Being Texan
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This Year, Our Family’s Día de los Muertos Altar Will Memorialize Those Who Have Died From the Coronavirus
The ofrenda we build to honor loved ones will include not only our distant past but also the very sorrow that we’re living through now. Read Story
Meanwhile, in Texas: An Abilene Man Used a Golf Club to Fish a Snake out of His Toilet
Plus, fifty thousand purple martins descended on a parking lot in McAllen. Read Story
Passing the Time With the Ghosts in the Dirt
Social distancing on a ranch in South Texas, one writer finds a diversion—and a sort of community—in studying the fragments of English dinnerware her predecessors left behind. Read Story
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In Loving County, residents still feel the specter of the pandemic.
Eight miles from the nearest town, our ranch felt like a sanctuary. Until it didn’t.
A Belfast woman is looking for a few good corn husks.
In our second Being Texan video, Peter Holley explores San Antonio's botanicas, which have seen an uptick in customers amid the COVID pandemic.
A Midland woman wonders what to do if she meets a member of the family Ursidae in the wild.
The ofrenda we build to honor loved ones will include not only our distant past but also the very sorrow that we’re living through now.
Plus, fifty thousand purple martins descended on a parking lot in McAllen.
An Austin man ponders the unthinkable.
The Texanist
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The Texanist: My Husband Shouldn’t Be Driving Around Town Without His Shirt On, Should He?
Q: My husband, who is a grown man, sometimes drives around town without a shirt, as if he were some kind of a small-town teenager coming home from mowing lawns or the swimming hole. He says that it’s no big deal, but it is a big deal, right? He shouldn’t do this, should he? Please back me up here. Sandra Garcia, Fort Worth A: Wading into dustups between wives and… Read Story
Country Notes
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Passing the Time With the Ghosts in the Dirt
Social distancing on a ranch in South Texas, one writer finds a diversion—and a sort of community—in studying the fragments of English dinnerware her predecessors left behind.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Romance of the Rail in West Texas
The railway and Marfa are forever intertwined.