Business
November 28, 2023
What Can Public Transit Deserts Learn From Paris, Texas?
The East Texas town has maintained a reliable bus route since 2016, providing a model for rural areas with limited transportation.
Rural
Health
March 30, 2023
A Lifeline for Rural Texas Hospitals Comes With Strings Attached
Federal help could keep facilities open in several small towns, but they'll be forced to cut back to offering only emergency care.
The Stand Up Desk
November 28, 2022
The Writer Behind an Enduring Portrait of West Texas Life
Sterry Butcher on the path that led her to move to Marfa and find God “in the details” while writing about rural Texas.
Health
August 9, 2022
West Texas Is a Dangerous Place to Be Pregnant. It’s Getting Worse.
Texas leads the U.S. in maternity ward closures, and nowhere is this more of an issue than in the western part of the state.
Texas Country Reporter
May 5, 2022
This West Texas Couple Has Gone Off the Grid—Pioneer Style
On a remote ranch south of Alpine, Bonnie and Dick Cain have carved out their ideal lifestyle, without electricity, refrigeration, or running water.
The Texanist
March 16, 2022
The Texanist: What’s the Difference Between a Ranch and a Farm?
A New Braunfels man isn’t quite sure that he has a firm grasp on this fundamental aspect of Texas rural life.
Politics & Policy
December 22, 2020
A Rural County Battling COVID-19 Faces a Difficult Obstacle: the Local Walmart
The retailer sits 200 yards from Deaf Smith County’s largest hospital. Local officials and public health experts worry that the store isn’t enforcing safety precautions.
Health
August 20, 2020
Texas A&M Hopes a High-tech Kiosk Will Address a Health Care Crisis in Milam County
The rural area lost both its hospitals. Can a telehealth station in Cameron fill the urgent-care gap?
Texas History
August 18, 2020
The ‘Country Queers’ Podcast Challenges Preconceptions About Rural Areas
The multimedia oral history project features the stories of queer people, many of them Texans, who live outside cities.
Health
April 8, 2020
COVID-19 May Be Silently Spreading Across Rural Counties, University of Texas Researchers Believe
A new study suggests that, even in communities with few confirmed cases, the coronavirus could be spreading much more quickly than people realize.
The Texanist
May 12, 2019
The Texanist: What’s the Difference Between a Farm to Market Road and a Ranch to Market Road?
A Houston man visits Austin and is mildly flummoxed by RM 2222.
Music
March 13, 2019
Solange’s ‘When I Get Home’ Pays Homage to the Black Rural South
The album honors black culture in Houston, but also looks beyond it to the traditions of rural Texas.
Politics & Policy
February 28, 2019
The Border Wall Debate Emphasizes the Divide Between Rural and Urban Texans
A recent poll of Texas voters shows opinions about President Trump’s wall depend on where in the state you live.
Art
May 31, 1992
Picture Perfect
As the sole studio photographer in Granger from 1924 to 1955, John Trlica recorded on film most of the important occasions—public and private—in the Central Texas farming community. Because Trlica kept meticulous records and saved every negative, his shop became the repository for an intensely documented history of a small
Politics & Policy
March 1, 1992
Railroaded
Hiking in a country setting? Great, but not in my back yard, say rural citizens.
Being Texan
September 30, 1989
The Soul of East Texas
Reflections and recollections of life among the shadows of the Piney Woods.
Being Texan
April 1, 1983
Texas Primer: The Farm-to-Market Road
The last best way to see the real Texas.
Being Texan
August 1, 1981
Country Boy
Texas cities are full of people who grew up in the country—and want everybody they meet to know it.
Travel & Outdoors
May 1, 1980
The Good Life
You can still find it in these great small towns.
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.