I received the October issue of this magazine today and Carter Smith, the executive director had a brief editorial about a couple of hard scrabble legends from Somerville County. Ed Shipman, who was the proprietor of Happy Hill Farm, which was an extraordinary home and school for children. He recently passed away. Also, he gave homage to another Texas legend, John Graves, who wrote extensively about life in the hard scrabble country around Glen Rose and the Paluxy River. His book, Goodbye to a River is a classic. A lot of fisherman on this forum fish the Paluxy and the Brazos. Graves' book was about life on the Brazos before all the dams interrupted its free flow to the gulf. If you've never read the book you should as it is one of the better publications of a man floating and fishing the river in an earlier time. I certainly appreciate Mr. Smith for honoring these fine men and bringing back to my mind the great writings of the legendary John Graves. The Texas Parks and Wildlife is a fine magazine. All hunters and fishers in Texas should subscribe to this publication which supports hunting and fishing and all wildlife pursuits in Texas-p-

And, I see, the cover photo was shot by our own Shannon Drawe ( Texasflycaster).

Could not agree more, Pearow.

I'm a subscriber and the wife contributes to Happy Hill Farm regularly.

I used to joke with her that the name sounded like doggie heaven to me ("Fido's gone to Happy Hill Farm Billy"), but they do good work and the contributions are well placed.

I like the magazine because there are so many interesting and neat places in the state that I would have never known about without the magazine. I'm not going to live long enough to visit all of them, but I've got my list.

Goodbye To A River is one of the best books ever. It has a graceful flow to it that reminds me of flowing river water, working its way around rocks and bends, slowing down and speeding up naturally. Beautifully written it not only covers his day to day trip, kind of like a diary, as he canoes down the Brazos for the last time before the dam is built, but he dives into the history of the areas that he passes by. Fascinating stories, true stories, of life in the Texas pioneer days are intertwined with gorgeous word portraits of the river.

Really worth reading.

Is t there a Texas Highways mag too? We used to get a mag like that for bike roads.

Thanks for the shout Captain! Love everyone's enthusiasm - about the magazine!

I did not notice the cover was shot by Texasflycaster! My bad! Nice shot Shannon-p-