Southwest

Originally a World War II infantry training center, followed by a brief stint as a US Air Force base, Camp Wolters was redesignated a US Army installation in July 1956, and its primary mission was to train helicopter pilots.

Mineral Wells offered an ideal climate and terrain for flight training with predominately clear skies, rolling open ranch land, high bluffs, and the Brazos River valley. An integral part of Mineral Wells’ economy, the flight school expanded in the 1960s due to escalation of the Vietnam War. During the war, with the exception of the US Navy, all helicopter pilots receiving primary flight training passed through Fort Wolters. During its 17 years of operation, over 40,000 pilots were trained, which included international students from 33 countries. The last Fort Wolters pilots graduated in 1973, and it was formally closed in 1975 and was converted into an industrial center.

Wes J. Sheffield is an aviation/aerospace professional and historian. He has taught history at Dallas Baptist University and is an active member of the West Texas Historical Association, serving as the organization’s social media editor. His interest in Fort Wolters began while employed with Bell Helicopter, where he met and later interviewed former Vietnam War helicopter pilots while writing a narrative history of Fort Wolters, US Army Helicopter School. 

For the Texas Rangers, the Mexican-American War was an opportunity for vengeance.

When the United States declared war on Mexico in 1846, the Texas Rangers were eager to settle scores with their familiar foe and quickly became the eyes and ears of the US army. Commanded by established legends like Samuel H. Walker, Benjamin McCulloch, and John Jack Coffee Hays, Texas Rangers led the American charge at Monterrey and saved General Taylor's army at Buena Vista. However, their depredations on Mexican citizenry were often excessive, and their behavior, along with other volunteers, sparked Mexican resistance. However crucial they were to US victory, it is also indisputable that they earned a reputation for brutality even in a vicious war.. Author William Nelson Fox follows these larger than life figures into stories of heroism and villainy at the heart of the Mexican-American War.

Author Kathy Benjamin accompanies the pioneering women of the Lone Star State’s funeral business. The intimate task of caring for the dead had long fallen under women’s sphere of responsibilities. But after the Civil War, the sudden popularity of embalming offered new financial opportunities to men who set up as undertakers, pushing women out of their traditional role. In Texas, from the 1880s to the 1930s, women slowly regained their place by the bier. Many worked while pregnant or raising children. Most shouldered the additional weight of personal tragedies and persistent sexism. All brought comfort to the bereaved in the isolation of the Texas frontier, kept its cities free of deadly disease and revolutionized an industry that was just coming into its own.

A rural area in Texas, Atascosa County is located directly south of San Antonio. The old roads traveled through this land were en route to missions, forts, and places of importance to natives, explorers, settlers, wildlife, and battle-tested armies. Atascosa County was created in 1856 by the Texas Legislature, and since the land grants were distributed in the late 1800s, the population has increased substantially as settlers dealt with Indian raids, drought, and the hardships of farming and ranching. As the rest of America embraced the machine age and technical wonders, Atascosa County has evolved along in stride. Initially, wagons, plows, and mules toiled for rural Atascosa County; today, vehicles, tractors, and modern machinery keep the county moving forward. Coined “The Birthplace of the Cowboy” by historian Dr. Ben Parker, the land continues to be dominated by the cattle industry. In modern history, country stars such as Willie Nelson and George Strait have blazed a path through Atascosa County with deep ties and humble beginnings.

Martin Gonzales is the chairman of the Atascosa County Historical Commission. He and his fellow volunteers have carried on the great work of appointed commissions of the past by recognizing and continuing to study local history. This publication was made possible with contributions from Atascosa County citizens who gladly answered the call for historical pictures and the stories that went with them.

Navigate the often-overlooked history of the resolute defense of the Texas coast during the Civil War. With volumes written on the Civil War, little attention has been given to the defense of the Texas coast. Most military-aged Texans had been dispatched across the Mississippi, but those left behind resolutely weathered naval bombardments and repulsed invasion attempts. It was only at the end of the conflict that Federal troops were able to make their way into South Texas, as the Confederacy prepared its last stand at Caney Creek and the Brazos River. From famous battles to obscure skirmishes, William Nelson Fox provides an account of the Lone Star State’s defensive strategies during the Civil War.

Track pirate gold and misplaced riches across 168 counties in this comprehensive guide to the lost treasures of Texas.

Countless fortunes have disappeared into the vast expanse of the Lone Star State. The history of the coast is cluttered with shipwrecks like that of the 1554 Spanish fleet. Even when pirates such as Jean Laffite managed to get their ill-gotten gains ashore, their loot vanished just as completely as if it had sunk beneath the waves. Entire mines, including the ventures of Jim Bowie and San Saba Presidio, have been reclaimed by the earth. The unmarked caches of bandits like Jesse James and Pancho Villa still bedevil the dreams of treasure seekers today. W. Craig Gaines reveals what has been lost, what has been found and what remains to be recovered.

From missile launch sites to Soviet espionage, experience the Cold War deep in the heart of Texas.

In an era when miscalculation or a mistake could lead to global annihilation, Texas operated 12 Atlas F intercontinental ballistic missile launch sites near Abilene’s Dyess Air Force Base. Nuclear-capable Nike Hercules surface-to-air antiaircraft missiles protected Austin and the Metroplex from a Soviet bomber attack. An American pilot stationed at Laughlin Air Force Base near Del Rio was the only fatality of the Cuban Missile Crisis. After he was accused of spying for the Soviet Union, former Ranger College professor Maurice Halperin fled the country. Amarillo’s Pantex plant, where three employees died in a 1977 explosion, maintains the security and reliability of the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal. Landry Brewer explores how the Lone Star State shaped American Cold War policy.

"There is enough detail to give the reader a clear understanding of the war in the far west, which tends to be a forgotten subject."--Civil War Courier

Did you know that eleven days before Fort Sumter, South Carolina, was fired upon, the Civil War had already begun in Texas?

The Civil War in the West has not been the focus of much attention, but it was the location of fierce fighting and stormy conflicts. Not everyone wanted to secede from the Union, although between sixty and seventy thousand Texans volunteered to take up arms. Sam Houston, governor of the territory in 1861, opposed secession and was forced out after the legislature approved it. Texas troops proceeded to conquer the New Mexico Territory (all of the present-day states of New Mexico and Arizona) for the Confederacy.

The war was all the more difficult in the West, because they had a unique problem: defending themselves from hostile Native Americans and Mexican bandits while also fighting the Federal forces. Many skirmishes were fought against those enemies.

This exciting volume tells all about the war in Texas and New Mexico Territory: the intense combat, the brilliant strategies, and the heroic soldiers who fought for their homeland.

Round Top’s African American pioneers came into Texas in 1825 when Stephen F. Austin brought in 300 Anglo-Americans, and the people they enslaved, for the purpose of colonizing the area. Soon afterward, more slaves were bought in from other slaveholding states. After the Civil War ended, the descendants of these original Round Top pioneers began building their own community. Many earned money by toiling away in the cotton fields for the very men who had once enslaved them. Others earned money working as cowboys, washerwomen, barbers, or blacksmiths. In 1867, the group founded the Concord Missionary Baptist Church as a communal space for them to come together and pool their resources to buy their own land, build their own homes, and hire teachers, which led to the creation of the Concord Missionary Baptist Church Colored School. For generations, this school successfully educated freedmen, their children, and their descendants before finally closing its doors due to desegregation. Despite many challenges, they overcame obstacles that grew into a prosperous community. 

“Stories of immigration, culture-clash . . . and old-fashioned hard work are told through the history of Houston’s long-gone, but still-beloved restaurants.” —Yesterday’s America

With more than fourteen thousand eating establishments covering seventy different ethnic cuisines, Houston is a foodie town. But even in a place where eating out is a way of life and restaurants come and go, there were some iconic spots that earned a special place in the hearts and stomachs of locals.

Maxim’s taught overnight millionaires how to handle meals that came with three forks. The Trader Vic’s at the Shamrock offered dedicated homebodies a chance for the exotic, and Sonny Look’s Sirloin Inn maintained the reputation of a city of steakhouses.

From Alfred’s Delicatessen to Youngblood’s Fried Chicken, Paul and Christiane Galvani celebrate the stories and recipes of Houston’s fondly remembered tastemakers.

“In the book, the Galvanis share Houston’s history and love of food. They take the reader on the banks of the bayou when the city received its first inhabitants before time hopping from the Original Mexican Restaurant to The Original Kelley’s Steakhouse. Other stops include Alfred’s Delicatessen and the San Jacinto Inn.” —Houston Business Journal

Dallas Love Field Airport, established in 1917 as an Army flight training field, was the site of the first commercial aviation flights in the state of Texas. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the airport’s reputation as one of the nation’s best attracted many well-known aviators of the day to take advantage of its excellent facilities and services. At one time the 10th busiest airport in the world, Love Field has been the headquarters of two major airlines (one of which is now the airport’s largest tenant) and has a strong reputation for exceptional leadership and passenger satisfaction while processing more passengers per gate than any airport in the country. The repeal of a legislative amendment limiting nonstop flights at the airport resulted in a 100 percent increase in passenger traffic from 2010 to 2019 and significantly impacted the airport’s relationship to the community. 

On March 14, 1940, a train heading west along Highway 83 from Donna to Alamo struck a truck driver turning north from the highway onto Tower Road. The horrific crash killed twenty-nine of about forty-five farmworkers who were on the truck. A one-day investigation faulted the truck driver and led to meager court settlements for the devastated families. In the wake of these events, several of the victims’ children and grandchildren became lawyers and some of the first Mexican American judges in South Texas. Juan Carmona and Taylor Seaver De La Fuente revisit the deadliest traffic accident in Texas history, while seeking to preserve the stories of Mexican and Mexican American farmworkers and their relatives whose backbreaking contributions continue to feed our country to this day.

Carved from central Comancheria, Erath (EE-rath) County was created by stock raisers and settlers with little to lose but hopes and dreams.

Bisected by Grand Prairie and Western Cross Timbers, this is where East Texas ends and West Texas begins. The Bosque and Paluxy Rivers welcomed ranchers, farmers, millers, and ginners. Rustlers, deserters, train robbers, vigilantes, lawmen, and Texas Rangers soon followed. Faith, education, life, and death cultivated villages with churches, schools, stores, and cemeteries in walking distance. Bridges, roads, and railways meant the life or death of a township. This volume commemorates the people, places, and events of lost communities that made the “Cowboy Capital of the World” what it is today.

An eighth-generation Texan and sixth-generation Erathian, Sheryl Reed Rascher has over 30 years of experience with Lockheed Martin business and program management. Currently serving as president of the Erath County Genealogical Society, she is also a member of San Angelo Genealogical and Historical Society, Texas State Genealogical Society, and The Daughters of the Republic of Texas and a past member of Fort Worth Genealogical Society Board of Directors. This book contains photographs generously shared by the Ralph and Dossie Rogers Historic Images Collection, the Stephenville Historical House Museum, Dublin Historical Museum, and numerous friends.

Radio station WRR, the United States’ first fire and police dispatch network, originated in 1920 thanks to the innovative thinking of Dallas police and fire signal superintendent Henry Garrett, who realized the potential of communicating via the then brand-new medium of wireless radio transmission. When dispatchers began broadcasting music between fire alarms, citizens listened on their homemade sets, and the Dallas, Texas, radio station was born. In August 1921, operating with 50 watts, WRR became the first federally licensed radio station west of the Mississippi River and the second in the United States. During the last 103 years, the WRR call letters have been at the heart of both an AM and an FM station, and North Texas listeners eagerly tuned in to both frequencies. 

“The story of May Walker Burleson’s murder of her ex-husband’s second wife . . . A meticulously researched work, [it] captures its era perfectly.”—Galveston County Daily News

Jennie May Walker Burleson was envied for having everything a woman of her time could want—the privileged upbringing, the dazzling good looks, the dashing war hero husband. She was admired for demonstrating that a woman could want more, from the front of the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession to the bottom of a Mesoamerican archaeological dig. But as she stood over the body of her husband’s second wife, gun in hand, society’s envy and admiration quickly hardened into pity and scorn.

T. Felder Dorn examines the complicated trajectory of May's life as socialite, suffragist and shooter.

“Dorn’s book gives small glimpses of history, especially on the 1913 Suffragist parade in Washington, DC. Plus, May was sent to Waverly Hills Sanatorium reputed to be one of the most haunted places in the U.S. One of the best features of the book is the historical photos interspersed with each chapter.”—Forgotten Winds

Welcome to Texas! Parent and child Armadillos tour the Lone Star State in best-selling author-illustrator Martha Day Zschock's Hello! board book series for children. In Hello, Texas! join the pair as they explore Big Bend National Park, spend the day at the State Fair of Texas, discover the Alamo and splash at the beach. Along the way they stop for some yummy barbecue, pretend to be astronauts at Space Center Houston, wave to prairie dogs, watch bats fly in Austin, and end their day floating on a river boat in San Antonio! For ages 0-3. Made in the USA.

Often relegated to a footnote, the Archive War almost plunged the Republic of Texas into civil war. Houston’s Archive War began with the Texas Revolution, as the spoils of the battlefield gave way to bitter political strife. Sam Houston didn’t expect a two-year standoff with Austin residents over the location of the new republic’s capital. But if a few things had gone differently, his attempt to shift the seat of government back to the city named after him could have ended with Austin residents in outright rebellion. As it was, the feud between Lamar and Houston over the seat of government escalated into cannon-fire and continued until Texas was a Republic no more. Author Lora-Marie Bernard thumbs through the incendiary files of the Texas Archive War.

Granbury and Hood County’s history is both an American pioneer saga and a 20th-century rags to riches story. In the 17th century, Spanish explorers and the Comanche were vying to control the land carved across Texas by the mighty Brazos River. By the mid-19th century, white settlers came, led by visionaries like fiery preacher “Fighting” Joe Robinson in Acton, lawyer and legislator Abel Landers, the Nutt brothers, and Quaker-raised farmer Amon Bond in Granbury as well as education-minded Campbellite Pleasant Thorp in Thorp Spring and the Sears family in Lipan. Soon small settlements dotted the area. Once the Civil War passed and Hood County was formed in 1866, Granbury and the towns across the county became thriving centers of commerce fed by nearby farms and ranches. The 20th century brought hard times, but the creation of Lake Granbury in 1969 opened a new era of possibilities. Newcomers joined founders’ descendants to create a multifaceted renewal inspired by echoes of the past.

This comprehensive collection of historic photographs illustrates why “The Miracle City,” with its luscious pine forests, public-minded citizenry, rich tradition of innovation, and remarkable resilience is the fastest growing city in the United States.

Managing this enterprise is the features editor of the Courier of Montgomery County newspaper, Sondra Hernandez, working in concert with executive director of the Heritage Museum of Montgomery County and author Joy Montgomery. Rounding out the author team is Dr. Robin Montgomery, author of numerous books and articles and columnist for the Courier of Montgomery County, along with Larry Foerster, an author, chair of the Montgomery County Historical Commission, and former Montgomery County attorney and city attorney for multiple county cities.

Discover how a World War transformed a small Texas town.

Located in Mineral Wells, Camp Wolters was the U.S. Army’s largest Infantry Replacement Training Center during World War II. From 1941-1946, the camp trained an estimated 250,000 soldiers, including Medal of Honor winner Audie Murphy and the infamous Eddie Slovik. The camp was more than just a training facility—it  also held German POWs and brought a cascade of changes to its corner of Texas. With millions of dollars being pumped into the local economy, the population of Mineral Wells surged from 6,303 to 25,000 in four months. Some growing pains accompanied these changes, but the Army and town worked together to lay the foundation for a long lasting, mutually beneficial system cementing military history in Mineral Wells.

Two Centuries of Victoria’s History

While Stephen F. Austin often receives sole credit as the founding father of the Lone Star State, there was another successful empresario, Don Martin De Leon, who established the only predominantly Mexican colony in the state. Founded on the Guadalupe River, Victoria’s rich heritage has often been set aside, just as the De Leon family itself endured an unjust period of exile after the success of a revolution they helped support. From the origin of the Street of Ten Friends and the advent of the streetcar to more recent triumphs and tragedies, Tamara Joy Diaz chronicles the influential figures and pivotal events of Victoria’s past.

Every mass grave in Texas offers morbid proof that at one time, in that place, something went very, very wrong.

Texans have resorted to mass graves out of necessity, desperation and appalling indifference. These sites mark natural disasters or hide unnatural crimes that tested the limits of human endurance and empathy. Because of this, memorializing those who lie in mass graves can be controversial. Not everyone wants to dig up the darkness of the past, much less admit that the dirt is still fresh. Nevertheless, to honor those whose bones lie mixed with others, their stories must be told. In so doing, Kathy Benjamin exhumes essential shards of Lone Star history, from the Alamo to the present day.

Dust and Determination

After the Civil War, emancipated slaves who didn’t want to pick cotton or operate an elevator headed west to find work and a new life. Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving drove two thousand longhorns across southern Texas blazing a trail to Bosque Redondo in New Mexico. In 1866, the new Goodnight-Loving Trail was crowded with cattle headed for a government market. By the 1870s, twenty-five percent of the over thirty-five thousand cowboys in the West were black. They were part of trail crews that drove more than twenty-seven million cattle on the Goodnight-Loving Trail, Western Trail, Chisholm Trail and Shawnee Trail. They were paid equally, and their skill and ability brought them earned respect and prestige. Author Nancy Williams recounts their lasting legacy.

The arrival of Franciscan friars of the Jalisco Province in Mexico escaping religious persecution in 1926 to Hebbronville, a rural community in South Texas, is an enduring story that still resonates in the hearts of many. Since then, Franciscans have been dedicated to the cultural, educational, and spiritual needs of Hebbronville and surroundings communities that have supported them over the years.

One of the many remarkable contributions of the Franciscan legacy in Hebbronville is the Scotus College, a majestic four-story seminary building considered a Texas historic treasure and a preeminent local architectural landmark. This book is the pictorial account of these events that led a group of Franciscans to offer their lives, full of unwavering faith and boundless hope, to a community that embraced them. It is an inspiring story that becomes a lesson about love, devotion, and sacrifice in appreciation to the people of Hebbronville that helped persecuted Franciscan friars survive. 

Fr. Juan Jose Ibarra, OFM, founder of the Franciscan Museum of Hebbronville whose archives have contributed to this book, has worked closely with the Archivo Histórico Franciscano de Zapopan in Mexico and the Jim Hogg County Historical Commission. He currently serves as pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish and guardian of the Franciscan Friary in Hebbronville, Texas.

Author Tristan Smith offers an insightful guide through two dozen of Houston and Galveston’s most historic cemeteries.

Houston and Galveston’s historic cemeteries lie scattered amongst the neighborhoods and thoroughfares of the nation’s fourth largest city. Some of these portals to the past nestle in hidden pockets of the bustling metropolis. Other cemeteries carve out the kind of contemplative sanctuary that rivals the city’s largest greenspaces. Explore the burial grounds around the Bayou City, where astronauts, musicians, movie stars and civic leaders rest alongside rogues, scoundrels and murderers.

Told with a Texas twang, this tale features a dozen icons of the Lone Star state. Clever rhymes count down the days of Christmas, revealing such surprise gifts as silver spurs, oil wells, and armadillos. Festive illustrations fill the pages of this western romp.

Make a crossing of the storied Pecos River.

The arid Pecos River Country of Texas is rich with stories, the crooked path of its alkaline waters defining the lives of any who dared venture here. Native peoples, Spanish explorers, soldiers, travelers, cattlemen, wildcatters, and just plain folks, passed by, struggled, sojourned, and perished. From the oldest book in North America to the great rock of the Jumano, their traces remain in the ruins, the records and the earth itself. Native West Texan James Collett catalogues architectural masterpieces, lonely gravestones, fanciful cowboy tales and other bits of history caught in the currents of a legendary river.

Explore Granbury’s celebrated history. Granbury owes much of its present charm to its vibrant heritage, from the elegant limestone facades that ring the historic town square to its treasury of Victorian homes. And it owes much of its resilience to the rougher portions of its past, dating back to a frontier era filled with saloons and land disputes. Sitting on one of its sunny restaurant patios, it’s hard to image figures like Jesse James or John Wilkes Booth flitting through Granbury’s lore, but the town has stared down its fair share of mysterious tragedy and stubborn prejudice. Join Author David K. Barnett in navigating the landmarks and legacies of a town flooded with history.

Take a comprehensive tour of Fort Clark, Texas, one of best-preserved districts on the National Register of Historic Places. Thomas Jefferson recognized that a morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable. The Fort Clark Historic District, in Kinney County, Texas, is far more than a morsel. It is a full-course buffet of U.S. Army architecture, with more than one hundred well-preserved structures from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, some built to Quartermaster model plans, and many the only remaining examples in the nation. While most other Texas Indian War–era forts are long abandoned and reduced to nothing more than stark chimneys on the prairie, Fort Clark’s wide-ranging military architecture has survived virtually unchanged. Author William Haenn surveys the landmark site that represents nearly a century of active service to Texas and the nation.

From soda fountains to beer gardens, celebrate the founders of Fredericksburg’s feasts. Fredericksburg's heritage of dining hospitality is full of unforgettable corner booths and legendary roadside stands. The Crown Saloon gave pioneer teamsters a welcome chance to wet their whistle, while the Manhattan Cafe brought pickled herring and other delicacies of the 1920s to the Hill Country frontier. At the state’s first wine festival, Haversack Winery treated guests to a 2,100 lb. chunk of cheddar cheese along with performances from The Ballet Folklorico España and Pehl’s Old Time Band. The Wild Game Dinner raised a healthy chunk of change for worthy Gillespie County causes. Michael Barr lines up a buffet of iconic Fredericksburg eateries that will have readers smelling Noble’s brisket through the butcher paper and hearing the sizzle of Oma Koock’s Schnitzel.

The middle Texas coast, known locally as the Coast Bend, is an area filled with fascinating stories. From as early as the days of de Vaca and La Salle, the Coastal Bend has been a site of early exploration, bloody conflicts, legendary shipwrecks and even a buried treasure or two. However, much of the true history has remained unknown, misunderstood and even hidden. For years, local historian C. Herndon Williams has shared his fascinating discoveries of the area's early stories through his weekly column, Coastal Bend Chronicle. Now he has selected some of his favorites in Texas Gulf Coast Stories. Join Williams as he explores the days of early settlement and European contact, Karankawa and Tonkawa legends and the Coastal Bend's tallest of tall tales.