101 | John Warne Gates peddles barbed wire
Military Plaza, San Antonio | 1876
102 | Canary Islanders arrive
Plaza de las Islas, across from the San Fernando Cathedral; San Antonio | March 7, 1731
103 | Ernie Cortes cries, “Balderdash!”
100 West Houston, San Antonio | February 5, 1975
104 | Lydia Mendoza records “Mal Hombre”
231 East Martin, San Antonio | 1934
105 | World’s first air-conditioned high-rise opens
115 East Travis, San Antonio | January 1928
106 | Rollin King and Herb Kelleher hatch the idea for Southwest
300 East Travis, San Antonio | 1966
107 | Eugene Goldbeck photographs President McKinley
Travis Park, San Antonio | May 4, 1901
108 | Theodore Roosevelt lives his dream
204 Alamo Plaza, San Antonio | 1898
109 | Ozzy Osbourne doesn’t remember the Alamo
300 Alamo Plaza, San Antonio | February 19, 1982
110 | Julian Onderdonk paints bluebonnets
Near San Antonio | 1911
111 | Henry Cisneros is born
2906 Monterey, San Antonio | June 11, 1947
112 | Kreuz Market opens
208 South Commerce, Lockhart | 1900
113 | George Strait debuts with Ace in the Hole
113 Cheatham, San Marcos | October 13, 1975
Courtesy of Terry Hale
The hardest thing to picture about George Strait’s first performance with the Ace in the Hole Band is not that it was on a Monday night nor that the venue, Cheatham Street Warehouse, couldn’t draw much of a crowd—despite not charging a cover. After all, Strait was just a nobody who’d happened to answer an ad for a “country band looking for singer.” Sure, club owner Kent Finlay did offer him a weekly gig at the end of the night, and Strait and Ace in the Hole did end up dominating the Central Texas dance hall circuit some five years later. But in 1975 he was just another ag student at Southwest Texas State, and nobody could have guessed that he would go on to record more number one songs—57 at last count—than any other performer in any musical genre, every one of them steeped in his trademark traditional country sound. No, the weird thing about Strait’s fateful first show was that he played that night without a fiddle in the band. —JS
114 | Willie Nelson performs at the Dripping Springs Reunion
Intersection of CR 101 and CR 187, Dripping Springs | March 17–19, 1972
115 | Kerrville Folk Festival is born
910 Main, Kerrville | June 1–3, 1972
116 | Comanche massacre the Spanish
108 Country Club Lane, along U.S. 190; Menard | March 16, 1758
117 | Ernest Tubb works as a deejay for KGKL
36 West Beauregard Avenue, San Angelo | 1938
118 | The Old Borunda Cafe opens
203 San Antonio, Marfa | 1892
119 | George Stevens films Giant
Eighteen miles west of Marfa on U.S. 90 | June 6, 1955
120 | Donald Judd sees West Texas for the first time
Along Interstate 10, Van Horn | December 17, 1946
121 | Tiguas build the first Spanish mission in Texas
131 South Zaragoza Road, El Paso | 1682
122 | Luis Jimenez works in his father’s neon sign shop
1315 Magoffin Avenue, El Paso | 1946
123 | Bracero workers cross International Bridge
International Bridge, El Paso | 1947
124 | Cave painters leave their marks
RR 2775, near El Paso; Hueco Tanks | c. 1000
125 | First rodeo in the country is held
110 East Sixth, Pecos | July 4, 1883
Read the entire story of 175 moments and places on our list.
To visit every place on our list—or tell us what we missed—go to our Terquasquicentennial Blog.
Check out videos from six locations, including Hueco Tanks.
