New Book by
MIKE COX
Order Here |
|
| "Texas Tales"
focuses on little-known aspects of Texas history Cox runs across in
his research and travels across the state. Old-time Texas Rangers
used to say some men just need killing. Some stories just need telling,
and that's what Cox likes to do. |
Fort
Kirby
12-30-10
In the spring of 1946, an Army major assigned to desk duty at the
Pentagon had his sergeant call the War Records Office at the National
Archives to ask if they had any information on an old military post
in South Texas called Fort Kirby...
Christmas
Dinner 12-23-10
In the letter the Galveston News published on Dec. 21, 1893, the
former ranger A. J. Sowell expanded on an incident he had only mentioned
briefly in his 1884 book “Rangers and Pioneers of Texas.”
Prairie
Fire 12-16-10
The Rev. C.B. Jernigan spent most of his life trying to save sinners
from eternal fire and brimstone, but when he finally got around
to writing a memoir he devoted a full chapter to an incident from
childhood he remembered as hell on earth – a raging winter prairie
fire.
Sundial
in San Ygnacio 12-9-10
The weathered sundial positioned on top of the arched entrance to
the old family fort at San Ygnacio tells more than the time – it
tells a story.
Brownfield's
Riot That Never Was 12-1-10
In the summer of 1908 an article with a Fort Worth dateline published
in a Sunday edition of the New York Herald caught the eye of President
Theodore Roosevelt...
Pecans
11-25-10
There’s more to the nut produced by Texas’ official state tree than
food value. At least there used to be. Early-day Texas kids, not
having a very wide variety of what used to be called “store bought”
toys, found ways to play with pecans before eating them.
Yankee
Sawfish 11-18-10
Now extremely rare, sawfish are curious marine creatures that use
their unusual bladed snout to find food and then make it bite sized.
But even stranger is how one Texas sawfish indirectly aided the
Union Army during the Civil War.
Texas
Thanksgiving 11-11-10
Like a flock of wild turkeys pecking around in search of food, the
date that Texans set aside to celebrate their blessings kept jumping
around the calendar until well into the 20th century.
The
Great Chicken-Fried Steak Hoax 10-28-10
Ever wonder how a legend gets started? I had a small role in the
creation of what has become one of Texas’ most enduring pieces of
“fakelore” -- the story of the invention of the chicken-fried steak.
Hughes
Springs and Trammell’s Treasure 10-20-10
More than 300 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico, the community
of Hughes Springs owes its existence to a fanciful pirate story
and one man who believed it.
The
Haunting of the Old Travis County Jail 10-14-10
Harvey, 34, had the distinction of being the last of nine men legally
hanged in the castle-like stone jail, built for $100,000 in 1876
at the corner of 11th and Brazos streets — present location of the
Dewitt C. Greer Building, headquarters of what is now the Texas
Department of Transportation.
A
Lion and a Boy 10-7-10
And oilman Charles Edward Hipp of Graham
Faded
Photographs 9-30-10
"The people in these images could be your ancestors. Or mine.
One thing is sure: They are long dead, and so, too, is anyone who
could identify them."
Texas
Expressions 9-23-10
For years, I have collected Texas expressions like some people do
postage stamps. Herewith, in no particular order, a sampling.
The
Hat Story 9-9-10
When Mrs. Jane Greenwood set out to write her autobiography in 1965,
she knew she had to tell the hat story.
What
happened to Charles Francis Coghlan 9-2-10
His story is either one of the most incredible tales ever told,
pure legend or a mixture of fact and fiction.
Archeological
Diversion Ensured Granddad a Quiet Hunt 8-26-10
A
Hanging in Austin 8-19--10
Forty years ago, the late Edmunds Travis of Austin told me about
a hanging he reluctantly covered for the Austin daily he edited
in 1913...
Sea
Monster of Port Isabel 8-12-10
The monster showed up in the Gulf of Mexico off the small fishing
village of Port Isabel in the summer of 1938. That Aug. 10, in a
short article buried on a back page, the Brownsville Herald devoted
five paragraphs to “the sea monster that is attracting so much attention
in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.”...
A
little Texas cultural history 8-5-10
Surely most parents go through times when they wonder if they have
failed at our species’ most important job: Child-rearing...
Houston
7-29-10
An Internet search reveals five U.S. communities named Houston along
with three counties named Houston, including one in Texas...
El
Paso and the Battle of Juarez 7-22-10
On June 29, during a gun battle in Juarez, Mexico, seven stray AK
47 rifle rounds flew across the Rio Grande and hit city hall in
downtown El Paso... Nearly a hundred years have gone by since the
last time it happened...
Mertzon
Windmills 7-15-10
Last time I drove through Mertzon, it sunk in on me that the windmills
were gone...
The
Secret Hurricane 7-8-10
Don’t tell anybody, but there’s a hurricane in the Gulf ...
Cut
and Shoot, Gun Barrel City, Gunsight, Point Blank and Winchester
6-30-10
Death
Notice 6-23-10
Anyone who has ever worked on the editorial side of a newspaper,
which given all the various career paths out there is not a huge
percentage of the labor force, knows about writing obituaries...
Johnson
Island 6-17-10
The graveyard, accessible today only by boat or toll bridge, is
all that’s left of the Johnson Island Military Prison, a Lake Erie
facility that held an average of 2,500 Confederate prisoners – all
of them officers – throughout the Civil War...
Pica
Pole 6-10-10
Now a relic of the vanished hot type era, a pica pole used to be
as integral to the newspaper business as servers are to Web sites.
So what’s a pica pole?
Kate
Polly's Pancakes 6-3-10
Next time you fry a stack of pancakes, imagine what it would be
like if your life and the well-being of your children depended on
it.
Willie
Morris 5-27-10
Thurber
Brick 5-20-10
Fritch
5-13-10
Starting in the mid-1930s and continuing well into the ‘50s, Fritch
must have had some of the most mannerly, patient postal patrons
in the country...
Jokes
5-6-10
Folks who are really good at conveying ideas and information often
do so through story-telling. And if those stories are funny, it’s
all the better.
Cisco
Twister 4-29-10
In Cisco’s Oakwood Cemetery, five graves bear the same last name
and the same date of death – April 28, 1893. That was the day a
killer tornado struck...
Motels
4-22-10
I passed through Clarendon... That’s where I saw a local overnight
place called the It’ll Do Motel.
Flagpole
4-15-10
This story is about a mystery involving the flag staff that once
stood at Camp Howze, a sprawling World War II Army base at Gainesville...
1837
4-8-10
Fishing
Hogg 4-1-10
In the spring, many a young man’s fancy turns to…fishing. Back in
the spring of 1891, even Gov. James S. Hogg could not control an
urge..
Barnhart
3-24-10
Dust, bawling cattle, hell-raising cowboys and trains a half-mile
long – that was Barnhart in the 1920s and ‘30s...
First
Capitol 3-18-10
To all but his political enemies, the government of Mexico and a
few soreheads, the 44-year-old Tennessee transplant stood tall both
literally and figuratively as Texas’ greatest living hero...
Moonlight
Reflections at the Alamo 3-11-10
Buck's
Horse 3-4-10
Nothing’s perfect, but occasionally a good writer manages to arrange
the literary building blocks we call words, sentences and paragraphs
in such a way as to surprise and please the reader...
Post
Offices 2-25-10
With email and other forms of digital communication virtually (pun
intended) having killed old-fashioned first class mail, it’s time
to pay more attention to the history of all the hundreds if not
thousands of post offices Texas has had over the years. Many have
been closed...
Hazlewood
Fight 2-18-10
“The Indians, as a mark of recognition to bravery, would leave an
arrow sticking upright in the ground by an victim whose valor and
fighting spirit they respected... When Hazlewood’s body was found,
so goes the story, an arrow so upright bore evidence…to his courage.”
Wolf
Girl 2-5-10
When the boy returned home that day he told his parents a story
as horrifying as it was unbelievable.
Big
Lake News 1-28-10
Jackson
Day 1-21-10
Texas’
10 Worst Disasters 1-14-10
Lone
Wolf 1-7-10
Long-time Ranger Captain Manual T. Gonzaullas, one of Texas’ best-known
20th century law enforcement officers is once again at the center
of a mystery...
Thirsty
12-30-09
Along the Texas frontier, bad water posed just about as much of
a problem as no or little water.
Hog
Stories 12-24-09
Christmas
Shooting 12-17-09
Many Texas families have their particular Christmas traditions,
but the way the Hornsby clan used to observe the holiday may just
take the fruitcake...
Wainwright's
Buck 12-10-09
Anyone who knows anything about the history of World War Two has
heard of Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright. Far less known, however, is
the story of the last skirmish in which he was ranking officer,
a brief engagement that occurred on a West Texas ranch in the late
1940s...
Marshal
Pitman 12-3-09
Walter W. Pitman’s good luck held for more than half a century.
Not everything went his way, but in big-stake deals the figurative
roulette wheel of life generally spun in his favor...
Turkey
Hunt 11-26-09
When the governor and the state’s highest ranking U.S. Army officer
took time off from their official duties to go turkey hunting together
in the late winter of 1890, the outing did not escape the attention
of the state’s leading newspaper...
Population
Ranks 11-19-09
For historians, genealogists, and anyone interested in a little
Texas trivia, I’ve compiled the historic urban population hierarchy
and population figures dating back to 1850. The 1850 and 1860 listings
contain the top 10 cities, since there are some surprises...
Fishing
Soldier 11-12-09
When a wagon full of soldiers rolled out of old Fort Belknap early
one spring morning in 1867 flanked by horseback troopers, while
doubtless armed, they were not starting out on a scout for Indians.
John
Roan Mystery 11-4-09
On Dec. 13, 1879, the Atlanta Constitution published a brief story
that should have been big news in Texas, but somehow no editor in
the Lone Star state picked up on the Georgia daily’s report. The
story dealt with the purported solution of a 29-year-old mystery
in Central Texas, the disappearance of one John Roan...
Preacher
Freeman 10-29-09
Religious beliefs aside, all of us owe a debt to the early-day Baptist
and Methodist preachers. They not only saved souls, being literate
in an era when many were not, they saved a lot of history in their
written recollections...
Mobeetie
Preachers 10-22-09
Old
Jokes 10-14-09
Ever wonder what jokes made your great-grandparents laugh?...
Hughes'
Stock Book 10-8-09
Labeled “Horse Record – Hughes Bros.” the book contains hand written
records of horses sold and traded
The
Huntsville Humdinger and the Texas Prison Rodeo 10-1-09
When the Huntsville Humdinger hit the streets that Monday, the feisty
four-column competitor of the long-established Huntsville Item carried
on page one a humdinger of a local scoop: The prison system would
be starting a rodeo that fall. On Sept. 4, 1931...
Tesnus,
Texas 9-24-09
Tesnus, Texas is one of those ethereal ghost towns—except for a
railroad siding and a sign, no physical evidence of it remains...
Judge
Stories 9-17-09
The Texans we elect to the bench often figure in amusing stories.
Especially long-time judges like the late Mace B. Thurman Jr...
Baled
in a Bale 9-11-09
Though most of the ginning is done by brainless machinery, the industry’s
human element has developed a colorful folklore with a range of
subsets.
Central
Texas Flood 9-3-09
The first day it started raining, people took it as good news...
Port
Isabel Wireless 8-27-09
In 1915 the U.S. military had plans to install at Point Isabel a
state-of-the-art radio facility that would provide virtually instantaneous
communication as the government prepared for the possibility of
a second war with Mexico.
The
Texas Ranger 8-13-09
I wrote about this ship with a famous name last summer, but only
recently ran into some additional information on her...
U.S.
67 8-6-09
It may not be the Mother Road, but U.S. 67 stretches 1,560 miles
across five states, connecting Iowa to Mexico. The highway extends
through Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois to the intersection
of U.S. 52 in Sabula, Iowa, population 670. Six hundred thirty-seven
miles of U.S. 67 are in Texas, from Presidio to Texarkana...
Bluffton
Reappears 7-30-09
At this writing, the normally sprawling Lake Buchanan is only 51
per cent full... While a few traces of the old town have become
visible, most of it is still under water...
Bonnie
and Clyde Slept Here 7-23-09
Heat
7-16-09
Runaway
scrapes 7-9-09
July
4, 1894 7-2-09
The
Old Book Shelf 6-24-09
Ranger
Silver 6-18-09
Susan's
Indians 6-11-09
Ghost
Ships 6-4-09
Sideshow
Texans 5-28-09
News
Bits 5-21-09
Joe
Pruno 5-14-09
Book
Snippets 5-7-09
Pecos
High Bridge 4-30-09
The “fair young” Pecos River Queen
Flash
II 4-23-09
More news about the Flash, the vessel that carried the Twin Sisters
most of the way to the Texian army just in time for Sam Houston’s
decisive defeat of Santa Anna at San Jacinto...
Flash
4-15-09
Some aspects of Texas’ struggle for independence from Mexico have
fallen through the figurative cracks in the floor of history’s log
cabin. The Flash is a good example...
Early
Movie Making 4-11-09
Quito
4-2-09
The ghostliest of ghost towns are those that existed only on paper...
Texas
Sketchbook 3-26-09
Humble, a Texas oil company created in 1911... published thousands
of copies of the “Texas Sketchbook”...
Boyce
House 3-19-09
Boyce House deserves to be remembered...
Elmo
Johnson 3-12-09
This is not the first time the border has been a dangerous place.
Gail
Borden 3-5-09
A New Yorker who grew up in Indiana, Gail Borden came to Texas in
1829, five years after his brother Thomas arrived as one of Stephen
F. Austin’s colonists...
Pansy
2-26-09
The old woman walked along one of McCamey’s unpaved streets, pulling
a red Radio Flyer wagon...
Indian
Stories 2-19-09
Texas fought two wars during the Civil War. One war, of course,
was the bloody struggle against the North... The second war was
primarily one of self-defense against hostile Indian tribes taking
advantage of the absence of the U.S. military and the state’s preoccupation
with the larger war...
The
Hermit in the Dugout 2-11-09
Why would anyone want to live out their years in a dirt-floor dugout
competing for shade with scorpions and rattlesnakes in the summer
and warmed only by burning chopped railroad ties in the winter?
Gold.
Clyde’s
Funeral 2-5-09
Stories can turn up in weird places. For instance, who would expect
to find an account of the Depression-era outlaw Clyde Barrow’s funeral
in the self-published memoir of a long-time fiddler-turned-preacher?
Treasury
Raid 1-29-09
When the bell atop the First Baptist Church started clanging about
9 o’clock that Sunday night, it was not a call to worship. It was
June 11, 1865. A full moon hung over Austin, a city of some 4,000
residents.
Hog
Killing Time 1-22-09
"You don’t have to delve too deeply into almost any written
recollection of a Texan who lived in the days before refrigeration
became the norm to find accounts of hog-killing."
Owen
Wister 1-15-09
The cultured gentleman from Philadelphia generally credited with
inventing the Western novel, a genre that evolved into film and
eventually television, spent some time in West Texas on his way
to becoming a nationally-known writer...
Bluebonnet
Hotel 1-8-09
Now surrounded by so many 200-foot tall wind turbines that it has
become the wind power capital of the nation, Sweetwater used to
have a more traditional skyscraper – the seven-story Bluebonnet
Hotel...
Pranks
12-31-08
Whatever happened to pranks? Old-time Texans enjoyed practical jokes
more than their descendants seem to. A sampling of long-ago stunts:...
Belle
Christmas 12-22-08
No matter how she came to be called Belle Christmas, she had a reputation
as a local character long before someone dreamed up the “Keep Austin
Weird” bumper sticker...
Old
But Odd Gift Ideas 12-18-08
The December 1911 issue of a long-forgotten but fun-to-read iconoclastic
monthly called K. Lamity’s Harpoon offered a full-page ad from a
Uvalde taxidermist with some unusual gift items for sale that some
modern readers will probably wish were still available today...
Captain
Billy’s Whiz Bang 12-11-08
Oil field shacks, military barracks, college rooming houses, hotels
catering to traveling salesmen, smoke-filled railroad cars or the
outhouse – anywhere in Texas young men could be found, so could
a copy of Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang...
Bad
Man Returns 12-4-08
As the old saying goes, it’s hard to keep a good man down. But that
sure couldn’t account for Bill Johnson’s reappearance in McLennan
County. One of Texas’ lesser-known outlaws...
Bill
Wharton 11-27-08
Used to be, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, some people
were born Thankful and died Thankful. That’s because, way back,
parents sometimes named their daughters Thankful. Born in 1803,
Thankful Rankin...
Boo-boo
towns 11-27-08
Call ‘em boo-boo towns. The Texas map is sprinkled with cities and
towns that got their names by mistake...
White
Buffalo 11-18-08
The rifle roared, a .50 caliber hunk of lead smacked into the side
of the buffalo and the huge animal tumbled to the ground. That happened
all across the plains of Texas during the 1870s, but this was no
ordinary bison – it was all white, one of only seven known to have
been killed on the North American continent...
Remembering
Austin 11-6-08
On July 2, 1864, Congress passed an act to turn the original House
chamber into a hall of statuary…
Ranger
Cemeteries 10-30-08
Except for the occasional thunder-like sound of a jet taking off
or landing at Austin’s Bergstrom International Airport, the small
cemetery could be out in the middle of nowhere...
Art
10-23-08
Until shortly after World War One, Art’s name was Plehweville, a
handle that sounds something like a sneeze, followed by “ville.”...
Horse
Troughs 10-16-08
Water troughs, better known in Texas as horse troughs, were intended
for the hydration of livestock. But Texas ranchers and their families
found far more use for these open containers of water than merely
affording Old Dobbin a place to drink...
Fall
Roundup 10-9-08
In his 1937 book, “Memories,” J.B. Cranfill told the story of J.
M. Carroll, a man who had the reputation of being the best wing
shot in Texas...
Indian
Emily 10-2-08
October
Barrel 9-25-08
Balinese
Room Cashiered 9-18-08
Rankin
Beach 9-11-08
Ghost
in No. 7 9-4-08
The old officer’s quarters at Fort Concho...
Hardin's
Shotgun 8-27-08
John Wesley Hardin's shotgun used by him to kill the Sheriff of
DeWitt County, the most notorious of the men...
Peaches
8-21-08
Most peach trees seldom make it past their first decade of existence.
That’s what made the peach tree outside the old stone structure
in Burnet at the site of Fort Croghan so unusual...
Million
Barrel Hole 8-14-08
Trivia
8-7-08
Possum
Trot 7-30-08
Steamship
Texas Ranger 7-24-08
Old
Pecos 7-17-08
Cuttings
7-10-08
Terry's
Texas Rangers 7-3-08
Twin
Towns 6-26-08
Forgotten
Conservationist 6-19-08
Austin
Fires 6-12-08
Battle
of Medina 6-5-08
Bud
Newman, part II 5-29-08
Bud
Newman Gang 5-26-08
Badger
Fight 5-26-08
Ben's
Pistol 5-8-08
Indianola
Remnants 5-1-08
San
Jacinto Hero Henry Millard 4-17-08
Earth
4-10-08
Henigan
Water 4-3-08
Sam
Houston 3-27-08
Bull
in the Brush 3-20-08
Denison
UFO 3-13-08
Alamo
Backdoor 3-6-08
Coffee
Drinkers 2-28-08
International
Pavedway 2-21-08
Valentine’s
Day 2-14-08
Rock
Fences 2-7-08
Granite
1-31-08
Buffalo
Bill 1-24-08
Shumla
1-18-08
Travel
Trailers 1-9-08
Suddenly
Silly 1-3-08
Buggies
12-26-07
Oil
Patch Memories 12-22-07
More
News of the Odd 12-13-07
Santa
Robber 12-6-07
Staple
Shopping 11-29-07
Bosque
Treasure 11-20-07
Biscuits
11-17-07
Doe
and a Bride 11-8-07
Tramp
Printers 11-1-07
Chupacabra
10-24-07
Does a zoologically unknown, blood-sucking creature prowl the South
Texas mesquite?...
FDR
10-18-07
Valley
Talk 10-12-07
Sullivan
10-4-07
Cow
Patties 9-26-07
Pope's
Flying Machine 9-19-07
Camels
9-12-07
Carr
Boys 9-6-07
The
Banker 8-30-07
Austin
Happenings 8-22-07
Pan-Am
and the Valley 8-17-07
Gator
8-14-07
Transitions
8-3-07
Robert
Leroy Ripley 7-31-07
In
the News 7-17-07
CSA
Veterans 7-12-07
Chinese
Coins 7-5-07
Big
Map 6-27-07
Menard
Grave 6-20-07
Prairie
Fires 6-14-07
Armless
Judge 6-7-07
Dumont
5-30-07
Centennial
House 5-23-07
Kinch
West 5-16-07
Checkers
5-9-07
Road
Log 1922 5-3-07
Weird
News 4-26-07
From the Lone Star State in 1899
Hail
Storm 4-19-07
Just a boy at the time, Howard Campbell never lost his vivid memory
of the only time he ever saw both of his parents cry...
Capitol
No. 1 4-12-07
The story of a civil engineer from San Antonio who earned less than
the value of a good mule for designing a new capitol for Texas...
John
Ringo 4-5-07
"It didn't play out quite like a scene from "Gunsmoke," but
two of the Old West's more notorious characters faced each other
in Austin's red light district in 1881..."
Sam's
Mother-in-Law 3-30-07
"Despite the rocky beginning of their relationship, Sam Houston
treated Mrs. Nancy Lea, his mother-in-law, with all due respect..."
Lindbergh
3-27-07
Bagdad
4-3-07
"Far from the Middle East, another Bagdad lay on the south
side of the Rio Grande at the river's mouth, just across from a
Texas town called Clarksville. (Not to be confused with the Clarksville
in Red River County.)"
Richard
Ellis 4-3-07
Stage
Coach 4-3-07
Reconstruction
Valentine 2-16-07
Tallest
Rebel 2-8-07
Henry Clay Thruston
Photographer
Louis de Planque 2-1-07
Priddy
Good Sandwiches 1-26-07
Baskin-McGregor
Act 1-23-07
Cotton
Picking 1-11-07
1907
1-4-07
New
Year's Day 12-28-06
Burnt
Boot Creek 12-14-06
Blue
Northers 12-7-06
Moctezuma
11-28-06
Lord's
Acre 11-23-06
La
Posada 11-16-06
Laredo's La Posada Hotel
Rockport
Ships 11-9-06
Mystery
Wall 11-2-06
Someone went to a lot of trouble to build the old stacked-stone
wall hidden in a thick stand of yaupon and other brush on a Lee
County ranch...
Dead
Man's Hole 10-30-06
Bowie
10-19-06
Extra
Slow 10-12-06
"Early day Austin newspaper editor Edmunds Travis liked to
claim he had a hand in putting out both the slowest and fastest
extras in Texas newspaper history."
Rankin
Hotel 10-5-06
Withers
9-28-06
Rural
Mail Routes 9-21-06
Moody
House 9-14-06
The two-story Victorian house in Taylor has been nicely restored...
Thurber
Booze 9-7-06
Mother
8-30-06
Disappearing
Cows 8-24-06
"... Not only did the animals move, many believed that unrested
souls flitted about. Strange things were said to happen..."
Texas
City 1914 8-17-06
"A small town with a big name, Texas City hosted an Army camp..."
Kid
Murray 8-10-06
Texas' least-known outlaw, newspapers dubbed him "Kid" Murray...
Humble
Fire 8-2-06
"...Hudson's enthusiasm for the oil business changed abruptly
on July 23, 1905. That evening, a thunderstorm triggered a bolt
of lightning that ignited the oil in one of the large tanks Hudson
had helped build.
Old
Sam Houston Song 7-27-06
"The song, reprinted in 1928 in a long-defunct Texas magazine
called Bunker's Monthly, lies on the pages of the few surviving
copies of that publication, long forgotten..."
Clairmont
Jail 7-20-06
Antlers
7-13-06
Down
in Texas 7-6-06
"'Down in Texas' captured what the rest of the nation wanted
to believe about the Lone Star State's petroleum boom towns..."
Rochester
Teacher 6-29-06
School teaching has never been the best paying avocation, but the
terms of employment have definitely improved over the last century...
Lehmann
Show 6-22-06
When Fred Gipson's family went to an old-settlers reunion and fair
at Katemcy to see the aging Herman Lehmann put on a one-man exhibition,
the Mason County youngster got a taste of the old west far more
realistic than anything he ever saw in a Tom Mix movie...
Llano
Gold 6-15-06
Washed in golden sunset, from a distance Llano County's Sharp Mountain
looks like a giant Paleolithic flint hide scraper lying on its side...
Few today know about the long-abandoned mine shafts the mountain
hides...
Austin
Will 6-8-06
Austin real estate agent Susanne Lee has fond memories of the house
in Houston she grew up in, but until recently she never knew it
had much of a history.
Sheriff
Kirk 6-1-06
"...The killing of Sheriff Kirk stands out as an Old West shootout
worthy of any Hollywood Western..."
Lolita
5-18-06
Eureka
5-12-06
"...Ozona did become the county seat. Today, Eureka-first known
as Couch Well - is not even a ghost town, only a ghost name..."
Karma
5-5-06
Plains
Pioneer Charlie Saigling 4-27-06
Prairiedom
4-21-05
Most people driving along U.S. 71 from Austin to Columbus don't
spend any time thinking about the highway bridges that afford them
the ability to cross streams and rivers without getting wet.
Wild
Navidad 4-14-06
The Navidad River is only 74 miles long but it is as tangled in
history and folklore as the vines and trees along its banks...
Baker
Talk4-11-06
The talk Captain Mosley Baker supposedly gave to the men of his
company at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836...
Bluebonnets
3-30-06
Wired
3-24-06
Barton
Springs 3-17-06
Houston
Ring 3-9-06
Adobe
Outposts on the Rio Grande 3-1-06
Line
in the Sand 2-23-06
Army
Booze 2-16-06
Earl
Abel's 2-13-06
1918
Flu 2-2-06
Cleo
Face 1-26-06
"The folks along Bear Creek in Kimble County always called
the mysterious stone carving the “Cleo Face.”
Columbus
Tower 1-13-06
"No matter how European it looks, however, the tower is the
product of Yankee – well, Southern – ingenuity."
Hudson
Bend 12-16-05
"Maybe some day a scuba diver will find the old bent rifle
barrel at the bottom of Lake Travis..."
Medley
12-10-05
Sam Houston and more
Bull
Creek Battle 12-3-05
"Now covered with spacious, expensive houses, the cedar-studded
canyons on the western edge of Austin used to be Central Texas’
version of Appalachia."
Crockett
News 11-17-05
"Volume one, number one of the newspaper appeared to enlighten
the citizenry of Houston County on Dec. 6, 1853. It had not been
an easy process."
Last
Cavalry Horse 11-17-05
"That cold winter morning, Dec.14, 1932, was a sad one for
old-time horse soldiers and civilians alike at Fort D.A. Russell
in Marfa -- they both realized they were witnessing the end of an
era."
Amarillo
Symphony 11-3-05
"The whistle was music to the railroad man’s ears. With tongue-in-cheek,
he called it the “Amarillo Symphony.”
Storm
of 1895 10-26-05
The dust storm in El Paso
Jackass
in Heaven 10-20-05
"Clay McGonagill may have been the ropingest cowboy Texas ever
produced..."
Dead
Ellis 10-13-05
Catarina
10-6-05
If you’re looking for a ghost, it figures you’d go to a ghost town
to find one.
Circus
9-29-05
The Gainesville Community Circus in the 1950s
Outlaw
Letter 9-20-05
An outlaw's love letter in 1878
Missing
Coat 9-15-05
"Third-term Sterling County Sheriff S.T. Wood..."
Galveston
1900 9-8-05
Lady
Doc 9-1-05
Dr. Sofie Herzog, first female surgeon in Texas
Exterminator
8-23-05
German immigrant J.C. Melcher of Fayette County and Port Lavaca
Nameless
Cave 8-18-05
Nameless, Texas, Nameless Cave and hermit's treasure.
Bombsite
8-10-05
The story of the Manhattan Project and its product, the atomic bombs
against Japan on August 6 and 9, 1945, has been well told. But buried
in all the official documents is another story, far less known.
Oddities
8-1-05
"The December 1938 issue offered some items of Texas trivia
just as interesting today as they were then."
Book
Burning 7-22-05
“Where they have burned books,” German poet Johann Heinrich Heine
wrote in the 19th century, “they will end in burning human beings.”
Indeed, Texans have done both.
Terrell
County 7-14-05
Bexar and Terrell County
Sam
Houston's Will 7-6-05
Rev.
Dancer 7-1-05
Namesake of Dancer Peak neat Llano
Poker
6-23-05
"Gambling was a Galveston institution early on."
Dare
Devil Rogers 6-16-05
:During the Depression, as the people of the nation collectively
dug deep into their pockets and often came up with nothing, Dare
Devil dug his own grave time after time, town after town."
Lost
Sword 6-8-05
"Somewhere in Texas is a sword with a history."
O.
Henry 6-2-05
"The mustachioed young man from North Carolina hardly seemed
the martial type, but as a citizen soldier in the Austin Grays he
demonstrated the qualities of a leader – even if it was to keep
from spending the night in the guardhouse...."
Stagecoach
Holdup 5-26-05
"Stagecoach robberies happened so often along the Texas frontier
it came to be considered something of a right of passage to hand
over one’s money and valuables to a masked man with a gun on some
lonely roadside."
Whiskey
Funeral 5-19-05
"He won his nickname when he got so desperate for a drink that
he traded his horse and saddle for a gallon of whiskey."
Bold
CSA Vet Thomas Evans Riddle, & Man o’ War 5-14-05
Thomas Evans Riddle bet on a dead racehorse. He lost.
Wells
Branch 5-7-05
"Today, as the rustic center piece of Katherine Fleischer Park,
the cabin sits in the middle of some 8,000 residences occupied by
20,000 people."
Freer
5-1-05
"In rhyme, Wilson tried to distill life in and around the Duval
County town of Freer, the state’s last truly wild and wooly oil
boom town."
Patriots
4-26-05
"The American Revolution lasted seven years, affording plenty
of men the opportunity to go down in history as patriots."
Freeny
Hanging 4-17-05
"James Washington White lost an arm fighting for the South
during the Civil War. He could have spent the rest of his life seething
with bitterness, but that’s not how it turned out."
Twin
Sisters 4-5-05
The most famous pieces of artillery in Texas history
San
Jacinto Monument 3-23-05
"Most people think the towering star-topped limestone monument,
built during the Texas Centennial in 1936, is the only San Jacinto
monument. Actually, it’s only the biggest."
Spanish
Cattle 3-21-05
"All those longhorns that revitalized Texas’ post-Civil War
economy had to come from somewhere. And where the breed came from
was the interior of Mexico. Via trail drive."
Jesus
3-21-05
When old “Hay-sus” died that winter afternoon, just about everyone
in Eagle Pass mourned.
Davy's
Widow 3-9-05
Elizabeth Patton Crockett
KKK
3-1-05
Mission
Rules 2-22-05
Around 1760, a now-unknown Franciscan priest at the Apostolic College
for Missionaries in Queretaro, Mexico set down rules for Texas missionaries.
The rules, laden with advice, were “meant for a missionary who has
never been in charge of a mission and is all alone and does not
know whom to consult for advice.”
Battle
of Brushy Creek 2-05
A little-known fight between Comanche warriors and Texas Rangers
August
Carl Weiss 2-16-05
During the Civil War not every Southern soldier served in the Confederate
army because he believed in slavery or hated Yankees. Some shouldered
arms only because they had to. That was the case with August Carl
Weiss, one of 2,000 men who soldiered for the South in Waul’s Legion,
a unit raised at Brenham by Thomas Neville Waul.
Chili
by Mike Cox 1-31-05
William Gerald Tobin’s career as a Texas Ranger left a lot to be
desired. But he had an idea that left Texas, and the Southwest,
an enduring gastronomical legacy.
Kaiser
Cows - Bovine Saboteurs of WWI 1-25-05
Jake,
the Bridge Ghost of Williamson County 1-17-05
Tejano
Hero Norberto Sierra 1-5-04
Austin
Grade School 1-1-05
Newspaper
Death 12-27-04
The Athenian of East Texas
Nice
Politics 12-20-04
Big
Foot Wallace and the Indian 12-12-04
Smith had plenty of interesting experiences during his long life,
but one of the best stories he told involved another character --
Big Foot Wallace. It is a tale of good and evil with a twist.
Pardner
Jones 12-12-04
"Jones was the go-to guy for shooting hats off actor’s heads
or cigars out of their mouths. A la William Tell, he also could
make instant apple sauce, albeit with a bullet instead of an arrow."
Kate
Ward 11-22-04
Whatever happened to the Kate Ward is far from the most daunting
mystery in Texas history...
Strange
News 11-15-04
Strange news and early 20th century urban folklore
Punkin
Center 10-26-04
The Punkin Center Phenomenon, and the old Irish folktale about Jack-O’-Lantern,
the enduring symbol of Halloween.
Which
Road 10-21-04
Asherton
10-15-04
Covert
Park - Mount Bonnell 10-4-04
Next time you’re in Austin, be sure to visit Covert Park
Tres
Presidents 9-23-04
Presidents' military records
Poison
Doc 9-23-04
Herman Webster Mudgett, America’s first serial killer
Lost
in the Flood 9-16-04
Donna
8-26-04
Donna Hooks Fletcher, namesake of Donna, Texas
Alamo
Monument 8-17-04
In 1912, a San Antonio group began raising money to build a monument
to the defenders of the Alamo. But the memorial they wanted for
Alamo Plaza would not be any run of the mill monument. It would
be Texas-sized and then some, an architectural wonder.
Rooster
8-12-04
Word spread of Houston’s April 21 defeat of Santa Anna at San Jacinto.
Slowly, those who still wanted to give life in Texas a chance turned
to the west and went back to what was left of their homes. And that’s
when a nameless hero gave his all for Texas....
William
Christy 7-29-04
A forgotten Texas hero
Wind
Wagon 7-22-04
Palacios
7-14-04
Rust’s
Ride 7-7-04
Lost
Painting of Sam Houston 7-1-04
Jumper
6-26-04
Jumpers, diving horses and Sonora Webster
Summer
News from 1894
Surly
Stranger 6-15-04
Texas Ranger J.W. Fulgham and a Reeves County sheriff’s deputy ...
left Pecos, Texas for a ride down the Pecos River, looking for cattle
thieves or fugitives in early September 1893. Back then, the Pecos
was a good place to find either variety of criminal.... more
Last
Buffalo 6-15-04
Slots
5-19-04
Kate
5-19-04
Catherine "Kate" Magill Dorman -- a little known Texas heroine of
the Civil War
Leaping
Lovers 5-12-04
Four landmarks known as Lover's Leaps
Racing
Parson 5-1-04
How a preacher held a horse race and build a church
Athens
4-27-04
Somewhere in northern Travis County or southern Williamson County
is the site of a long dead dream, a "delightful" community that
never was.
Joe
4-20-04
Travis' slave, who witnessed his death at the Alamo
Except
Texas 4-11-04
That spring of 1866, more than a year after the last great battles
between North and South, the United States still officially considered
Texas in a state of insurrection.
Camp
Bowie 4-2-04
On the night of May 5, 1837, two officers of the Republic of Texas'
army lay asleep in their tent at Camp Bowie. Only one of them would
wake up.
Meteorite
3-21-04
The Williams Ranch meteorite, truth or hoax
Sam
Houston Oak 3-12-04
In the vicinity of the tree on March 14, 1836, Sam Houston and several
hundred Texas citizen-soldiers spent one of the worst nights of
their lives
Alamo
Letters 3-12-04
The surviving words of someone who died in the old Spanish mission
on March 6, 1836.
Tyrant's
Gold 3-2-04
When General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna came to Texas in 1836 he
left behind death and destruction -- and possibly gold.
Old
News 2-26-04
Tired of all the new news of war, politics and other forms of violence?
For a change of pace, here's some old news of war, politics and
other forms of violence.
Bevo,
the University of Texas' longhorn mascot 2-20-04
One of the more bizarre events in Texas collegiate history took
place in Austin on a January night in 1920.
Old
Armory 2-12-04
Is there really an historical treasure trove beneath downtown Austin?
Sarah
"Son," a wise old man once said, "always marry a Texas girl. No
matter what happens, she's seen worse."
Lindsey
City 1-29-04
A ghost town in Big Bend National Park
Hondo
1-20-04
Who made the word Hondo famous?
Cowboy
Gene 1-10-04
Gene Autry the Singing Cowboy
McDade
Hanging 12-17-03
The story of the McDade Christmas clean up has become one of Texas'
more frequently told Yuletide tales.
Barbecue
Bust 12-14-03
Where O. Henry, student protests, the Texas governor and barbecue
come together.
Elephant
A wild cowboy tale.
Hunting
Mishaps 11-28-03
Prominent Texans killed while hunting
Tascosa
and Boothill
Alien
Camp 11-28-03
World War II alien camp in Crystal City
Lechuza
10-27-03
"Lechuzas have been scaring people in Mexico and South Texas
for a long time.... Lechuzas are witches - brujas - who transform
themselves into birds...."
Range
King 10-27-03
"It can't atone for his murder, or even the apparent contempt
of those who buried him, but at least James W. King lies in a beautiful
cemetery."
Mustang
Gray 10-4-03
Someone wrote a ballad about him that many Texas mothers used for
years as a lullaby...
Tennessee
10-25-03
"Texas is probably more indebted to Tennessee for her independence
and subsequent development than to any State in the Union."
Llano
Boom 10-25-03
The Great Llano Uranium Boom
Sipe
Springs 9-14-03
But all that remains today is a mystery written in concrete: "Who
is the little girl, age 3?"
Sheriff
on Bike 9-9-03
In 1897, when a Texas peace officer needed to go somewhere to do
his job, he walked, rode a horse, went in a wagon or took a train.
Deputy sheriff Josh Messenger began using a two-wheeled bicycle.
Sergeant
Kelly 8-31-03
The unknown soldier of the Mexican War
Bear
Den 8-24-03
"One of the stories Vantine told was about the time he went
hunting for a bear and found an Indian...."
Bluffton
8-17-03
When all the engineering work for the long-contemplated dam was
completed in the mid-1930s, residents of Bluffton received some
hard news - the town would be inundated by the new lake.
Popeye
8-10-03
... So there it is, in black-and-white: Popeye, the Sailor Man is
a native Texan.
Hoo
Doo 8-3-03
A writer of Western fiction could get a dozen movies out of the
Hoo Doo War story...
First
Whites 7-27-03
Being known as an FWC was considered a mark of distinction, and
because of the honor attached to it, sometimes became a point of
controversy.
Pearl
7-20-03
He has the singular distinction of being the first and last man
legally hanged in the county.
Cranfill
7-13-03
For about the last quarter of the 19th century ... being a "wet"
or a "dry" defined a Texan politically much more accurately than
being Democrat or Republican....
Two
Braids 7-6-03
More Texans owned horses than automobiles in 1910, but when the
middle-aged man rode into Eagle Pass that summer, people noticed....
A.J.
Sowell 6-25-03
Lion
Hunt 6-11-03
News
from Texas 5-28-03
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