Texan Edge

Send us Fan Mail Description For about fifteen years, there was a strip of country between Spanish Texas and the United States where neither government was supposed to be in charge. It was called the Neutral Ground—and “neutral” didn’t mean peaceful. Outlaws, fugitives and smugglers found a home there. Then, in 1811, a group of San Antonio merchants carrying roughly $20,000 ran into fifteen or six...

Send us Fan Mail   Description George Ballas had a problem with the grass around his trees. His solution involved an automatic car wash, an old popcorn can, some fishing line, and a lawn edger. It sounds ridiculous—until it works. The Houston businessman and former dance instructor turned that backyard experiment into the Weed Eater, built a multimillion-dollar business after established companies...

Send us Fan Mail   Description  There’s a stretch of road between Wimberley and Blanco called the Devil’s Backbone. In daylight, it’s some of the prettiest country in Texas. After dark? Well, that’s another matter.  For generations, people have told strange stories about this limestone ridge—ghostly riders, unexplained sounds, and things seen in the canyons that nobody could quite explain.  In thi...

Send us Fan Mail Description In April 1897, a Texas newspaper reported that a mysterious airship crashed into a windmill in the little Wise County town of Aurora. The pilot reportedly wasn't from this world. He may have been from Mars. And the people of Aurora were going to bury him. Nearly 130 years later, people are still looking for that grave. This is the strange story of the Aurora airsh...

Send us Fan Mail Description Five flat tires. Rough Texas roads. And a reported 1,500 quarts of nitroglycerin riding along. In 1928, Sarah Troxel Thornton drove from Amarillo toward Corpus Christi carrying explosives needed by her husband, legendary oil-field firefighter “Tex” Thornton. Along the way, she changed five tires and apparently never thought she was doing anything particularly remarkabl...

Send us Fan Mail   Description  Who Do I Work For Today?   Imagine showing up for work Thursday morning and discovering that somebody else owns the place—because your boss had been playing poker Wednesday night.  That's the old story longtime Southside Market employee Bud Frazier told about the early days of the legendary Elgin barbecue business.  But the poker game is only half the story. Bu...

Send us Fan Mail   Description When Enid Justin's brothers moved the family boot company from Nocona to Fort Worth in 1925, Enid made a different decision. She stayed. With $5,000 in borrowed money, no established customer base, and plenty of people who doubted a woman belonged in the cowboy boot business, Miss Enid started the Nocona Boot Company. She became its first traveling salesman, did...

Send us Fan Mail   Description Before Gail Borden became the name behind condensed milk, he failed. And failed again. There was a wagon designed to travel on both land and water. Then came a meat biscuit that won international recognition but nearly broke him. Even his first two attempts at producing condensed milk ended in failure. But Borden kept asking one question: HOW? In this episode of The...

Send us Fan Mail   Description Just when you think you've got Texas figured out, she has a way of tapping you on the shoulder and saying, “Not so fast.” This time, Tweed wanders through a collection of strange-but-true pieces of Texas history: a Texas Navy captain planting the Lone Star on islands off Yucatán, a Lone Star coin that predates the Republic, blue ribbons cut from a little girl&ap...

Send us Fan Mail   Description  Long before the Alamo, Sam Houston, Spanish missions—or even a place called Texas—people were building communities in East Texas.  Near Alto, three ancient Caddo mounds still stand as evidence of a sophisticated world of farming, ceremony, leadership, and trade that reached hundreds of miles across North America.  Tweed Scott takes us back more than 1,200 years to a...

Send us Fan Mail   Description Edith Whatley McKanna wasn't particularly interested in watching airplanes. She wanted to fly one. She became a pioneering Texas aviator, served her country during World War II, and then came home to West Texas and built a successful career in the oil business. And when Edith showed up at her drilling sites, she reportedly wore a white hat and white gloves. Meet...

Send us Fan Mail   Description Did Theodore Roosevelt really name Burkburnett, Texas? That story has been repeated for years—but the truth is a little more complicated. It involves legendary cattleman Samuel Burk Burnett, a presidential wolf hunt, a new railroad town, a problem with the U.S. Post Office, and apparently a little help from Teddy Roosevelt himself. The legend may not be quite true. T...

Send us Fan Mail Description Was the famous Come and Take It flag really made from a young woman's wedding dress? It's one of the best-known stories surrounding the opening days of the Texas Revolution. According to tradition, Naomi DeWitt had been married only weeks before the confrontation at Gonzales, and her white silk wedding dress was cut up to create the famous flag. There's...

Send us Fan Mail   Description Texas Longhorns and Texas Aggies don't agree on much when it comes to football. But once upon a time, they shared the same remarkable head coach. Dana X. Bible built undefeated Texas A&M teams that went two entire seasons without allowing a single point. He helped create the circumstances behind A&M's legendary 12th Man tradition, won championships...

Send us Fan Mail Description Harriet Arnold may have been born free in Texas. But years later, her father accepted $750 and indentured her to another man for five years. Why? Was he exploiting his own daughter? Was he trying to protect her from laws that made life increasingly difficult for free Black Texans? Or was something else happening entirely? The historical record doesn't tell us. In...

Send us Fan Mail   Description Hendrick Arnold helped Texas win its independence. Then the new Republic began passing laws that questioned whether a free Black man like him could remain in the country he had helped create. Arnold served the Texian cause as a scout and guide during the Siege of Béxar and the Texas Revolution, working alongside men whose names are far better remembered today. He ear...

Send us Fan Mail   Description   Charles Goodnight had 1,800 cattle, 18 hungry cowboys, and a long trail ahead of him.  His solution was simple: take an old Army wagon and turn it into a kitchen that could travel with the herd. What began as a practical answer to an everyday problem became the chuck wagon—one of the enduring symbols of the Texas cattle-drive era.  In this episode of The Texan Edge...

Send us Fan Mail   Description   Old Rip: The Horned Toad That Just Wouldn’t Die   In 1928, workers opened the cornerstone of an old courthouse in Eastland, Texas. Inside were items placed there 31 years earlier—and a horned toad that appeared to be dead.  Then, according to the story, he opened his eyes.  They called him Old Rip, and before long this little Texas horned lizard was a national cele...

Send us Fan Mail   Description   Seventy-two years after the Battle of the Alamo, someone barricaded herself inside it again. This time there was no Mexican army outside—there was a determined Texas schoolteacher inside.  In 1908, Adina De Zavala locked herself inside the Alamo’s Long Barrack for three days, convinced that an important piece of Texas history was in danger of being destroyed. Her f...

Send us Fan Mail   Description Texas tried camels. Seriously. In the 1850s, the U.S. Army had a problem: how do you supply remote forts across the dry, unforgiving country of the Southwest? Secretary of War Jefferson Davis thought he had an answer—camels. And the surprising part is, they worked. In this episode of The Texan Edge , Tweed Scott tells the strange but true story of the U.S. Army Camel...

Send us Fan Mail     Description   Sam Houston was no stranger to a fight. He had been badly wounded in battle, led the Texas Army at San Jacinto, and spent much of his political career battling some of the biggest personalities in Texas.  But when men challenged him to settle their differences with pistols, Houston repeatedly refused.  In this episode of The Texan Edge , Tweed Scott looks at the...

Send us Fan Mail   The porch light is back on. After taking a summer hiatus, Tweed Scott returns with Season Two of The Texan Edge —and a renewed sense of what the show ought to be. In this episode, Tweed talks about why he stepped away, what he discovered while the podcast was quiet, and what will be a little different this season. The stories will come quicker, the road will wander a little fart...

Send us Fan Mail This isn't just a podcast, it's a Texas state of mind.

Send us Fan Mail   Description In Texas, independence doesn’t mean standing alone—it means showing up when it matters most. In this episode of The Texan Edge, Tweed Scott shares a story from ranch country where a long-standing dispute between neighbors is put to the test when a powerful storm rolls in. Fences, pride, and old disagreements are quickly forgotten as one call for help brings both side...

Send us Fan Mail   Description July 15, 1839 marks a defining and complicated moment in Texas history—the Battle of the Neches. In this episode of The Texan Edge , Tweed Scott explores the clash between the Republic of Texas and the Cherokee Nation, set against the backdrop of a young republic still shaping its identity. This is not a simple story of victory or defeat, but one of competing visions...