Hidden treasures dot the Big Bend country of far west Texas. From the Guadalupes to the Chinatis and the Chisos, lost mines and abandoned hoards lie like magnets, pulling at the treasure hunter's heart. Or so the stories go. But perhaps the stories are themselves the hidden treasures.
The Big Bend has always attracted an unusual sort of settler, and the settlers have spawned an unusual wealth of lore. Their tales live in the oral tradition of the place, adding to its color, mystery, and appeal. There is horse trader Zack Miller, who has to unload two thousand horses bought from the...

"It wasn't easy in those days for a woman to get her foot in the city room door. Bess made it because she understood one of the basic principles of the newspaper business--everyone has a story. You have only to discover it and tell it well.
"She will tell you in this book about meeting interesting people. You will learn that there are few more interesting than Bess Scott herself."--William P. Hobby
At the age of twenty-five, Bess Whitehead Scott became the first woman reporter for the city desk of the "Houston Post." The year was 1915.
The author's memoir of the first...

Born into the Czech community of Snook, Texas, in the early twentieth century, Robert L. Skrabanek describes with warmth and familiarity how the immigrants and their families made their heritage a part of their daily lives. We're Czechs, first published in 1988, is an engaging account of life in a close-knit community that clearly considered it a privilege to be Czech--a privilege to be cherished and passed on to the next generation. In these pages readers can sense the community spirit that came from attending worship services held in the Czech language, choosing friends and spouses from the...

Texas Tears and Texas Sunshine are the names of popular quilt patterns, and in this volume, now in its seventh printing, sixteen pioneer women describe how they pieced together a life for their families on the harsh frontier. Their first-person narratives, selected and edited by Jo Ella Powell Exley, provide a gripping, highly personal history of the state from Stephen F. Austin's original settlement through the taming of its last frontier in the west. The stories in Texas Tears and Texas Sunshine cover nearly a century, from the log cabin days of Anglo colonization and the Old Three Hundred...

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 agri-culture 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...

After the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in December, 1941, and the subsequent fall of Manila, defending American and Filipino troops withdrew to the Bataan peninsula. For four months these troops, badly outnumbered and crippled by starvation and disease, fought a gallant holding action against the Japanese. When they surrendered in April, 1942, they were subjected to the infamous death march to prison camp. Thousands died, and those who survived faced the ordeal of further harsh treatment by the Japanese.
John S. Coleman, and air force officer assigned to the Philippines to train...

In 1902 a new federal district court court was established to serve a broad segment of the Texas Gulf Coast region, including Houston. In the use of its discretion to choose between "private" and "public" law, this court for many years served the interests of the region's economic and political elite and helped stabilize a fast-changing economy that was undergoing wild swings of boom and bust. After 1945, however, the court reluctantly began to address growing demands for public law enforcement of national policies, including civil rights, and by 1960, public law issues had come to dominate...

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...

"In 1918 Annie Webb Blanton broke the gender barrier in Texas politics when she was elected to head the state's public school system. This victory came despite the fact that women in Texas could not vote in the general election that elevated her to office." Debbie Mauldin Cottrell thus begins the story of a pioneering woman educator, a story of accomplishments on behalf of education and of women that includes years of teaching in public school and university classrooms, the first female presidency of the Texas State Teachers Association, and the founding of an international sorority for...

"In 1918 Annie Webb Blanton broke the gender barrier in Texas politics when she was elected to head the state's public school system. This victory came despite the fact that women in Texas could not vote in the general election that elevated her to office." Debbie Mauldin Cottrell thus begins the story of a pioneering woman educator, a story of accomplishments on behalf of education and of women that includes years of teaching in public school and university classrooms, the first female presidency of the Texas State Teachers Association, and the founding of an international sorority for...