Fifty Years of Cadillac Ranch How the Amarillo art installation became an iconic American roadside attraction By Joe Nick Patoski | Photographs by Wyatt McSpadden The vintage Cadillacs at their original location in the 1970s Fifty years ago on the summer solstice, three experimental architects and artists completed Amarillo’s iconic Cadillac Ranch. Facilitated by a larger-than-life eccentric millionaire, the permanent installation of 10 Cadillac sedans buried nose first at a 60-degree angle into the dirt of a flat field within eyeshot of Interstate 40 has become the Panhandle city’s No ..read more

Photo by John Suhrstedt The weirdest and most wonderful water park Texas has ever seen opened on Spring Lake in San Marcos in 1950. At Aquarena Springs, gondolas rode in the sky, never deigning to touch water. “Aquamaids” picnicked and performed ballet in daily shows that were staged underwater. There was a swimming clown named Grupo, and a swimming pig named Ralph; there was also a chicken that played tic-tac-toe, though swimming was not in its repertoire. The park featured a fleet of glass-bottom boats that gave visitors a glimpse of eels, catfish, turtles, and other aquatic critters. From ..read more

Illustration by The Red Dress Filmmaking brothers David and Nathan Zellner have been obsessed with Bigfoot since childhood, when the elusive woodland creature entered their imaginations. Their lifelong infatuation inspired them to create Sasquatch Sunset, a 90-minute, dialogue-free movie about a family of sasquatches living in a Pacific Northwest forest. The cast is played by Golden Globe-nominated Riley Keough, Oscar-nominated Jesse Eisenberg, Christophe Zajac-Denek, and Nathan (both brothers act, but David isn’t in this movie). The characters emote and grunt under heavy prosthetic makeup a ..read more

Photo by Erin Newman-Mitchell With its Spanish moss-draped cypress trees and wide array of wildlife, Caddo Lake State Park has a mystical quality to it. Add fog to the mix, and it’s almost otherworldly. “It’s truly unlike anywhere else in Texas,” says Austin-based photographer Erin Newman-Mitchell, who took this fog-laden shot in March 2021. “This particular morning had begun enveloped in a dense fog, dissipating as the sun rose to reveal the many silhouettes of cypress trees. The weather conditions were like none I’d experienced before; so serene and beautiful.” To explore the park’s swam ..read more

Gifts from the ocean become gifts for humanity on the beaches of Padre Island By Christopher Collins Photographs by Kenny Braun Illustrations by Sarah McMenemy A collection of shells from South Padre Island. Somewhere in Texas the moon is shining, but not tonight, not in South Padre. A pitch-black night has engulfed the barrier island, blurring the Gulf Coast surf, sand, and sky into a shapeless void. The floodlights from high-rise resorts lining the beachfront offer only the suggestion of a great blue heron standing one-legged in the water, still as a sentry, angling for a midnight sn ..read more

Cover image by Tom Urban February 1991 Freelance photographer Tom Urban captured the sea oats and purslane that decorate the dunes of upper Padre Island for this 1991 cover. The cover story by Jack Lowry and Laura Black explored Padre Island National Seashore’s wildlife, sea creatures, and birds, while an accompanying story highlighted the treasure trove of seashells along the beaches of Padre Island. While reporting this month’s cover story on seashells, editor-at-large Christopher Collins discovered the extent of Padre Island National Seashore’s wildness. A fierce wind treated his tent li ..read more

The Medina River is one of many Central Texas spots to go tubing. Photo by the Texas Department of Transportation How To Texas is a recurring column offering step-by-step instructions on how to be Texan. We’ll guide you through the cultural traditions, customs, eccentricities, lifestyles, and activities you’ll find on your travels that make the state uniquely Texan.   Summer is tubing season in Texas. Thousands of people descend upon the state’s majestic rivers with colorful inner tubes and tumblers in tow to escape the heat and float the day away. But these aren’t your typical waterpar ..read more

Cibolo Creek Ranch. Photo by Brandon Jakobeit Traveling with kids may not be easy, but it is always an adventure. Luckily for parents and grandparents in Texas, the adventures tend to be pretty epic. You can hike mountains towering over deserts teeming with wildlife, zip on a golf cart through miles of beautiful coastland, and visit vibrant cities filled with thought-provoking art and historical attractions. Family travel in our state also yields plenty of friendly conversations with locals and other travelers. (Texans are generally a friendly lot, after all.) Looking for your next family ge ..read more

Boo Eaker and her husband, Lance, work the pits at their Fredericksburg destination. “I’m just the blowtorch lady,” Boo Eaker jokes as she levels her blue flame over a slice of banana, transforming its starchy yellow flesh into a nutty-brown coin. She doesn’t wait for it to cool, wrapping her fingers around its edges to tuck it delicately into a nest of pillowy cream. Her eponymous restaurant is running behind today, but despite being short-staffed, Eaker remains cool and calm. In the symphony of her kitchen, she directs employees with simple hand gestures, ushering them between pans of k ..read more

The Pegasus Project rehabilitates, trains, and adopts out formerly abandoned horses. Like all the horses and donkeys on the property, Cassidy the quarter horse and an American paint horse named Delight get regular cranial massages to soothe their muscles and their minds. On sunny days, their pink noses are spread with sunscreen. Instead of being confined to stalls, these rescued animals roam sprawling fenced spaces at Allyson and Mike DeCanio’s ranch near Ben Wheeler, about 25 miles west of Tyler. Life wasn’t always so idyllic for these horses, though. Some, like Sky, Jax, and Shelby, were ..read more