The Heart of Texas: Exploring the Brazos River Basin Study Tour

$3250 double occupancy; $500 single supplement

This spring we will continue our deep dive into Texas roots when we travel the backroads of Central Texas through the fertile Brazos River Basin. The Heart of Texas is full of stories from prehistory to the impact that Joanna and Chip Gaines’s Fixer Upper television series and their subsequent Magnolia brand have had on the changing fortunes of Waco. 

The four-day tour by motorcoach (departing from and returning to Houston) will include stops at Washington-on-the-Brazos, the birthplace of the Republic of Texas; Old Fort Parker, the scene of the legendary kidnapping by the Comanches of Cynthia Ann Parker, the mother of Chief Quanah Parker; Chisolm Trail crossings, and noteworthy private homes. We will stay in downtown Waco before visiting Temple and Salado on our return drive.

We will be joined by Dr. Deborah Liles, assistant professor and W. K. Gordon Chair of Texas History at Tarleton State University, who will share her extensive knowledge of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Texas history with us, as will Dr. Kenneth Hafertepe, professor of museum studies at Baylor University. Architectural historian Stephen Fox will also accompany the tour, which will feature a mixture of historical and contemporary sites and topics.  

The Heart of Texas — cotton, cattle, railroads, fortunes made and lost, and the people behind the legends. Please join us!

Registration forms are located here. Please fill out one per traveler.