Rural Texas
The Driskill Hotel’s $10 Rescue
Austin nearly lost the Driskill Hotel. A community campaign helped save it by selling stock for $10 a share.
The Texas Public Record
Rural Texas
Records, decisions and public services shaping rural Texas communities.
9 published articles · Search reporting
Rural Texas
Seguin’s Magnolia Hotel: From Stagecoach Stop to Paranormal Television Destination
Preservation records document the Magnolia Hotel’s survival; television listings trace its ghost-investigation appearances. The hauntings remain reported accounts.
Rural Texas
Padre Island Is Slowly Moving Toward the Texas Mainland, One Grain of Sand at a Time
The National Park Service says wind, waves and storms continually reshape the barrier island. The protected shoreline also separates the Gulf of Mexico from one of the world’s few hypersaline lagoons.
Public Services & Infrastructure
Tyler County Orders Seven-Day Outdoor Burning Ban as Drought Conditions Raise Fire Concerns
An emergency declaration signed October 22 restricts outdoor burning in Tyler County’s unincorporated areas, including trash, brush and open campfires. The order contains specific exceptions, and violations can carry fines of up to $500.
Rural Texas
Waco Has an Ice Age Nursery, Preserved in Fossils
Waco Mammoth National Monument preserves evidence of a Columbian mammoth nursery herd, while ongoing research revises the story of how fossils were deposited.
Rural Texas
OLD TEXAS: Before It Was Seguin, It Was Walnut Springs
A Texas town named for a revolutionary, a nineteenth-century concrete legacy, the workers who built it and a giant pecan that became a local landmark.
Rural Texas
You Can Find an Ancient Sea Reef High Above the West Texas Desert
The Guadalupe Mountains preserve the Capitan Reef, built in an ancient Permian sea and later exposed by uplift and erosion.
Rural Texas
A New Screwworm Case Moved the Quarantine Line in West Texas
An October 3 TAHC order revised Zone 13.C in portions of Brewster and Pecos counties after a canine detection. What animal owners need to know about movement requirements.
Rural Texas
Texas Is Open Range—Until a Local Vote or Highway Changes the Rule
A livestock owner’s responsibilities can depend on an election held generations ago, the animal involved and the road beside the property. Texans may need to examine their own county’s records to determine which restrictions apply.