Corpus Christi’s Marina Arts District is a wonderful story of urban renewal and public art. When Terry Sweeny moved to Corpus Christi in 2014, he found a city, like so many others, which had sold its soul to suburban sprawl. He also saw an area with tons of potential and set about trying to revitalize downtown. He joined forces with Brad Lomax, who had been working on revitalizing downtown Corpus Christi for years, and a dedicated group of like-minded citizens. The result is staggering. The colorful murals and public art projects make downtown look clean, sharp and vibrant. If you look closely enough, you’ll see that there are still plenty of empty storefronts looking for an opportunity to be resurrected, but they are hard to spot as your eyes are constantly drawn elsewhere. My favorite part is the wonderful seawall walk overlooking the marina on one side, and the Arts District on the other.
I enjoyed my time in the Marina Arts District even though I was there right as everything was closing up shop for a while due to the coronavirus. As I wandered around taking these photos, I heard wonderful music echoing up and down the empty streets. When I finally found where it was coming from, I sat for a few minutes to listen to the performance of a wonderful street musician in front of the shuttered Executive Surf Club. I needed a few songs in my day to blow thoughts of the virus away, and he gave me hope with his music. And hope is a wonderful thing. It is, in fact, the only thing more powerful than fear. I know I’ll be back in Corpus Christi at some point when all of this has blown over. I’m looking forward to it already.
Like many towns in America with Spanish Colonial roots, Goliad started out as a presidio (fort) and mission, both located on the San Antonio River. Presidio La Bahia and Mission Nuestra Señora del Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga had originally been located elsewhere, but were moved to their current location in 1749. One of the first schools in Texas was founded nearby in 1804. During the Mexican War for Independence, the presidio was a strategic target and changed hands between the Spanish loyalists and Mexican rebels several times. In 1829 La Bahia, the village which had grown up near the fort, changed its name to Goliad, an anagram of the name Hidalgo (minus the “H”) in honor of Father Miguel Hidalgo, a hero of the Mexican Revolution.
In the opening days of the Texas Revolution, American mercenaries captured the fort and held it for six months. It was within the fort’s walls that the first Texas Declaration of Independence was signed. In March of 1836, the American garrison, under the command of Colonel James Fannin, was defeated at the nearby Battle of Coleto. Under the agreement that they would be treated as prisoners of war, they surrendered and were marched back to the fort. A week later, on Palm Sunday, under the orders of Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, 342 of these men, including James Fannin, were marched out of the fort and executed. Just over three weeks after the massacre, at the decisive battle at San Jacinto, Sam Houston rallied his troops with cries of “Remember the Alamo, Remember Goliad” as he led his rebel army on to victory and Texas independence…
Hello Friends, boy what a difference a week makes, huh? Last week at this time things were very different than they are now. While the coronavirus was definitely making news a week ago, over the course of this week whole countries have been shut down. American travel restrictions have gone into place and cities have started to shut down non-essential businesses. Grocery shelves are bare across the country and while panic hasn’t set in yet, at least here in Texas, some of the big cities on the coasts are on high alert. New phrases like “social distancing” and “self-quarantine” have entered our lexicons, and people are, and should be worried. To read about my plans and what life has been like this week and also to get an understanding of the importance of some of the public buildings I use on a regular basis, please be sure you read my post on the coronavirus HERE. I was also sad this week to see that the Trace Theater in Port Gibson, Mississippi, which I had photographed just a few weeks ago, had caught fire and burned out pretty badly. In addition, it was the 9 year anniversary of the tsunami which rocked Japan and started the Fukushima mess - another tragedy I lived through as I was teaching in rural southern Japan at the time. It’s been a tough week out here. I decided to finally finish watching Treme, the HBO show about the rebuilding of New Orleans after Katrina, something else I was a part of for two years, and it reminded me that this too shall pass and soon this will just be a memory.
Very soon after I hit “Publish” on last week’s This Week on the Road post, my friend Christian called to tell me the Houston Rodeo had been cancelled for the rest of its run over concerns regarding the coronavirus. I’ll admit I was pretty disappointed because I was looking forward to it, but it seems now like it was for the best. There will be other rodeos in the future, and better safe than sorry in a case like this.
When I found out about the rodeo, I decided to pack up and head out of town. I made my way south to Galveston Island on the Gulf Coast. I had spent some time in Galveston before, but many years ago. It’s a beautiful place with an old, historic city on the bay side and a decent beach on the gulf side
What exactly is Galveston? Is it a typically Southern town? An island with a beach vibe? An historic port city like New Orleans? A Texan town? The answer to all of those is “yes”. Galveston is a fascinating place with so much to offer. Even after a few days there I felt like I had only begun to scratch the surface of the Queen City of the Gulf.
The first non-natives to inhabit Galveston came in 1816 with the pirate Louis-Michel Aury. When Aury went on a raid the following year, he returned to find that the island had been occupied by the infamous pirate Jean Lafitte. Lafitte set up a “Pirate Kingdom” there and remained with his people for the next 5 years. The Port of Galveston was established under the Mexican government in 1825, and the town would serve briefly as the capital of the Independent Republic of Texas in 1836. Galveston, along with the rest of Texas, joined the Confederacy during the Civil War and became a target due to its major port…
Beaumont, Texas traces its roots back to 1824 when Bobby and Nancy Tevis settled on the Neches River and built a small farm. A community grew up around them called Tevis Bluff. Developers Henry Millard, Joseph Pulsifer and Thomas Byers Huling purchased all of the land in the area in 1835 and began selling lots in a town to be called “Beaumont” after Henry Millard’s wife Mary Beaumont. Lumber, cattle and rice were early drivers of the local economy, as was the port which got these products to market. That all changed in 1901 when oil was discovered at Spindletop, and America’s first oil field was developed right there in Beaumont. The town’s population tripled almost overnight and oil has been the city’s main economic driver ever since. Today, Beaumont is a quiet city of about 120,000 people, with most living outside of the downtown core. I found the city to be charming, with a lot of great historical buildings. My favorites were the Jefferson Theater and Tyrell Historical Library. I was sad to see that despite some wonderful efforts at reviving the downtown area there didn’t seem to be much going on there during my visit. Regardless, I enjoyed my stay in Beaumont and it is definitely a city I will return to in the future.
Hello everyone, I hope y’all are having a nice week out there wherever you are. March is upon us and I’m loving the warmer weather and longer days. Flowers are popping up, the clouds are clearing and spring is definitely in the air here in Texas. This week has brought me through some fascinating parts of East Texas as I begin my exploration of the Lone Star State.
After I signed off last week, I did indeed make my way out to Rutherford Beach in far southwest Louisiana. It’s not a beautiful beach, but the waves are nice to listen to, it’s quiet and nobody bothers you out there. The camping is free and you can stay as long as you want. I’ve been there before and was really looking forward to a day on the beach to relax, read, plan and give Shadow Catcher a good cleaning. It was definitely a wonderful place to be for a couple of nights and I left feeling refreshed and ready to go. Rutherford Beach is also as far west as this journey has taken me so far so it was a good place to sit and reflect back on the last couple of years and prepare to set off in a new direction: west to the Pacific.
Ocean Springs, Mississippi got its start as a French colonial fort called Fort Maurepas way back in 1699. The fort was founded by the famed Canadian explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and was used to protect French interests in the area from Spanish encroachment. The city was incorporated in 1892 as Ocean Springs, named after the natural springs found in the area. Today, Ocean Springs is an enchanting coastal town with a thriving artists community. There is a lovely beach with a pier jutting out into the gulf for fishing or just relaxing with a good book. Downtown if bustling with shops, galleries, restaurants and bars and is a nice break from the nearby casino-centered towns. I really enjoyed my visit to this quaint seaside community shaded by ancient oak trees draped in Spanish moss. It was cool to see the Mardi Gras decorations up while I was there and I even got to see the town’s Mardi Gras parade during my visit. If you ever find yourself cruising the Mississippi Gulf Coast, be sure you take a minute to stop into Ocean Springs for a look. You might just find yourself sticking around longer than you had planned. I sure did. I hope you enjoy these photos from Mississippi’s City of Discovery.
Meridian, Mississippi was chartered in 1860 at the junction of the Mobile & Ohio and Southern Railways. When the Civil War broke out the following year, Meridian was just a small town but its railroad connection made it logistically important. After the Battle of Meridian in 1864, General Sherman all but burnt the town to the ground. After the war, the town was rebuilt and quickly grew as a manufacturing center and railroad hub, and was actually the largest city in the state from 1890 to 1930. In the midst of this boom-time, Meridian’s most famous son, Jimmie Rodgers was born. He would grow up to be known as the “Father of Country Music”, although much of his style was more closely associated with the blues music he heard as a young man working for the railroad. Meridian today is a beautiful small city with a population of around 40,000. While the trains still roll through downtown, Meridian’s economy has diversified with two nearby military bases, a major regional hospital and Peavey Electronics Corporation. I’ve enjoyed watching the Renaissance of the downtown area in recent years, and the new MAX Museum is a great addition to the city. On my most recent visit, I saw a lot of new businesses opening with many more in the works which really made me happy. Of course, a stop at Weidman’s Restaurant has been a must since it opened in 1870. If you’re ever on this side of Mississippi, stop in for a night or two, you’ll be glad you did. Mississippi’s Queen City is sure to win your heart as it has mine.
If you know me, you know how much I love the Mississippi Delta. There is just something special in the air out there. The people, the music and the food are all incredible, and the landscapes and buildings captured my heart long ago. I know that it’s an incredibly impoverished region, and that part of what makes it beautiful is the decay that goes along with this poverty. I also know that this decay is part of what brings out tens of thousands of tourists every year and they make their ways down the Blues Trail, Country Music Trail and Freedom Trail, in search of real an authentic Delta experience. Making that work is a challenging balancing act. Places like The Shack Up Inn in Clarksdale and Tallahatchie Flats in Greenwood do a remarkable job of finding that balance. Many of these photos are from those two places. Some of these photos are dated - Po’Monkey’s doesn’t look anything like it does in these photos anymore after the passing of its proprietor Willie Seaberry, but the way it used to look is how I’ll always remember it. You’ll find that dusk is definitely my favorite time to be out taking photos in the area. I’ve been coming to the Delta for over a decade now, and I’ve seen a lot of changes - many for the better, some for the worse. Either way, it’s a place that keeps pulling me back, and every time I’m there I find some new treasure. I hope you enjoy these photos which represent some of the highlights of 10 years of traveling the region. They are my favorites.
Hey y’all, it’s time for another edition of This Week on the Road. It’s going to be a short one this week because I only really spent the first couple of days of the week on the road. Since Saturday I’ve been relaxing here in New Orleans, spending time with my friends and enjoying the Mardi Gras weekend. I did have a great few days along the coast to wind up my time in Mississippi though, and wanted to share what I got up to out there.
My week started in Pascagoula in the rain, but I quickly moved on to Ocean Springs. I really liked this quaint and quiet seaside town with its thriving artists community, pleasant bars, and good restaurants. It seemed like a vibrant and livable place. My first stop was a restaurant I’ve wanted to get to for a while: The Shed Barbecue and Blues Joint. The Shed is a South Mississippi Institution, and occupies a huge, ramshackle building just north of the interstate. The Shed is the kind of place that chains have been trying to emulate for a long time, but with little success. The place is full of old beer and traffic signs, mismatched furniture and dollar bills hanging from the ceiling. It’s the real deal though with great food, wonderful employees and an all around good feel to it. I went with the ShedHed Sampler which came with all seven of their smoked meats and three sides. For $26 I didn’t expect too much, but what came out was amazing. It was a tray piled high with food, enough to fill me up that night, and also for lunch and dinner the next day as well. It was a great meal and experience and I will definitely come back to The Shed in the future. After dinner, I went for some live music and a few beers at the Glory Bound Gyro Co. on Government Street. It was a little chilly, but not too cold to enjoy the outdoor seating area which had a beachy feel to it. I sat by the palm tree and enjoyed some acoustic music there, and later popped in for a quick beer at a place called The Juke Joint. I really liked this divey bar in a hundred year old house a mile or so from the main part of downtown as well.
Greenwood, Mississippi captured my heart the first time I visited it a little over four years ago. As I pulled over the bridge into the heart of downtown, I found quiet streets, well maintained historic buildings, wonderful restaurants steeped in tradition and some of the friendliest people in the world. Since that first visit, I’ve returned as often as I could, sometimes just to enjoy a nice meal, wander the beautiful downtown area and sit by the river and read my book. There are even speakers on the streets around town providing a soundtrack to the city, something I always forget until I’m there and then it has me grinning from ear to ear. Greenwood is called the Gateway to the Delta, and is truly one of the nicest towns not just in Mississippi, but in the entire South.
The land on which the city of Greenwood now sits was once Choctaw Indian land, but was ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830. The Chief of the Choctaw at that time was Greenwood LeFlore, from whom the town would take its name. Greenwood would become prosperous as a shipping town, transporting cotton to markets in St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans. When the railroad came through in the 1880s, it would cement Greenwood as a transportation hub and a cotton center of the region for years to come. Today, Greenwood is home to the Viking Range Corporation, a major employer in the city. Viking has done a great job of utilizing many of the historic buildings in town instead of knocking them down and building new ones, leaving the downtown area’s historic charm intact. The 2011 film The Help was filmed in Greenwood, as was the 1991 Denzel Washington movie Mississippi Masala. I’m surprised more movies haven’t been filmed here as it really is a quintessential small Southern city…
Hello Everyone! It’s been another amazing week on the road, dodging the rain, learning some history and thankfully catching some breaks in the weather to get some cool shots of some wonderful small towns as well. I’ve got a lot of photos that need to be edited and published, but I’ve really enjoyed taking them and am looking forward to getting to them ASAP. This week started in Vicksburg, took me down to the one-time State Capital of Natchez, up the Natchez Trace Parkway through Port Gibson to Jackson, east to Meridian, northwest to the Choctaw Indian Reservation and then due south to the coast here in Pascagoula. It’s been a busy week with lots of miles clocked, but I’ve seen some amazing places along the way. I want to give a big shout-out to one of my readers, Todd, who gave me a lot of suggestions for this week, all of which were spot-on. Thanks Todd!
After I left y’all last week, I had a pretty quiet night there in Vicksburg. Thursday morning I woke up early and headed straight for the Old Courthouse Museum high above town. I had a nice chat with one of the men working there as I entered, and then had a great long wander through the collection. I realized at some point that I had been there before, but it’s been at least a decade. I really enjoyed it. There was a hammer made from the wreck of the Star of the West, some original Dix banknotes (Dix is 10 in French, and people used to say they had some “dixies”, which then offered up “Dixieland” and the rest is history), the tie Jefferson Davis wore at his inauguration, an original Teddy Bear presented to a local child by Theodore Roosevelt himself and so much more. The courtroom itself has been nicely preserved, and I loved the swivel seats for the jury – it was probably all the rage when they were installed in 1890…
