Texas Highways, Volume 70, Number 2, February 2023 Page: 52
80 p. : col. ill., mapsView a full description of this periodical.
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Mountains to the majestic Piney Woods to
the roar of waves crashing on the South Padre
Island shore, Texas' natural wonders offer no
shortage of grandeur. But there's beauty to
be found in the human-made structures that
surround us, too. The places we construct for
prayer, meditation, remembrance, or rumina
tion reveal our human attempts to define
the undefinable.
Whether it's temples. churches, or cultural
sites, Texas has an abundance of places that
offer visitors, religious or not, a space to reflect
in an increasingly noisy world. Austin-based
photographer Jeff Wilson says he has always
been interested in these outward expressions
of people's faith. "It can be really powerful and
insightful into how people think." he says. "You
can see what their faith looks like built out of
brick and mortar.
Over the course of one month, Wilson trav
eled to nearly every region of Texas capturing
some of the state's most sacred spaces. There
are the religious, like the San Fernando
Cathedral in San Antonio: and the secular,
like Houston's Rothko Chapel. In all. he visited
seven cities, including El Paso, Alto in East
Texas, and San Juan in the Rio Grande Valley.
Photographing inanimate structures is differ-
ent from capturing live subjects, he says. "The
work itself is solitary and contemplative"
Wilson spent hours with each structure..
photographing each one at dusk and dawn,
determining how they fit into the environment
around them. To get a feel for what he wanted
to shoot, he'd put his camera down and walk
around, waiting for what the space had to
reveal. "The architecture of these different
places is so varied, in terms of their age and
expression?" he says. "They're really interesting
when you start to piece them together"
-Danielle Lopez3 E\
4 ~ 4\
N'
w 4
CADDO MOUNDS
STATE JfISTORIC SITE
SITUATED IN THE PINEY WOODS OF EAST TEXAS, Caddo
Mounds comprises three earthen mounds that once served as a
flourishing settlement for the Indigenous Caddo people roughly
1,300 years ago. The Caddo built each mound for a different
purpose: one to build a temple, one as a burial site, and one as
ceremonial grounds. "I've been all around that area of Texas, but
somehow this was my first time seeing the Caddo Mounds,"Wil-
son says. After a tornado tore through much of the site in 2019,
local Texans, with the help of Caddo, began working to restore
the area. During Wilson's visit, they were working on a new visi-
tors center and museum and rebuilding a replica of a traditional
grass house, which was recently completed.
1649 SH 21 West, Alto. 936-858-3218;
thc.texas.gov/historic-sites/caddo-mounds-state-historic-site52 rexashi lavah'IyS.com
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Texas. Department of Transportation. Texas Highways, Volume 70, Number 2, February 2023, periodical, February 2023; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1623752/m1/54/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.