Texas Bucket List

Texas Bucket List

The Texas Bucket List – Menger Bar in San Antonio

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San Antonio – When it comes to places to stay in San Antonio, we’ve check into the Menger Hotel many times on The Texas Bucket List.  This historic hotel is the perfect place rest your head by the Riverwalk thanks to its proximity to one of our state’s most hallowed sites, The Alamo.  Built in 1859, the Menger Hotel itself is a hot spot for history buffs.  But there’s also a bar inside the hotel that also brings those seeking to hear a story about the Spanish American War and a particular president. “It’s hard not to be in awe of this place and the history behind it,” said Angela Pena, who has been pouring libations and presenting the lore about this little bar since 2008. “This has definitely been a place where generations of families have come and enjoyed the space, and to hear some of their stories has been really, really cool.”

This public house was put together in 1887 and is a replica of the House of Lord’s Pub in England. “This bar came in, like I said, 1887, where Mrs. Menger had only paid $15,300 for the actual 50 room hotel,” said Pena. “All of this woodwork cost $63,000 when it came in 1887. So I think we looked it up and it’s the equivalent of $2.2 million up to date.”

That didn’t stop Carrie Nations, a radical member of the temperance movement, from taking a chunk out of the wood.  “She, in particular, would go around bars with a hatchet and give a whole spill how we were all going to go to hell in handbasket,” said Pena. “And I’m the stealer of men’s souls apparently, so. Yeah.”

Originally the bar was in another part of the hotel, but it was carefully moved, piece by piece, to its new location in 1958 and set up exactly the same as it was. Countless people have come to this bar counter to order a cold beverage, but there’s one customer in particular that folks love to hear about. “Well, it’s definitely the Teddy Roosevelt influence,” said Pena. “I think sometimes people are so surprised to see that he was here.”

Hence the reason there’s giant moose in the room. “He’s a good listener,” said Pena. “If he ever starts talking back, call for help.”

The 26th President of the United States assumed the presidency at the young age of 42 and prior to that, he had a lifetime’s worth of experiences.  Some of those moments in time were spent right here in this bar, recruiting fellas to come fight with him in a little group known as the Rough Riders. “Fort Sam Houston supplied the equipment that they took to the Spanish American War with them,” said Pena. “So that was this purpose here, and it was another stop to get a few more boys to sign on the dotted line. So, it was business.”

A picture behind the bar showcases a younger Roosevelt in his uniform, gathering his cavalry unit for the war effort. “This was actually here in San Antonio during the training,” said Pena. “Down on Roosevelt Street, there’s a Roosevelt Park, that’s actually where the training was set up. So this was there in 1898 before they left for Florida.”

Now one of the most popular things to see at the Menger Bar are a couple of holes in the wall. But these aren’t just any holes, they’re bullet holes.  “This bullet hole story is supposed to be pretty much a marksman competition,” said Pena. “When Teddy was here, he wanted to see who was a good shot. One of it’s supposed to be Teddy’s and the other is supposed to be the recruits. They were trying to get closest to the mirror without shattering it, and the one on the left is definitely that.”

When people come to the Menger Bar to raise a glass to Teddy and the things he did as president, there’s one drink of choice. “Definitely the old-fashioned,” said Pena. “I’m glad that trend’s come back around because it’s easy to push something you enjoy.”

While Pena’s favorite part about her gig at the bar is her secondary role as historian, she also gets a lot of questions about the supernatural history of Menger Hotel. “Sometimes I’d rather focus on the history than the ghost,” said Pena. “So sometimes people ask ‘Oh, have you seen a ghost?’ It’s like, ‘No, no.’ But there’s 32 of them, of course. They’re here. I tell people, ‘If you believe in them, they’re definitely around. So take lots of pictures, maybe you’ll catch something.’”

People have seen some unexplainable things in the bar, especially in the loft. “I can say over all these years, I’ve had people bring me their photos and there’s definitely things that I’ve seen in those photos that you can’t really dispute,” said Pena. “Maybe you can, but they’re there. They’re here. I just come in, and you leave me alone, and I’ll leave you alone and we’re all good.”

Altogether, there’s something for everyone at the Menger Bar, whether you’re looking for a stiff drink, a supernatural encounter or a history lesson. “This is just a moment in time that everybody should take in,” said Pena. “To see a bar like this in its entirety post-prohibition is not usual. So stepping in, sometimes I think people are surprised at how beautiful the small space that this is.”

 

 

The Texas Bucket List – Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum in Beaumont

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Beaumont – Driving through Beaumont, you usually experience one of two emotions. Happiness if you’re driving into the great state of Texas, or sadness if you’re heading out of the Lone Star State. Either way, there’s a building on the side of Interstate 10 that might catch your eye, because it always gets me to take a glance. It’s sort of like the NFL Hall of Fame but much smaller, and with a very unique name on the side of it. The Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum & Visitor Center.

Babe Didrikson Zaharias was born in Port Arthur in 1911 and grew up in Beaumont. She was an Olympic athlete and a prolific golf champion, winning numerous titles across several competitions.

Babe’s parents were immigrants from Norway, and she lived in a community that was mostly immigrants. The tight-knit community would come together to play many sports such as baseball, and it was on the diamond that she got the nickname “Babe.”

From track and field to basketball, softball, baseball, tennis, and even hockey, there wasn’t a sport Babe didn’t play. Her athletic prowess was so powerful that she joined the Golden Cyclones basketball team in Dallas in 1929. But there was one sport achievement Babe had her sights set on, the Olympics.

When Babe found out the Olympics were going to be held in Los Angeles in 1932, she was determined to find a way to compete. Before she could qualify she had to train, so she would jump hedges in her neighborhood to practice, hence the reason you see the hedges around the museum. When she competed for a chance to represent her country at the Olympics, she had to face off against an entire team.

She beat out a 22-woman track and field team to qualify for 5 different Olympic events, but back then women were only allowed to compete in three. So she simply set two world records and took home three medals, all at the age of 21.

Her athletic career didn’t end there though, and not by a longshot. Over her golf career Babe won 82 tournaments, just as many as Tiger Woods. She also continued to break records, and was the first American woman to win the British Amateur Open.

After co-founding the LPGA, Babe had to face the toughest challenge of her life, cancer. She was diagnosed with cancer twice and underwent surgery to remove part of her colon. This procedure kept her out of competition for all of three months before she was back on the golf course, going on to win the U.S. Women’s Open.

Two years after Babe’s surgery, cancer would unfortunately take her life, but it didn’t take the resilient competitor’s legacy. She passed away in 1956, but fans still frequently come by the museum to visit and honor the life of one of the best athletes in history. Babe’s memorial can be found a few miles from the museum, in the hometown that made her who she is, inspiring other women and girls of all ages to give life everything you got.

 

The Texas Bucket List – Santa Rosa Palomino Club in Vernon

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Vernon – In the middle of May, Vernon, Texas anxiously awaits the start of the Santa Rosa Roundup. It kicks off with a parade that pretty much pulls in the whole town. Like a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting, you’ll see your typical small town Texas floats, kids on horseback, and of course one or two tractors. But the biggest draw to the parade is the hometown riding club, the Santa Rosa Palomino Club. “The club was organized in October of 1949, so we’re celebrating this year as the 75th anniversary of the club,” said Jeff Bearden.

Jeff is the President of the Santa Rosa Palamino Club. Jeff grew up here, his dad was also a member of the Club.  After attending Texas A&M and being a part of Parsons Mounted Cavalry, Jeff came right back to Vernon, and he’s been a part of this group of riders for most of their historic trail. “I started riding as a substitute as a senior in high school and then rode as a substitute rider until I moved back home and was voted into the club,” said Bearden. “So I’ve been a member for 42 years and a rider for 52 years, and our drill captain’s been riding about 54 years. We travel together and try to keep each other out of trouble on trips. Sometimes lead the singing after the rodeo and everything.”

It’s all fun and games after the rodeo because keeping the tradition and essence of this tried-and-true crew is something the current members take seriously. “We all enjoy riding horses,” said Bearden. “You’ve got to enjoy it to work this hard, to have a good time.”

The reason these 20 riders of all ages are committed to keeping this tradition alive are the 238 men who rode before them. Making sure the Santa Rosa Riding Club continues to ride means keeping this Texas tradition alive as well. “This is a part of Western heritage that is kind of disappearing,” said Bearden. “Just like a lot of things in rural Texas, it’s harder to have enough people to do what you want to do. We have 20 good riders that show up, and then we’ll invite people to substitute for someone that can’t make a trip, and that’s the way we recruit new members, and they try us out. When it started, naturally, it was a lot of farmers and ranchers and businessmen, but as our drill script says, it’s all walks of life. We’ve had doctors, lawyers. I worked at the state hospital as a mental health program director for a number of years before retiring. We’ve got teachers. We’ve had an undertaker. We’ve had a few members that their professions defied description, but everybody puts all of that aside and gets on the horses and just try to perform.”

The horses play a big role in the riding club because they all must be palomino horses of course and they might be more scrutinized than the actual riders. “We search high and low for good horses that match a certain color description and confirmation to match the club,” said Bearden. “We have a horse committee that approves horses that are brought into the club. Sometimes it takes time to break some of them in. Of course, the opposite is true, too. The horses actually learn the drill, and sometimes we have to fight to get them from anticipating the maneuvers. The horses are probably better behaved, sometimes, than the riders are, but we have a good time wherever we go, but try not to get in any trouble. Never had anybody arrested, that I know of.”

The Santa Rosa Riding Club has performed all over Texas including the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, they’ve ridden in two inaugural parades for Texas governors, they’ve even been a part of the Tournament of Roses Parade and are the official “Ambassadors on Horseback” for the State of Texas. “They won’t see this kind of a riding group outside of somebody like maybe the Royal Canadian Mounted Police,” said Bearden. “We’ve been compared to them. There are some other pretty fine drill teams around, but they won’t see one that has this amount of color, this amount of uniformity, the speed, and the flash that we bring to it.”

With riders of all ages, it’s a commitment to keep to their schedule. There’s practice, there’s parades, and then there’s quite a bit of travel. All while looking good in their iconic riding outfits. “It’s been pretty much the same look, as far as the uniform, since about the mid-1950s,” said Bearden. “They’re hot in the summer. They’re cold in the winter. One of the coldest I’ve ever been in my life was a rodeo parade in Cody, Wyoming on July 3rd, and we had to ride from the rodeo grounds to town wearing those satin shirts, and on the way down there, it started sleeting on us. It got cold, but it’s just a part of the show.”

That’s why riding in their hometown of Vernon means so much to them. It’s where it started all those years ago and it’s where it will continue for as long as the cowboy way of life continues to ride on here in Texas. “The community’s really been good about supporting us, so we want to do a good job for them and represent them well,” said Bearden. “We’re proud to represent Vernon. We’ve got a legacy we have to carry on, and we’re bringing on some younger members and trying to help them know the history of the men that started this, the men that carried it on, and make it something that lasts for a long time.”

 

 

 

 

The Texas Bucket List – Cherokeean Herald in Rusk

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Rusk – Cherokee County feels like a relatively rural place behind the pine curtain of East Texas. The biggest towns in this territory include Henderson and Rusk, and surprisingly over 50 thousand Texans call the county home. While stopping at All Star Bar-B-Q to talk baseball and local politics is a popular pastime in these parts, it’s not the official news source for this area. Instead, there’s a weekly paper that’s been a part of the community for 175 years. “We’re proud of the paper and we’re proud of what it’s done for all these years,” said John Hawkins.

John owns the Cherokeean Herald, which is the state of Texas’ oldest weekly paper. “It’s unbelievable how many people just really rely on that,” said John.

With his wife Penny by his side, the couple has poured their heart and soul into this periodical, and both have dealt with the stress that comes with running this place for a substantial period of their lives. “We’ve been associated with it for 40 years,” said John. “We had never jumped in the fire. The previous owners have passed away and I can see why.”

Originally a 4th generation Houstonian, John moved here in the early 80’s after getting tired of the big city and finding out the hard way that moving to Mexico wasn’t the best idea at the time. “I’d been living in Mexico to get away from everything and I came back here with my tail between my legs because I went broke in Mexico, had to borrow enough money to pay for gas to drive back here from Acapulco and just started driving around looking for a job, and this was the first place they hired me,” said John. “Never expected to stay here this long. I mean, this was a job when I first came, $6 an hour, but I needed a job.”

John quit once to try to advance his career. “Occasionally you have to leave East Texas and make a living,” said John. “I did. Ended up working for some television stations and came back to work here.”

Then he quit again. “The third time I quit, my boss said, ‘John, you’ll always have a job with me,’” said John. “I said, ‘Boss, it’s been three times. There’s not going to be four.’ And then I end up owning it. Go figure that one out.”

John was getting the scoop on retirement when he got some breaking news, and never did he expect his name to be in the masthead. “They called me up and said, ‘we’re going to sell the newspaper or close it by the end of the year,’” said John. “I’m thinking, okay, holidays. That gives them two weeks to find a buyer. And they said, ‘Unless you want to buy it.’ I said, ‘No, that’s going the wrong direction. We’re supposed to be retiring.’”

John eventually decided that he couldn’t pass up the opportunity and didn’t want to see the paper end up in the wrong hands. “When we bought the paper, people were congratulating us and sending us notes,” said John. “And Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn did. Ted Cruz, Lance Gooden, Cody Harris. What’s the old thing? Keep your friends close. Your enemies closer.”

While the commendations from members of Congress and other politicians are prominent in his office, his affinity for trains is even more impressive. But John’s true passion is the paper. “This is a part of Texas history, and I am very defensive of that part of it,” said John. “As a native Texan, we couldn’t let that history die.”

When you live in a smaller town, the importance of having local reporters is amplified. “You know, a community newspaper is really important I think, because we get to tell the stories about people that are going on here and we have a story in this week’s paper about a young man who’s going to the World Disc Golf Championship that lives here,” said John. “One of the best things about a community newspaper is it shines a light on the politicians so they don’t get away with as much.”

While covering stories about local heroes and political affairs are obviously important, another purpose that the Cherokeean Herald serves is preserving the day-to-day memories that are made in Cherokee County. “Every year we do either a graduation magazine or a Lone Star magazine,” said John. “The graduation magazine, we have six schools we cover, and we have all the pictures of all the kids, and parents love it, grandparents love it, friends love it. 20 years from now, they can go back and laugh at how their hair looked.”

Finding stories isn’t tough, but finding advertisers can be tricky. “Our biggest struggle right now, of course is advertising,” said John. “It’s tough in these times right now where we’re having depressed economies per se. A lot of people are saying, ‘Well, I don’t need to advertise. I’ve got Facebook.’ And I could name the number of stores that have gone out of business because not enough people liked them on Facebook. So that’s a struggle. But the community and certain people and certain banks, and like I said, car dealers have really supported us and kept us afloat. We have one car dealership buys a half page every week. Has for years. God bless their soul.”

Fortunately, the Cherokeean Harold does have a solid reading audience, and some even stop by the office just to pick up their hard copy. That, and to get caught up on more local gossip. “We have regular friends that come by here and they pick up a paper every Wednesday,” said John. “They could easily have a subscription and have it mailed to them, but no, they come by here and talk and visit sometimes. We love it though.”

Whether in person or through the paper, having a personal connection with the people of Cherokee County is what the Cherokeean is all about. “We’re not making any money,” said John. “I hate to say it really is doing it for the community, doing it for Cherokee County and doing it for the state of Texas. And something we’re proud to be a part of. Very proud. It’d be nice to make a profit. That would be cool. Wouldn’t have to eat rice all the time.”

Despite his humor about hunger, John enjoys his job of being the man who brings the news to the people of his community. “Horace Greeley, the great newspaper man, he’s the one that coined the phrase, ‘Go west, young man, go west,’” said John. “But he also said, ‘You live, you die, and everything in between is filler.’ Well, personally, I’ve decided I want my life to have good filler in it. You want to have fun in life. I think it’s all about that.”

So the next time you’re in Cherokee County, pick up the local paper to see the latest news in this neck of the woods of East Texas. “We’re just very proud to be a part of Texas history and we’re proud to be able to keep this heritage alive,” said John.

 

The Texas Bucket List – National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock

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Lubbock – It doesn’t matter where you find yourself in Texas, you’ll always come across cattle grazing in a field. Ranching and raising livestock have been part of the state’s identity since before we were even a state. In fact, it was the Spanish that first raised cattle down in the Rio Grande Valley sometime around the 16th and 17th centuries. Today it’s a 15-billion-dollar business. With so much history and lore about this little business of beef raising, it’s no wonder that you’ll find the National Ranching Heritage Center smackdab in the South Plains in Lubbock. “We really strive to tell the real story, and it has its own magic of its own,” said Jim Bret Campbell.

Jim is the executive director of the center and he’s been in association management his entire career. “The biggest challenge is always struggling with weather,” said Jim. “And the markets as well as just all the challenges associated with ranching.”

Born in Hereford and a Texas Tech grad, Jim Bret loves telling this tale of Texas since it’s been a part of him his whole life. “Well, it really is the story of us,” said Jim. “Lubbock and the South Plains and really Texas and the West. It was a fascinating period in history. And we wouldn’t exist as a community, as a place here on the South Plains, if those folks hadn’t come before us. We are still an agriculturally supported town and region. A state, a nation that, if we can’t produce food, we’re going to go offshore for that or depend on somebody else. And so for us to be able to produce beef and all of the food and fiber that we do, it’s really critical for us as consumers, but also for people to understand the culture and where they came from. So we think it’s really critical that we tell that story.”

This massive complex has all sorts of incredible exhibits including the costumes from 1883, a show that’s a part of the massively popular Yellowstone series. But what really brings people here is the real story of Texas ranching told through the buildings that were a part of it. “It’s about all I can do to maintain many of these structures,” said Jim. “We have 55 historic ranching structures now and many of which are approaching 200 years old. In fact, I always say I could keep two guys painting all year round because as soon as they finish, they’d have to start over again.”

Started in 1966, the center was the idea of Dr. Grover Murray, the former president of Texas Tech, to preserve a part of the past. “We were really going through a phase,” said Jim. “This was in the mid-1960s. And we were losing so much of the architecture and the history that had originally been developed by the early pioneers that came in to this part of the world. And so there became this really kind of swell of support within the ranching community.”

The ranching industry in Texas as a whole really had to come together to make this project work. “They actually had to establish a committee that began to select which structures would actually be able to be donated,” said Jim. “Because the word started getting around and offers for ranch buildings, houses, pens, barns, came from all over the state. The ranches that donated the structures also donated the funds to actually move and restore it here at the National Ranching Heritage Center, so it really has been a passion project for the ranching industry.”

Moving some of these massive structures was a monstrous task. “This is Los Escobates that originally was on the XIT Ranch,” said Jim. “There were seven main division headquarters of the XIT, and this was one of those. But they all had very similar architecture and served the same function. It would have been built in the late 1880s, and we actually used up until the 1930s.”

As one of the first structures moved to the center, getting it up in one piece was quite the challenge. “It was one of the original structures that was here as part of the National Ranching Heritage Center,” said Jim. “You can see, it’s obviously several hundred tons of rock that really had fallen down. It really was a pile of rubble. Out there when it’s original location. So this one, they kind of had to guess, and so they brought all this quarried limestone back from Deaf Smith County and reassembled it here at the National Ranching Heritage Center.”

This old building even has signs of cowboy life embedded in the walls all these years later. “So apparently somebody had some guns at one time and it probably bore out of entertainment, the cowboys would shoot up the smokestacks on occasion,” said Jim. “But yeah.”

One of the more popular barns has a very famous façade. “This is probably one of the most photographed and videoed ranching structures anywhere in the country,” said Jim. “So this is the original Four Sixes El Barn. It actually housed the ranch horses for many years. It was built in 1908. And it was here, or on the ranch until 1980 when Mrs. Marion, who was the owner of the ranch, donated it to us.”

If you’re especially fond of the exaggerated tales of Texas’ past, you may want to skim over this next part. “Her great-grandfather, Samuel Burt Burnett, was the progenitor of the Four Sixes ranch,” said Jim. “We actually don’t know where the Four Sixes came from. He bought 100 head of cattle when he was 19 years old that already carried the Four Sixes brand. Of course, the legend is that he won them in a poker game with four sixes, but it’s not true. We always hate to tell people that.”

“The Four Sixes really only had one heir per generation,” said Jim. “So it was Samuel Burt Burnett, and then his son Tom, his daughter Ann, and then her daughter Ann. And then obviously when she passed away in 2020, her wish was that the ranch would be sold. Even though she has one daughter. And it was sold to Taylor Sheridan and a group of investors. And obviously Taylor does Yellowstone and 1883 and 1923, many of which have been filmed at the ranch, even before they purchasedit.”

These structures have seen all sorts of people live out their lives in the fields and farms of our state and each one has a unique story. But for Jim Bret, the Pitchfork Ranch Cookhouse has a special place in his heart because he actually got to be part of its story. “So yeah, in an earlier career, I was a writer for the American Quarter Horse Journal, and so I would go out to the Pitchfork ranch, which was just located in Guthrie, Texas, east of here,” said Jim. “And actually, it was doing stories there on the ranch, and I’d get to eat in the Pitchfork cookhouse on a regular basis. These cookhouses were originally built because you’re isolated, you can’t run into Alsups to grab something, or Dairy Queen to grab something to eat. And so, just to keep a workforce, they had to feed their cowboys, in a lot of cases three times a day. But it was also kind of the central gathering place, and that’s where you had community and that’s where family reunions happened and birthdays and Christmas celebrations. And so there’s a lot of history in these old cookhouses. This one was actually built in 1900, and it was in continuous use until 2010, when it was moved here to the Ranching Heritage Center.”

Everything was done deliberately back in those days, from the way you ate to the way you sat. “The ranch manager, who was Bob Moorehouse at the time, he had his seat, and then you went by seniority until the least senior, youngest cowboy was on the far end of the table,” said Jim. “There was a very prescribed way for the way you ate and what order you got to eat. And then you cleaned your own plate and you put it in the sink so that the cook could do the dishes afterwards, and then you went to get to work. Because I was a guest, I got to sit by Bob. But I probably displaced somebody, so I’ll probably hear about it one of these days. Typical chuck wagon cookhouse. But there was always desserts and lots of beef.”

Seeing what life on the range was like during a time when settlers only had themselves to depend on really puts our incredibly easy lives in perspective. It also spurs your appreciation of the path that was paved by the people who made Texas what it is today. “My friend Red Stegall puts it, I think, best is that the struggles of cow country really built its own set of values,” said Jim. “And there was no place for a shirker or a liar at the campfire. So it built integrity, hard work, determination, and grit. That I think are really important today, and I think those are values that we see families searching for all the time. And so if we can help show, this is how our ancestors did it. And those are values that we can take forward too. I think that that’s a really great story for us to share.”

The Texas Bucket List – Ysleta Mission in El Paso

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El Paso – El Paso, the furthest west you can go in the Lone Star State, has history that can be traced way back to the Native American days. This area was first colonized by the Spaniards, and some of their oldest establishments can be found in the Sun City on the mission trial. That includes the Ysleta Mission, boasting over 300 years of history.  “This building has only been here since 1851, but the community, the Tigua community, has been here since 1680,” said Ed Shugert, a former newspaper journalist and El Paso native. Since 2018, he’s volunteered at the Ysleta Mission to help tell the story that starts all those years ago. “As far as I know, it’s the first permanently established community in what is present day Texas,” said Shugart.

In the thick of America’s colonization by Europeans, Spain had a heavy presence in the Southwest where Native Americans were once prominent.  “There were competing European interests all over North America,” said Shugert. “And each of them had their own exploration efforts, settlement efforts. And all of them dealt rather harshly with the Native American populations. They didn’t consider the native populations to be equals in any way. The Spanish, in some ways, were trying to be more accommodating, but early on they weren’t,” said Shugart.

Ysleta and all the missions on the El Paso Mission Trail were settled after the Pueblo Revolt.  Lead by a religious leader named Po’pay, it was most successful uprising of indigenous Pueblo people. “They killed hundreds of Spanish soldiers, civilians, and most of the priests,” said Shugert. “And so the survivors of that initial attack came south to here,” said Shugart.

The revolt kept Spain out of New Mexico for over a decade. “Pope had made certain promises about how their Gods would reward them for doing this, and things didn’t get easier for them,” said Shugert. “And he wasn’t a kind of leader that would help the Pueblo stay united. And so eventually they saw that this isn’t working out so great either,” said Shugart.

Over time, the two cultures came together. “I’m not familiar in detail with how the cooperation began and continued so that they could live together peacefully, but that did happen,” said Shugert. “Certainly, there’s a different perspective between Europeans who live in this area and come from a European tradition and the Native Americans who live here. So there’s still disagreement about some of that history,” said Shugart.

As they say, the past is in the past.  Today the Ysleta people use the mission to tell their collective story. “Nearly all of them are Christian or Catholic. They also have held onto their culture, of course, and a number of the traditions that they have there,” said Shugert. “They’re very much holding on to that part of their history and culture that make them distinct from others.”

The Spaniards took a bit of a different approach after the revolt, and that’s helped maintain the mission for all these years. “They believed these people are God’s children as well, just like they were,” said Shugert. “And so they wanted to bring the good news as they saw it to a new group of people, because that’s what Christians are told in the Bible by Matthew is to go out and spread this message and let people know about Jesus Christ. That’s been the enduring relationship in this particular community, hasn’t been other places. Some places that Native Americans have rejected it because of the very imperfect way that other faith groups have tried to instill Christianity instead of trying to show the love and acceptance of people where they are and let them come to their own conclusions,” said Shugart.

Today there’s even a Native American Saint, Saint Kateri Tekakwitha. “She was Mohawk, so of course she was in the Eastern part of the United States,” said Shugert. “The church community here is made up of Native Americans, and so they take pride in the fact that there’s a Native American who was named a saint. That really wasn’t done until recently. It was in the 2000s.”

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha has a presence at the Ysleta Mission along with other Native American touches.  Originally built in 1851, the church sits on the original site of the mission which was actually in Mexico, and the current structure looks like a traditional Catholic Spanish church. Surprisingly, it wasn’t a battle or a treaty that changed things, it was an act of God.

“All three of the churches that you’ll see on the mission trail here were originally built on the southern bank of the Rio Grande,” said Shugert. “But the flood of 1829 was severe enough it actually changed the course of the river, and it left these three churches on the Northern side, which at the time didn’t mean much, but of course today it means the difference between being in the United States or being in Mexico.”

Between the history, the people, and the overall implications this place had on our state and country, the Ysleta Mission in El Paso is a storied stop for anyone with an interest in American, Texan, or Native American history.

“I think it’s important for everyone who comes to this area to know that this was the beginning of permanent European and Native American settlement in this area,” said Shugert. “What a jewel we have in these missions.”

The Texas Bucket List – Fort Leaton in Presidio

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Presidio – Here in the Lone Star State, the Big Bend region is beyond beautiful, and if you’ve never traveled through the Big Bend Ranch State Park, it too is breathtaking.

FM170 borders the southern end of the park, between Lajitas and Presidio and it’s one of my favorite roads in Texas. And as you make your way into Presidio, you’ll come across Fort Leaton, an adobe refuge that’s been sitting here since 1848.  “It’s unique to Texas, and I really dig that about it,” said Park Superintendent Tom Forwood.

Tom is a Philly born history fanatic who worked in Montana for 23 years before taking a job in Texas. “Just the landscape was my first impression of the place,” said Forwood. “I got out and I was like, ‘Wow’.”

No trees, no grass, lots of sun, and even more history. “This is a really cool spot from a historic perspective because this is what’s called the La Junta, which is kind of the joining or the coming together, and that is referring to the Rio Conchos coming out of Mexico and the Rio Grande coming down out of New Mexico into Texas, along the border,” Said Forwood. “And it’s really important because this is the two major river drainages of the Chihuahuan Desert meeting right here at Presidio. So, this is a place that humans have settled for probably thousands of years.”

Ben Leaton and his wife Juana Pedraza are credited with creating Fort Leaton in order to establish a trading post in the area. How they went about doing it is definitely a story out of the lawless Wild West.

“So, in 1848, he kind of established this,” said Forwood. “And a lot of it was pretty crooked, to be really honest. With a lot of these frontier folks that did well, they didn’t do well by being nice people. They did well by kind of rooking folks over wherever they could. He worked with kind of a corrupt official in the area, a local governor, to create some false land claims. And they actually kicked local, little small farmers out and such to build his property up. And then he built this fort on this kind of prominence that overlooked the river plain here. You have to think of it more like a fortified trading post than as an actual military fort. But with that said, because the military didn’t have a set fort in this region, this was a major place that they’d utilize. They basically paid a kind of station here for long periods of time, in some cases throughout.”

Sitting right across the river from Ojinaga, Mexico, the biggest town in this part of the world until you get to Odessa, the fort supported locals living on both sides of the border for several decades. “It’s really important to understand some of our connections to our southern neighbors,” said Forwood. “I mean, this is a real representation of how intertwined a lot of this border country is between Texas and Mexico. And there’s a lot of animosity now between some of that, which is kind of a bummer because this is a rich country with a lot of shared history, and people should understand there’s more to that story. There’s a lot of history between our two countries, and this is a really cool tie-in point where that culture still is infused on both sides of the border.”

The fort closed in 1884 and was abandoned in 1925.  The state acquired it in 1967 and rebuilt most of this massive adobe complex. “This is one of the older parts of the fort that’s intact,” said Forwood. “This is the servant’s quarters. There’s not a lot of creature comforts. The walls aren’t plastered. They aren’t painted or whitewashed as they would’ve done. It’s really trimmed down,” said Tom as we toured the fort.

Other parts of the fort were a little more extravagant. “As we come in here, you’re going to get a really different impression,” said Forwood. “This is actually probably one of the nicer rooms in the whole fort because this is the formal parlor. And the formal parlor is where you’re going to basically have your greeting dignitaries, business associates, less intimate folks. So, people that aren’t like part of your family are good friends. And it’s kind of meant to impress. So, you walk in, you’ve got chandeliers, you’ve got the only working fireplace left in the fort, too, by the way. And they would’ve kept the whitewash up a lot better than most of the fort. So, it’s to give you, for lack of a better term, opulence in that day and age, especially in a frontier area.”

In order to get goods all the way to west Texas back in 1848, you couldn’t just load up the truck to take things to the fort, instead they used something much, much bigger. “When the fort first started, a lot of the stagecoach operation wasn’t really set up in this part of the West,” said Forwood.” So, how people got things around were on these huge oxcarts that the Spanish had brought in the 1500s called carreta, and this is actually a small one. The wheels would go anywhere from like this one, at about six feet, to nine feet high.”

Being able to see what it took to establish and survive in this part of the Lone Star State really makes you appreciate the modern conveniences we have today.  The folks that made life work back then and even today truly are one of kind. “I think it’s an important stop on this part of the state,” said Forwood.  “And it’s part of the country too, to be honest. People, not just Texans and beyond, because this is a part of the state everybody should see at least once,” said Tom.

 

The Texas Bucket List – Republic of Texas International Boundary Marker in Carthage

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Carthage – This stop is one of simplest and smallest historical sites we’ve seen in the Lone Star State but it’s definitely one of the coolest.  And it didn’t hurt having one Texas’ most honored historians along for the ride, Bill O’Neal.

Most days you can find Bill sitting in his Carthage home researching or writing about things that happened long ago. This former football coach still has his booming voice and presence but back in 1970, Bill’s life forever changed when he decided to take a job at Panola College. Over his lifetime, Bill has published 53 books and in 2011 he called it a career at Panola.  His first plan for retirement was to write some more books but then Governor Rick Perry had another idea for Bill.

So when you got the call from Governor Perry to be the official State Historian of Texas, what’d that make you feel? “Well, my goodness, I was just simply delighted to serve in that. I’d been a Texas history nut all my life and now I could really get into it. Basically, I turned myself in ambassador for Texas history,” said Bill.

For six years, Bill served as the State Historian of Texas thanks to his wealth of knowledge about the Lone Star State. Being an expert at anything is tough but Bill has a method to making sure he understands the whole story when it comes to history. “My feeling is I can’t write about it until I see it, experience it, see what the place looks like, really looks like, what the wind feels like, what the sounds are like, and so forth. So I always go everywhere I write about,” said Bill.

That includes a small marker in the middle of the woods that not many folks know about out. This curious stone that sits on the border of Louisiana and Texas isn’t a big mystery, but it is one of kind. “It is the only international boundary marker that is in the contiguous United States of the 48-state area,” said Bill.

Now if you’re asking yourself, why is there an international border marker between Texas and Louisiana?  Because any proud, card-carrying Texan can tell you that we were a country once.  But this border dispute started back when it was an issue between Spain and France. Once Texas won its independence from Mexico, it came time to establish the state’s eastern border, that took a little work between Texas and the United States. “When the Republic of Texas began to work that out with the United States of America, the United States had made the Louisiana Purchase, the Republic of Texas joined a commission with the United States and they came up the Sabine River and these commissioners had surveyors with them,” Bill told me.

This marker on the side of Farm to Market Road 31 South was set on April 23, 1841.  From here you can see Louisiana and you can see Texas.  Facing east on the marker, you find U.S. engraved on the stone, making the United States side.  On the west side of the marker you’ll see an RT for the Republic of Texas.

While the Republic of Texas ceased to be nearly 180 years ago, that chapter in our state’s history seems to stick with us through the years proving once again that Texas history is one of kind. So if you’re adamant at seeing all the history that the Lone Star State has to offer, a stop at the very last Republic of Texas international border marker is well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List!

The Texas Bucket List – Check It Twice – Elissa in Galveston

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GALVESTON – On a dark and dreary April morning back in 2014, we first met the Elissa. Fresh off being repaired from damage by Hurricane Ike, getting to set sail on the official tall ship of Texas was a memorable experience despite the downpour and overcast skies.  It was so memorable as a matter of fact, I had to do it again!  But this time in the glistening sun with an effervescent sea around us!

The glorious sight of the Elissa with her sails unfurled is one of the most amazing things you can see from the shores of Galveston Island.  But being able to be on the ship as it’s pulled through the surf by the power of the whipping winds is truly one of the most remarkable moments I’ve been able to experience on The Texas Bucket List.

“Where else can you go sailing on an 1870 ship in Texas? Nowhere, just in Galveston,” said Mark Scibinico. Scibinico is the Port Captain and Director of Galveston Historic Seaport, and he was his friendly self when we first visited the Elissa in Season 2 of The Texas Bucket List.

A lot has changed since we first boarded back then, when only volunteers and invited guests got to feel the wind go through their hair before it hit the sails.  Today a few more folks get to experience it. “We changed our federal status with the US Coast Guard and we’re now taking people out sailing with us as sail trainees. So, a lot of the people that you see around here have purchased a ticket to come sailing with us, to get the experience onboard the vessel what it was like back in the 1870s,” Mark said. “It’s something we’ve been working towards for a long time. The historical foundation put a lot of time and effort and probably five years’ worth of just every piece of that puzzle in order to make that happen.”

At over 200 feet long with a mast that stands 100 feet above the deck, the Elissa is a magnificent mode of transportation and has been since 1877.  Originally built in Scotland, she’s older than the Statue of Liberty and has seen ports of call all over the Atlantic, Baltic, Mediterranean, Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico.

The Elissa has seen the sunrise over 52,000 times and none of it would be possible without the crew of volunteers that make this sail possible. “We usually are a crew of about 42. It’s about 30 or 31 of the volunteers, plus the officers and a few of the staff that make up the compliment,” Mark said.

These sailors are in charge of raising the sails and making sure the 4 and half miles of rope in the rigging is where it’s supposed to be, but they also get to experience one of the best views on the ship. “It’s an exhilarating feeling for sure. There’s no view like it, they say that that’s as close as sailors will ever get to heaven,” Mark said. “It definitely puts your adrenaline up, but you train for it, you practice for it, and then you get to experience it underway. It’s one of the unique rewards of being a crew member.”

Being on the deck was fine by me, despite a bit of an issue staying upright in choppy waters. But once the ship sets sail it’s all about the sights and lack of sounds. Seeing the skyline of Galveston Island from a few miles out while only hearing the dull roar of a conversation and the uninterrupted gust of wind makes you wonder what it must have been like back in the day, especially when you finally got to pull into port in Texas. “Galveston and Texas, that whole region, is part of the whole reason that state has stood itself up through immigration, through maritime trade, through maritime industry,” Mark said. “One of the things that we forget in the United States is just how valuable the waterfront is today, and then, and that flow of commerce in and out of the state.”

Despite the massive amount of money and time it takes to continuously operate and keep afloat this old boat, the folks at the Galveston Historic Seaport are adamant about keeping the Elissa sailing long into the future. “One of the major reasons to do this is to preserve sailing living history. It’s fine to do it in a vacuum or in a bubble with just yourselves, but what’s the point if you’re not demonstrating to the rest of the world that this is still a vibrant living piece of history?” Mark explained.

This history lesson is well worth a stop and one of my favorite experiences on The Texas Bucket List.  “If you have any kind of interest in sailing or maritime history, you can read about it until you’re blue in the face, you can’t really understand it until you experience it,” said Mark.

The Texas Bucket List – Check It Twice DriveTanks in Uvalde

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When it comes to memorable moments on The Texas Bucket List, the sound and reverberation off a Sherman Tank that I got to shoot is something I will never forget. So, we headed back to the Ox Ranch just outside of Uvalde for another chance to see the amazing animals, enjoy the luxurious lodge and dining facilities, and maybe take another tank for a spin.

“It’s hard to describe how nice it is to see people check their bucket list. They accomplished their dreams,” said Tommy Hartman.  Hartman has been working at DriveTanks since 2020 and he gets out a kick out of working at one of the most serene hunting ranches in the state. “It’s surreal to say the least. I woke up two days ago and there were two giraffes in my front yard,” Tommy said.

A few years back, Tommy saw an ad on Instagram to come work at DriveTanks and he thought it was too good to be true. “Kind of thought it was a joke, so I sent my resume and now I’m here,” Tommy said. “It’s not work, it’s a dream really.”

DriveTanks prides itself on being a hands-on experience were you can drive, shoot, and experience all sorts of historic military machines and historic arms.  Since we last visited in 2017, it’s expanded to offer even more, even a military style barracks for folks to stay on their adventure! “So we’ve added a whole new garage. We’ve probably added right around 10 vehicles, probably a hundred firearms. We got everything from Howitzers, flame throwers, RPGs, all the works,” Tommy said.

Amid the selection of historical weapons was the widely well-known Tommy gun. The Thompson was manufactured originally around 1918, but it was simplified through the years. The particular Thompson that Tommy showed us is the M1928 A1 model, which was one of the first iterations that the US used during World War II. After we figured out it was a little bit too expensive to be issuing to a whole lot of soldiers, we tried to simplify it and that’s where you see the famous M1 version that you see in like Saving Private Ryan and other like video games like Call of Duty and Battlefield. Last time we were here we did the flamethrower. That was exciting. “Oh yeah. The flamethrower is one of those weapons that I always recommend. Because when you see a flamethrower in a movie or a TV show, you’re like, ‘wow, that looks hot.’ But you can’t grasp how hot it is.”

Since I already had a chance to feel the heat, there was another antique firearm that’s been on my bucket list for a long time—the M1 Garand. General George Patton called this rifle “the greatest battle implement ever devised” and it was used extensively in World War II.  “This one was actually manufactured in 1944, so it’s pretty likely that this thing actually did see some combat because we made millions of these things during in the war, and they saw the world over, especially after the war. And then they came back, and they found their way into civilian hands,” Tommy explained.

We headed to the range with the Thompson and the M1 Garand, and I couldn’t wait to test my marksmanship with the M1. “You have eight shots, and as we talked about earlier, when you run out of ammo, you’ll hear that historic ping,” Tommy said.

My first target was at 100 yard.  I nailed it!  Several times in row!  That’s when I spotted a target way out at the end of the shooting range.  I lined up, took the shot and a split second later you could here the ping of the target 300 yards away!

After finishing the clip, it was time to move onto the Tommy gun. “So, this is the M1928 A1, like we were talking about earlier. This we’re going to be shooting full auto only. So, we’re shooting 45 ACP out of these magazines right here, exactly what they were using in World War II,” Tommy explained.  This rapid fire machine gun made popular by old mafia movies made you truly appriciate the brave soldiers who had to use it in combat.

After being home down on the range, we headed back to the barn to get a look at a few new tanks they have on hand. Tommy showed us the M 41 Walker Bulldog. “This tank was produced in the early ’50s. Believe it or not, this one was actually manufactured by Cadillac. It actually says inside on the data plate,” Tommy said. “This one was manufactured in January of 1954.”

Surprisingly many tanks were built by car companies throughout history.  “A lot of your German car manufacturers that are common today, those actually manufactured a lot of military vehicles. So, the tank was actually designed by Porsche and manufactured by MTU, which is an element of Mercedes. So, it is quite literally you’re driving a Benz,” Tommy explained.

I’d be taking a spin on the Walker Bulldog.  Once fired up, the beast was ready to be ridden.  With Tommy taking the wheel, I settled in the commander position to take ride around the Ox Ranch.

Being able to ride these beasts and experience the tools that the veterans of World War II wielded is more than just an opportunity to do something fun.  It’s a chance to learn the history of the greatest generation that ever lived. “I grew up just hearing a couple of World War II stories. Luckily, I was lucky enough to meet a D-Day veteran and he was on wave one and he was really the one who instilled all this passion within me. And I was like, ‘You went through this, and I don’t hear the story being told a lot, why not?’ And so, I kind of took it upon myself to pretty much devote all my time to that field, just so I can tell their story. That way, what they went through hopefully doesn’t happen again.”