Name: Lake Travis's South Shore
Brand: Leslie Ann Webb
SKU: 9781467132527
Price: 24.99 USD
Availability: InStock

Lake Travis's South Shore

9781467132527

$24.99

The Colorado River, running through Austin, Texas, and the area now referred to as Lake Travis, has always been a beautiful place to live. The early settlers found it suitable for farming and ranching--until it rained. The rain soaked up soil, and water upstream often engorged the land and washed out everything in its path. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal created agencies that constructed hydroelectric dams for the Tennessee Valley Authority, and those were used as blueprints for the Lower Colorado River Authority. The ground-breaking for the Mansfield Dam took place on February 19, 1937, and the dam was completed in 1942, providing power and flood control for the area. The dam created Lake Travis and brought about a new recreational industry. Boat docks, lodges, and parks sprang up along the newly created lake, and they are still enjoyed today.

Texas Oil and Gas

9781467130219

$24.99

Texas Oil and Gas documents in postcards the rapid growth of the Texas petroleum industry from its beginnings near Corsicana in the 1890s through the next several decades of oil booms throughout the state. The young 20th century opened with the Lucas Gusher at Spindletop in 1901. Thousands rushed from the oilfields of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia to find work and riches. Continued drilling success along the Texas Gulf Coast transformed Houston into a major city and the Beaumont area into a major petrochemical center. Through the 1910s and 1920s, oil booms occurred in North Texas, the Panhandle, Central Texas, and West Texas. The giant East Texas oilfield, the second largest North American oilfield to Alaska's North Slope, was discovered in 1930. Texas oil replaced coal as fuel for the nation's railroads and provided fuel for our military in two world wars.

Native Americans of Arizona

9780738548845

$23.99

For more than a century, Arizona's 21 Native American tribes and nations have played an important role in the state's tourism industry. Postcard images of Southwestern tribes became the staple of an advertising campaign to promote the region to potential travelers beginning around 1900 and quickly became popular with visitors. Hundreds of images captured the beauty of the Native American peoples' homelands and villages, along with views of economic and domestic activities, craft arts, and religious aspects of the various communities. This book offers a wide-ranging overview of the vintage postcards that captured the visual essence of Native Americans in Arizona during the first half of the 20th century.

The Historic Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix

9780738585178

$24.99

Phoenix's Manzanita Speedway, the last of the big dirt tracks located near the central corridor of a major metropolitan area, is now gone. The track opened in the early 1950s when Jack Holloway, president of the Arizona Jalopy Racing Association, along with Avery Doyle and Gene Gunn, set about convincing Rudy Everett and Larry Meskimen to convert their unprofitable dog-racing operation into a quarter-mile dirt track. On August 25, 1951, Everett and Meskimen beamed with excitement as Manzy opened to an overflowing crowd. They had tapped into America's post-World War II craze for automobiles and found their own Lost Dutchman Gold Mine in the process. Manzanita Speedway dominated dirt-track racing in Phoenix and was heralded as one of the top five dirt tracks in the United States. Manzy became an integral part of the racing culture in Phoenix, and its sale and closure in 2009 created a sense of lingering disappointment.

The Historic Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix

Phoenix's Greater Encanto-Palmcroft Neighborhood

9781467131254

$24.99

The Encanto-Palmcroft neighborhood in central Phoenix was created in the twilight of the "City Beautiful Movement," a philosophy that supported beautiful surroundings to promote moral and social order. Palmcroft was developed in 1927 by prominent Phoenix booster Dwight B. Heard and William G. Hartranft, father of the Phoenix parks system. Encanto, "The Enchanting," was founded by Lloyd C. Lakin and George T. Peter in 1928. These custom Period Revival homes were styled as bucolic refuges from the bustle of downtown. Even into the 21st century, this neighborhood maintains its integrity and significance due to the participation of residents who realize its historic importance.

Phoenix's Greater Encanto-Palmcroft Neighborhood

Mesquite

9781467133579

$24.99

The story of Mesquite, Texas, is a story of an east Dallas County settlement that became first a depot town on the Texas & Pacific Railroad, then a "Boomtown USA" suburban city. Recently, and not alone among other aging American Southwest suburbs, it has become an urban center facing cultural, social, and educational challenges, as well as economic decline.

Holbrook and the Petrified Forest

9780738548852

$24.99

Largely a sea of sand and sand-turned-to-stone, the cold desert at the junction of the Rio Puerco and the Little Colorado Rivers seems an unlikely place for human settlement. Indeed, even the Puerco and Little Colorado seldom visit, and when they do, they sweep away dams and ditches and sometimes more. But with the coming of the railroad in 1881, the community of Holbrook became a hub of commerce for Mormons, cowboys, Native Americans, railroad men, and the military. Hashknife cowboys brought cattle to ship to market and stayed to spend their money in saloons. Visitors from the East came to see the Triassic forest and stayed to eat in Fred Harvey's elegant dining room, a series of five boxcars on a sidetrack. Route 66 and the Santa Fe Railway defined this tiny town and made it a historic crossroads in northern Arizona.

Baseball in Oklahoma City

9780738531892

$24.99

Oklahoma City is completing its first century of minor league baseball. Since 1904, organized professional teams called the Mets, Indians, Senators, Boosters, 89ers, and now the RedHawks have thrilled fans of all ages. Several fan-favorites who have graced the diamond for Oklahoma City have gone on to stardom in "The Big Show," including major league all-stars Lonnie Smith and Juan Gonzales. Legendary names like Rogers Hornsby and Bill Veeck have also played a part in Oklahoma City's baseball history. As the second century of baseball in Oklahoma City begins, the Oklahoma RedHawks continue the tradition of playing superb baseball in the "The Little Show," with perhaps another future major league all-star or two honing his skills before a capacity crowd at the Brick.

Wagoner

9781467114271

$24.99

Wagoner, the first city incorporated in Indian Territory, was established in 1896 on the dividing line of the Cherokee and Creek Nations and at the intersection of the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railway and the Kansas & Arkansas Railway. For the first half of the 20th century, Wagoner's economy was driven by agriculture, and it became known as the Queen City of the Prairies. In the 1950s, when the Grand Neosho River was turned into Fort Gibson Lake, the door opened for the establishment of a number of resort enterprises. Wagoner has thrived as a visitors' destination ever since. Today, the only remaining evidence of the earliest civilization is the Norman Site—a small island slightly north of Highway 51 and east of Wagoner at Taylor Ferry—which is home to some of Oklahoma's most prominent Indian mounds.

Tucson

9781467133647

$24.99

After World War II, Tucson experienced burgeoning growth. People were drawn here by the mild winters. By 1950, Tucson's population reached 120,000, and it doubled to 220,000 by 1960. In 1952, the world-famous Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum was founded. Four years later, the Tucson Air National Guard Base was activated. During the 1960s, the Old Tucson Studios theme park, El Con Mall, the Tucson International Airport, the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Reid Park Zoo, and Pima Community College were established. In the 1970s, the Tucson Community Center and the Pima Air & Space Museum were established. Around 1984, Channel 12 began broadcasting. In the 1990s, Biosphere II was built, and in 2005, the Jewish History Museum and the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum were dedicated. Tucson has stood the test of time, surviving the difficult periods and thriving during the good times.

Early Bisbee

9781467133524

$24.99

Before Bisbee became a bustling mining camp, it was a haven to Native Americans for centuries. However, their presence brought the intrusion of army scouts and prospectors into the Mule Mountains. The coincidental discovery of vast mineral wealth at the future site of Bisbee permanently affixed the fate of the land forever. Rising from the remote desert was a dynamic mining city, a city that grew into one of the most influential communities in the West. Bisbee was unique in the Old West because of the mixed moral values. High society and the decadent underworld lived in a delicate balance, but a vibrant multicultural community was forged from these social fires.

Sierra Vista:

9780738524344

$24.99

The story of Sierra Vista, Arizona begins with Coronado's explorations of the southwestern desert in the sixteenth century, long before the 1877 establishment of Camp Huachuca, home of the famed 24th Infantry "Buffalo Soldiers." Sierra Vista grew up in the fury of the silver and copper mining days surrounded by three stunning mountains and the San Perdro River. Once known as Fry, this frontier town bloomed from a virtually unpopulated settlement into the Hummingbird Capital of the World.

San Antonio's Churches

9780738585369

$24.99

The towns that the Spaniards of colonial Mexico planted on their northern frontier were organized around the ideal of a close interaction between church, missionary outreach, and military. San Antonio was the most successful realization of this dream in Texas. The pattern of this tripartite approach has continued to shape the rich culture of the city down to the present. With this selection of photos, San Antonio's Churches takes a snapshot visit back through religious development throughout the three centuries of San Antonio's history.

Haunted Phoenix

9781467140928

$23.99

The booming, modern metropolis of Phoenix is a city filled with the ghosts of its past.

Discover the legend of the mysterious Hohokam tribe, whose people once inhabited the Pueblo Grande Ruins and later vanished. Learn about the spirits of the Smurthwaite House, which sits on the grounds of Phoenix's oldest cemetery. Hear the tales of the Pioneer Living Museum, a collection of historic buildings relocated from every corner of Arizona--and the spirits of the former residents that came along too. Take a peek inside the Mystery Castle, old train depots and eerie historic mansions. Author and paranormal historian Debe Branning delves into the history and mysteries of these desert tales.

Pflugerville

9781467128292

$24.99

The Henry Pfluger Sr. family emigrated from Germany, eventually homesteading on the Blackland Prairie northeast of Austin in the early 1850s. As families grew and more people settled in the area, a post office named Pflugerville was established in 1893. By 1965, the century-old agricultural community was ready to incorporate. From that point, it has grown from a city of a few hundred residents to one of the fastest growing areas in the country. To track this transition over the past 50 years, this book chronicles the extraordinary growth of the population, schools, services, events, robust business centers, and spirit of volunteerism. Preserving the quality of life in Pflugerville has always been a common goal of the community.

Hidalgo County

9780738507729

$24.99

Hidalgo County, located in the heart of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, is a contentious land of impossible contrasts: tropical sunsets and swaying palm trees, rare birds and javelina, cactus and mesquite, soft breezes and broiling sunshine-and hurricanes. Spanish colonists settled here in 1749, receiving huge land grants in exchange for their labor and their loneliness. One hundred years later, a Scotsman named McAllen came to work in a riverfront store, and stayed to found a dynasty. Between 1900 and 1940, more immigrants arrived to build railroads and towns, turn brush land into farmland, and create a unique cultural environment. Hidalgo County illustrates the rapid development of this environmental and cultural crossroads at the beginning of the 20th century. River boats and oxcarts gave way to railroads and the Model T. Tent cities became thriving towns with business districts, homes, schools, churches, and agricultural industries. The changes experienced-and created-by the hardy pioneers who struggled to survive are chronicled here. The courage, stamina, and optimism of these brave souls inspire us a century later in Hidalgo County.

The Turquoise Trail

9780738596556

$24.99

The Turquoise Trail is a quirky, alternative road stretching between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Before horses trod the route, it linked three Native American pueblos. The earliest mining activity in North America took place along the trail; local Native Americans mined a huge vein of turquoise that was visible on the surface. In the age of horses and wagons, the road ran through dusty Wild West towns, mining districts, and mountains, which were once roamed by thousands of prospectors with dreams of finding the mother lode. When mining became unprofitable, the inhabitants packed whatever they could into their cars and pulled out, seeking employment elsewhere. But a time came when people realized there was still potential in these old ghost towns. The buildings that once housed miners and the businesses that supported them are now occupied by art galleries, boutiques, and modern pioneers. The route still has a flavor of the Wild West, but instead of cowboys and miners, it now attracts motorcycle enthusiasts, movie crews, and day-trippers who appreciate authenticity and local color.

John A. Brown's, Kerr's & Halliburton's

9781626193604

$21.99

Department stores John A. Brown's, Kerr's and Halliburton's ruled supreme in Oklahoma City. From "lucky penny" giveaways to defying blue laws, the three big department stores did whatever it took to entertain and entice. The stunning display windows of Kerr's downtown once lured shoppers inside, but the closing of Halliburton's in 1961 signaled the final days of downtown shopping. Adoption fairs and civil rights sit-ins at Brown's wove the store into the social fabric of the city. Authors Ajax Delvecki and Larry Johnson chronicle the stories, history and memories of the best of Oklahoma City shopping.

Tall Tales and Half Truths of Clay Allison

9781467151030

$23.99

Sort outlandish fiction from no-less-outrageous fact in this wild ride with the West's Gentleman Gunfighter. Robert Andrew Clay Allison was a jumble of contradictions. Mentally unstable and mean as a rattlesnake, he was also a fierce defender of the innocent. A hard drinker but a quiet-spoken man. A hell raiser who was an impromptu preacher. He was as feared for his prowess with pistol and Bowie knife as he was famous for loving whiskey and dancing. Largely forgotten today, his legend once sprawled across the frontier from Cimarron to Mobeetie, where he was known to careen drunkenly through the streets wearing only his gunbelt and his boots. Donna Blake Birchell places one of New Mexico's most fascinating figures back among his more well-chronicled peers.

Tall Tales and Half Truths of Clay Allison

Legendary Locals of Gallup

9781467125673

$24.99

Geography has conspired to make Gallup, New Mexico, a special place with unique people and a colorful history. It has been a place of struggle and extremes where cultures have clashed, mixed, and melded. Gallup is a community that is simultaneously challenging and uplifting, heartrending, and redemptive. To local Native Americans, the Navajo and Pueblo people, Gallup is located on their ancestral homeland and bordered by their sacred sites. To early settlers, Gallup was a place that permitted transportation across the continent, first by foot and horseback, then by stagecoach and railroad, and ultimately, by America's Mother Road, Route 66. With its founding, Gallup became a place where European, Asian, and Hispanic immigrants--with hands that built America--came to construct a transcontinental rail line, harvest timber, mine coal, and establish businesses, while seeking a new life among the region's original native people.

Austin's Travis Heights Neighborhood

9781467129862

$23.99

The Travis Heights neighborhood in Austin, Texas, is comprised of three developments: the Swisher Addition, Fairview Park, and Travis Heights. Each of those three is unique. Fairview Park was designed to be an elegant Victorian suburb. The Swisher Addition developed as a thriving commercial district. The Travis Heights subdivision was the most successful residential development in the area and overshadowed the others. Travis Heights is known for its parks that run the length of the neighborhood. The history of Travis Heights is about the evolution of a neighborhood influenced by location and by its landscape.

Rio Rancho

9781467133685

$24.99

Rio Rancho's first residents arrived in the mid-1960s seeking what was advertised as 360 sunny days a year and affordable housing. Incorporated in 1981, Rio Rancho is the third-largest city in New Mexico and its fastest growing. It often pops up on those "Best Places to Live" stories and for good reason. The top-notch schools, safe neighborhoods, great climate, and being noted as an inexpensive place to start a family have turned Rio Rancho into a desirable place to live.

Texas Lawmen, 1900-1940

9781609494520

$29.99

Lawlessness in Texas did not end with the close of the cowboy era. It just evolved, swapping horses and pistols for cars and semiautomatics. From Patrolman "Newt" Stewart, killed by a group of servicemen in February 1900, to Whitesboro chief of police William Thomas "Will" Miller, run down by a vehicle in the line of duty in 1940, Ron DeLord and Cliff Caldwell present a comprehensive chronicle of the brave--and some not so brave--peace officers who laid down their lives in the service of the State of Texas in the first half of the twentieth century.

Arizona Oddities

9781467140492

$23.99

Arizona has stories as peculiar as its stunning landscapes. The Lost Dutchman's rumored cache of gold sparked a legendary feud. Kidnapping victim Larcena Pennington Page survived two weeks alone in the wilderness, and her first request upon rescue was for a chaw of tobacco. Discover how the town of Why got its name, how the government built a lake that needed mowing and how wild camels ended up in North America. Author Marshall Trimble unearths these and other amusing anomalies, outstanding obscurities and compelling curiosities in the state's history.

The Texas Ranch Sisterhood

9781625858481

$29.99

Most people may think of ranchers and cowboys as men. But although they are under-chronicled, ranch women work from dark to dark, keeping step with hired hands, brothers, fathers and husbands. They blaze trails through unforgiving scrub. They cook supper and feed bulls. At any given time, they wear the hats-and the gloves-of geologist, veterinarian, lawyer and mechanic. They are fierce and feminine and powerful. Photojournalist and writer Alyssa Banta spent over a year following more than a dozen Texas women through their grueling daily routines, from the messy confines of the working chute to the sprawling reaches of the back pasture. The result of this unprecedented access is an intimate portrait of the challenges and achievements of the ranch women of the Lone Star State, along with the land and livestock that sustain them.

Mexican American Baseball in El Paso

9781467126601

$24.99

Mexican American Baseball in El Paso chronicles the vibrant and colorful history of baseball in the El Paso-Juárez border region. For more than a century, baseball along the border has served as a means of bringing together people of all backgrounds, races, and nationalities, from the fly-by-night teams of the Pancho Villa era to the fabled semiprofessional clubs of the Lower Valley League. For the area's Mexican and Mexican American citizens, storied teams like the Juárez Indios, Fabens Merchants, 1949 Bowie Bears, and El Paso Diablos served as both community rallying points and signposts of cultural identity. From the legendary semiprofessional players of decades past to the most recent major leaguers, this book presents the photographic history of baseball in America's largest border community.

Lake Worth

9780738578620

$24.99

The history of Lake Worth begins in 1909 when two young boys accidentally set a fire that destroyed many buildings in Fort Worth. Fighting the fire nearly drained the city's wells dry, so city leaders reconsidered an earlier suggestion from engineer John Hawley to create a surface reservoir. The enormous hole filled in just three weeks after heavy rains, instead of the predicted three years. Completed in 1914, Lake Worth became the largest reservoir in the Southwest. Fort Worth now had a better water supply, and local beach development brought water recreation to millions and greatly impacted the small community nearby. Through the years, silt and contaminants have infiltrated the lake, and the City of Fort Worth has temporarily stopped the slow process of dredging the lake because of the economy. But the community's collective hope soars with the possibility that the lake and beaches eventually will be restored to their original condition.

True Tales of the Texas Frontier

9781626190290

$23.99

For eight centuries, the Texas frontier has seen conquest, exploration, immigration, revolution and innovation, leaving to history a cast of fascinating characters and captivating tales. Its historic period began in 1519 with Spanish exploration, but there was a prehistory long before, nearly fifteen thousand years earlier, with the arrival of people to Texas. Each story pulls a new perspective from this long history by examining nearly all angles--from archaeology to ethnography, astronomy, agriculture and more. These true stories prove to be unexpected, sometimes contrarian and occasionally funny but always fascinating. Join author and historian C. Herndon Williams as he recounts his exploration of nearly a millennium of the Texas frontier.

New Mexico State Police

9781467129992

$24.99

The New Mexico State Police traces its beginnings to the New Mexico Mounted Police, a statewide law-enforcement agency that was disbanded in 1921. No state law enforcement existed until the formation of the New Mexico Motor Patrol in 1933. A year and a half later, the governor of the state of New Mexico and the chief of the patrol saw the need to expand their forces to better serve the citizens of New Mexico. The New Mexico State Police formed in 1935, marking the beginning of what has become many years of tradition and service.

Navajo Weavers of the American Southwest

9781467129725

$23.99

From the mid-17th century to the present day, herding sheep, carding wool, spinning yarn, dyeing with native plants, and weaving on iconic upright looms have all been steps in the intricate process of Navajo blanket and rug making in the American Southwest. Beginning in the late 1800s, amateur and professional photographers documented the Diné (Navajo) weavers and their artwork, and the images they captured tell the stories of the artists, their homes, and the materials, techniques, and designs they used. Many postcards illustrate popular interest surrounding weaving as an indigenous art form, even as economic, social, and political realities influenced the craft. These historical pictures illuminate perceived traditional weaving practices. The authors' accompanying narratives deepen the perspective and relate imagery to modern life.

Navajo Weavers of the American Southwest

Texas Obscurities

9781626192812

$23.99

Some of these quirky true stories might surprise even the most proud Texan. Austin sat the first all-woman state supreme court in the nation in 1925. A utopian colony thrived in Kristenstad during the Great Depression. Bats taken from the Bracken and Ney Caves and Devil's Sinkhole were developed as a secret weapon that vied with the Manhattan Project to shorten World War II. In Slaton in 1922, German priest Joseph M. Keller was kidnapped, tarred and feathered amid anti-German fervor following World War I. Author E.R. Bills offers this collection of trials, tribulations and intrigue that is sure to enrich one's understanding of the biggest state in the Lower Forty-eight.

Hidden History of Spanish New Mexico

9781609497606

$23.99

New Mexico's Spanish legacy has informed the cultural traditions of one of the last states to join the union for more than four hundred years, or before the alluring capital of Santa Fe was founded in 1610. The fame the region gained from artist Georgia O'Keefe, writers Lew Wallace and D.H. Lawrence and pistolero Billy the Kid has made New Mexico an international tourist destination. But the Spanish annals also have enriched the Land of Enchantment with the factual stories of a superhero knight, the greatest queen in history, a saintly gent whose coffin periodically rises from the depths of the earth and a mysterious ancient map. Join author Ray John de Aragón as he reveals hidden treasure full of suspense and intrigue.

Denton

9780738578545

$24.99

Founded in 1857 as the fourth county seat of Denton County, the city of Denton is situated at the top of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex triangle. After the first trains from the Texas and Pacific Railroad and the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railway (the Katy) rolled into town in 1881, Denton developed from a frontier community into a vibrant city. Establishing itself as a center of education in 1890 with the founding of the Texas Normal College and Teacher Training Institute (now the University of North Texas), the creation of the Girls' Industrial College (now Texas Woman's University) in 1901 further enhanced this image. The city's 150-year history, forged by so many talented people, has provided a strong foundation for its growing economic environment. Today Denton's community spirit resonates through the energy of the city's many diverse events and its lively music scene.

Lost Texas Treasure

9781467151542

$21.99

Track pirate gold and misplaced riches across 168 counties in this comprehensive guide to the lost treasures of Texas.

Countless fortunes have disappeared into the vast expanse of the Lone Star State. The history of the coast is cluttered with shipwrecks like that of the 1554 Spanish fleet. Even when pirates such as Jean Laffite managed to get their ill-gotten gains ashore, their loot vanished just as completely as if it had sunk beneath the waves. Entire mines, including the ventures of Jim Bowie and San Saba Presidio, have been reclaimed by the earth. The unmarked caches of bandits like Jesse James and Pancho Villa still bedevil the dreams of treasure seekers today. W. Craig Gaines reveals what has been lost, what has been found and what remains to be recovered.

Paradise Valley Architecture

9780738596594

$24.99

Three surveyors in the late 19th century were so attracted to the area's desert beauty that they named it "the Paradise Valley." Starting in the 1920s, adobe homes were constructed in various revival styles. In 1936, the Camelback Inn resort set a high-quality standard with an inviting and relaxed character. Other guest lodges arrived, including the Hermosa Inn and the El Chorro Lodge. The 1950s brought more luxurious resorts, including the Paradise Valley Racquet Club and the Mountain Shadows Resort. With the threat of Phoenix or Scottsdale annexing the area, the citizens started debating incorporation in 1949 and were successful in 1961. Churches, schools, town facilities, and single-family homes followed. Numerous town ordinances were adopted to preserve a quiet, desert lifestyle such as burying all utilities, restrictive zoning, and hillside preservation.