"Wife," one longtime resident of Blanco Canyon was overheard sighing, "we've spent most of our forty years here just waiting for a rain " Blanco Canyon, on the edge of West Texas' Cap Rock, is a land of charm and brutality, generosity and denial, exquisite beauty after a rain and harsh death when the rains don't come. It is a land where over a hundred years ago one Captain J. C. McNeill started a cattle ranch in the mistaken hope that range and weather conditions then prevailing would continue. It is a land where his descendants still raise cattle, but with full knowledge now that any good...

Cowboy spurs are a pure form of American folk art. Like the cowboy himself, the way spurs developed was molded by their use and the environment of the range, along with a generous dose of individualism and pride. Cowboy Spurs and Their Makers tells the fascinating story of this western art and the artisans and provides a valuable reference for identifying spurs used by riders of Texas and the Southwest.

A visit with contemporary spur maker Jerry Lindley, with pictures of him at work, traces the process and mechanics of hand forging spurs and decorating them by the overlay method....

Thousands of Aggies have walked the campus of Texas A&M since the late 1800s, when it was just a few buildings on a brier-tangled field. Since those days, the campus has grown, new buildings have risen to supersede or stand beside the old, new disciplines have been added to agriculture and mechanics, and A&M has become a university of international stature. Despite expansion, the campus still invites exploration of its buildings and byways, its oak-shaded walks and echoing halls, its history. With this readable, easy-to-carry guidebook, anyone can follow in the footsteps of those past...

It is pleasant to stray in the Big Bend and Davis Mountains country of Far West Texas. The vast spaces, rugged terrain, and sparse settlement invite straying--and tale spinning. In Stray Tales of the Big Bend master folklorist Elton Miles continues to intrigue and enchant with stories of the region and its culture.
Readers will find in this volume new tales of Terlingua Desert mystery bells, spirit-guarded treasure, and the mock-sacrificial San Vicente rain dance with its pre-Christian vestiges. Travelers will enjoy learning the lore of the rugged land they visit. Historians will discover...

They always win the halftime. Members of the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band, embodying the spirit, camaraderie, and excellence of the school they represent, have marched and played proudly for one hundred years. Here is the story of the music, the precision, the tradition of that exceptional band.
Illustrated with 121 black and white photographs and eight pages of color pictures of bands and band members past and present, this lively history pays tribute to the bandmasters and musicians who have made the organization the pulse of the spirit of Aggieland. Organized around the tenure of its...

In Jim Crow Texas, black Regular Army units returning victoriously from Cuba and the Philippines collided head-on with local segregation and bigotry. As the soldiers' expectations of dignity and respect met with racial restrictions and indignities from civilian communities, a series of violent episodes erupted. This little-known story, never before told in full, illuminates the collision of racial discrimination with racial pride and reveals once again the petty biases, institutionalized racism, and mutual suspicions that have divided American society. But it is also a story of lofty...

In this crowning touch to his historical trilogy, Robert S. Weddle resumes the dramatic voyage of discovery and exploration in the Gulf of Mexico (the Spanish Sea) and along its coast. Combining thorough research with elegant narrative, Changing Tides treats the reader to political intrigue, tales of hurricanes and shipwrecks, and the rich historiography that marks the period between 1763 and 1803. The book opens with a series of territorial transfers that drove France from the North American continent and launched a flurry of exploration by Spain and England, each eager to survey its new...

In 1961, Reynaldo G. Garza, of Brownsville, Texas, became the first Mexican American federal judge in U.S. history. A Kennedy nominee, Garza had risen from the obscurity of his humble South Texas beginnings to become a major player in Democratic politics. The careers of fellow Texans and political giants Lyndon B. Johnson and Lloyd Bentsen would become linked with his own. As an emerging power broker in the predominantly Anglo establishment, Garza personified the new elite in the Mexican American community and in the Democratic Party. Garza's long and storied tenure as a federal judge was...

German immigrant Dutch Wurzbach lived the frontier history of Texas from the arrival of his family in Galveston in 1846 through the Council House Treaty, a stint with the Texas Rangers, service in the Confederate army, and another fifty years in the Lone Star State.
Eight-year-old Dutch immigrated to Texas with his family in 1846. After the death of his mother, he worked for a while for Texas Indian agent R. S. Neighbors, then ran away to San Antonio. Over the next few years, he faced Indian attacks, broke mules for the U.S. Army, met Big Foot Wallace and other famous frontiersmen,...

After the Civil War a convergence of circumstances provided Galveston with an unparalleled opportunity for growth and development. Geography, demography, and technology combined to favor Galveston's commercial development, and the city seized on these factors to spur its growth as an important transportation center. By 1900, Galveston served as the leading seaport for the worldwide shipment of grain and cotton and as a major gateway to what lay west of the Mississippi.

Galveston and the Great West traces Galveston's emergence as a key American port city: from its initial conception...