Big Sky National Monument - Stonewall, TX

Lyndon Johnson is not a president often associated with the Antiquities Act. In his term, he enlarged four existing national monuments and established another two, most of which he did only at the behest of others. The exception to this is Big Sky National Monument. Set close to his ranch in Stonewall,Texas, Lyndon used to load VIPs into the back of his Lincoln Continental and go careening across the open prairies that would one day become the monument. He’s quoted saying that he loved seeing the faces of those unfamiliar with the Texas sky, crushed under the weight of it. And admittedly, there is something magical about the skies over the Lone Star State, something countless have commented upon. It’s in every song and story the state has to offer, the wide panorama of open sky that ensures storms can never sneak up on you, that teaches you from an early age how small you are in the world. It’s only fitting that a state obsessed with size would be blanketed by an equally big sky. Previ...

The Headquarters of the Texas Oyster "Cult" - Houston, TX

There is little known with any certainty about the Oysters, the Texas confraternity of businessmen and politicians. According to themselves, the Oysters are just a charitable organization in the same vein as the Shriners, Odd Fellows, and Elks. Many out-side the organization believe that the Oysters are in reality a cabal that secretly steers every major decision in the Lone Star State from hurricane response to the assassination of Kennedy. The Oysters likewise claim that they are part of the oldest organization in Texas, derived from the Oyster Rites of the Karankawa. Again, there is little evidence to support this. Though they have offices in every major city in Texas, their headquarters is in Houston, close to their ancestral oyster coast and close to the deep pockets of the state. Though unassuming on the outside, the inside lobby features a forty-foot-tall mural made of sea glass and pearlescent oyster shell.


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