio, the San Antonio Conservation Society, The City of San Antonio’s Office of Historic Preservation and the Texas Historical Commission — to preserve history and inspire multiple generations to engage in San Antonio’s urban core.

“There’s still a sense of pride and accomplishment that the city was able to achieve this impossible task,” Andujar said. “So much planning and investment was required, but the community pulled it off, and I think there was a sense of pride in showcasing our city to the world.”

HemisFair opened Yanaguana Garden, a popular, child-friendly park with green space, murals, plazas and playscapes, to local visitors and families in 2015. Several of the park’s historic

buildings and surviving homes have been renovated to house local businesses and restaurants. The first phase of Civic Park, an eight-acre-plus park filled with green space, is expected to open this year, in time for the city’s tricentennial celebrations, with a projected completion date of 2021.

“There’s momentum for this transformation,” Andjuar says. “The area is on its way to becoming a great part of the community that will incorporate the great urban parks so critical to making a great city.”

Visitors can experience that transformation during ¡Viva Hemisfair!, a celebration of the park’s 50th anniversary, slated to take place between April 6-8, 2018.

“HemisFair was intended to bring the world to San Antonio, and as we look back 50 years, we want to honor the people of San Antonio and their history,” Andujar says.

“They come from all over the world — and honor the locale.”

Designated cultural zones, similar to the 1968 national pavilions, will celebrate San Antonio’s people and their cultural heritage. A maker’s village will allow visitors to test 3-D printers, compare the technology of 1968 with presentday reality, and view predictions for future product innovation.

The three-day event is among the city’s many historic celebrations planned for 2018, but HemisFair promises to offer an iconic backdrop to the park’s past and present visitors. As the area undergoes rapid redevelopment, there’s been a renewed interest in HemisFair’s people and their stories.

“I don’t think there’s been another time in our history that’s been as marked by change as now,” Berriozabal says. “We’re losing neighborhoods and cultural aspects through gentrification, but I hope that history and those connections don’t disappear. Those stories are what make us, and San Antonio, special.”

LEA THOMPSON is a multimedia journalist who specializes in the coverage of social issues, food and cultural events.

AUTHENTIC THING

FROM

FARM TO

MARKET The uniquely Texas road system may be the best vehicle for experiencing the state.

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KAY ELLINGTON

FLICKR

“When you get just outside of town, take the first farm-to-market road on the right.”

While directions like that might make complete sense to a Texan, out-of-staters accustomed to “interstate,” “freeway” or “boulevard” are often left scratching their heads.

Texas is the only state in the union with designated, state-operated “Farm to Market” (FM) roads. The first such road was completed in January 1937 during the Great Depression and connected Mount Enterprise with the former East Texas community of Shiloh in Rusk County.

The route was 5.8 miles long and was constructed at a cost of $48,015.12.

The Good Roads movements of the 1920s had paved the way for several thoroughfares FOR MORE READING to cross the Miles and Miles of state, connectTexas: 100 Years of ing major and the Texas Highway smaller cities via Department border-to-borCarol Dawson with der routes. But Roger Allen Polson a decade later, (Texas A&M University isolated Texas Press, 2016) farmers during the Great Why Stop? A Guide Depression to Texas Historical could see that Roadside Markers the lack of Betty Dooley Awbrey passable roads and Stuart Awbrey in distant rural (6th ed., Taylor Trade areas was hurtPublishing, 2013) ing their efforts to sell their crops. “Get the farmer out of the mud” became a popular political slogan that persuaded state leaders to champion the concept of farm-to-market roads.

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Lake Wildlife Refuge in Umbarger (Randall County) and almost as far north as Route 66.

The route has been extended southwest to US 84 near Anton.

The shortest is also in the Texas Plains Trail Region. FM 122 covers a mere 0.130 miles from an intersection with State Highway 207 in Ralls (Crosby County). The route travels east along Tilford Avenue. The FM 122 designation and state maintenance end at an intersection with Avenue G, where the roadway turns from pavement to brick.

The farm-to-market road system’s colorful history hasn’t been free from controversy. In

1995, as the state’s cities continued to sprawl, an effort was made to rename affected FM roads “Urban Roads,” but Texans balked at the initiative, arguing that removing the “Farm” and “Ranch” from the designations changed the state’s cultural heritage and that the cost of changing signage wasn’t justified.

Other than a few route markers, such as FM 1315 near Victoria, most signs weren’t changed, and TxDOT abandoned the idea to do so.

(Speaking of TxDOT, the agency itself has undergone various changes to its name and responsibilities over the decades. First established as the Texas Highway Department in 1917, by 1925 the agency had been given full control of the design, engineering, construction and

maintenance of the state’s highways, including the right to acquire land and rights of way for highway construction through eminent domain.

Its present-day iteration was born in 1991, when the Highway Department became TxDOT, incorporating the previous State Department of Highways and Public Transportation, Department of Aviation, and Texas Motor Vehicle Commission.)

Not only do Texans love the heritage of their roads — they just flat-out love their roads.

In 2013, the Legislature appropriated $225 million in extra funding for the repair and maintenance of county roads and bridges affected by the shale energy boom, and another $225 million for other county transportation projects.

In November 2014, 80 percent of Texas voters approved Proposition 1, an amendment to the Texas Constitution directing more funds to transportation. The state’s Economic Stabilization Fund (its “Rainy Day Fund”) receives 75 percent of the state’s oil and gas production tax revenue in excess of fiscal 1987 revenues. Proposition 1 now redirects up to half of this amount for highways, based on the decisions of the committee of legislators that guide the ESF. Another boost for state transportation projects came in November 2015, when voters approved another constitutional amendment, Proposition 7, which could constitute the largest increase in transportation funding in Texas history.

Farm-to-market roads make it easy for Texans to love them. They allow travelers to drive across the landscape and through towns, seeing and feeling the contours, landmarks and distinctions in close proximity rather than bypassing them in an 75-mile-per-hour expressway blur.

You can take time to savor the sights on a farm-to-market road, but if you’re in a hurry, the likelihood is that the Texan driving in front of you will pull over and brush the ditch so you can rush on by.

But if you’re the one driving at a crawl in a slow-moving rural area, there’s a good chance you’ll meet a friendly local who’ll welcome you with the index-finger “hi” sign from the steering wheel.

That kind of friendliness might be unique to Texas, too.

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The first highway officially designated as FM 1, authorized in 1941, brought loggers rather than farmers to market, connecting US 96 near Pineland to a sawmill belonging to the Temple Lumber Company.

The FM road system took off in the 1940s after World War II. In 1945, the state highway commission authorized a three-year pilot program for the construction of 7,205 miles of FM roadways, with costs to be shared equally by the state and federal governments.

A young representative from Uvalde, Dolph Briscoe, who would later become governor, co-sponsored the defining FM road legislation in 1949 with State Sen. E. Neveille Colson.

The Colson-Briscoe Act appropriated funding for the creation of an extensive system of secondary roads to provide access to rural areas and to allow farmers and ranchers to bring their goods to market, reserving a flat $15 million per year — plus one cent per gallon of gasoline sold in the state — for local highway construction.

In 1962, the Texas legislature adjusted this amount to $23 million annually, through federal fund matching, and expanded the FM system from 35,000 to 50,000 miles. FM roads now account for more than half of the mileage in the Texas Department of Transportation system.

The FM roads that serve Texas’ more than 3,200 far-flung cities and towns are as diverse as the state itself. Even though the roads are part of a uniform system, no two are alike. They aren’t even all called by the same designation: some are known as Ranch to Market roads, a concession to ranchers who bristled at the idea they might be miscast. These are signed RM, or Ranch Road. However, TxDOT will tell you the official name of all such roadways is Farm to Market Road, with only one allowed exception — Ranch Road 1, which runs near the home of former Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson in Stonewall (in the Texas Hill Country Trail Region).

The longest farm-to-market road in the state is FM 168 in the Texas Plains Trail Region in West Texas, running 139.421 miles from the crossroads of Hart Camp (Terry County) through Olton (Lamb County) to Hart and Nazareth (Castro County) through the Buffalo

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VISIONARY: John Connally (1917-1993) served three terms as governor of Texas, shifting the state's tourism economy into high gear and creating the Texas Travel Trails program while he was at it.

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AUTHENTIC PERSON

TEXAS'

TOURISM PITCHMAN THE THREE-TIME GOVERNOR CREATED AN ENDURING LEGACY WITH THE TEXAS TRAVEL TRAILS. by

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EXAS REGULARLY ENJOYS A

ranking (which shifts as states jockey annually for position) among tourism’s Big Three U.S. destinations, alongside vacation paradises California and Florida. The Lone Star State’s vaunted Western mythos, wide open spaces, Sunbelt climate and miles of welcoming waterfront undoubtedly play a role. So do the cultural vibes of cities like Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso and others.

But it wasn’t always so.

In the late 1950s, when Americans were being lured to leisure destinations in droves, Gov. Price Daniel was saddled with a constitutional holdover from the 19th century, the so-called “carpetbagger clause” of 1876 that prohibited expenditures of state dollars to attract “immigrants.” That, perversely, was construed to include travelers and their pocketbooks.

The clause was overturned, at last, in 1959, with the backing of Gov. Daniel and vigorous lobbying by the American Advertising

BARBARA BRANNON

Federation 10th District, paving the way for Texas to capitalize on its tourism assets. But without an appropriation of funds to accompany the law, the long-deferred goal would have to wait another few years — for another governor.

FLORESVILLE FARM TO GOVERNOR'S MANSION

John Bowden Connally Jr. was born into a tenantfarming family south of San Antonio in 1917. His 19th-century forebears had fled the Irish potato famine; he’d become one of the few graduates of his small-town high school to go to college.

Young John learned a few things about Texas highways and back roads during the years of his father’s hardscrabble enterprise in the 1920s and ’30s: the long drive from Corpus Christi to San Antonio in a makeshift sevenpassenger bus; the early-morning milk run before the advent of farm-to-market roads; working cattle on horseback in the brush country. And he gained a deep appreciation for the land, as he related in a memoir, In History’s Shadow,

published the year of his death in 1993.

He also got a taste of politics when his father — with the Connally brood as campaign team — ran for county clerk in 1936 and won.

By then John Jr. was a junior at the University of Texas, having enrolled at age 16.

Tall and lean, with an aim to finish the accelerated program and go straight into law school, Connally fell in with a lucky bunch who harbored aspirations, like his, to law, leadership and government. He also joined two thespian societies, the Wesley Players and the Curtain Club.

The Curtain Club introduced Connally to two other influential classmates: Walter Cronkite, who served on the publicity committee, and the popular and beautiful Idanell “Nellie” Brill, who was cast as understudy for an acting role. Cronkite, nearly three decades later as anchor for the CBS Evening News, would inform the world of President Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, while Nellie, who married Connally in 1940, would help save her husband’s life on that terrible day, when he was gravely injured by one of the perpetrator’s bullets.

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CONNECTIONS IN THE CAPITAL

Connally had forged other influential relationships during his stints as an undergraduate, in law school at UT, in the Navy and in a law practice in Fort Worth after World War II. In every case his Texas ties paved the way for great responsibility and, eventually, visibility in the political sphere.

Lyndon Johnson, in his role with the National Youth Administration in the mid-1930s, had seen to it that a deserving university student from his district benefited from a campus job at UT; when Johnson later needed an aide to help with his state Senate campaign, he tapped Connally.

Johnson in due time became vice president of the United States under JFK and, in 1961, Connally was appointed Secretary of the Navy in the Kennedy administration.

Stepping down from that post after less than a year to challenge incumbent Price Daniel for the governorship of Texas, Connally succeeded in his first run for public office, in 1962. He credited his network of college friends for launching him on that path and driving votes for him.

to select an advertising agency. Top shops were hungry for Texas’ business; by November of that year a full-scale review of six contenders was announced for the following January.

At the same time Connally took steps to upgrade the state park system, commissioning an independent study to provide research and recommendations. Consultant Elo J. Urbanovsky, head of the new Department of Parks Administration at Texas Technological College, got right to work on the project.

Of course, a new governor with aspirations to higher office had a great deal more on his mind than just the promotion of leisure travel in his state.

“I had definite ideas about where Texas should be headed and how to get there,” Connally wrote years later. Higher educa-

TAPPING THE TRAVEL MARKET

Returning to Texas, Connally inherited a state behind the curve in the burgeoning tourism industry. Gov. Daniel had stumped for the Texas Tourism Foundation, a privately funded statewide initiative, in 1962, and had supported creation the Trail of Six Flags, a regional initiative of several South Texas counties that same year (see page 48). The Texas Highway Department continued fulfilling its charge, since 1936, to produce travel literature and staff visitor information centers at several state entry points.

But those efforts weren’t enough in an era of increasingly sophisticated marketing tools and advertising campaigns. California, Florida and Virginia outpaced Texas in visitor spending, one important measure of tourism’s benefits to a state’s economy. “Industry follows brainpower,” Connally had said to an audience of business leaders while on the campaign trail. As governor, he intended to bring modern research and top minds to every industry, including tourism.

In spring 1963, during Connally’s first session in Austin, the legislature passed its first budget allocation for tourism promotion and took the key step of establishing an office to administer it. The new Texas Tourism Development Agency (TTDA) hired Frank Hildebrand, a young reporter for the Baytown Sun, as its first director, and one of Hildebrand’s first tasks was

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tion ranked high on his list, as did plans for water management and the Railroad Commission — and the mutual benefit of a goodwill visit by the president of the United States.

As 1964 dawned, the nation was still in shock over the events of the previous Nov. 22, when Kennedy had been killed and Connally shot in a Dallas motorcade. Connally was still recovering from his physical and psychological wounds when the review of advertising agencies took place, but Hildebrand kept him thoroughly apprised of progress. McCann-Erickson’s Houston office was selected, and within a few weeks had scheduled an initial strategy session in Austin.

Texas had moved into a new era of tourism a year after Connally’s inauguration.

A TEXAS STATE PARKWAY?

Following the implementation of the Parks Study, when the 1965 legislature merged two

separate agencies to establish the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, Connally commissioned another research project from Urbanovsky.

Perhaps inspired by the appeal of scenic and historic byways such as the New Deal-era Natchez Trace and Blue Ridge Parkway — or perhaps casting an eye toward the highway tax revenues a series of “heritage trails” backed by the petroleum industry were generating — Connally charged Urbanovsky’s team with examining the feasibility of creating a Texas State Parkway.

Urbanovsky and his graduate students would determine how an automobile route might bring travelers out into the remote historic locales of Texas to stay longer and spend more.

The governor, meanwhile, talked up tourism at events such as the Outdoor Writers Association of America meeting in McAllen in summer 1964, and called a first-ever statewide Tourist Development Conference in October of that year.

Under the Texas Tourist Development Agency, Texas soon became the first state to base its national advertising schedules on motivational research findings. A Dallas opinion polling firm was contracted to conduct visitor interviews, and a national Gallup Poll provided wider quantitative data.

When the Urbanovsky study was presented at the governor’s Tourism Development Conference in 1967 — by now an annual event — its recommendations focused not on a single parkway or byway but a series of driving trails designed to lure travelers out from city hubs into a vaster, and more varied, Texas experience.

“Governor Connally Wednesday will reveal a unique new plan for the development of a series of ‘Travel Trails of Texas,’” read a press memo on April 28, 1967, “which will route travelers ‘off the beaten path’ to scenic and historic attractions.”

Unique it was: no other group had ever sought to launch ten such trails in a single state.

ONE MORE DAY IN TEXAS

When the governor unveiled the plan May 3 to the crowd at Austin’s Municipal Auditorium, he played up the personal value of recreation as well as the financial value of travelers coming to the state. It was a milestone year in Texas travel, generating a billion dollars in tourist spending.

Connally must have sensed he had his audience with him, as he asked them to consider one last point: that if those visitors had been persuaded

to stay only one more day, it would have brought an additional $188 million to the state’s economy.

This time, HemisFair ’68 was how Texas was going to get them there — and the Trails were how the state was going to keep them there. The Trails would debut in conjunction with the opening of HemisFair, the first international exposition ever slated for the southwestern United States, the following April.

With less than a year to map the driving routes, post road signs, design tourism literature and craft a promotional campaign, Connally’s appointed five-member Texas Travel Trails Committee jumped on its marching orders. Truett Latimer of the Texas Historical Commission, state librarian Dorman H. Winfrey, Highway Department director Tom Taylor, Mark Gosdin of Texas Parks and Wildlife and Frank Hildebrand of the TTDA met and corresponded frequently. Connally kept a close hand in the process, right down to the color of the Texas Highway Department signage, as reported by the Longview News-Journal: “Governor Connally has had a strong hand in developing the new tourist program, even to designating the color of the signs marking the trails. The color choice had been narrowed to blue or green, cool colors that psychologists said would take tourists’ minds off the hot summer weather.

When asked what color he would suggest, the governor, seated at his desk, pointed to a picture of his wife and said, 'I would like to see it the color of Nellie’s dress.' And so the signs are Nellie’s Blue.”

Julian Read, whose firm advised Connally A GOVERNOR'S LEGACY on numerous publicity matters in the 1960s, recalls It had been an exciting ride in 1968. By the time the flurry of excitement. “I was a cheerleader for Connally’s third term as governor came to an [the Trails concept],” Read says, “because I loved end that year, the Texas Travel Trails were well established as a popular draw for travelers, and the travel industry — I was all for it.”

The resulting Texas Travel Trails ranged the TTDA (incorporated today into the Office of the Governor for Economic in individual length from 523 to FOR MORE READING Development and Tourism) had 859 miles, totaling nearly 7,000 Primary documents formed a sound basis for marketmiles of state highways and farmin the Texas Historical ing Texas as a prime destination to-market roads — no route was Commission’s records, the for travelers everywhere. to backtrack, and Interstates were Texas State Library, the Connally, through his peravoided by design. The project Briscoe Center for American came together on schedule, despite History, the John B. Connally sonal life and long career, would undergo challenges, twists and dust-ups with some communipapers in the LBJ Library, turns, but would always considties that had been omitted from the Department of Parks er these two tourism programs the routes and one — Connally’s Administration Papers in among his signature achievements hometown of Floresville — in the Texas Tech University Archives, and published — and so did Nellie, who outwhich Judge Richard Voges of sources were consulted for lived her husband long enough Wilson County initially refused to this article. A fuller history to see the Texas Travel Trails foot the $315 bill for signage. of the Texas Heritage Trails reinvented as the Texas Heritage Governor and Mrs. Program may be downloaded Trail Regions under the Texas Connally officially launched the at www.TexasTimeTravel.

Historical Commission in 1998.

Trails by leading an automobile com/History.

Perhaps the most telling caravan March 27 and 28 along compliment to the longevity and the entire Texas Mountain Trail route from Alpine west to El Paso and returning effectiveness of any initiative at the half-century to Fort Davis, where the Davis Mountains State mark might be a nod to its creator. “John Connally Park was dedicated. Throughout the spring and would be pleased with what you’re doing,” says summer, other trails were similarly inaugurated. Julian Read of the trails initiative he’s watched Half a million map brochures were distributed, since its inception. “That was one of his favorite bringing visitors to sites from Marshall to Marfa, programs.”

Texarkana to Terlingua to Tascosa, and more.

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LIFE TRAIL DRIVE p. 54 H EATS & DRINKS p. 62 H DEEP IN THE ART p. 70 H HAPPENINGS p. 73

ROADSIDE

COURTESY DAIRY QUEEN

BEACON

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SIGNS OF THE TIMES: Twenty highway signs — enamel on metal — were commissioned by the Trail of Six Flags Association. Individual counties were responsible for placement.

CUERO

• •EDNA • • •PORT LAVACA • REFUGIO

VICTORIA GOLIAD

The Trail of Six Flags Six South Texas cities established the state’s first tourism trail in 1961

102 W. West St. Refugio, TX 78377 (361) 526-5555 refugiocountytx.org/page/ refugio-county-museum

HOURS

STACY NEW

and BARBARA

mark a 50-year milestone after its founding as the Texas Travel Trails. Half a century ago, Texas’ heritage trails weren’t the only ones in the nation — the American Petroleum Institute, for instance, created driving trails to celebrate areas like New England, the Land of Lincoln (Illinois) and other regions — but in Texas, one enterprising group of communities had already banded together to create a tourism trail as early as 1961.

The Trail of Six Flags linked six South Texas cities: Victoria, Goliad, Cuero, Refugio, Port Lavaca and Edna. The trail was chartered by the state as a “non-profit historical and patriotic organization” and was officially dedicated on

AU THENTIC TEXAS

BRANNON

April 14, 1962. Among those participating in the ceremony in Victoria were Vice Pres.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Gov. Price Daniel, delegates from Mexico, Spain and France, and mayors of numerous cities, plus a representative of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

The Trail had been organized and mapped in less than a year’s time, as local leaders stepped up to fill a void in tourism promotion at the state level. Texas was “competing for tourists with one hand tied behind our backs,” Gov. Daniel said, quoted in the Cuero Record of Nov. 28, 1961.

The state had earlier passed a constitutional amendment to allow tourist advertising, and delegated responsibility for tourism promotion

Tues.–Fri., noon–4 pm; Sat. 1–5 pm

VISIT VICTORIA explorevictoriatexas.com VISIT GOLIAD goliadcc.org VISIT CUERO cueroliving.org VISIT REFUGIO refugio.texas.com VISIT PORT LAVACA portlavacachamber.org VISIT EDNA cityofedna.com

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IN 2018 the Texas Heritage Trails Program will

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Refugio County Museum

to the Texas Highway Department — but the legislature appropriated no funds for the task.

Mayor Joe E. Kelly of Victoria, who called the first meeting of the Trail of Six Flags partners, articulated the program’s goal: “We hope to recapture some of the romance and adventure associated with the pioneer spirit of the past,” he announced, “and link it in concrete and dramatic fashion to the march of progress as this section of Texas continues to develop.”

Over the next few months, the Trail of Six Flags Association raised money for promotion and commissioned 20 enamel-on-metal highway signs. Each county was responsible for sign placement. (Curious to see one of the signs for yourself? Visit the one mounted in Victoria’s DeLeon Plaza, or discover one in the Refugio County Museum.) People from different chambers of commerce worked together; each chamber was responsible for its own county. By early 1962 the group was ready to preview its ambitious plan via a horseback trail ride to the San Antonio Livestock Show. Starting from Victoria on Feb. 5, 1962, more than 50 riders plus an authentic chuck wagon made the trek over the course of four days.

The association had printed 15,000 travel brochures for broad distribution. They also sent Victoria newspaperman James T. Carter around the world as an ambassador for the Trail, and to bring back a camel, recalling that camels were once used on the trails from Indianola to the west.

But the official launch of the Trail of Six Flags took place with a parade in Victoria on the second Saturday in April. In addition to the aforementioned dignitaries and elected officials on hand, the parade boasted trail riders; marching bands from the Navy station at Corpus Christi, Lackland Air Force Base, and dozens of schools and groups; music composed especially for the occasion; and, yes, a camel. The animal that actually appeared in the parade was a stand-in, loaned by the Houston Shriners. “Hi Jolly, the Trail of Six Flags camel, will not be present due to quarantine regulations that are holding up the animal on the West Coast,” the Cuero Record reported.

“It is possible that the parade was the greatest and most representative ever placed on view in this area,” the paper crowed the next day, “and estimates of the crowd which gathered to watch the demonstrations ranged upward to 50,000.”

The Trail of Six Flags was effective in drawing welcome attention — and tourist dollars — to a large six-county region of South Texas.

And as Texas’ pioneering heritage trail, it might well have inspired other trails to come.

STACY NEW is curator at the Refugio County Museum, where she has served since 2013.

BARBARA BRANNON, executive director of the Texas Plains Trail Region, chronicles the Texas Heritage Trails and the history of Texas tourism.

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CZECH, PLEASE: The National Polka Festival in Ennis has been celebrating Czech heritage for more than 50 years.

•

SHAMROCK

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From Kolaches to Four-Leaf Clovers

ENNIS FREDERICKSBURG

•

•

WEST

•

NEW BRAUNFELS

Texans enjoy a mix of everyday reminders and annual celebrations that honor the state’s rich cultural heritage TREY GUTIERREZ

TEXANS ARE SOME of the proudest folks you’ll

ever meet. Even if that pride borders on hubris at times, Texans know theirs is a noble history, one that’s inspired a distinctive and remarkable culture, a grand melting pot of cultures.

Today, these cultures are reflected in the food, music and celebrations we enjoy. Here's a sampling of Texas’ numerous expressions of cultural diversity.

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The National Polka Festival in Ennis

For Texans of Czech descent, the most popular form of cultural expression via music has historically been the polka — an upbeat, accordiondriven genre commonly associated with grand ballroom-style dances and energetic, half-step time signatures. Though the roots of polka are grounded in traditional Czech folk music, the genre has found popularity in Texas, with polka’s

VISIT ENNIS visitennis.com VISIT FREDERICKSBURG visitfredericksburgtx.com VISIT WEST cityofwest.com VISIT SHAMROCK shamrocktexas.net VISIT GRAND PRAIRIE visitgrandprairie.com VISIT NEW BRAUNFELS innewbraunfels.com

COURTESY NATIONAL POLKA FESTIVAL

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stylistic elements being adapted in accordion-heavy Tex-Mex conjunto and two-stepping Western swing.

Czech polka in Texas can be traced to the 1850s, when immigrants began settling predominantly into the state’s central and northern territories. Immigrants seeking to maintain their heritage would form Texas-based chapters of such prolific Czech cultural organizations as Sokol and the KJT (translated to Czech Catholic Union). These organizations constructed fraternity halls, where immigrants would host extravagant celebrations of culture and heritage, featuring traditional dances set to polka.

Today, the state's Czech communities continue to host extravagant polka celebrations, just as their ancestors did over 100 years ago.

Perhaps the most prominent of these celebrations is the National Polka Festival — an annual, three-day celebration of Czech culture held just south of Dallas in the town of Ennis. Since the festivities began 51 years ago, countless local, international and even Grammy-nominated polka acts have made their way to Ennis to fill its historic Czech fraternity halls with their bright, brassy sounds.

in West is Czech Stop, a combination deli/bakery/gas station. Second in popularity only to Czech Stop is the Village Bakery, which has been serving traditional, Moravian Czechstyle kolaches since the ’50s, making it one of the state’s oldest traditional Czech bakeries. Last, if you’re seeking authentic, homemade kolaches, you owe it to yourself to stop by Westfest, West’s aptly named celebration of Czech culture.

FROM LEFT: CZECHSOFTEXAS.COM; COURTESY CZECH STOP

Kolaches in West

Of all the traditional dishes brought to Texas by Czech immigrants in the mid 1800s, none have become a staple of the Texas diet quite like the kolache, a fluffy wedding pastry filled with a sweet center (typically fruit or jam). Though kolaches are commonly found in bakeries throughout the state, only one city has served kolaches of such quality and authenticity as to earn the Texas Legislature’s distinction of “Home of the Official Kolache”: West, Texas.

It’s no surprise West has become famous for its traditional kolaches. Czech heritage runs deep in West’s history. In the 1880s, the newly constructed Missouri-Texas-Kansas Railroad brought prosperity to the territory, attracting droves of Czech immi-

grants. By 1920, Czech had become the city’s dominant culture, earning West the title of Texas’“Czech Heritage Capital.” To hungry travelers, West is best known as the main stop on the “Kolache Trail,” a road-trip route created by kolache connoisseurs, featuring stops at only the finest Czech Bakeries.

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For the many ethnic groups who’ve made Texas their adopted home, a sense of belonging is perhaps the greatest comfort there is. For the Asian population of Grand Prairie, that comfort is found in Asia Times Square, the Dallas metroplex’s Asian business hub.

Since opening on the site of a former Grand Prairie Wal-Mart in 2007, Asia Times Square has become an integral part of Texas’ Asian community.

Though home to numerous grocery stores, restaurants, retail shops, radio stations and even law firms, Asia Times Square is more than a collection of Asian-centric businesses. Among the DFW area’s Asian-American population (which has grown by nearly 50 percent since 2000), the center has become a place of cultural celebration, where Asian-Americans of all backgrounds, including Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Filipino, Laotian and Taiwanese, can gather to celebrate their heritages. “The mission statement

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for Asia Times Square has always been ‘preserving tradition, promoting cultures,’” says Asia Times Square CEO Matthew Loh. “That’s why we wanted to start hosting events the Asian community would be proud of.”

Of all the notable cultural celebrations thrown by Asia Times Square, the most prominent is the annual Lunar New Year’s festival.

Taking place over the course of two weekends in February, the festival’s attractions include multicultural concerts, Chinese lion dances, martialarts exhibitions, fashion shows, carnival games, firecrackers and, naturally, foods from around the globe.

COURTESY ASIA TIMES SQUARE

Asia Times Square in Grand Prairie

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: SHAMROCKTEXAS.NET; COURTESY OKTOBERFEST; SHAMROCKTEXAS.NET; COURTESY NORTH TEXAS IRISH FESTIVAL

Texas’ Official St. Patrick’s Day celebration in Shamrock

Texans looking to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day are spoiled for choice. From Fort Worth’s Cowtown Goes Green celebration to Dublin's event to San Antonio dyeing the city’s river green, it seems communities across the state can’t help but embrace the St. Paddy’s Day spirit. But only one city’s celebration has earned the honor of “Official St. Patrick’s Day Celebration for the State of Texas,” and that’s in the appropriately named Shamrock.

Named to honor the Irish heritage of her early settlers, Shamrock is the only city in the country to boast not one but two pieces of the Blarney Stone, supposedly chipped off the original Blarney Stone monument in Ireland. While one piece of the stone resides in Shamrock’s Pioneer West museum, the other is on display in downtown Shamrock’s Blarney Stone Park. As is customary in Ireland, Shamrock’s guests are allowed to kiss the park’s Blarney Stone, which is said to bestow eloquence and persuasiveness upon anybody lucky enough to smooch its rough exterior.

Shamrock’s first annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration, in 1938, was a simple, one-day event. Over the next few decades, however, the event’s popularity would grow, quickly earning it the reputation as one of the state’s best. Today, Shamrock’s celebration spans all three days of St. Patrick’s Day weekend, attracting crowds so large that most other St. Paddy’s Day celebrations seem quaint by comparison. “Our celebration draws anywhere from 10,000 to 12,000 people annually,” says Shamrock city manager David Rushing. “For a town the size of 2,000, that’s a pretty awesome figure.”

though too many of these supposedly “Irish” celebrations take Celtic culture to mean consuming alcohol while donning green attire.

And while culturally appropriative celebrations are unavoidable, Texas’ historically pronounced Irish population has ensured that a variety of authentic celebrations of Celtic culture are available. The most popular of these celebrations — the North Texas Irish Festival — is held annually Dallas Fair Park over the first weekend in March. Kicking off in 1983, the NTIF has become the largest Irish heritage celebration of its kind in the Southwest.

Headlining the festival’s 13 stages are a variety of top-tier Irish musicians,

whose performances run the gamut from large, jaunty ensembles to quiet, reflective solo acts — allowing festivalgoers to experience traditional Celtic music in its various forms. Though music is the fest’s main draw, an array of Irish-themed activities are available. Between musical sets, guests can enjoy tales of Celtic lore, expertly woven by spirited Irish storytellers. Festivalgoers looking for more hands-on experiences will find demonstrations of traditional Irish dancing, blacksmithing and even sheep herding.

Finding heritage in New Braunfels

It’s common knowledge among Texans that if you want a traditional German experience, you need look no further than New Braunfels. Perhaps the only city in Texas to be founded by royalty, New Braunfels was established in 1845 by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, who, along with a group

The North Texas Irish Festival

March brings with it numerous Irish-themed celebrations across the country, SPR IN G 2 0 1 8

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Saloon and Krause’s Cafe, both of which have remained in operation since the 19th century and continue to serve the same German fare enjoyed

by New Braunfels’ first settlers.

To complete the German experience, visitors can make their way to the Sophienburg Archives & Museum of History. There, exhibits feature countless artifacts, photographs, maps and documents guiding visitors through the German people’s journey into Central Texas and beyond.

of brave German settlers, made the treacherous journey to the promised land. Though the journey was tough, the settlers came prepared to make Texas their home, bringing with them a strong sense of pride for their German heritage. Today, the settlers’ German culture is still ingrained in New Braunfels’ many restaurants, cultural museums and, of course, festivals.

Perhaps the strongest example of New Braunfels’ heritage is Wurstfest — a 10-day Oktoberfest celebration of the city’s oldest culinary tradition: genuine German sausage. “New Braun-

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fels has a robust sausage-making industry. It’s an industry that was, and continues to be, a huge part of our heritage,” explains Jody Young, vice president of New Braunfels’ Chamber of Commerce.

“Our founding fathers brought these recipes from Germany which, even then, were hundreds of years old.” In addition to a wide selection of German wurst, attendees can enjoy traditional German dances, polka music and healthy amounts of beer.

Though Wurstfest may attract big crowds, the city’s culinary tradition can be found yearround in historic establishments like the Phoenix

Annual celebrations of German Christmas— or Weihnachten, as it’s known in their native Deutschland — were, and continue to be, an important pillar of the German experience in Texas.

Since the raising of the state’s first Christmas tree

by German settlers shortly after their arrival on the Gulf Coast, celebrations of German Christmas have become a cherished Texas tradition.

Today, celebrations of German Christmas can be found in Fredericksburg, a Hill Country city famous for its rich German heritage and culture. Fredericksburg’s Weihnachten season is marked by the lighting of the Weihnachtspyramide (Christmas pyramid) — a 26-foot wooden carousel-like pyramid decorated with handcarved Nativity-themed figurines that resides in the town’s Marktplatz (Market Square). Fredericksburg’s Weihnachtspyramide was constructed in Germany and is the only one of its kind in the United States.

COURTESY OKTOBERFEST

German Christmas in Fredericksburg

COURTESY GERMAN CHRISTMAS

Once the season is in full swing, Fredericksburg’s visitors can partake in a variety of German Christmas celebrations, such as the town’s annual Tannenbaum Ball, a black-tie fundraising gala featuring elegant meals and music, named for the age-old German Christmas song “O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree).”

And while Christmas Day is a traditionally restful day, both in Germany and in Fredericksburg, Dec. 26 brings with it Zweite-Weihnachten, the annual German tradition of “Second Christmas.”

Sponsored by the Fredericksburg German Club, Zweite-Weihnachten’s attendees enjoy traditional German folk music while consuming traditional

Second Christmas fare such as Stollen (fruit cake) and Glühwein (mulled wine). As Second Christmas draws to a close, revelers gather to sing traditional carols, in both German and English.

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LIFE EATS & DRINKS

FISH TO FRY: Gaido's (at left) has been serving up fresh fish for more than a century. When it opened in 1911, it was operated inside Murdoch's Bathhouse (bottom photo). San Giacinto Gaido (at left in below photo) arrived in Galveston from Italy at age 2. He learned the seafood business by taking service jobs.

Coastal Classic

Gaido’s, with its 19th-century roots, remains Galveston’s premier seafood eatery

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TREY GUTIERREZ

3828 Seawall Blvd.

Galveston, TX 77550 (409) 761-5500 gaidos.com

HOURS

upscale eatery has become a point of pilgrimage for seafood connoisseurs across the nation — a place where tourists and locals alike meet to indulge in treasures of the Gulf as they were meant to

fish and tell you it’s ‘fresh,’” says Gaido’s executive chef, Luigi Martinez, “but at Gaido’s, the fish we cut today was in the water not 24 to 36 hours ago. In fact, I could tell you what fishing

mitment to quality — coupled with a signature blend of southern deep-frying, southwest open-flame grilling, and rich Creole flavors— has set Gaido’s nautical-miles ahead of its competition.

be enjoyed: fresh from sea to table.

“Other seafood restaurants will serve you frozen

boat it came from, who its captain was, and what pier he landed in.”

That unwavering com-

The story of Gaido’s commitment to serving only the freshest seafood begins well over a century ago,

Sun.-Thurs. 11 am–9 pm Fri.-Sat. 11 am–10 pm

VISIT GALVESTON galveston.com

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GALVESTON

PHOTOS COURTESY GAIDOS

A

AMONG TEXANS in the know, it’s something of an unspoken rule: no trip to Galveston Island is complete without stopping for dinner at Gaido’s, the Lone Star State’s oldest, most celebrated seafood establishment.

Perched on Galveston’s famous sea wall, overlooking the bountiful coast, the

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Gaido’s Seafood Restaurant

PHOTOS COURTESY GAIDOS

when San Giacinto Gaido, an immigrant from Cercenasco, Italy, arrived in Galveston at the age of 2. Orphaned not long after arriving on Galveston’s shores, Gaido struggled to earn a living, taking various food-service jobs across the island. It was here that the young Gaido would learn the ins and outs of Galveston’s seafood business, as well as the importance of serving only the freshest cuts. Armed with a wealth of acquired culinary knowledge, San Giacinto opened the first Gaido’s cafe in 1911, which, at the time, operated from the inside of Murdoch’s Bathhouse, another historic Galveston institution that stands today as a seaside gift shop.

Though no longer operating out of a bathhouse — having moved to its current location in 1941— Gaido’s time-tested family recipes, meticulously crafted and passed from generation to generation, have earned the restaurant a level of success far greater than San Giacinto could have imagined. In fact, Gaido’s food is of such renown its famous crustless pecan pie — a

top-selling recipe perfected by third-generation owner Paulie Gaido — can be found listed in the exclusive Neiman Marcus catalog. Inside the establishment, walls adorned with various awards, accolades and photos of smiling celebrity patrons serve as further testament to Gaido’s decades of popularity. “We’ve hosted Frank Sinatra, Alfred Hitchcock, both President Bushes,” Martinez enthuses. “I’ve even met the Fonz here!”

While Gaido’s reputation as one of Galveston’s most popular attractions may precede it, the seaside eatery has never lost the unpretentious, family-owned feel that first attracted beachgoers in the early 20th century. Under the watchful eye of current owner Nick Gaido, great-grandson of San Giacinto, the kitchen staff continue to prepare various entrees, soups, salad dressings and desserts all from scratch, diligently following recipes passed down from one generation of Gaidos to the next. “We’ve always stuck to our family roots,” Nick says. “That’s why our customers keep coming back. They want to enjoy that same piece of snapper they had 20 years ago, or that same fried shrimp they enjoyed on their honeymoon 35 years ago.”

Though day-to-day operations have changed hands many times over the venue’s 108 years, Gaido’s ownership has always remained in the family, ensuring the same commitment to freshness that has historically distinguished Gaido’s from the rest.

Today, the restaurant’s seafood continues to live up to the high standard set by San Giacinto Gaido himself, and the unspoken rule rings as true as it did four generations ago: If you haven’t been to Gaido’s, you haven’t been to Galveston.

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EATS & DRINKS

SAUSAGE KING: The Southside Market marquee (left photo, 2009) announces, “Welcome to Elgin, Sausage Capital of Texas.” Sausage maker Bud Frazier (below) worked at Southside for 69 years, from 1902 to 1971.

For Elgin’s sausage industry, it’s all in the family

T

THE MATTER of best sau-

sage in Texas was settled years ago — recognized, in fact, in a 1995 resolution by the Texas House of Representatives, which designated Elgin the Sausage Capital of Texas. All Texans should do whatever it takes to experience that wisdom first-hand.

In 1882 William J. Moon started selling sausage from his Elgin slaughterhouse door to door. Four

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RICK STRYKER

years later he established Southside Market in downtown Elgin, selling barbecue in the back of his meat market. Lee Wilson took over the business in 1927 and, beginning in 1944, Jerry Stach, along with a succession of partners, took the reins.

Then, in 1968, Southside Market was purchased by Ernest Bracewell Sr. The market has since been owned and operated

by succeeding generations of the Bracewell family, selling the same Elgin Hot Sausage upon which Southside Market built its reputation.

“We just call it a real simple authentic Texas barbeque,” Bryan Bracewell, Ernest’s grandson, says.

“The recipe we’re using today is a descendant of the original recipe.”

But when Ernest took over Southside in 1968, he

was confronted with a key problem. “That recipe had never been written down,” Bryan says. “But there was one guy who made the sausage every day. His name was Bud Frazier, and he worked for Southside for 69 years. My grandfather watched him for a couple months and wrote down exactly what he was doing.

Southside has been faithfully following that recipe to make sure it’s precisely the

Southside Market 1212 Hwy. 290 Elgin, TX 78621 (512) 281-4650 534 Highway 71 Bastrop, TX 78602 (512) 575-9037 southsidemarket.com

Meyer’s Elgin Smokehouse 188 Hwy. 290 Elgin, Texas 78621 (512) 281-3331 cuetopiatexas.com

VISIT ELGIN

elgintxchamber.com

ELGIN

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FROM LEFT: WYATT MCSPADDEN; COURTESY ELGIN COURIER

Sausage Capital of Texas

RICK STRYKER

same every time.

We make it fresh daily, and we throw it on the barbecue pit.”

In 1992 Ernest moved the business to the old Security National Bank building on Hwy 290, adding a pit room, kitchen, meat market and meat plant. Most recently a second restaurant was opened in Bastrop, making the famous Elgin sausage readily available to travelers between Austin to Houston on both Hwy 290 and Hwy 71.

The roots of Meyer’s Elgin Smokehouse, just a short way down Hwy 290, also go back to the 19th century, when Henry Meyer brought his sausage recipe to Elgin from Germany. His son, R.G. Meyer, using his father’s recipe, became known for making it for his friends. In 1949 he founded Meyer’s Elgin Sausage Company, producing sausage that became popular in grocery stores throughout Austin and Central Texas. In 1989 Gregg and Gary Meyer became the fourth generation carrying on

the family sausage tradition when they took over the business from R.G.’s son Buddy.

In 1998 they opened a new business, Meyer’s Elgin Smokehouse, BBQ and Retail Market on Hwy 290 in the former Biggers Bar B Q. “When we opened the restaurant, one day the sign said Biggers, the next it read Meyer’s Elgin Smokehouse,” says Greg Meyer. “We kept almost the entire crew who’d worked for Biggers. Our business just lit up.

People were familiar with Meyer’s sausage from the grocery stores.”

Both businesses feed off each other, Meyer

HOT STUFF: The Texas Hot Pepper Sauce (left) pairs nicely with the sausage plate (right) at Meyer's Elgin Smokehouse.

says. “We always shipped sausage all over the United States from the Sausage Company,” he explains, “but we added the same smoking process up at the Sausage Company that we use at the Smokehouse, and we now ship smoked sausage as well.”

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EATS & DRINKS

INNKEEPERS: Manager Josh Palmer (left in above photo) and executive chef Justin Holler (at right) are the new generation of leaders at the iconic venue. The Shady Villa Bar they're manning serves classic and creative cocktails — all from scratch.

Salado’s historic anchor — newly reopened — offers contemporary twists on classic Texas cuisine

S

SALADO'S Stagecoach Inn has long been a sacred retreat for travelers and locals alike — it's one of the most famous and renowned highway restaurants in the country.

Opened in 1861 on the banks of Salado Creek, the iconic venue, originally called Shady Villa, was built as a stagecoach stop along the Chisholm Trail and has hosted the likes of Robert E. Lee, George Custer, Jesse James and Sam Houston,

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TOM BUCKLEY

who famously offered a speech against secession from its balcony.

So it was a major blow to Salado when, in 2015, the Stagecoach, the village’s oldest structure and crown jewel, closed, victim of construction on I-35 that ultimately resulted in the demise of roughly 90 businesses in the tourismbased community. (See p.

84.) “That,” Rep. John Carter says, “was the death of downtown Salado.”

But two years later, all signs point to a resurrection. Nearby construction on I-35 has been completed, the village is showing signs of life, and, most significant, the Stagecoach, on June 14, 2017, reopened under new ownership after a year-long restoration process. “This place has so many wonderful memories for so many people across the generations,” says new manager Josh Palmer, who, along with his wife, director

of operations Jacqueline Nation, moved to Salado from Austin to properly commit themselves to the Stagecoach. “Some of our employees have parents and grandparents who worked here.”

And the team hired an impressive executive chef, Justin Holler, himself familiar with rebirths, having struggled to overcome personal battles. Keenly aware of the need to preserve the Stagecoach’s history, Holler

Stagecoach Inn 416 S. Main St. Salado, TX 76571 (254) 947-5111 stagecoachsalado.com

HOURS

Wed.–Sun. 11 am–9 pm

VISIT SALADO salado.com

SALADO

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FROM LEFT: COURTESY STAGECOACH INN; MICHAEL MILLER/TAYLOR DAILY TELEGRAM

Stagecoach Inn

PHOTOS MICHAEL MILLER/TAYLOR DAILY TELEGRAM

has skillfully transformed the menu by giving old favorites a contemporary twist. The tomahawk pork chop now comes with kale and an apricot-peach jam; the barbecued Texas shrimp are served on

who’ve been coming here for decades,” Holler says, “and they complain the hushpuppies aren’t the same.”

OLD IS NEW: Enjoy comfort — and comfort foods — like the famed hushpuppies (top right) and deep-fried bacon (right).

a bed of escarole and jalapeño cream corn; the grilled cheese pimento sandwich, a holdover from the old menu, has been modernized.

Even the renowned 1861 hushpuppies have been updated, now made only with fresh ingredients. And while that's clearly an upgrade — the previous incarnation used frozen hushpuppies — Holler has learned a lesson of sorts about tinkering with the tried and true. “We have people

Not to worry, however — the menu is getting enthusiastic reviews from most who dine here, and rightly so. The combination of fresh ingredients, locally sourced items and Holler’s creative energies is the perfect recipe for attracting locals while bringing in visitors from far and wide.

And there’s more good news on the horizon: the Stagecoach’s adjacent hotel is scheduled to reopen this spring, which will be a boon both to the

restaurant and the village.

Those associated with Salado know how vital the Stagecoach is to the area — and thus appreciate the importance of its return. Holler, in fact, recalls that during the first night after the reopening, Skip Blancett, Salado’s mayor, gathered the staff in the kitchen. “Thank you for what you’re doing,” he told them. “You have no idea what this means to Main Street.”

And these days, after some tumultuous years, Main Street is hard to miss: the new owners of the Stagecoach closed off the inn’s entrance from the highway so drivers are routed down Main Street.

A comeback story like this isn't complete without an appropriate ending, and the Stagecoach supplies that, too — its longtime signature dessert, the strawberry kiss.

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EATS & DRINKS

ROAD ROYALTY: Texas Dairy Queens — like the DQ in Orange, Texas (top right) — appeared a dozen years after the original store opened in Illinois in 1934.

VISIT A DAIRY QUEEN dqtexas.com

Texas’ Highway Stop Sign For many travelers, Dairy Queens are irresistible, belt-busting beacons

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JENNA MCCANN

and

Queen began more than a decade later, in 1946. Texans loved the taste of DQ’s vanilla soft-serve — creamy but not extremely rich. Since locals took to ice cream shops so well, Texas DQ operators decided to add more value to their investment by adding food to the menu.

To amp up advertising efforts, the Texas Dairy Queen Trade Association, later named the Texas Dairy Queen Operators’ Association (TDQOA), was created. From this organization came some of the most recognizable Texas Dairy Queen delicacies, like the Beltbuster, the Dude chicken fried steak sandwich and the Steak Finger Country Basket. Not only do Texas DQs have exclusive

MARGARET HOOGSTRA menu items, they keep the phrase “everything’s bigger in Texas” in mind with regard to their burgers — juicy quarter-pound patties, soft five-inch buns and extra sauce.

You can find DQs along Texas highways, in big cities and in small towns. There are almost 600 locations statewide thanks to the TDQOA and Doris Richeson, the first woman appointed to the TDQOA board of directors (in 1977) and a current franchisee of 61 stores. Richeson played an important role in fighting for the special Texas Dairy Queen menu offerings when International Dairy Queen wanted to take away trademarks. She helped craft the 1981 marketing agreement, which allowed

Texas operators to spend their advertising money on Texas-specific marketing, as well as continue development of Texas-only menu items.

Dairy Queen is much more than a place for pit stops, as Pulitzer Prize–winning author and Archer City, Texas, native Larry McMurtry notes in his essay collection Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen. Texas Dairy Queens, he writes, are “a meeting place, gathering group, quick lunch, gossip center and more.” Whether you’re taking a long cruise through the state or just making a stop in your hometown, the rich history and delicious royal treats of Texas Dairy Queens are sure to satisfy even the biggest Texas appetite.

PHOTOS COURTESY DAIRY QUEEN

T

TO A TEXAN, few things can beat a beefy Hungr-Buster and a soft, chocolate-dipped cone complete with the iconic “Q” swirl after traveling for hours on Texas highways.

Although this fast-food chain got its humble start in Illinois, Dairy Queen has become a true Texas symbol.

In 1934 J.F. McCullough and his family decided they wanted to create a machine that would keep their ice cream frozen but malleable, unlike the harder frozen ice cream at local shops. With the help of one of their loyal customers, Sherb Noble, the crew developed a machine that would serve their ice cream at a soft, 23 degrees Fahrenheit.

The history of the Texas Dairy

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DEEP IN THE ART ETERNAL REST: The nowdemolished rest stop I visited in Flower Mound, Texas..

Roadside R&R

More than just toilets and tables, rest stops are treasured Texas icons

I

T WAS THE SUMMER of 2007 when I made the move from Southern California to Austin. Not long after I arrived, I began receiving photography assignments, some of which would take me all over the Lone Star State.

At some point during my first two years of traveling Texas, I started noticing roadside rest stops. I wish I could remember the exact one that did it for me; I think it happened after subconsciously seeing a few of them.

I glimpsed one and thought, “That would be a great photo.”

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RYANN FORD

I was drawn to the minimalist scene — a modest little structure set out on a beautiful landscape — and the mid-century architecture. Coming home from an assignment, I sat down at my computer, distracted by the thought of photographing the vintage rest stops I’d just seen.

Had anyone already photographed rest stops? And what did other stops out there look like? I Googled.

To my horror, I was met with news article after article detailing the demise of rest stops all over the country.

RYANN FORD

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BULLISH: Outside Fort Stockton, Texas (above), along I-10, I took what wound up being the only photo in the book to include a person and/or animal. The University of Texas mascot, Bevo XIV, and his handlers were on their way back from playing in the Rose Bowl in California. About the time we were finishing up the design on the book, we learned of Bevo XIV’s passing from bovine leukemia. We moved this photo to the final page as a memorial to him.

Threatened Bit of History During the height of the recent recession, states were cutting expenses wherever they could, and highway rest stops were the first to go. Some were closed only temporarily, but others were simply demolished. I scrolled to an article about Texas, clicked the link, and was struck by the image of a rest stop whose roofline took the shape of long horns. Along the walls of the structure was painted a huge Texas flag.

It was an amazing example of Americana.

I was dismayed to read how the rest stop was characterized as “a breeding ground for crime” and shocked to see that it was slated for demolition.

That very weekend I jumped in the car and made the drive to Flower Mound, near Fort Worth. I got a great shot and headed home. A few weeks later I was back in the area on assignment, and returned to visit. It was gone.

A big orange barricade blocked the entrance ramp, the concrete structures had been knocked down and hauled away, and the ground where these shelters had stood for decades was smoothed over as if they’d never existed. I immediately felt an urgency to pho-

tograph as many rest stops as I could before they were gone forever.

Companion on the Journey It’s pretty tough to find a friend willing to take off work to drive around looking for rest stops, and my mother was worried about my going alone. So I invited her to tag along. I spent a few days mapping out a rough itinerary for us, the first trip taking us mostly through New Mexico and into West Texas. We headed south from my parents’ house in Pagosa Springs, Colo., then drove pretty much every highway in New Mexico.

There’s something about road trips that makes them ripe for spontaneous events and adventures. We were faced with surprises — a herd of wild javelina running through a shot — and inevitabilities, like sheltering from a sudden

OIL FIELD: Some of my favorite stops are those that draw on the regional culture and history of the area. I love how the designers of this stop near Winona, Texas, on I-20, used the oil derrick, an icon of this oil-rich area, to draw travelers off the highway for a rest among the whimsy.

summer thunderstorm and running on empty, nearly out of gas. My favorite rest stops were the abandoned ones, and I had to beg my mom to jump the fences with me.

Website to Magazine to Book A couple of years into the project, and a hundred rest stops or so later, things really began to take shape. By then I’d realized that rest stops were more than just toilets and tables, and that this was more than just a photo series. I dreamed of the project becoming a book.

I’d been holding the images close to my chest and became excited to start getting them SPR I N G 2 0 1 8

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MADE IN THE SHADE: This is one of the last picnic tables in Monument Valley, Arizona. The rest were demolished so that a hotel overlooking the valley could be built. This table is located in a pull-off, offering a great view of “The Mittens” rock formations in the background.

WHITE SPACE: The rest stop at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico was my favorite location.

The picnic tables are iconic, straight out of the ’60s, and the landscape is like no place else on earth. It was a hot summer day at sunset, and a thunderstorm had just rolled through, so hardly anyone was around.

out there. I posted about 20 of my favorites on my website. Within months, I started getting inquiries. In May 2013 my family and I traveled to the Grand Canyon and took the overnight mule trip to the bottom, to Phantom Ranch, well out of range of cell service. On our way back up the trail, my phone made a little ding. It was an email from the New York Times Magazine, wanting to run a feature on the rest stops.

Upon publication of that piece, I began getting emails from people all over the country, Baby Boomers mostly, wanting to share their memories of their times at rest stops.

The response revealed to me something much deeper in the American consciousness and further enforced my idea of the book. I never imagined that these funny little rest stops I was drawn to would evoke so much interest from the American public.

My hope is that The Last Stop cultivates an interest in the often-overlooked beauty and significance of rest stops in the American travel experience, and maybe even encourages preservation of those that remain — in Texas and beyond.

RYANN FORD is an architectural photographer based in Austin and the author of the best-selling book, The Last Stop: Vanishing Rest Stops of the American Roadside. More information at thelaststopbook.com.

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Happenings S P R I N G 20 1 8

DO-NOT-MISS STUFF TO DO AROUND TEXAS

BRAZOS TRAIL

FORTS TRAIL

FOREST TRAIL

HILL COUNTRY INDEPENDENCE TRAIL TRAIL

Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show & Rodeo

PLAINS TRAIL REGION

FORTS TRAIL REGION PECOS TRAIL REGION

BRAZOS TRAIL REGION

HILL COUNTRY TRAIL REGION

March 8–18 1000 North Texas Ave. rgvls.com FOREST TRAIL REGION

PECOS TRAIL

PLAINS TRAIL

TROPICAL TRAIL

enjoy a carnival, costumed characters, music and the famed Cuisine Walk.

INDEPENDENCE TRAIL REGION

Official St. Patrick’s Day Celebration SHAMROCK

The 79th Annual festival will feature live performances, festival foods, parades, horse shows, a cooking contest, competitive livestock events, exhibits, a petting zoo and family-friendly shows.

TROPICAL TRAIL REGION

Llano Earth Art Festival LLANO

March 15–18 Shamrock Community Center (806) 256-2501 shamrocktexas.net This seven-decades-old celebration in the Route 66 community of Shamrock offers something for revelers of all ages: parade, arts and crafts, carnival, chili cook-off, 5K run, beauty pageant, dance,

March 9–12 Grenwelge Park (325) 247-2500 llanoearthartfest.org

March

COURTESY VISITLUFKIN.COM

MOUNTAIN TRAIL

MERCEDES LAKES TRAIL REGION

MOUNTAIN TRAIL REGION

LAKES TRAIL

Paul Kane: Intrepid Artist and Adventurer

The Best Little Cowboy Gathering in Texas

ORANGE

LA GRANGE

Through June 2018 Stark Museum of Art (409) 866-2787 starkculturalvenues.org

March 8–11 Fayette County Fairgrounds bestlittlecowboygathering. org

From 1845 to 1848, Kane camped and canoed across North America, sketching in watercolor and oil paints along the way. He wanted to record the landscape and the people before they changed. This exhibition presents Kane’s firsthand works exploring regions through the artist’s eye.

The celebration of cowboy culture features a mix of live music, including country, Western swing and old cowboy classics. Artists and craftsman from various backgrounds showcase their cowboy art, fine jewelry, vintage furniture, custom clothing and other wares. And don’t forget about the Best Little Cook-Off in Texas, with teams competing across several delicious categories.

Enjoy art, music, food, craft — and lots of rocks. The festival is a unique celebration of art in nature and home to the World Rock Stacking Championship.

Nederland Heritage Festival NEDERLAND

March 13–18 Various locations (409) 724-2269 nederlandhf.org The rich heritage of the Dutch is on display at this festival and features the Windmill Museum and Arcadian house in Tex Ritter Park. Visitors will

health fair, classic vehicle show and even a Donegal Beard contest — and a big Saturday night dance featuring Shooter Jennings. And for Route 66 motor enthusiasts, you can view the service station that’s the model for Disney’s Cars while charging your Tesla at the restored historic U-Drop Inn.

Shamrock's Blarney Stone

Saint Patrick's Celebration DUBLIN

March 17 Various locations (254) 445-3422 dublintxchamber.com Dublin, the Irish Capital of Texas, goes all out for its annual St. Patrick’s Celebration.

The family-oriented events include a St. Paddy-themed parade, vintage car clubs, dog show, arts/craft vendors, live entertainment, food, museum tours and more.

8th Annual Outlaws and Legends Music Fest ABILENE

March 23–24 Back Porch of Texas 3350 N. Clack St. (325) 260-6054 outlawsandlegends.com

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Everyone is welcome, join the group or jump in anywhere on your own!

Alpine Gem & Mineral Show ALPINE

Spirit Of Texas Festival COLLEGE STATION

March 23–25 Wolf Pen Creek (817) 688-0573 sotxfest.com The festival features family fun and only Texas music.

Also included is a $10K BBQ Cook Off, a $10K Curbside Smackdown Food Truck Contest, and a $10K Car Show and Motorbike Show.

The Trading Market features 100 vendors offering Texas art and crafts.

March 30–April 1 Alpine Civic Center (432) 729-4526 visitalpinetx.com/events/ alpine-agate-festival The 29th Annual Alpine Gem and Mineral Show features Big Bend Agates plus specimens from around the world.

Free admission, door prizes, demonstrations.

April

DIMMITT

April 5–7 ogallalaquilters.org

ALPINE/MARFA/EL PASO/ VAN HORN/FORT DAVIS

March 27–28, with opening reception March 26 texasheritagetrailregions.com Take part on this two-day caravan/road trip as the Texas Heritage Trails celebrate their Golden Anniversary!

Fiesta de la Flor Music Festival

40th Annual Lubbock Arts Festival

AUSTIN

CORPUS CHRISTI

LUBBOCK

April 5–8 Various locations aipf.org

March 13–14 North Bayfront Park www.fiestadelaflor.com/

Poets from around the world gather for live performances, readings and workshops. This is an inclusive, diverse, multigenerational environment welcoming the broadest possible audience of poets and nonpoets alike in appreciation of the spoken and written word.

Celebrates the life and legacy of Selena Quintanilla Perez, known to her many admirers as the “Queen of Tejano.”

This annual event serves as a tribute to Selena, as well as to the cultural contributions of Tejano music worldwide.

April 14–15 Lubbock Memorial Civic Center (806) 744-2787 lubbockartsfestival.org

32nd Annual Trappings of Texas

Every spring for nearly three decades, the Ogallala Quilter’s Society turns the tiny town of Dimmitt into a world-class destination for quilters, designers, teachers and students, with seminars, a banquet and judging.

April 12–14 Museum of the Big Bend museumofthebigbend.com/ trappings-of-texas For the past 32 years, the Museum of the Big Bend has exhibited some of the very best cowboy gear and finest Western art in the longestrunning event of its kind in the country. Features a preview party on Thursday, grand opening exhibit and sale on Friday, and more opening weekend events. The exhibit continues through May.

Arts in Bloom

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Geared toward people of all ages, the Lubbock Arts Festival has been an event to look forward to in the South Plains for four decades. With more than 150 visual art-

ALPINE

31st Annual Ogallala Quilt Festival Texas Heritage Trails Anniversary Caravan

Austin International Poetry Festival

Arts in Bloom MCKINNEY

April 13–15 Downtown Square (972) 547-2660 mckinneytexas.org/687/Artsin-Bloom The event will host over 150 juried artists for this three-day celebration of the arts, foods and wine. Attendees will visit artist booths and sample wine from a dozen or more North Texas wineries, assorted craft beers, and a variety of regional food, positioned throughout the closed-off streets surrounding the square’s centerpiece, the McKinney Performing Arts Center. Local musicians will provide live entertainment on the festival’s main stage, and kids can create their own art in the children’s area.

ists from around the nation displaying and selling original paintings, drawings, pottery, sculpture and works in fiber, leather, jewelry, glass and wood, there are also plenty of kid-friendly activities and performances.

Official Bluebonnet Festival of Texas CHAPPELL HILL

April 14–15 Downtown (979) 836-6033 chappellhillhistoricalsociety. com

COURTESY ROBERT HENSLEY

The annual music festival, benefiting Ben Richey Boys Ranch, returns to the Back Porch of Texas. Reckless Kelly and Ray Wylie Hubbard are among the performers.

More than 250 juried exhibitors (home décor, gardening, artists, craftsmen, jewelry and more), delicious countrystyle food, live entertainment and music, and tours of the historic community. A special Wildflower photo exhibit will be on display at the Chappell Hill Museum Exhibit Gallery.

U.S Cavalry Association Regional Competition SAN ANGELO

April 18–21 Fort Concho National Historic Landmark (325) 657-4444 fortconcho.com Events will include classroom instruction, field instruction, combat horsemanship and competition in jumping, pistol and saber. The event will be open to the public for the competition days of April 19–21, and some of the evening dinners will also be open to guests at a small charge for the meal.

Ennis Bluebonnet Trails

Thin Line Film is a documentary film festival; Thin Line Music is the soundtrack of the festival; and Thin Line Photo is a competitive international photography festival.

This unique event is filled with creativity.

within the last two years, both functional and sculptural, is eligible. Every year, whether it’s the competition or the invitational, the opening weekend is filled with fun and educational events.

Fiesta San Antonio SAN ANTONIO

April 19–29 Downtown (979) 532-1862 fiesta-sa.org Fiesta San Antonio, a celebration of San Antonio’s rich culture, began in 1891 to honor the memory of the heroes of the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto. The 126th annual Fiesta will boast more than 100 events. With almost 3.5 million people attending, Fiesta is one of the biggest festivals in the United States and the largest in San Antonio.

Thin Line Film – Music – Photo DENTON

April 18–22 Downtown thinline.us

30th Annual Old Settler’s Music Festival TILMON

April 19–22 oldsettlersmusicfest.org The signature Central Texas music festival featuring Grammy-winning Americana, arts, crafts, camping, food and libations.

22nd San Angelo National Ceramic Competition

Ennis Bluebonnet Trails Festival ENNIS

April 20–22 (972) 878-4748 visitennis.org Enjoy three days of arts and crafts, bluebonnet souvenirs, children’s activities, live music and scenic country rides taking in all the beautiful wildflowers with their free

SAN ANGELO

April 20–June 24 Museum of Fine Arts (325) 653-3333 samfa.org This juried ceramic competition is held every two years with competition open to artists who are residents of the United States, Canada and Mexico. All work completed

bluebonnet trails map. Free admission.

Burton Cotton Gin Festival

Riverfest

BURTON

FREEPORT

April 21 (979) 289-3378 cottonginmuseum.org

April 26–28 (979) 233-3306 freeportriverfest.com

Celebrate the 1914 Burton Farmers Gin at the 29th annual festival. This free family event includes a parade, food, crafts, folk life and tours of the Texas Cotton Gin Museum, plus music and entertainment.

Riverfest is a fun-filled weekend including a Bar-B-Que Cook Off, 5K, motorcycle show, sailboat regatta, live music, crafts and vendors.

Buccaneer Days CORPUS CHRISTI

Rodeo April 26–29 Festival and Parades May 3–13 (361) 882-3242 bucdays.com Corpus Christi’s longestrunning pirate festival is held on the beautiful bayfront. Buc Days has been running since 1938 with annual attendance of more than 45,000 people.

Rodeo, carnival, live music, food, amusements, rides and parades.

Red Poppy Festival GEORGETOWN

April 27–29

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Downtown (800) 436-8696 redpoppyfestival.com

May Airing of the Quilts HUNTSVILLE

Cruisin' Nocona NOCONA

May 3 Downtown (940) 825-3526 nocona.org

Fort Martin Scott Days FREDERICKSBURG

April 27–28 (830) 217-3200 ftmartinscott.org This living history event features military, frontier lawmen, Native Americans and folks representing the fort’s active time period with special events for children.

Rio Grande Festival SAN ELIZARIO

April 27–29 (915) 851-0093 theriograndefestival.com The 2nd Annual Rio Grande Festival is the cornerstone of the Arrival of the Oñate Expedition that arrived in the area in April 1598. The festival includes a three-day history conference, live music, arts and crafts, guided tours, food and beverages, and cultural presentations daily.

Texas SandFest PORT ARANSAS

April 27–29 Between mile markers 9 and 13 (361) 249-6792 texassandfest.org The annual Texas SandFest is the largest master sand sculpting competition in the United States. The three-day festival attracts world-class sculptors.

Each year, more than 100,000 people attend this familyfriendly festival. Sand sculpting contests and lessons, unique jewelry, art, crafts, music and food are available.

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Ranch Day LUBBOCK

April 28 National Ranching Heritage Center (806) 742-0498 depts.ttu.edu/nrhc/events/ RanchDay Both the young and young at heart enjoy Ranch Day activities each spring when cowboys, horses, chuck wagons and 185 volunteers, many dressed in period clothing, make pioneer life come alive for visitors. There’s no admission charge for this annual event, but donations are encouraged.

Bob Wills Day Festival

Take a car cruise through the scenic North Texas Hill Country — approximately 90 miles round trip. After returning to downtown Nocona, participants parade their cars through town. This event is followed by two days (Friday and Saturday) of car auctions by Vicari Auctions.

TURKEY

April 28 (806) 423-1033 bobwillsday.com There are lots of things to do in scenic Turkey, Texas, during Bob Wills weekend, so bring your camper or reserve a room at the newly remodeled Hotel Turkey — and prepare to dance the night away to world-class fiddlin’ at the Church of Western Swing.

Airing of the Quilts - Huntsville

Spring Artisans Market VICTORIA

May 3 Museum of the Coastal Bend (361) 582-2559 museumofthecoastalbend.org Hand-designs by regional artisans will be on display along with demonstrations and tea-hour snacks.

May 5 Downtown (936) 295-8322 tallpinesquiltguild.com Texas’ oldest outdoor quilt show and market features quilts hanging around the courthouse and throughout the downtown area. Vendors will present an array of unique offerings.

West Texas Heritage Days FORT MCKAVETT

May 4–5 Fort McKavett State Historic Site (325) 396-2358 visitfortmckavett.com Living Historians from around the state gather to portray life as it would have been at the fort in the 1800s. Activities include military drills, Native American demonstrations, Buffalo Soldiers, Buffalo Hunters, chuck wagon demonstrations, the Texas Camel Corps, the Texas Longhorn herd, a one-room schoolhouse lesson, frontier woodworking, weavers, seamstresses and much more. The

COURTESY BARBARA BRANNON/TEXAS PLAINS TRAIL REGION; NOCONA

This family-friendly event features over 120 artisans from across the nation, plus a car show, kids zone and live entertainment.

Sahawe Indian Dancers from Uvalde will present a colorful and fast-moving variety of Native American dances at 2 p.m. At 2:30 p.m., a team of historians will lead a tour of the Government Springs and Quarry area and the Fort McKavett Cemetery.

largest bit and spur show, Western art, chuck wagon cook-off, ranch rodeo, nightly dances, an invitational ranch horse sale, Ranch Horse Association of America (RHAA) Working Ranch Horse Competition, children’s rodeo events and lots of family fun.

Red Dirt BBQ & Music Festival

Old Settlers Day

TYLER

May 12 Courthouse Square (806) 983-2415

May 5 Downtown reddirtbbqfest.com Experience Texas BBQ and Texas music in downtown Tyler. Sample smoked meats from 25 of Texas’ most celebrated barbecue joints and stay for a five-act concert featuring Aaron Watson, Pat Green, Koe Wetzel, Josh Weathers and the Read Southall Band.

FLOYDADA

Floydada’s celebration isn’t just for early settlers and their descendants — it’s a full day of fun, with museum visits, festival games, quilt show, barbecue cook-off, classic car show, vendor booths, great food, parade, street dance and local music. And, hey, don’t forget to buy your tickets for Cow Patty Bingo.

May 26–27 Jerry McDonald Field (361) 749-7334 portaransasartcenter.org This weekend festival sponsored by the Port Aransas Art Center features artist booths with original works for sale in all mediums. Music and food are also available at this family-friendly event.

Old Settlers Day

Alpine Cowboys Baseball pioneers, chuck wagons, livestock, camels, a stagecoach and much more. Learn about life at this historic military fort with a variety of living history stations, and experience a typical day on the Texas frontier.

Elgin Art Tour ELGIN

Western Heritage Classic

Western Frontier Days

ABILENE

SHEFFIELD

May 10–13 Expo Center of Taylor County (325) 677-4376 westernheritageclassic.com

May 18–19 Fort Lancaster State Historic Site (432) 836-4391 visitfortlancaster.com

To preserve the heritage of the ranch cowboy, this event features a parade, the world’s

Summer Mummers

May 19–20 Downtown elgintx.com Meet local artists at their downtown studios. Learn about their art, techniques and inspiration.

Funtier Days & World Championship Bison Cookoff SANTA ANNA

May 20 (325) 348-3826 santaannatex.org Cookers from all over the Lone Star State and beyond test their recipes and their reputations not just on beef, chicken and pork but on buffalo, too. The event is sanctioned by the Texas Bison Association and by the Lone Star Barbecue Society.

Partnered with Funtier Days, the event features a 5K run, arts and crafts, games, rides, homemade pies and ice creams and, of course, buffalo.

Watch as Fort Lancaster comes alive with soldiers, Bandera Regulars Memorial Day Trail Ride

COURTESY COWBOY POETRY GATHERING; NEDERLAND; HIDALGO BORDERFEST

BANDERA

May 25–28 (830) 796-3045 banderacowboycapital.com Gates open on Thursday, May 24, for the 57th annual Memorial Day ride with sign up on Friday along with a cowboy fixin’s meal. (Bring your own plates, utensils and beverages.) Saturday morning the ride begins through the Hill Country, wrapping up on Sunday with a parade through town.

ALPINE

May 28–July 18 Kokernot Field alpine.pecosleague.com Alpine’s tradition of smalltown professional baseball began in the 1940s and continues today at beautiful, historic Kokernot Field, the “best little ballpark in Texas.” The Alpine o6 Cowboys compete in the Pecos League and were 2012 league champs.

June

Celebrate Texas Exhibit ODESSA

June 8–Aug. 26 Ellen Noel Museum (432) 550-9696 noelartmuseum.org This exhibit will highlight Texans who’ve changed the course of fashion and have dressed some of the most well-known people.

Additionally, the exhibition will showcase important Texas artists from 1880 to 1940. Works include paintings by Tom Lea (El Paso), furniture by Johann Jahn (New Braunfels), sculpture

by Elisabet Ney (Austin), ceramics by Wilson Pottery Brothers (Seguin) and prints

by Merritt Mauzey (Clifton).

Summer Mummers ArtFest Weekend PORT ARANSAS

MIDLAND

June 1–Sept. 1 Yucca Theatre

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(432) 570-4111 summermummers.com Catch a production chock full of mayhem and hilarity performed at the historic Yucca Theatre in downtown Midland. Melodrama is a unique theatrical experience invented in America, and no one does it quite like Summer Mummers, the oldest continuous melodrama in the country.

Bring your friends, bash the villain with popcorn and enjoy side-splitting laughter during the olio.

Night Out on 15th PLANO

June 3 (972) 948-5916 visitdowntownplano.com/night-out-on-15th Night Out on 15th is a community dining experience where guests can eat a meal with friends surrounded by the historic beauty of Plano’s arts district. The event features a 300-foot-long table down the middle of 15th Street where arts district chefs prepare a culinary tasting paired with select beer, wine and spirits.

7th Annual Children’s Art & Literacy Festival ABILENE

June 7–9 (325) 677-1161 abilenecac.org/calf Celebrate all things Oliver Jeffers, who illustrated the best-selling book The Day The Crayons Quit.

The festival starts Thursday with a Storybook Parade and artist talk. Thursday night is free, and no registration is required. Register for passes to attend Friday and Saturday activities, including dramatic book readings, costumed characters, art activities, animals, magic shows, balloons and movies.

Texas Blueberry Festival NACOGDOCHES

June 9 (936) 560-5533 tbf.nacogdoches.org The 29th annual festival is a day-long celebration after the blueberry harvest. This delicious event is full of activities to keep visitors entertained all day.

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LEGACY PERSONALITY p. 80 H ARCHIVE p. 82 H HISTORIES p. 84

RARITIES AND

COURTESY TEXAS STATE LIBRARY ARCHIVES

LEgENdS FROM TEXASâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ARCHIVES: Gregorio Cortez, depicted in this seldom-seen photograph held by the Texas State Library and Archives, became infamous in 1901 for his run-in with Texas law enforcement. The story of Cortez spread, particularly through its rendition into a Spanish folk ballad. Other documents and their backstories from the state archives, p. 82.

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LEGACY TEXAS ORIGINAL

Bob

Phillips

Following in the footsteps of Charles Kuralt, television reporter Bob Phillips shares the tales of authentic Texans

HOW DOES A real-deal journalist find his way into the heritage and cultural tourism scene?

Bob Phillips, host of television’s Texas Country Reporter, says his long-running fan favorite “isn’t strictly a travel show — we wanted to take it a step further and get into the culture. By doing that, you have to tell the individual stories of people.”

Although born and raised in Dallas, Phillips spent weekends and summers on the family farm near Whitesboro (in Grayson County, up near the Red River). Inspired by Charles Kuralt, a popular newsman who was the first anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning and host of the long-running On the Road with Charles Kuralt, Phillips decided at a young age that he, too, would be a television reporter. Taking the first step toward his career while still a freshman at Southern Methodist University, he began working at Dallas’ CBS affiliate, KDFW, where he learned to use a camera and itched to be part of the action.

One day while waiting to help develop the next big story, Phillips was called to cover a scene when no other reporters were available. Sure enough, he set up his camera and performed an interview as a “one-man band.” Phillips has been reporting solo ever since — until, that is, his wife, Kelli, joined him in front of the camera starting with the 2015 season of TCR. Phillips’ folksy show started out as more of a hobby, filmed during his weekend shifts at Channel 4 to highlight the stories of ordinary people, just like Kuralt used to do. In October 1972, Phillips finally convinced management to let him and a couple of others work on a quick

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AU THENTICTEXA TEXAS AU THENTIC S

segment, and on the heels of that success 4 Country Reporter was born.

In 1986 Phillips started producing his own show, retitled Texas Country Reporter, with his own crew and production company and a statewide broadcast. TCR isn’t just any ordinary

travel show, mind you: Phillips doesn’t feature places or events, but rather uses the authentic and captivating stories of people to highlight the culture of an area. The show introduces viewers to noteworthy individuals who make Texas so diverse — from quirky collectors to astonishing artists to the unsung heroes you may never have even heard of.

One day in the late ’80s, Bruce Neal, then

director of the special marketing division at Six Flags over Texas, took Phillips to lunch and pointed out that Phillips was more than a journalist: he was part of the Texas tourism industry. “You do a lot of things in your career or life that have an impact,” says Phillips of that light-bulb moment, “but then you realize you have an impact in another area — not realizing the broader effect. That brings responsibility.”

As a reporter, traveler and Texas storyteller, Phillips says if you’re going to travel the state, do your research — get online, grab a book and watch the show. You’ll be interested to know about all of the hidden gems (both people and places) you’ll find on your journey across the state.

It’s worth noting that Phillips deliberately doesn’t exclude the stories set in locations that people can’t just walk in and visit, “because it’s just as important to tell those stories since they reflect the culture and heritage. You may not be able to visit the exact location,” he explains, “but hopefully our viewers are inspired by the story to learn more about our state.”

Given the choice of big-city locales and offthe-beaten-path tales, Phillips is drawn to the rural areas of Texas because of where he grew up and the memories he made there. It doesn’t matter if it’s a small “no-name town,” knowledge of the people there and how the place got its name “makes a town TexasCountryReporter.com come alive,” says Catch Bob Phillips and his show Phillips. “Every all over Texas and nationwide, place is there for on cable channel RFD-TV. a reason.”

PHOTOS COURTESY TEXAS COUNTRY REPORTER

H

by MARGARET HOOGSTRA and JENNA MCCANN

Bob Phillips has been honored with numerous awards for his work from AP, UPI, Dallas Press Club, the Telly Awards, the Texas Historical Commission, WorldFest International and the coveted television Emmy Award. Most recently, Phillips was honored as the 2017 recipient of the Texas Travel Industry Association "Tall In Texas" award.

LEGACY ARCHIVE

Serving up

TEXAS

History A new exhibit offers compelling and rarely seen items from the State Archives

D

by GLORIA MERAZ

myth and music, the Texan experience is captured ID YOU KNOW Samuel Morse offered to give the Republic of through some rarely seen historical records.

Texas exclusive rights to his Electro-Magnetic Telegraph “Go to Texas!” in 1838? Ever wondered the The Texas mystique of cowboys, land and opporbackstory of some of history’s tunity is well-known across the globe today. most infamous outlaws? Do you know how many However, that situation wasn’t always true. hours were clocked during the longest recorded Understanding the essential need for a thriving population, state officials have a history of filibuster at the Texas Legislature? promoting Texas to draw people Answers to these and other questions are found in the Texas State Library and and enterprise to the state.

Among the items on display newest exhibit from the Texas Archives Commission is a promotional broadside from State Library and Archives 1201 Brazos St. Austin, TX 78711 1871 exhorting foreigners (i.e., Commission. Archives à la Carte: (512) 463-5455 non-Texans) to “Go to Texas!”

Staff Picks, which runs through tsl.texas.gov and buy land in Kaufman County.

Aug. 31, features staff selections Other items include the passports of favorite documents, images, HOURS of General Sam Houston (1839) artifacts and recordings that proMon.–Fri. 8 am–5 pm and Emily D. West (1837) issued vide a fascinating glimpse into Second Saturdays 9 am–4 pm by the Department of State of our state’s past. the Republic of Texas. These rare The exhibit offers a look at how the Texan identity is captured and per- materials show how travel, immigration and settlepetuated through our historical records. From our ment are a fundamental component of building a love of travel and frontiers to our fascination with thriving population — regardless of the time peri-

od. Featuring maps and descriptions of wildlife, exhibited items highlight that the Texas landscape is more than space — it’s a state of mind filled with frontier independence and a love of place.

Infamous Texas Stories of outlaws and colorful characters make for sensational headlines. However, in a letter dated Sept. 1, 1874, from David Holderman to the governor of Texas, Richard Coke, Holderman writes regarding the murder of his son, Thomas.

Holderman asks for a bigger reward to be offered for one Brown Bowen, who “was broken out of jail by the John Wesley Hardin Party.” In a note on the back of the letter, Gov. Coke states that he can honor Gov. Davis’ $600 reward but not more. The effects of such lawlessness, while its perpetrators were often popularized, were severe economic and civic hardships for citizens throughout the state.

A convict record ledger from the records of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice documents individuals who entered the state prison system. Clyde Barrow, one half of the infamous Bonnie and Clyde gang, was assigned convict

THINGS OF THE PAST: (opposite page, from left) General Sam Houston passport, 1839, issued by the Department of State, Republic of Texas. Passports were issued by the Republic of Texas to allow persons to freely leave and reenter; advertisement declaring, “Go to Texas! Rapid Development of a Glorious Country, 1871."

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number 63527. His entry details his appearance, his drinking habits and the nature of his crime — and indicates his ultimate demise while on the run.

Beyond the crime sprees that dished up fodder for papers, Barrow was a criminal with a long record who spent much of his time in and out of prison.

Now about those questions…

As it turns out, Samuel Morse did offer Sam Houston the lucrative rights to his telegraph machine in 1838. However, Houston never responded and, in 1860, Morse rescinded the offer. You can see the original correspondence on exhibit in Austin.

The longest recorded legislative filibuster in Texas legislative history is Sen. Bill Meier’s 1977 stand to protect the Open Records Act. He objected to a proposal that would have prevented public inspection of the records of the Industrial Accident Board. At the end of his 43rd hour, Meier emphasized the importance of providing access to government records for the citizens of Texas. You can hear some of that filibuster at the exhibit and visit the Senate chamber just across the street at the Capitol in Austin.

Archives à la Carte: Staff Picks offers a behind-the-scenes tour of the State Archives and features surprising historical finds — including items for music lovers and nature buffs — that will spur some great travels across Texas.

PHOTOS COURTESY TEXAS STATE LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES

Gloria Meraz is assistant state librarian at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. She served as editor of the Texas Library Journal for 18 years and is the former director of communications for the Texas Library Association.

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LEGACY HISTORIES

SALADO

RISING

After a near-death experience at the hands of the highway that helped birth the tourist village, residents see signs of hope

ERHAPS THE BEST WAY to experience Salado, a writer from Southern Living once offered, is to stumble upon it. You’re traveling I-35 between Austin and Waco, and suddenly there it is — a charming patch of Texas’ past, right off the interstate.

The village grew up around Salado College, chartered in 1860, but the spring waters of Salado Creek had been attracting Native American tribes for hundreds of years before that.

In truth, Salado was a stagecoach stop before it was a town. “In the olden days, all roads led to Rome,” wrote the Temple Daily Telegram in 1908, “and before the days of the railroad, all roads led through Salado.” The pronouncement was both celebration and lament — recognizing at once the village’s evolution and, sadly, its decline at the hands of rail.

Salado had once been a major hub of activity, considered a cultural center given the presence of Salado College, and a mecca for recreation and relaxation because of its springs, clear creek and public greens. During the 1860s and ’70s, the village emerged as the most vibrant and rapidly growing community in Bell County and a popular stagecoach stop.

Stagecoach stopovers were critical, particularly in remote communities where they represented a lifeline between isolated pioneers and the rest of society. “For a time,” the Texas Almanac reports, “the stage lines provided the state’s only form of commercial transportation.”

Stopping every 10 miles on average, stagecoaches depended on way stations dubbed “stage stands,” where they’d find fresh horses, rest and replenishment. The benefit of these stopovers extended beyond stand owners: inn keepers, blacksmiths and merchants benefited as well.

Over the years, enterprising Salado residents capitalized on this opportunity, which gave rise to an emerging tourism industry and, connected with that, the Salado Hotel — now the Stagecoach Inn. Constructed in 1860, the hotel and restaurant, over the decades, earned a degree of notoriety and romanticism. Sam Houston was run out of town after speaking against secession from the hotel’s balcony. Robert E. Lee stayed there, as did Jesse James. The walls of some rooms are covered with 19th-century newspaper articles.

TEXAS AU THENTIC TEX AS 34 84 AU THENTIC

ROAD TO RECOVERY: The newly renovated I-35 near Salado is a welcome relief for the town's businesses and commuters. The renovation process was anything but a relief.

By 1908, much had changed courtesy of the “iron horse” — namely, the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad, which bypassed Salado and instead laid its tracks in nearby Belton and Temple, thus growing those communities. Some Salado residents took a glass-half-full attitude.

“Salado,” the Daily Telegram proclaimed, “has no railroad, no factories, no street car, no saloon, no opera — and none of the evils and lower class that accompany them.”

Still, in August 1908, Salado hosted a highly publicized barbecue to raise awareness of the vil-

COURTESY TXDOT

P

by TOM BUCKLEY

lage in the hopes a rail company would find the area appealing. And while the event attracted plenty of folks from nearby towns — many Temple residents, including the town’s band, made the trek by automobile despite the threat of stormy weather — no rail invitation resulted.

Residents couldn’t have imagined that the slow and clumsy auto that brought some visitors to the festivities would come to represent a profound shift in the country’s preferred mode of transportation — and in the village’s fortunes as well.

The popularity of the automobile, enhanced by advancements in engineering and improved roads, would ultimately level the playing field for towns like Salado, positioned along major thoroughfares. It took more than four decades for the village to experience a significant period of growth and revitalization, but when the boon came, it seemed worth the wait.

Which makes it all the more ironic that the same highway system that helped create the tourism community would ultimately be responsible, in part, for its undoing.

In February 1960, the Dallas Morning News announced, “A swank new motel is being built among the giant oak trees near Salado’s renowned Stagecoach Inn. Highway 81, from Dallas to San Antonio, had gone right through Salado for decades, but a new four-lane replacement has moved over and skirted the town. That highway now is an important segment of Interstate 35 that will run from the Rio Grande to Minnesota.”

Three decades later, Salado resident Thelma Fletcher described the change brought about by the addition of I-35 as one that altered the SPR I N G 2 0 1 8

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revitalization. Just a decade prior, in the early 1950s, the sum of Salado’s commercial center had consisted of the Stagecoach Inn, a small grocery, a feed store, one barber and one beauty shop, a laundromat, a service station and auto repair garage, a hamburger hut, an antique bookstore

night, once the interstate opened, as land that had long been farmland became highly visible, relevant and commercially appealing. “It became a different world,” Fletcher said.

The opening of the new Stagecoach Inn motel complex in October 1960 multiplied the changes brought by the interstate in the best way possible, attracting outside revenue and creating jobs. The complex opened to enthusiastic reviews — one newspaper dubbed it “space-aged” and another described the property as “a tasteful blending of two different centuries.” The price for a single room per night was $10; a room with a novel oversized bed went for $15.

As expected, soon after the motel complex opened, Salado enjoyed an economic boom and

and a post office.

But during the 1960s, the number of Salado businesses grew considerably, as did a host of activities that attracted tourists and other visitors.

Salado was already a favored site for artists, but it became even more popular with people interested in a variety of art forms. Galleries, antique stores and shops featuring home decor and jewelry opened, primarily on Main Street. An annual meeting of the Scottish Clan, an annual art fair, art and history exhibits, a Christmas Stroll and an event called the Pilgrimage to Salado that included a tour of historic homes were added to the village’s yearly calendar of events.

The businesses and activities reflected the kind of cultural and artistic themes Salado resi-

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dents held dear. Busloads of visitors and interstate travelers came calling, increasing over time, so that by the mid-’60s, Salado’s reputation was established. A new luxury hotel opening in Dallas in 1963 boasted that its chef was “the former head chef of the famous Stagecoach Inn in Salado.”

Dallas Morning News staff writer Frank Tolbert credited the Stagecoach owners, Dion and Ruth Van Bibbers, with “saving Salado from its former status as a ghost town.” Tolbert held that the restoration and success of the hotel had inspired local residents, who followed suit by restoring old homes along Main Street and elsewhere. As a result, Tolbert wrote, property along Salado Creek had appreciated dramatically.

Tolbert also recalled Dion Van Bibber schooling him during their initial interview.

Van Bibber insisted on pronouncing the village’s name with a Spanish inflection — “Suh - LAH - do,” using a soft “a.”

WORKSPACES: (clockwise from left) Clay thrower Ro Shaw at his shop on Peddler's Alley; 21 Main features unique home furnishings; taking a break at the Salado Wine Seller; owner Gail Allard creates a custom piece at Salado Glassworks. Opposite page: Salado city administrator Don Ferguson.

Most Texans probably didn’t care how it was pronounced. They just wanted to go there.

Until it became unfeasible.

Five decades after its establishment as a tourist haven, the village that once proudly referred to itself as “the jewel in the crown of Texas” had suddenly become something of a ghost town again.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: COURTESY RO SHAW CLAY STUDIO; COURTESY 21 MAIN; COURTESY SALADO WINE SELLER; COURTESY SALADO GLASSWORKS

complexion of the village. She had reason to know. The Fletchers had sacrificed three acres of their property on behalf of the new thoroughfare, reports Carol O’Keefe Wilson in The Stage Stops Here: A History of the Stagecoach Inn. Many other Bell County property owners had done likewise.

Fletcher later attested to the breadth of the changes brought by the new interstate as farmland was converted to blacktop and the hum of traffic shifted from the front to the back of her truncated property. She was grateful the children attending the red brick schoolhouse across Highway 81 no longer had to contend with the heavy traffic that had long rumbled through town.

Attention shifted westward, seemingly over-

COURTESY SALADO VILLAGE VOICE

“God forbid anyone has to go through what we did,” says current Salado city administrator Don Ferguson. “It was a tough pill to swallow for a community as vibrant, caring and open as this one.”

The decision by TxDOT in 2011 to reconstruct I-35 through the Waco District seemed like a no-brainer — and one that was met with only minimal objections by Salado officials. The reconstruction was necessary for a number of reasons, the foremost being the age of the highway — it was still the same structure originally built

in the ’50s and ’60s. True, it had been reworked in some places and widened, but at the base it was old pavement never designed to carry the number of vehicles — including “heavy load” vehicles like tractor-trailers — that now travel it daily.

As such, the pavement had been overstressed for years, and repairs were being required more frequently and more extensively every year.

“Two-thirds of our traffic on I-35 here is passthrough — people getting on the highway in DFW or Austin/San Antonio and going through Waco to get to somewhere else,” says TxDOT’s Jodi Wheatley, public information officer for the Waco District. “Additionally, as much as 35 percent of the traffic consists of semis hauling big loads of everything you can imagine. Nobody imagined that back in the ’50s.”

Moreover, the road was still only two lanes wide through most of the district, with everincreasing traffic, to a point where the entire route through the area had become a bottleneck.

And since easy access to good roads brings in additional businesses and manufacturers, the traffic just kept getting heavier — a catch-22.

“Transportation through the district was no longer just to get farmers and ranchers to and from market,” Wheatley says. “The reality is that more workers are commuting longer and longer distances to get to work every day. So the roadway needed to be bigger and stronger.”

SPR I N G 2 0 1 8

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Project IB was thus born, with a goal of rebuilding the stretch of highway — roughly 3.4 miles long — to a minimum of three lanes in each direction, with continuous one-way frontage roads and reconstructed overpasses. Stronger pavement and updated design specs were used to accommodate the increased size and frequency of commercial vehicles, as well as the increased need for new safety elements to help keep drivers safe as they travel.

But the proposed completion date for Project 1B — August 2015 — came and went, and with it the dwindling fortunes of a village almost entirely dependent on highway traffic.

Extensive signage, posted by TxDOT to indicate the construction zone, ended up having a disruptive effect, discouraging the sorts of travelers who form the economic lifeblood of such a community. “When you have a tourist-based economy,” Ferguson says, “blocking off the town is like blocking off the river in New Braunfels. We rely on visitation, but it was very difficult to find your way off the highway.”

Salado Mayor Skip Blancett claims that nearly 90 of the village’s 120-plus businesses closed during reconstruction, including the Stagecoach Inn, dealing a near death blow. Blancett published an angry letter, directed toward the James Construction Group, the contractor assigned by TxDOT to the project, saying residents were “emotionally and mentally exhausted,” and that those few business owners who remained were “spending their last pennies trying to stay in business.”

Salado felt betrayed by TxDOT and its promises of a relatively orderly transition, and began calling in political favors. Congressman John Carter, who serves the district, blamed delays on the contractor and says he had no qualms bringing pressure to bear on TxDOT as a result. “It’s my job to fight for my neighbors, and that’s what I did,” Carter tells Authentic Texas. “I stepped in to speed up construction, but I also wanted the contractors to understand the damage they did to the Salado area — to prevent something like this from ever happening again.”

TxDOT’s Wheatley has conceded that “we weren’t happy with the progress” of Project 1B. But she also emphasizes the complexity of the work. To keep the interstate at least partially open at all times — a monumental feat — contractors have to reconstruct the structure piece by piece, building a new frontage road, then destroying the old one, then building new highway lanes, then destroying the old ones — all in a tight space and under a variety of restrictions.

The payoff is undeniable: once completed, residents enjoy the fruits of a newly rebuilt stretch of highway.

Still, when the proposed completion date arrived, nearly 40 percent of the work hadn’t yet been completed. “One day you’re going to love I-35,” a TxDOT sign just south of Salado read during the disarray. “Until then, be careful.”

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“Reconstructing a stretch of highway is like living in your house while it’s undergoing major remodeling at the same time,” Wheatley says.

“But we did whatever we could to help the situation. We contacted the village and business owners to let them know this was coming. We held meetings and gave presentations to city groups.

We added lots of extra directional signs to guide motorists. And we made sure to maintain access to businesses at all times.”

Those able to remain open, that is. When the Stagecoach Inn closed in 2015, the village had lost its biggest draw — and, in some respects, its identity. “The Stagecoach has always been a landmark for the community — and a magnet,” Don Ferguson says. “When it went down, it signaled that the community was hurting and no longer the way it once was.”

But just as the situation seemed bleakest, new developers purchased the inn and undertook a year-long restoration of the property that coincided with TxDOT completing the essential elements of Project 1B.

By Thanksgiving 2016, Wheatley says, the contractor had achieved “substantial completion.”

And by the time the Stagecoach Inn restaurant reopened in June 2017 (see p. 66) — the hotel is scheduled to reopen this April — “Structurally, everything was done,” Wheatley says. “The main lanes, access roads and overpasses were in place.

We still had to complete landscaping and sidewalks, and we had to install permanent signage.”

And what would become of all that temporary signage that defined the area during reconstruction? Ferguson chuckles. “Recently, I was on the phone with TxDOT,” he recalls, “and they asked what else they could do to help the situation. I said, ‘How about hauling all that signage out of here?’ Seeing those signs every day was a reminder of what we’d been through — sort of like post-traumatic stress. The next Friday, the signs were gone.”

With the Stagecoach Inn restaurant back in business, the village is slowly regaining its footing. Local businesses that weathered the crisis are experiencing an uptick, and there’s been some new commercial development in town.

Moreover, Salado is making a concerted effort, through media and marketing partners, to get out the message that Salado is again open for business.

Finally, as a reminder of its shared struggles, TxDOT has worked with Salado to produce two works of art — a mural and a gateway sign consisting of a glass-blown structure — that now greet travelers to the village.

Today those travelers exit off a newly designed stretch of I-35 that holds the promise of a brighter future.

“We had our best Christmas season in years,” Ferguson says. “Spring will tell, but all the numbers seem to point in a positive direction.”

Recommended

Salado has been designated a state cultural district by the Texas State Commission on the Arts, a reflection of the creative talent — potters, painters, sculptors, carvers, glass blowers — that populate the village. Additionally, music is plentiful in many of the restaurants and bars, and one venue, Johnny’s Steaks & BBQ, hosts the Lone Star Music Series each spring and summer, featuring top Texas talent. Here are some of the highlights.

Shops

The historic downtown area is a cluster of shops and galleries, including the Shoppes on Main, a 5,000square-foot retail space. Arts & Leisure Salado is an artisan co-op of locally handcrafted artworks in various forms; Mud Pies Pottery features handthrown stoneware for everyday use; Ro Shaw’s Clay Studio showcases the work of a talented potter and gregarious soul, inside a corrugated tin shed; Salado Glassworks is both a gallery and working studio, as is FSG Fine Jewelry; and a number of shops, including Christy’s of Salado, the Red Cactus and Snickelbritches, feature women’s apparel. Antique Rose of Bell is an eclectic antique shop staged in the romantic atmosphere of the history Vickrey House (1885), and 21 Main is a must-see shop featuring unique furnishings and home decor.

Rooms

The Stagecoach Inn is the most famous hotel in the village, but other lodging, including B&Bs, is plentiful. The Baines House Inn & Gallery features cottages with king-size beds, while the Rose Mansion is an early Texas Greek revival home with cottages and log cabins. The Inn at Salado is a B&B with a full-service event facility and an amazing garden; the Red Barn Hideaway is just a block from Main Street but still secluded. And the Inn on the Creek is a boutique resort on 14 lush, green acres that hug Salado Creek. TranQuil Garden is an RV park with full hook-ups, about two miles from I-35.

Eats

Salado has an array of eateries catering to most tastes. McCain’s Bakery and Café supplies bread to the Stagecoach Inn restaurant and features breakfast, lunch and a full espresso bar. The Shed, meanwhile, is where visitors can satisfy their slowcooked pulled-pork hankering; Salado Patio specializes in Mexican fare; Alexander’s Distillery has Gulf Coast seafood, chops and steaks; and we’ll let you guess what Johnny’s Steaks & BBQ is serving up.

Dessert? The Heart Filled Bakery & Deli has a Cone Cabin for soft-serve custard fans.

Drinks

Need a libation station? Barrow Brewing Co. offers five flagship craft beers (and a changing list of limited releases, all brewed on site), while the Chupacabra Craft Beer & Salado Lone Star Winery has 60 Texas craft beers on tap and more than 300 different wines from around the world. (Tastings are held daily.) The Salado Winery Company is a momand-pop winery born of a vineyard planted in 2005.

Alexander’s Distillery has a cocktail lounge named for a distillery that once stood on the grounds; and the Barton House has upscale dining and craft cocktails.