Part 6: Texas Heritage Trails at 50: New Directions

On several occasions private sponsors helped make the Trails materials available. At the outset, in 1968 and 1969, Pearl Brewing branded and distributed a full-color booklet touting all ten trails. In 1991 Texas Monthly ran a series of supplements presenting updated descriptions of the trails, underwritten by GMC Trucks [59] (Frost Bank would later support a similar program, in 2002–03).

But the 1990s brought another game-changer, with the first major national highway legislation since the Eisenhower era, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA). Among the law’s provisions was significant funding for enhancement of the travel experience, now that the Interstate system was largely complete. [60] Efforts could be focused on preserving and promoting highways. Planting wildflowers, Creating new rest areas, maps, historical interpretation.

[59] Description of the Plains Trail in Texas Monthly.
Credit: Barbara Brannon

In 1997 the Texas legislature tapped the Texas Historical Commission, one of the original players on Connally’s five-agency Texas Travel Trails committee thirty years earlier, to devise a heritage tourism program for the state, and to tap into these federal funds.

The agency’s 1996–97 annual report noted “New Directions in Heritage Tourism” as a strategic priority. [61] “This biennium, for the first time, the agency was appropriated funds to develop a heritage tourism program. It has been shown time and time again that visitors enjoy historic sites and are willing to spend their dollars touring and visiting these symbols of Texas history.” [62] (A significant portion of that year’s brief report is devoted to plans for the new heritage tourism initiative, and it’s worth reading the entire document.)

TxDOT made tentative plans to merge the Travel Trails with a similar federal program of scenic byways, but the Texas legislature in 1997 instead tapped THC for the responsibility. THC, as custodians of the state’s past, found itself in the position of figuring out how best to use those assets for its future. [63]

Someone—no one seems to recall who—in a September 1997 task force meeting, recalled the old Texas Travel Trails. It might have been the brainchild of Chairman John L. Nau himself. As the THC group defined it,

A Texas heritage trail combines natural, cultural and historic resources to form a cohesive, distinctive marketable unit that provides outstanding opportunities for conservation, heritage tourism, education, interpretation and recreation.

A Texas heritage trail may be defined by a common history or geography that links the resources to be preserved and marketed . . . Building on the trail’s unique identity, the program will stimulate the region’s economy, while fostering preservation efforts. [64]

Revived and expanded to Heritage Trails Regions, the program would encompass all 254 counties this time around, and focus less on the driving tour than on the regional experience. Jim Kimmel and Andy Skadberg of Southwest Texas State University’s Center for Nature and Heritage Tourism were contracted to devise the plan. [65]

Once again, counties, communities, and chambers were invited to submit proposals. Regions would operate under the THC’s umbrella as independent nonprofit organizations, each headed by a paid coordinator and run by a volunteer board. [66] They would be financed initially by a three-year grant stemming from transportation enhancement funding, with the expectation that they would become self-sufficient through the development of partner or county contributions or other fund-raising efforts. [67]

Janie Headrick of the Texas Historical Commission staff was the first statewide coordinator of the Trails program, which operated under the agency’s Community Heritage Division.

The application process was rigorous and lengthy, requiring the cooperation of numerous local organizations and demonstration of resources. Following the announcement of the Texas Forts Trail as the pilot program (a natural choice, as a local Texas Forts Trail was already in place to link several frontier forts and the Spanish presidio at San Saba), many groups vigorously lobbied the THC for inclusion. [68] In at least one part of the state — the Panhandle and Plains, local coalitions advocated for separate regions. But the original structure of ten trails prevailed.

The Texas Forts Trail Region debuted in 1998 with headquarters in Abilene. [69] A pilot study based on extensive site visits to the region was conducted and published in 1999, outlining mission and strategies. [70] Once again, caravans hit the road, and favorable publicity ensued. Forts was soon followed by the Independence, Forest, Lakes, and Brazos Trail Regions.

In West and South Texas, the process took a little longer, with the Texas Plains Trail Region coming on board in 2003, and Tropical, Pecos, Mountain, and Hill Country joining by 2006 to complete statewide coverage. [71]

Thorough evaluations of each region’s heritage sites were conducted, with the assistance of THC staff, and these provided the raw material for the brochure series as well.

[72] Texas Heritage Trails Regions, as of 2017.
Credit: Texas Historical Commission

Over the years our ten Heritage Trail Regions have operated with slightly
different approaches, projects, promotions, funding methods, and goals — and their
individual stories remain to be written. But we have all contributed rich content,
promotions, and knowledge to our state’s tourism efforts, thanks to energetic
regional coordinators (executive directors, since 2011) and dedicated volunteer

boards. Upon the retirement of Janie Headrick in _____, Teresa Caldwell became
statewide coordinator of the program.

Federal grants administered by the THC via TxDOT were succeeded in fiscal
year 2017 by contract funds via the Office of the Governor for Economic
Development and Tourism and, beginning in fiscal year 2018, have allowed all ten
regions to implement tourism and heritage promotions that have made Texas the
envy of the nation. Initiatives like regional cooperative advertising campaigns,
group travel itineraries, passport programs, behind-the-scenes heritage tours, social
media engagement, maps and books, visitor assistance during and after natural
disasters, travel-show exhibits, event promotions, community education, hospitality
training, a network of giant arrows recognizing Native history, tourism passport
programs, and full-color magazines and travel guides provide travelers with reliable
information about authentic destinations, and provide partners with affordable
marketing options. The regions continue to deliver effective results on a lean
budget.

In 2005 the Texas Heritage Trails program was jointly recognized with the
Preserve America Presidential Award, presented by President and Mrs. Bush.73 The
award was presented “for exemplary accomplishment in the preservation and
sustainable use of America's heritage assets, which has enhanced community life
while honoring the nation's history,” and the following year the program also
received a Preserve America grant for developing the Heritage Tourism
Guidebook and for providing heritage tourism training across the state. [74]

Today the Heritage Trails continue to bring visitors to Texas sites and communities,
increasing tourist dollars and hotel stays, and getting folks excited about historic
preservation, and contributing to an industry that has grown from a $1 billion
annual impact to more than $70 billion. The extensive UT/Rutgers “Economic
Impact of Historic Preservation in Texas” study (2015) shows that more than 12
percent of that is attributable to heritage tourism. As THC commissioner John L. Nau
III noted as far back as 2002 at the first Federal Heritage Tourism Summit in
Washington, D.C., travelers’ increasing interest in “visiting the past” can yield an
economic bonanza for localities, states, and the nation, if we are diligent to preserve,
research, interpret, and promote our authentic places and their stories.

59 Copies of these publications may be found in each collection cited here. Copies of some of the
1991 Texas Monthly sections, with THC staff annotations, are located in THT records, Folder 1, “Texas
Travel Trails History,” “Texas Plains Trail,” excerpt from Texas Monthly [Sept. 1991].

60 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, HR 5920, U.S. Dept. of
Transportation National Transportation Library, http://ntl.bts.gov/DOCS/istea...., accessed March
2013; “Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act,”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I..., accessed March
2013.

61 Biennial Report. (Austin: Texas Historical Commission, 1997). The advent of ISTEA, and its
influence on the enhancement of historic highways and tourism trails, could be explored further. The Texas legislature set aside $2 million for heritage tourism in 1997 when it tapped the THC to
administer its heritage tourism program, but the correlation between ISTEA and the Texas
legislature’s decision to pursue heritage tourism is not yet clear here, nor is the initial role of the
intermediary, TxDOT.

62 “Breaking Out of the Box: New Approaches to Historic Preservation,” Texas Historical
Commission Biennial Report 1995-96,” p. 5. Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.

63 [Add citation for TxDOT plans]; “History and Status of the Texas Travel Trails Program,” THT
records, Folder 1, “Texas Travel Trails History.”

64 THT records, Folder 3, “Heritage Trails General Information,” TC, Mario L. Sanchez to John L.
Nau III, Curtis Tunnell, and John Preston, 2 Oct. 1997; TC, John Preston and Mario Sanchez to
Heritage Tourism Committee, 8 Oct. 1997.

65THT records, Folder 3, “Correspondence,” TCS, James R. Kimmel to Mario Sanchez, proposal 26
Jan. 1998.

66 [Add citations from TPTR clipping files]

67 As events played out, as of the time of this writing, none of the regions ever achieved such an
ambitious goal; when the SAFTEA bill was passed as a successor to ISTEA, continued federal highway
enhancement grants ensured an equitable level of funding for ten separate organizations that
doubtless would have struggled to deliver consistent programming otherwise. When the expiration
of SAFTEA grants was imminent after 2011, several Trail Region organizations joined together to
form a for-profit LLC, which has begun to yield a separate revenue stream for the participating
partners as a result of Authentic Texas Magazine (launched in 2015) and related enterprises.

68 [Add citation for correspondence and press clippings documenting community interest]

69 Texas Forts Trails sign. Image from www.TexasTimeTravel.com

70 Texas Historical Commission, The Texas Forts Trail Region: An Interdisciplinary Evaluation for
the Texas Travel Trails Program, 1999, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. The report was
produced with the assistance of the Texas Forts Trail Board of Directors, Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department, Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Department of Economic Development,
Texas Commission on the Arts, and Robert W. Parvin, Texas Heritage Tourism Consultant.

71 [Add citation for years that Trails Regions joined]

72 Texas Heritage Trails Regions, as of 2006. Map from Texas Historical Commission.

73 “2005 Preserve America Presidential Awards Presented,”
http://www.preserveamerica.gov..., accessed January 2014.

74 “Texas Heritage Trails: A Regional Tourism Initiative,”
http://www.thc.texas.gov/prese..., accessed 8
Jan. 2018.

Author

Barbara Brannon

Historian and Author