Travel & Outdoors
April 23, 2024
I Biked 165 Miles Behind the Pine Curtain of East Texas
Bikepacking—long-distance adventure cycling and camping—is on the rise in Texas. During the muddy, exhausting East Texas Showdown, I found out why.
East Texas
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BBQ
November 27, 2023
I Went to Kenya to Get Over a Broken Heart. Then Bad “Texas” Barbecue Broke My Heart Again.
When I traveled to Nairobi after breaking up with my fiancée, the brisket I found there inspired me to come back home to East Texas.
True Crime
November 7, 2023
The Great Cajun Turtle Heist
Alligator snapping turtle populations in Texas were dwindling. One family of smugglers had been poaching them from the state for years.
Books
September 12, 2023
You’ve Never Seen the Big Thicket Like This
Photographer Keith Carter explores the otherworldly wetlands of East Texas in a stunning new book.
Critters
July 25, 2023
Emerald Ash Borers Are Decimating Texas Trees. Wasps Might Help Defeat Them.
As the invasive beetle carves a path through Texas, state and federal officials are searching for solutions.
Travel & Outdoors
July 20, 2023
Texas Summer Gardening Is Brutal, but These Two Native Species Don’t Mind
Thank goodness for sunflowers.
Parks & Recs
June 16, 2023
What Should Texas Do With $1 Billion for State Parks?
Lawmakers just authorized lots of money to acquire new parkland. We asked advocates and conservationists to dream big.
Critters
March 28, 2023
UT Scientists Discovered a Beaver Fossil and Named It After Buc-ee’s
Collected in 1941, A. buceei languished in a drawer for decades.
The Stand Up Desk
January 12, 2023
Three Decades Later, It’s Still Unclear What Killed Tommy Earl Haynes
The career criminal was found dead after a two-day manhunt in East Texas. A writer recalls reporting on the circumstances of Haynes’s death.
Travel & Outdoors
June 21, 2022
Three Great Boomerang Paddle Trips on Texas Streams
How to get the adventure and scenery without having to spend days in your kayak or canoe.
Sports
February 8, 2022
Do the Texans Even Deserve New Head Coach Lovie Smith?
Houston's hapless NFL franchise hired the right man for what seem like the wrong reasons—and it's lucky Smith accepted the job.
Best Thing in Texas
February 1, 2022
The Secret Story of the Texas Philanthropist Who Helped Solve Math’s Toughest Riddle
Fermat’s last theorem went unsolved for more than 350 years—and the role of the Tyler oil heir who funded its 1994 solution was largely unknown until this week.
Art
January 5, 2022
Fred Baldwin’s Life Was Worth 1,000 Pictures
Baldwin, who died in December, fought in Korea, met Picasso, traveled the world, and, with his wife, Wendy Watriss, made Houston a photography capital.
Being Texan
December 6, 2021
An East Texas Freedom Colony Looks to the Future—and Reckons With Its Losses
The Upshaw family has preserved their history and traditions since the 1870s. Now, amid deaths and other departures, family members worry for their land’s legacy.
BBQ Joint Reviews
November 18, 2021
A Small-town Taco Shop Turns Its Focus to Barbecue, With Great Results
With newly perfected sliced brisket, porkstrami, and a chopped brisket and pimento cheese sandwich, East Texas joint Wright On Taco is worthy of the "& BBQ" it just added to its name.
Books
October 27, 2021
The Tall Tale of the Sabine River Goat Man and the Haunted Cemetery
Things unseen moved along the river bank, slithered or crawled or pranced between the thick growths of trees that ran for miles.
Hunting & Fishing
October 15, 2021
Eat, Prey, Love: A Day with the Squirrel Hawkers of East Texas
The ancient art of falconry is alive and well.
Hunting & Fishing
July 16, 2021
For Crowd-Free Fly-fishing, Go East . . . to East Texas, That Is
The Hill Country offers fast-flowing streams and some nice bass. But for solitude and diversity of species, the creeks and bayous east of I-45 can’t be beat.
Where to Stay Now
June 11, 2021
Where to Stay, Eat, and Retreat in East Texas
In Jacksonville, Palestine, and Tyler, local entrepreneurs cater to tourists looking for luxury (and a very fine slice of pie) amid the Piney Woods farms and fields.
BBQ Joint Reviews
June 9, 2021
JW’s Barbecue Is Here to Fill the ’Cue Void in Jacksonville
With apple pie–spiced ribs, juicy brisket, and a rare offering of fresh vegetables, the new joint is a worthy stop in East Texas.
Books
May 10, 2021
‘The Hunting Wives’ Is an East Texas Thriller That Takes Women’s Relationships Seriously
May Cobb’s second novel explores how the members of a women-only shooting club love, betray, and protect one another.
Politics & Policy
April 8, 2021
How the Digital Divide Is Failing Texas Students—And Why That Might Be About to Change
For rural families who lack reliable, high-speed internet, Zoom-style instruction is a luxury.
Critters
July 23, 2020
Why Black Bears Are Returning to Texas
Contrary to what a viral video suggests, it’s unrelated to the pandemic.
Food & Drink
May 23, 2019
A Proud East Texan Is Behind One of Portland’s Hottest Restaurants
Competing on ’Top Chef’ inspired the Bullard native to bring the flavors of his youth to his Portland, Oregon, restaurant.
Hunting & Fishing
March 22, 2019
Dreams of Landing the Big One at Lake Fork
The fish stories out of this East Texas reservoir are mostly true, which is why fishermen come with their gear and beer in search of some of the state's biggest monster bass.
True Crime
February 20, 2019
When Does an Accident Become a Crime?
Driving through a dangerous curve in Tyler, James Fulton crossed into oncoming traffic and killed a young woman. He wasn’t drunk, and the cops said the crash was an accident. But the Smith County DA saw it differently.
Being Texan
January 30, 2019
From East Texas to El Paso, Four Texans Reflect on Where They’re From
Over the years, Texas Monthly’s most celebrated voices have written about the places that shaped them, from the Panhandle to the border. We revisit some of the classics.
Bum Steers
January 3, 2019
2019 Bum Steer Awards: Steve Stockman, Who Proved a Particularly Greedy and Especially Busy Criminal
The disgraced former congressman is our third runner-up for his eagerness to enrich himself—or at least pay his kennel bills—in a transparently illegal manner.
Film & TV
January 21, 2013
Lights, Camera, Carthage!
Nearly fifteen years after Richard Linklater and I started talking about turning a Texas Monthly story into a major motion picture, it’s finally hitting the big screen, with a little help from Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey, Shirley MacLaine—and a seventy-year-old retired hairdresser from Rusk named Kay Baby Epperson.
Music
January 20, 2013
Birthplaces of the Blues
Want to see the Texas of Leadbelly, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mance Lipscomb, and other pioneering musicians of the twentieth century? Your trip through time begins near Washington-on-the-Brazos.
True Crime
March 1, 1996
The Horse Killers
The shocking and sad story of the East Texas kids who beat a horse to death just for the thrill of it.
Politics & Policy
February 1, 1996
Congressman Clueless
Steve Stockman was supposed to have been a lethal weapon in the Republicans’ fight to unmake the Great Society. Instead the freshman legislator has been a loose cannon—an outsider in his own party.
Being Texan
September 1, 1995
Texas Twenty: Don Henley
Crooning for Caddo Lake.
Sports
May 31, 1995
Big Wheel
Once he raced cars; now he builds them. Even at 72, it seems, Carroll Shelby can’t slow down.
Hunting & Fishing
May 1, 1995
Burning Down the Woods
In 1990 the state banned the use of dogs to hunt deer. Ever since, a rogue group of East Texas hunters has exacted a fiery revenge.
News & Politics
September 30, 1993
Manhunt at Menard Creek
The death of a thief in the Big Thicket has federal officials probing the conduct of local lawmen—and local lawmen complaining about a federal vendetta against the Texas prison system.
Being Texan
September 30, 1989
The Soul of East Texas
Reflections and recollections of life among the shadows of the Piney Woods.
Hunting & Fishing
March 1, 1986
Bass’n Gal
There are bass in Sam Rayburn Reservoir, and the gals were out to hook ’em. And Rhonda Wilcox hoped to hook the biggest one of all.
Politics & Policy
January 1, 1983
God’s Happy Hour
Every year communities scattered across Texas hold wet-dry elections. Each one pits the forces of fundamentalism against the forces of realism. This is the story of one such election.
Music
June 1, 1982
A Singin’ Fool
George Jones really lives the way he says he lives in the songs he sings.
Being Texan
April 1, 1978
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.
Books
May 31, 1977
The Toughest Guys in Court
Anybody who thinks Jones, Jones & Baldwin is just a trio of small-time, small-town attorneys is headed for big-time trouble.