Passport to Texas

Fanthorp Inn

History: Fanthorp Inn Impact on Texas Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

During the 19th century, before Texas was…well…Texas… places like Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site in Grimes County, were essential to the development of the state.

12—if it were not for the major transportation stops like Fanthorp Inn, the ability to communicate and travel would have been severely hindered.

Tom Scaggs is a park ranger at Fanthorp. The inn was a 19th century communication and transportation hub, and so much more.

30—Without communication, how can a people become educated to the rigors and problems of a new and struggling republic? How can they organize without communication to band together to make political and social changes without the knowledge of what’s going on 50 miles away? So, without the communication and transportation link, the development would have been severely slowed down, and who knows what direction it would have gone?

Visitors to Fanthorp Inn SHS get a sense of life in the 18oos, and …

06—On the second Saturday of each month, we fire up the stagecoach and offer rides.

Tomorrow Fanthorp Inn reminds us of our past and our progress.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Fanthorp Inn Stagecoach

History: Fanthorp Inn as a Communication Hub Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site is…

05—The old Stagecoach inn that brings history to life in Andersen, Texas.

Tom Scaggs is a park ranger at Fanthorp, which during the mid-19th century, served as a communication and transportation hub.

31—Before the days of the telegraph, and even before the railroad, the only way to communicate was by mail. And one of the early settlers to Texas, Henry Fanthorp, developed his home as a stagecoach inn. Basically he was providing an overnight facility for the stagecoaches tht were carrying the mail, and providing transportation for the many travelers finding their way through this new republic we call Texas.

Located at a major crossroads (about 30 miles southeast of what is today Bryan/College Station), Fanthorp Inn played a key role in the development of Texas.

15—As you can imagine, people were traveling through Texas, and traveling through Fanthorp…spending the night at a stagecoach inn like his was probably a wonderful experience in that you could communicate and visit with travelers almost worldwide.

It’s where information was exchanged and new ideas hatched. Learn the impact of Fanthorp Inn SHS on Texas history, and the history-makers who stayed there; that’s tomorrow.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Volunteer at the Gault site archaeology lab.

Pre-History: What's Worth Saving Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Texas Parks and Wildlife archaeologist, Chris Lintz, has to make decisions about artifacts from Texas’ distant past; the significance of these items varies.

09— You’re right that not every single artifact on the ground out there shares equal importance. The important ones are the ones that have context and integrity.

Soil surrounding artifacts provides context, and associating artifacts with integrity – or pristine surroundings—allows archaeologists to interpret past lifeways.

29— Archaeological sites that are buried and sealed by flood deposits contain artifacts related to a single time period and a single event. And those are the best kinds of sites that we would love to try to preserve. Those that occur on mountaintops and hilltops might have artifacts from the entire 11-thousand years of pre-history, and we can’t separate the different occupations out, so they’re very difficult to interpret and contribute to the scientific base of the area.

But Chris Lintz cannot do that if the public disturbs sites or remove artifacts from parks or Wildlife Management Areas.

14—Please leave them alone. Leave them in place. But we’d also appreciate if you’d go back and talk to the people managing the resource, because you never know what’s really going to be an important artifact that might help us interpret the resource we have out there.

That’s our show…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Archaeological Dig

Pre-History: Preserving Texas' Ancient Past Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Before Texas Parks and Wildlife starts projects on its nearly 50 wildlife management areas, they call this man:

04— My name is Chris Lintz, and I’m the culture resource specialist for the wildlife division.

As an archaeologist, Chris ensures the agency complies with federal and state laws around preserving cultural resources.

10— Cultural resources constitute both the prehistoric Indian sites, and historic sites up to 50 Years of present, according to both federal and state laws.

Think: ancient campsites, rock art, and Indian burial mounds…. With more than three quarters of a million acres of public lands, Chris says there is plenty of history to protect and preserve.

17— And that’s true. There’s an awful lot of buried cultural resources that exist out there. Our goal – before we develop projects on our WMAs—is to go out and take a look and see what’s out there. And if we can, we try to redesign projects to avoid impacts to cultural resources.

Whether TPW is building a structure or an oil and gas company requests access to lay new lines on public lands, Chris says protecting the past has value in the present.

16—The folks that made these artifacts at various times in the past going back 11,000 years, are no longer with us. So the sites that they’ve left behind are finite. Our job is to identify which resources are the most important and save those for future generations.

That’s our show for today…funding provided in part by Ram Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Dr. Robert Rice (back row, right), with colleagues from Smithsonian Migratory
Bird Center.

Conservation: Bird Friendly Coffee Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Coffee is an agricultural crop that thrives in the tropics.

14—These areas oftentimes are coincident with biodiversity hot spots; that is, areas of really high biodiversity, whether in birds, or insects, amphibians—what have you.

Dr. Robert Rice works with the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, which certifies coffees “Bird Friendly” when growers meet certain stringent criteria. Studies suggest shade grown coffee offers the greatest benefit as habitat.

15—Where coffee still is managed with a shade cover of the kind that we like to see and have defined with “bird friendly” criteria, then coffee oftentimes is some of the last remaining canopy cover—even though it’s not forest—it’s acting very much like a forest.

With habitat loss from deforestation, shade grown coffee estates serve as refuge for neo-tropical migratory bird species that travel through Texas, including the Black and White Warbler, the Baltimore Oriole, the Cerulean Warbler and others.

:15—So, they just hang out there. They might be running around with mixed species flocks, and trying to stay alive and ultimately fatten up before they make the trip back north again. So this quality habitat becomes quite important for them in terms of making the trip back.

So next time you order a cup of coffee, you might ask your server if it’s for the birds.

That’s our show…Funding provided in part by Ram Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center:
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/scbi/migratorybirds/coffee/default.cfm