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 The border of Texas is longer than the Amazon River; it runs through ten distinct ecological zones as it outlines one of the most familiar shapes in geography. In the authors’ words, “Driving its every twist and turn would be like driving from Miami to Los Angeles by way of New York.”
In 1955, Frank X. Tolbert, a well-known columnist for the Dallas Morning News, accompanied by his nine-year-old son, left on a trip to circumnavigate Texas. He sent back dispatches to the newspaper that were eagerly awaited by his readers, including a thirteen-year-old Walt Davis. Fifty years later, Walt and his wife Isabel have replicated Tolbert’s exploration of the boundaries of Texas.
Each of the sixteen chapters opens with an original drawing by Walt and represents a segment of the Texas border where the authors selected a special place—a national park, a stretch of river, a mountain range, or an archeological site. Using a firsthand account of that place written by a previous visitor (artist, explorer, naturalist, or archeologist), they then identified a contemporary voice (biologist, rancher, river-runner, or paleontologist) to serve as a modern-day guide for their journey of rediscovery. This dual perspective allows the authors to attach personal stories to the places they visited, to connect the past with the present, and to compare Texas then with Texas now.
Whether retracing botanist Charles Wright’s 600-mile walk to El Paso in 1849 or paddling Houston’s Buffalo Bayou, where John James Audubon saw ivory-billed woodpeckers in 1837, the Davises seek to remind readers that the state’s natural history was written by passionate and determined people. Anyone interested in Texas or its rich natural history will find deep enjoyment in Exploring the Edges of Texas.
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