Forty years ago, the Department of Energy made a colossally ill-conceived effort to declare Deaf Smith County a repository for the national mandated nuclear waste dump. The good folks of Deaf Smith didn’t think it was a particularly bright idea to put toxic radioactive waste in the ground below the Ogallala Aquifer. They also didn’t think it was safe to […]
Texas is the now King of Wind! Wind delivered 22% of the state’s electrical energy in 2019. More than the nasty, no longer dirt-cheap, coal and wind power gaining rapidly on natural gas as a source of Texas electricity. It is quite a stunning achievement for Texas, the land of fracking and flaring natural gas, to also rule the renewable […]
Rally to Save Family Farms Texas Populism Project Doug Zabel grew up on a farm in the Midwest and was a political consultant and campaign manager before he went to work with the Texas Department of Agriculture. He became closely involved with the development of the National Farm Bill of 1985. “My dad had this little community bank that was […]
First Texas official Organic Label Texas was first State to certify an Organic Label for produce. That’s right—TEXAS! In 1987, the Texas Department of Agriculture established an official State label guaranteeing that the produce was organically grown. It is a little known fact. It is so little known that it has almost been completely written out of the history books. […]
Billboard in Deaf Smith County This is the first post on PHIT’s oral interviews with Texas Department of Agriculture Hightower years( 1983-1991). The goal of the TDA was to create an agricultural economic environment that would deliver food that was safe for the consumer, safe for the farmworker, safe for the planet, and would allow the family farmer and family […]
Hightower Campaign Poster The Hightower Years Farms on Fire The Texas Camelot PHIT is beginning a new oral history project. The project title is still a work in progress, but the subject matter is pretty solid. We are collecting participant stories on the impact that the Texas Department of Agriculture made on state and national policies during the years […]
Some may be surprised that there was an Underground Railroad network in Texas. By Steve Rossignol | The Rag Blog | February 13, 2020 We are all familiar with the tales of the Underground Railroad, how enslaved people in the South risked life and limb to escape to the Northern States before and during the Civil War. Some of us may be surprised […]
Austin Chronicle illustration by Nick Derington The Day of Election is upon us. For the People’s History in Texas followers who are Democrats, election time was, until 2015, an exercise in mathematics and mythic storytelling. Understanding the TEXAS TWO-STEP PRIMARY was a mind-bending dissertation on how to accumulate delegates. No one, except a few hoary party activists, knew how it […]
Bastrop County Museum The Bastrop County Museum has a wonderful exhibit on a series of previously unrecognized Freedom Colonies in Bastrop County. This exhibit has now been moved to the Elgin Depot Museum and will be there until February. People interested in Texas History should most definitely plan to visit this exhibit. On June 17th, 1865 (Juneteenth) General Granger landed […]
The Last of the Little Breweries, a documentary on Shiner Beer, is an absolutely wonderful piece of history. It was produced in 1975 by Frank Binney. Please take some time and watch it. It is only 20 minutes long. It is well worth the time. The documentary tells the story of Kosmos Spoetzl and his journey through Egypt, Canada, and […]