The Petrified Forest
Behind the pine curtain of deep East Texas is a world trapped in the past and hidden from the future: lush woods, poor whites, the descendants of slaves, and an aristocracy still breathing the rarefied air of the Old South.
Richard West was a Texas Monthly writer who joined the magazine in 1972, a few months before the inaugural issue in February 1973. He grew up in Highland Park and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. Before arriving at Texas Monthly, he served in the Army and as press secretary for Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes. A series he wrote for Texas Monthly won a National Magazine Award in 1979, and his story “Only the Strong Survive” won a Texas Institute of Letters award the following year. His book, Richard West’s Texas, published in 1982, chronicled his time living in and reporting on seven diverse areas of Texas. After leaving Texas Monthly at the end of 1980, West worked at New York Magazine, Newsweek, and D Magazine. He became a freelance travel writer in 1987 and worked in 52 countries over nearly twenty years.
West is an avid long-distance runner. He ran thirteen marathons when he was in his sixties, and he continues to jog regularly in his eighties. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.
Behind the pine curtain of deep East Texas is a world trapped in the past and hidden from the future: lush woods, poor whites, the descendants of slaves, and an aristocracy still breathing the rarefied air of the Old South.
Miles from their nearest neighbors, beset by drought, debt, insects, and government, Panhandle farmers gamble everything to keep alive a tradition they can’t abandon.
The pioneers who came to tame the West met their match in the land of ‘Giant.’
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You can still find it in these great small towns.
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The newest style of manly hatwear.
Miles from their nearest neighbors, beset by drought, debt, insects, and government, Panhandle farmers gamble everything to keep alive a tradition they can’t abandon.
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Behind the pine curtain of deep East Texas is a world trapped in the past and hidden from the future: lush woods, poor whites, the descendants of slaves, and an aristocracy still breathing the rarefied air of the Old South.
The pioneers who came to tame the West met their match in the land of ‘Giant.’
We just rate them. You voted for them.
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All this, and the Legislature wasn’t even in session.
Can Texas Democrats find happiness? In New York, maybe—
PEOPLEThe red-hot rumor, blazing from mouth to mouth in Dallas recently, had longtime radio programming genius Gordon McLendon raising $2 million for a group of Dallas investors to buy WRR-AM, the city-owned, all-news station that’s up for sale. Not so, says son Bart McLendon, manager of McLendonowned KNUZ-FM in Dallas.
You may disagree, but we know we’re right.
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