Long reads on Texas towns, weather, soil and the habits that shaped how people built here, from courthouse squares in the Hill Country to the ground under a Houston parking lot.
Each piece below started with a question someone asked about a Texas place. Pick a file, read it end to end, and follow the trail into the county and town records it touches.
A family photo from a vanished depot town, a church ledger, a grandparent's account of the 1900 storm. Send it in and it may become the next dispatch.
Founding dates, county seats and courthouse histories for all 254.
More than a thousand places, from growing suburbs to ghost towns.
Church graveyards and family burial grounds, listed by county.
Ranked shortlists of companies Texans actually call.
