Author: Geoff Winningham Publisher: Texas A&M University Press ISBN: 1603441611 Category : Travel Languages : en Pages : 361
Book Description
In a work of sweeping breadth and beauty, Geoff Winningham has created a profusely illustrated, contemplative travel journal that showcases his talent as both a photographer and a writer and reveals his affection and respect for the two countries he calls home. In 2003, photographer Geoff Winningham saw for the first time both the southern coast of Veracruz, with its volcanoes, rain forests, and steep mountains, and the Texas coast near High Island, where the land seems to stretch endlessly, covered by a sea of salt grass. He decided that these two visually striking areas could be the beginning and end points of a photographic study that would also engage the two cultures in which he had lived for twenty years, the U.S. and Mexico. Now, seven years and more than a hundred trips later, Traveling the Shore of the Spanish Sea: The Gulf Coast of Texas and Mexico is the result. In this beautifully illustrated and engagingly written book, Winningham also considers the role that the Gulf of Mexico played in the discovery and exploration of the New World. Winningham's journey begins east of High Island, in Port Arthur, where the images suggest a cautionary tale relating to the oil industry and the land. It ends twelve hundred miles down the coast at the end of an old, stone road in tropical terrain of almost indescribable beauty, overlooking the sea. In between, more than two hundred photographs include natural landscapes (ranging from unspoiled to completely despoiled), roadside architecture and signage, and images of people Winningham met. As he attempts to come to terms with the disturbing changes he witnessed to the coastal environment, the book also contains elements of a poignant, personal lament for what is being lost. Traveling the Shore of the Spanish Sea: The Gulf Coast of Texas and Mexico will delight and enchant readers with its deeply felt personal narrative and the power and beauty of its images.
Author: John S. Sledge Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press ISBN: 1643360159 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 360
Book Description
“[Sledge] rightfully celebrates and affirms the southern sea’s enriching past and gives readers reason to want for its wholesome and meaningful future.” —Jack E. Davis, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea The Gulf of Mexico presents a compelling, salt-streaked narrative of the earth’s tenth largest body of water. In this beautifully written and illustrated volume, John S. Sledge explores the people, ships, and cities that have made the Gulf’s human history and culture so rich. Many famous figures who sailed the Gulf’s viridian waters are highlighted, including Ponce de León, Robert Cavelier de La Salle, Francis Drake, Elizabeth Agassiz, Ernest Hemingway, and Charles Dwight Sigsbee at the helm of the doomed Maine. Gulf events of global historical importance are detailed, such as the only defeat of armed and armored steamships by wooden sailing vessels, the first accurate deep-sea survey and bathymetric map of any ocean basin, the development of shipping containers by a former truck driver frustrated with antiquated loading practices, and the worst environmental disaster in American annals. Occasionally shifting focus ashore, Sledge explains how people representing a gumbo of ethnicities built some of the world’s most exotic cities—Havana, way station for conquistadores and treasure-filled galleons; New Orleans, the Big Easy, famous for its beautiful French Quarter, Mardi Gras, and relaxed morals; and oft-besieged Veracruz, Mexico’s oldest city, founded in 1519 by Hernán Cortés. In the modern era the Gulf has become critical to energy production, fisheries, tourism, and international trade, even as it is threatened by pollution and climate change. The Gulf of Mexico is a work of verve and sweep that illuminates both the risks of life on the water and the riches that come from its bounty.
Author: David Helvarg Publisher: New World Library ISBN: 1608684415 Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 370
Book Description
From the first human settlements to the latest marine explorations, The Golden Shore tells the tale of the history, culture, and changing nature of California’s coasts and ocean. David Helvarg takes the reader on both a geographic and literary journey along the state’s 1,100-mile Pacific coastline, from the Oregon border to the San Diego–Tijuana international border fence and out into its whale-, seal-, and shark-rich offshore seamounts, rock isles, and kelp forests. Part history, part travelogue, part love letter, The Golden Shore captures the spirit of the California coast and its mythic place in American culture.
Author: Brenda Laird and, The Freeport Historical Museum Publisher: Arcadia Publishing ISBN: 1467126802 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 128
Book Description
In 1821, Stephen F. Austin and the "Old 300" colonists boarded the Lively and entered the Brazos River, landing at Old Velasco. After hurricanes repeatedly tore the little town apart, residents moved four miles upstream to New Velasco in 1891. Then, the 1900 hurricane, which nearly wiped Galveston off of the map, also devastated New Velasco. But even the earliest Texans were tough, and they endured, rebuilt, and thrived. In 1912, across the Brazos River, the discovery of sulphur gave birth to Freeport. Freeport and Velasco grew side-by-side for 45 years until 1957, when they were consolidated. Thus, some citizens felt that the city ought to then be called "Freeport-Velasco." In 1961, Hurricane Carla roared into Freeport. It was followed through the years by many other mega-storms, but Freeport has weathered them all. Efforts are being made to revitalize downtown to the beauty it had a century ago.
Author: Thomas Gage Publisher: anboco ISBN: 3736420196 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 573
Book Description
A Journall of Three thousand and Three hundred Miles within the main Land of AMERICA. Wherin is set forth his Voyage from Spain to St. John de Ulhua; and from thence to Xalappa, to Tlaxcallan, the City of Angeles, and forward to Mexico; With the description of that great City, as it was in former times, and also at this present. Likewise his Journey from Mexico through the Provinces of Guaxaca, Chiapa, Guatemala, Vera Paz, Truxillo, Comayagua; with his abode Twelve years about Guatemala, and especially in the Indian-towns of Mixco, Pinola, Petapa, Amatitlan. As also his strange and wonderfull Conversion, and Calling from those remote Parts to his Native Countrey. With his return through the Province of Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, to Nicoya, Panama, Portobelo, Cartagena, and Havana, with divers occurrents and dangers that did befal in the said Journey. ALSO, A New and exact Discovery of the Spanish Navigation to those Parts; And of their Dominions, Government, Religion, Forts, Castles, Ports, Havens, Commodities, fashions, behaviour of Spaniards, Priests and Friers, Blackmores, Mulatto's, Mestiso's, Indians; and of their Feasts and Solemnities. With a Grammar, or some few Rudiments of the Indian Tongue, called, Poconchi, or Pocoman.
Author: Michael H. Marvins Publisher: Texas A&M University Press ISBN: 1623496772 Category : Photography Languages : en Pages : 258
Book Description
Like many Texans, Michael H. Marvins has been making regular pilgrimages to the Hill Country for much of his life. Traveling the back roads of the Texas Hill Country, cameras always poised for action, Marvins has captured the excitement of small-town rodeos, savored the mesquite-smoked atmosphere of local eateries, observed the daily lives of people on the land, and admired the scenic beauty of the landscape and its natural denizens. Most important, he has captured his impressions with the skilled eye of a master photographer. Popular Houston Chronicle columnist Joe Holley opens The Texas Hill Country by highlighting the many qualities that draw Marvins—and so many of the rest of us—to the Hill Country. Next, Roy Flukinger, senior curator of photography at the University of Texas’ Harry Ransom Center, discusses Marvins’s unique photographic vision and the fresh ways in which he helps us see this popular region. But the principal focus in The Texas Hill Country: A Photographic Adventure centers on Marvins’s artful images, inviting readers to share his unique perspectives on this enchanting and popular region. He takes us with him on leisurely backcountry drives and into the laughter and swirl of dance halls. His lens embraces the people, the land, and the culture that keep so many Texans—and would-be Texans—coming back to the Hill Country again and again. The author's proceeds from the sale of this book will benefit the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation.
Author: Geoff Winningham
Author: John S. Sledge
Author: David Helvarg
Author: Brenda Laird and, The Freeport Historical Museum
Author: Thomas Gage
Author: Michael H. Marvins
Author: John Shertzer Hittell
Author: Augustin Knoflach
Author: Samuel Carter Gilmour
Author: