March 2011
Features
Some people call it a quartoseptcentennial, or a septaquintaquinquecentennial (seriously), but you’d better save your breath. You’ll need it on this wide-ranging 6,000-mile voyage commemorating Texas’s 175th birthday. It starts in Glen Rose, ends in Austin, and stops along the way at 175 places that tell the story of the state, from the grassy field in La Porte where independence was won to the parking garage in Dallas where the Super Bowl was dreamed up; from the Austin dorm room where Dell Inc. was born to the college hall in Houston where Barbara Jordan learned to debate; from the hotel in San Antonio where Lydia Mendoza recorded “Mal Hombre” to the—well, you get the idea. And you’d better get started. The road awaits . . .
From dinosaurs roaming the Paluxy in Glen Rose to Lance Armstrong joining his first cycling team in Richardson
From Candy Montgomery and Allan Gore beginning their affair in Richardson to Robert Rauschenberg, Janis Joplin, and Jimmy Johnson graduating from high school in Port Arthur
From Donald Chambers founding the Bandidos in Houston to Gordon Granger reading General Orders No. 3 in Galveston
From the Great Storm washing ashore in Galveston to Charles Elmer Doolin cooking up the frito in San Antonio
From John Warne Gates peddling barbed wire in San Antonio to a group of cowboys and ranchers holding the first rodeo in Pecos
From Buzz Bissinger arriving in Odessa—with a notepad—to Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen writing songs in College Station
From the construction of the state’s first public university in College Station to the swearing in of Governor Rick Perry for a third full term in Austin
Columns
I saw my first historical marker as a Cub Scout in Pack 291. Nearly thirty years later, I’m still hooked on the story of Texas.
How an angry parent’s e-mail turned an elite Houston private school into a political battleground.
Faced with stiff competition from reality shows, is the decades-long tradition of Miss Texas in decline? Not if a few determined queens can help it.
Animal cruelty, greasy handshakes, offerings of meat, and Texas toasts—the spoken kind.
Reporter
Why a lavish two-volume attack on the border fence, with photos by Maurice Sherif, misses the mark.
