Texas Highways Magazine July 2021

For the third year in a row, writer-at-large Joe Nick Patoski is kicking off the warmest months of the year with an ode to one of Texas’ incomparable rivers. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who has spent as much time on Texas rivers as Patoski—our unofficial river and swimming hole editor—so I asked him to give our readers an insider’s guide to our state’s waterways. What’s the best river for the adventurous traveler who’s interested in kayaking, canoeing, or tubing? As far as accessibility, the upper and lower Guadalupe for kayaking and tubing. The Devils is also great for kayaking and canoeing. But with the Devils and the lower Guadalupe, as well as the Pecos, you’re definitely going to need to go with a guide. For less adventurous travelers or those new…

Texas Highways will be represented for the first time at the National Magazine Awards as one of five finalists in the Columns and Commentary category. Three Open Road essays—“In the Valley of Mirrors” by Antonio Ruiz-Camacho from March 2020, “A Place Before Words” by ire’ne lara silva from September 2020, and “The Desert Reclaims Everything” by Roberto José Andrade Franco from November 2020—were nominated for the prize from the most prestigious program in magazine journalism. Each essayist explores an aspect of their experience as Latinos in the Lone Star State. “It’s all about representation,” Ruiz-Camacho said. “I think these three pieces talk about just how complex and diverse the Latino experience is, and I think that’s so important.” Texas Highways’ submissions are up against work from The Atlantic, The Economist,…

Cynthia Osaseri The visual artist crafted portraits of late-19thcentury Black legislators for “Reconstructing a Legacy” (Page 68). “For me, there is no such thing as a completed image, just pieces that are ‘done for now,’” the Atlanta, Georgia-based artist says. “So, when approaching this piece, it was about picturing these subjects as they may appear today, but beyond what is real. It is the hope that this image, the people and places within it, remains active and alive.” Osaseri has worked in book illustration, game art, graphic design, and now animation, specializing in environment and set design. W.K. Stratton Driving on a crowded highway is often a pain, but Stratton enjoyed his trip along Interstate 35 for “Rapture of the Freeway” (Page 14). “When I made the drive from Laredo to San Antonio,…

Common Ground We’re all Texans [“The Ties That Bind,” May]. That is what unites us. Kathy Hudson, Round Rock Toucan Jim’s Sounds like it’s going on my places-to-ride-to list [“Easy Breezy,” May]. Steven Dunlap Jr., Lytle Accordion King Flaco Jiménez is simply the best [“El Rey de Tejas,” May]! Love him, and whenever I hear him play it makes me smile. @theintellectualcat Park Places As a Houstonian since 1986, this article struck a dis-chord with me [“I’ll Give You My Last,” June]. Mr. Arceneaux’s understatement about improvements to Hermann Park, especially in the “more than a decade” since his last visit, was an affront to the amazing work of the Hermann Park Conservancy. Furthermore, Hermann Park has never been a “no-man’s-land.” There has always been the Houston Zoo, Miller Theatre, Hermann Park Golf Course (one of the first desegregated public…

To get this shot of Jacob’s Well, photographer Erich Schlegel donned snorkeling gear and a weight belt to descend about 30 feet down the limestone entrance of the spring-fed swimming hole. He then pointed a wide-angle lens to the sky to catch the flare of noontime sun on the pool’s surface. Jacob’s Well is the mouth of a 140-foot-deep underwater cavern that’s part of the Trinity Aquifer. The spring is the source of Cypress Creek, which joins the Blanco River in nearby Wimberley. “I like everything about this shot—the sun filtering through and hitting the walls of the shaft, all green with algae,” Schlegel says.…

When Nita Bankston sees the Sam Rayburn statue at the Bonham museum bearing his name, she imagines what it would’ve been like to meet the late congressman, who served as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives for 16 years starting in 1940. “Every town has a history, but it is rare that someone from your town influenced the history of the world,” Bankston says. Though neither Bankston nor Rayburn were born in Bonham, both adopted the northeast Texas community as their own. Bankston grew up in small towns in Tennessee and Texas, and moved to Bonham in 1994 with her husband, Justin Bankston, after they met at Texas A&M University-Commerce (then called East Texas State University). The seat of agriculturally rich Fannin County, Bonham is also a center of…