More About the Book

The border of Texas is longer than the Amazon River, runs through ten distinct ecological zones, and outlines one of the most familiar shapes in geography. In 1955, Frank X. Tolbert, well-known columnist for the Dallas Morning News, circumnavigated Texas in a Willis Jeep and sent back dispatches to the newspaper that were eagerly awaited by his readers, including thirteen-year-old Walt Davis. Fifty years later, Isabel and I repeated Tolbert's exploration of the boundaries of Texas.

Each of the sixteen chapters opens with an original drawing by Walt representing a segment of the Texas border where we selected a special place—national park, stretch of river, mountain range, or archeological site. Using a firsthand account of that place written by a previous visitor (artist, explorer, naturalist, or archeologist), we 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 allowed us to attach personal stories to the places we visited, to connect the past with the present, and to compare Texas then with Texas now.