Every week, we share dispatches from Texas Country Reporter, the long-running TV show that invites you to hop in and travel along to explore the back roads of Texas.
Wichita Falls resident Jim Loudermilk carefully removed a 1930s racing sailboat from an old downtown building and restored it to its original glory.
Jeffie Brewer’s sculptures transform rusty metal into whimsical figures that look like drawings from a coloring book.
Texas Country Reporter interviews Craig Joseph, grandson of the restaurant’s original owners.
Retired forester Mike Woody lives in a log cabin in the Piney Woods creating intricate tree sculptures. You just can’t make this stuff up.
Rogelio and Carrie Tellez combine the cuisines of their Mexican and Pacific Islander roots at a restaurant that serves tacos unlike any others in Texas.
Heidi Frazier opened 40 Acre Wood over ten years ago with a mission to make books accessible to any and all readers in the small town of Lexington.
Former roper and country music singer Larry Callies was always a cowboy at heart, but when he was growing up, he rarely saw any representations of Black cowboys, despite a rich history. So in 2017, he founded the Black Cowboy Museum, which features a collection of
Mo Pittle set out to capture his Jewish heritage and upbringing in El Paso on the menu of JewBoy Burgers.
Sally Maxwell’s images, made from thousands upon thousands of hairline scratches, are impressively detailed.
One of our most important TCR stories involved a surprise encounter with an early advocate of whooping crane conservation efforts.
After a terrible car accident, the self-taught pianist’s reprise was nothing short of amazing.
The waiting list is long for the husband-and-wife duo who rebuild, redesign, and reimagine the iconic, retro travel trailers.
In the rolling plains of the Panhandle, Bob Owen tears up what’s left of old vehicles so that some classic cars get a chance at a new life.
Since 1916, the drugstore and soda fountain has maintained its retro charm and service to the community.
Jody Powers ran a bakery with her grandmother’s kolache recipes, and when business would slow down, she would resort to unusual promotion tactics.
Years ago, Kenneth Henneke helped develop a feisty catfish, and now he stocks a variety of species for anglers across the state.
I’m not sure I ever bought the story of the Texas horned lizard that survived thirty years in a courthouse cornerstone, but it’s a tale that reminds me why I love storytelling.
Far in the Panhandle, an upstart ag program at a small-town school has become a start-up business run by the students.
Barre Wheatley leads an ambitious program that encourages students to shoot for the moon.
Stacy Brown of Arlington was just the character to reignite my love of muscle cars.
At the edge of the Hill Country, Randy Kiser creates handcrafted carbon steel wares for the kitchen.
In 2007, Texas Country Reporter met Sister Damian, the Houston Astros’ most patient and faithful baseball fan.
A hundred years ago, U.S. airmail pilots depended on a coast-to-coast bread-crumb trail of arrows—though most have been destroyed, buried, lost, or forgotten.
In this video, Texas Country Reporter interviews the curator of the wide-ranging collection in Jefferson, one that merely begins with 550 vintage clocks.
Michael Gregory faced many hardships, and his unlikely path as a sculpture artist and teacher is a powerful story of resilience.
Stuart Marcus has spent years identifying and photographing hundreds of species of moths near the Trinity River, but he still has more to go.
For decades, Roddy Wiley ran the only bank in the small town of Oakwood, which happily resisted modern technology well into the twenty-first century.
Teenagers Nigel and Shane Mushambi started a baking business that combines go-getter ambition with do-gooder optimism.
Scott Wade’s dusty windshield paintings are a temporary art form that makes a lasting impression.
Beau Burns doesn’t need limits on screen time, because his favorite place to be is out working in the field.
The 1930s estate in McAllen is home to a fifteen-acre wildlife sanctuary that invites visitors to foster conservation corridors in their own backyards.
In 1998, Texas Country Reporter did an episode about Roxanne Ward, a champion hog caller who was quirky, kind, and so unapologetically herself we’ll never forget her.
An interview with Armando Vera in Brownsville, who owns the only restaurant in Texas to offer traditional, buried-in-the-ground, coal-smoked barbacoa.
Sixteen years ago, a small town’s only public school closed its doors. But not before the final graduating class invited a former POW to walk the stage, finishing what he started nearly six decades before.
Texas Country Reporter visits Maniac’s Mansion in downtown Wichita Falls, offering unlimited play steeped in eighties and nineties nostalgia.
Bob Freeman is a craftsman who carves, plays, and sings the praises of the traditional Native American instrument.
Bob Anderson says the self-inflicted title is for amusement only, but the quirky farmer sure seems serious about garlic.
Two special-education teachers at West Brook Senior High launched a school-wide cookie-baking program that brings together students of all kinds.
I’ve visited the T. C. Lindsey & Co. General Store multiple times over the years, but our most recent visit was a surprise in the best possible way.
Okay, so it’s not a magic vehicle, but the fast-talking tour guide covers Houston’s neighborhoods from an open-air school bus.
Getting a haircut in a small town used to be a story-finding strategy for Texas Country Reporter, but the tale of Blanche Harris is one of my favorites.
The Hutto-based hatmaker uses decades-old equipment to meticulously customize every hat.
Performance Plus in Odessa is an auto shop that doubles as an archive of the toys of yesteryear.
Dawna Gillespie’s handcrafted earrings and necklaces are truly one of a kind.
No matter the time of day or night, Victor Laramore will make keys, rebuild locks, and open doors for a desperate Texan who is having a bad day.
Bill Richardson’s creations from discarded metal were featured numerous times on Texas Country Reporter, but our friendship remains near and dear to my heart.
The bookmaker apprenticed under the famous Charlie Dunn and is now training a new generation of talented craftspeople.
Chris DuCharme is self-taught, armed with a telephoto lens and words of encouragement from his late wife.
Pastor Buddy Blake led volunteers who help step in for the Department of Defense to honor fallen soldiers with a proper military burial.
Third Planet Sci-Fi Superstore in Houston is home to hundreds of thousands of comic books and collectibles.
