Illustration by Matt Murphy Open Road  | May 2024 Duuuuude A middle-aged woman carves out a manly wave in Galveston by Sarah Hepola I stare at the waves from the Pleasure Pier boardwalk, whose glittering Ferris wheel makes a quirky beachside town in Texas look a bit like Santa Monica, California. Galveston’s low-key surf is often described as “crumbly,” which sounds like a cookie to me. But it rained the previous day, and the waves are sudsy, like a giant washing machine spilling with foam. Galveston is not the best place to surf (Hawaii, probably). And it’s not even the best pl ..read more

Illustration by James Yates You can't call yourself a Texan till you learn to talk like one—and we don't just mean adopting the word "y'all." There's a slew of town names across the state that aren't what they seem. From Quitaque (KITTY-kway) in the Panhandle to Refugio (reh-FYOOR-ee-oh) on the Gulf Coast, it's anyone's guess how these pronunciations came to be. Chalk it up to the state's independent spirit or the blending of its Mexican, German, and Indigenous heritage. Either way, it's important for anyone who calls this state home to know how to say these town names the right way. Subs ..read more

Whether you’re a born-and-bred Texan or just got here as fast as you could, there are a host of things you need to do and see in our great state before calling yourself A TRUE TEXAN. For Texas Highways’ 50TH ANNIVERSARY, we curated a list of adventures that’ll propel you to True Texan status. You can sign up for our accompanying newsletter series that will guide you through each item. Here are 50 ADVENTURES TO CHECK OFF before you don your cowboy hat and ride off into the sunset. Written by Kristin Finan, Robyn Ross, S. Kirk Walsh, Amy McCarthy, Asher Elbein, Melissa Gaskill, and Joe Nick ..read more

Cover photo by Jack Lewis Monahans Sandhills State Park The state park in West Texas was featured on our September 1977 cover. The cover story by Bob Parvin probed the “sand-locked myths and mysteries [of] … America’s easternmost desert playground,” according to the cover credit. In the story, Parvin described Monahans as “a sea of sand, vast miles of it and not unlike the Sahara, ever shifting, covering and uncovering, trackless and tricky. A soft barrier poised across the prickly hardpan.” I asked my kids recently about their favorite places we’ve visited in Texas. They quickly rattled o ..read more

Alvin Dedeaux, former singer of early ’90s band Bad Mutha Goose. Photo courtesy All Water Guides As the audience at a sold-out show at Club Clearview in Dallas circa 1990 was demanding another encore from Austin funk band Bad Mutha Goose and the Brothers Grimm, the group’s singer had an eye on the backstage exit. Chants of “BMG! BMG!” turned into big groans when the houselights came up. That’s all, folks! A few minutes later, the dressing room filled with connected well-wishers, one of them asking, “Where’s Alvin?” But the dreadlocked singer/hype man was already in his 1966 Volvo, headed due ..read more

The French Room at the The Adolphus Hotel, where the first tea service in Texas is believed to have been served. Photo courtesy The Adolphus Hotel If you’ve ever enjoyed a cup of Earl Grey tea, scones smeared with clotted cream, and cucumber and butter finger sandwiches, you can thank an English noblewoman. In 1840, as industrialization pushed the dinner hour later, Anna Maria Russell, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, asked that tea, bread and butter, and cake be served in her bedroom as her stomach grumbled in the late afternoon. And that’s it: The tradition of British teatime was born. One ..read more

When Brenda Barrio moved to the “funky little town” of Denton to attend the University of North Texas in 2003, she would have never guessed she’d be the university’s assistant vice president of research and innovation 20 years later. “One of our goals is to help more students engage in research, especially those who come from marginalized communities,” she says. Located about 40 miles northwest of Dallas, the university has transformed since Barrio was an undergrad alongside a student body of 23,000. She recalls seeing longhorns and cows from the western part of campus, where now there are ..read more

The geyser at the Spindletop Gladys City Boomtown Museum recreates the historic discovery. My muscles shake as I climb up the inside of a seemingly endless vertical tunnel, stopping at platforms along the way to catch my breath. Alongside a handful of companions from Invenergy and a photographer, I make my way up a 300-foot wind turbine near the West Texas town of Stanton. On this 2019 trip, we’re led by Jake Thompson, manager of the clean energy company’s wind farm. At the top, I climb out, tether myself to rails on the surface, and gaze at the magnificent, spare landscape of the Permian Ba ..read more

Trays of greens On 100 acres of land outside Temple, an agricultural revolution is underway. And it doesn’t require a tractor, a plow, or even a shovel. Last summer, Revol Greens, the largest lettuce greenhouse grower in North America, opened a sprawling 20-acre facility in the Central Texas town that can produce as much as 24,000 pounds of lettuce a day. To put that into perspective, that is almost the equivalent of how much lettuce can grow on 1 acre of traditional farmland in an entire year. Greenhouse farming, known as controlled environment agriculture (or CEA), isn’t new, but Revol h ..read more

Canyon of the Eagles. Photo by Kenny Braun As Texans got a front-row seat to a magnificent total solar eclipse this month, interest in astronomy has reached a record high. But stargazing in this state is fantastic all the time, not just during eclipses. You only need to travel just outside of the state’s major metropolitan areas, where pitch black night skies are punctuated with swirls of galaxies and planets, to experience some of the best stargazing around. These resorts, motels, and dude ranches are the perfect places to stay if you are a budding astronomer­—or have one in the family. Sub ..read more