Country Notes
August 10, 2023
This 78-Year-Old Artist and Rancher Has Spent His Life Chasing a Pure and Wide-open Space
Mike Capron never felt comfortable until he settled west of the Pecos River.
48 Articles
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
Consider the Windmill
Along with its descendant, the towering wind turbine, this spindly mechanism turns fast and slow, measuring out our days.
Politics & Policy
September 6, 2022
The Politics of Adobe Could Reshape Far West Texas
The humble material has long been used to build homes in the desert. But working with adobe isn’t so simple anymore.
Country Notes
February 9, 2022
Marfa Meats Brings a Slaughterhouse Back to the Big Bend
Small-town locker plants, lifelines for rural Texans for generations, have vanished from parts of the state. Christy Miller’s company is an exception.
Country Notes
June 17, 2021
A Forgotten Burial Site in Presidio Tells the Story of a Disappearing Border History
A small group fights to save a cemetery and what remains of a Lipan Apache existence in the Big Bend.
Country Notes
February 11, 2021
The Girls of Lumber Club Marfa Work to Master the Craft of the Three-legged Stool
During the past few years, a small group of girls in Marfa has used the simple wooden stool to create a business that has, well, legs.
Art
September 16, 2020
James Magee Has Been Working on His Masterpiece for Decades, but Completion Isn’t the Point
The Hill, located in the West Texas desert, stirs visitors to confront what they cannot comprehend.
Country Notes
May 20, 2020
The Signs of the Big Bend Are a Sign of the Times
Some were written long ago. Some appeared this year. But whether it’s a sign about snakes or a sign about diesel fried chicken, a simple message seems to mean the most.
Country Notes
February 19, 2020
The Desk on Hancock Hill
Some forty years ago, a desk was dragged to the top of a hill in Alpine that overlooks the Big Bend. The notebooks stashed inside continue to capture big thoughts from the people who travel there.
Country Notes
December 18, 2019
The Art of Racing Pigeons
Lelton Morse races homing pigeons in Central Texas. He sends his birds hundreds of miles away, waits and watches, and knows they’re flying home.
Country Notes
October 16, 2019
A Lone Postman Delivers the Mail to the Far Reaches of the Big Bend
Not many people will drive the mail to places the U.S. Postal Service won’t. Seventy-one-year-old Gilbert Lujan is one of them.
Country Notes
September 18, 2019
Long Live the ‘Big Bend Sentinel.’ Viva ‘El Internacional.’
Small-town papers often serve as bearers of civic pride. But the former owners of Marfa’s Big Bend Sentinel and Presidio’s International learned long ago that writing the news meant looking out for their neighbors.
Country Notes
April 24, 2019
How Animal Psychics Helped Untangle a Mixed-up Horse
Healing a spooked horse takes time, patience, and skill. And maybe a little help from beyond.
Country Notes
February 20, 2019
The Romance of the Rail in West Texas
The railway and Marfa are forever intertwined.
Texas History
January 3, 2019
Marfa’s Blackwell School Has a Painful Past. That’s Why the Town Wants to Save It.
A segregated school for Mexican American children until 1965, the building now serves as a community center and celebration of Hispanic life.
Country Notes
October 19, 2018
For Want of a Nail
Without a good shoeing, a horse can indeed be lost. Enter the farrier.
Being Texan
August 24, 2018
The Fences Between Us
Nothing comes easy when you’re dividing up the countryside.
Country Notes
June 22, 2018
A Land’s End: The Story of Casa Piedra
Ninety-three-year-old Armando Vasquez tells of a place that used to be.
Country Notes
April 18, 2018
The Snakebite That Almost Killed My Cat
My cat was a fearless hunter who stalked the countryside—until she squared off with a rattlesnake.
Art
January 23, 2018
Boyd Elder Is the Most Famous Artist You’ve Never Heard Of
The West Texan has sold more art than Picasso.
Country Notes
November 22, 2017
The Marfa Mystique
Outsiders remain fascinated with unraveling the secrets of this place. But locals can explain, one story at a time.
Sports
September 20, 2017
Punching Through at the Alpine Boxing Club
For these young boxers in West Texas, learning to fight means more than throwing a punch.
Country Notes
June 21, 2017
The Purest Type
Pronghorn were almost perfectly fitted to the West Texas landscape. And then people started building fences.
Being Texan
April 19, 2017
This American Life
Twenty years ago, a brown-skinned boy was shot to death near the Rio Grande. What fate awaits my own son?
The Culture
February 21, 2017
Snake!
In West Texas, we've learned to live with our slithery neighbors. Not that we have a choice.
Country Notes
December 21, 2016
The Earth Below
The skies of West Texas are so grand that it’s easy to forget how much is going on under our feet.
Country Notes
October 19, 2016
Let Fly the Loop
When the chute opens and the steer charges, there’s no place Jimmy Steve Martinez would rather be than on his horse, with a rope in his hand.
Country Notes
July 20, 2016
Toast of the Town
In Marfa, there’s one place where everybody knows your name.
Travel & Outdoors
June 15, 2016
The Secret Tank
The risks a West Texan will take for a quick dip.
The Culture
April 20, 2016
The Doctor Is Out
A day in the life of a mobile large-animal veterinarian.
Energy
January 27, 2016
Something in the Air
For a few months every year, life in West Texas is defined by the wind.
Arts & Entertainment
November 18, 2015
Friday Night Lite
The only thing that’s smaller about six-man football is the field.
Country Notes
August 13, 2015
Greetings From Marfa
A taxonomy of West Texas waves.
Country Notes
June 12, 2015
Gone Loco
This year’s heavy rains have brought countless blessings to West Texas—and one very nasty weed.
Country Notes
April 10, 2015
Let’s Dance
In Marfa, a big night out means one thing above all: the cumbia.
Country Notes
February 3, 2015
Consider the Chicken
The competition at the Big Bend Livestock Show is fierce. But treat your animal right and you might get to be number four with a pullet.
Country Notes
January 20, 2015
For Love of Country
Why we will always worship the ground we walk on.
Country Notes
October 13, 2014
Wild in the Streets
The year we gave thanks—at least at first—for the turkeys in our town.
Country Notes
August 5, 2014
The Promise of Thunder
When you live in the desert, waiting for rain requires almost irrational optimism. And maybe a curse word or two.
The Culture
June 5, 2014
Cat Power
How one feline (and then a couple more, and then another) conquered both our hearts and our mice.
Texas Trip Guides
May 1, 2014
A Red Enchilada Tour of El Paso
Plan a summer weekend in enchanted enchilada land using this guide with tips on what to do, where to eat, and where to stay.
Food & Drink
April 16, 2014
A Summer Weekend in El Paso
One family’s journey into enchanted enchilada land.
Country Notes
March 4, 2014
Home Making
The lonely, calloused, plaster-caked ballad of the do-it-yourself renovator.
Critters
December 6, 2013
The Earth Is There to Catch Us When We Fall
My life with horses.
The Culture
January 24, 2013
All Hat, Some Cattle
In search of the authentic spirit of Fort Worth.
The Culture
January 21, 2013
The Boys of the Dipper Ranch
On 50,000 acres that they have mostly to themselves (not including their hounds, mules, horses, cattle, chickens, piglets, and parents), Jasper, Trevor, and Tanner Klein live a life almost untouched by the modern world.
Feature
January 20, 2013
Gentling Cheatgrass
What does it take to break a wild mustang? Patience, horse sense, experience, and if you’re Teryn Lee Muench, no more than one hundred days.
The Culture
December 1, 2012
Into the Wild
Leaving Valentine for the first big trip.