Newsletter dedicated to traveling in Texas, including information about news, locations, and events of interest to visitors as well as statistics and summaries of travel in the state

Texas. Travel and Information Division.

Portal to Texas History

14 1493-ito º 1A t8¶ofllsApril 1984DENISON BUREAU totals were up a whopping27.9% last month over the number of visitors served inMarch of last year. Bureau manager Mike Harwellsaid even though fewer permits and licenses wereissued last month, the number of tourists who visitedthe bureau made up the difference. Harwell attributesthe increase to the beautiful weather during the two-week "spring break." Orange bureau totals also weregreater last month, up 16.9%, followed by the Capitolvisitor center, +6.0%. A complete bureau-by-bureautabulation follows the last item in the Texas Travel Log.CONGRATULATIONS TO COUNSELORS RevaKeltner and Mary Glatter, 1984 winners of theRoadrunner Awards! Keltner, Gainesville touristbureau counselor, and Glatter, manager of the WacoAAA office, were honored with Texas' highest travel-counseling award at the Texas Travel Counselors Con-ference held in Waco this month. Together, thecounselors have given over 35 years of service to thetraveling public. The award plaque carries a tongue-in-cheek Latin inscription that translates as "Getting paidfor telling people where to go." But Director TomTaylor, Travel & Info Division, said, "The RoadrunnerAward is a serious recognition of superiority in serviceto travelers to Texas."DICK ROBERTS, associate editor for Travel & Info'stravel literature, also was honored in Waco this month.Roberts received special thanks for his many years ofaudiovisual programming that gives travel counselors alook at the newest aspects of the Texas tourist industry.Taylor said Robert's presentations are regularly themost popular feature at the annual Travel CounselorsConference. Roberts, who coproduces a variety ofaudiovisual and printed tourist materials, has beenassociated with Texas tourism for more than 18 years.YOU'RE INVITED TO HANNA BARBERA LAND!A happy place for family fun. Gates opened March 31,when Laredo bureau manager Leo Garza and Orangebureau manager Bill Naivar ran into each other at thegrand opening. Garza said the colorful new familytheme park is the only one of its kind in the nation. Headded that much research was conducted before settl-ing on the Houston area for the site. Famed cartoonistsang1 owners Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera of Califor-.Y A~{vere on hand for the ceremonies, where they werenamed honorary Texans by Governor White. Han-na and Barbera are creators of such characters asYogi Bear and Fred Flintstone. And the park's theme isdesigned around these cartoon favorites.THE HANNA BARBERA CAROUSEL features car-toon characters instead of the traditional merry-go-round horses. And you'll see old friends like ScoobyDoo, Barney Rubble and Captain Caveman in liveshows, as passengers on the pedal boats, as mario-nettes in the Puppet Tree, and as live, strollingcharacters around the park. Hanna Barbera Land isdesigned to promote active participation and sharingamong families with children ages 13 and under. It'sopen weekends until June, daily through August, thenweekends again through November. It's in Spring, 22miles north of downtown Houston at the HolzwarthRoad exit on I-45.ANOTHER NEW TEXAS ATTRACTION will open inJune. Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch is a new drive-through wildlife park nestled in 200 acres of scenic HillCountry ranchland, just northeast of San Antonio.Owners Raymond and Trudy Soechting said a pro-tected observation area has been built where visitorscan leave their cars and watch giraffes, cape buffaloes,and zebras settling into their new home. Colorful andunusual birds, and monkeys, cougars, wallabies, andnative Texas wildlife will be housed in a large gazebo-shaped cage. And there'll be a petting zoo where theyoung and young at heart can spend time petting andfeeding young llamas, emus, ostriches, pigmy goats,Sicilian donkeys, and mouflan sheep. The TradingPost, will specialize in exotic and country souvenirs,and will have a snack bar with picnic tables providedunder large oak trees. The Wildlife Ranch is next toNatural Bridge Caverns on FM 3009, 8 miles north ofSan Antonio off IH-35. For more info write NaturalBridge Wildlife Ranch, Route 20 Box 515EN, San An-tonio 78218. Or call (512) 438-7400.THE GRAND PRAIRIE CHAMBER of Commercewill open a new visitors center the first of next month,to be staffed by minimum-income senior citizens. TheSheraton Safari Hotel on Safari Boulevard will donateoffice space for the center. And funds will be providedby the Senior Texans Employment Program. Directorof business affairs, Mimi Neely, said the program willallow older workers to remain productive while sup-plementing their retirement income. And they'll be pro-viding a real service to area visitors.THE SAFARI BOULEVARD AREA is home to fiveof the six major attractions in Grand Prairie - Interna-tional Wildlife Park, Wax Museum of the Southwest,Texas Sports Hall of Fame, the Fire Museum of Texas,and White Water. In addition to promoting the featuresof Grand Prairie, the center will provide information onnearby attractions such as Six Flags, Wet 'n Wild, andSesame Place. A locator map will be posted and atten-dants will provide information on hotels and motelsand services available in the area. The new visitorcenter will be open seven days a week during thespring and summer months.STATE DEPARTMENT OF HIGHWAYS AND PUBLIC TRANSPORTATIONTRAVEL AND INFORMATION DIVISION • AUSTIN, TEXAS 78701IT'S BEEN ONE YEAR since the Cowboy Artists ofAmerica Museum opened its doors. And since then,more than 40,000 visitors from every state and from48 foreign countries have toured the Kerrvillemuseum. Director Griff Carnes said, "With our newpromotion program which is just now getting underway, we hope to double the number of visitors duringour second year." The facility features work by contem-porary, living Western artists, and includes a cottageand working studio where visiting artists can sculpt orpaint. Carnes said the museum has been excellent forKerrville's economy. "Our visitors have shopped inKerrville, eaten in Kerrville, and stayed in Kerrville."The Cowboy Artists of America Museum is at 1550Bandera Highway.FOR A PEEK at some genuine petrified palmwood,our state's official stone, drop by the Laredo touristbureau. Counselor Becky Gutierrez offered a visitorthe Texas Rocks & Fossils folder when he expressed aninterest in rockhounding. Seeing four varieties of thestate stone in the folder sent him dashing off, soon toreturn with samples of the palmwood which he foundon the highway stretch between Zapata and EaglePass. Gutierrez said the visitor presented the stonesas a gift to the bureau so that others might have achance to see what our state stone looks like.TOPAZ, OUR STATE GEM, is featured in theupcoming edition of Texas Highways magazine. TheJune issue will take you to Mason County, home of theonly two ranches that allow people to dig for topaz."People still do find some pretty good topazspecimens," said editor Frank Lively. "We'll show youhow to hunt for the elusive stone." And Texas' CentralMineral Region is featured, which includes MasonCounty and its topaz.THE JUNE ISSUE will trace the history of theWestern saddle and show how it helped tame theTexas frontier. Then managing editor TommiePinkard will tell about Festival Hill near Round Top, aplace where you can hear some outstanding classicalmusic this summer in a beautiful rural setting. Take apicnic dinner and stay for a really delightful evening.The June issue of Texas Highways magazine will beavailable mid-May. Send $1.50 to P. O. Box 5016,Austin 78763, or subscribe for just $10 a year ($15 forforeign addresses).THE FIRST EDITION of the new East Texasmagazine is now available. Waskom bureau managerMilton Meharg said the 60-page full-color magazinewill be published quarterly by the Marshall NewsMessenger, and deals strictly with tourism promotion."It not only spotlights attractions in the immediatearea," said Meharg, "but features points of interestthroughout all of East Texas." Publisher GeorgeSmith said public response already has been tremen-dous. "Our original modest goal of a 32-page magazinealmost doubled...due to the faith the advertisers had inour ability to put out a quality product," said Smith.Featured in the first issue are Caddo Lake, antiquing inEast Texas, Marshall's Old Courthouse Museum, andthe steamboat Mittie Stephens. "Tourism is a definiteplus in this area," said Smith. "We have lots of thingsto offer here, but no real take-home vehicle to showthem off. Until East Texas magazine."BOX SCORE - Overall visitor totals to the Texas Tourist Bureaus are down 5.6% from last year, with only threebureaus reporting increases in year-to-date totals over 1983. But mail and phone requests for Texas travel literaturehave increased dramatically over the last two months, up 8.8% in February and 23.7% in March. With folks planningtheir vacations early, this may indicate a busy summer season at our 12 bureaus.Month Total Year Total Month Total Year TotalBureau Visitors Variation* Visitors Variation* Bureau Visitors Variation* Visitors Variation*Amarillo 11,337 -10.2% 26,700 - 4.7% Orange 36,747 +16.9% 97,344 + 9.1%Anthony 24,141 -14.1% 64,035 -14.5% Texarkana 21,930 -16.0% 54,354 -17.4%Denison 17,820 +27.9% 42,501 +17.6% Valley 38,397 - 0.4% 126,198 -13.8%Gainesville 19,917 -11.6% 54,375 - 3.5% Waskom 25,761 - 1.5% 60,921 - 3.4%Langtry 11,694 - 7.6% 25,041 - 6.3% Wichita Falls 12,462 - 6.1% 32,817 + 1.7%Laredo 18,936 -14.0% 49,572 - 5.6% Bureau Totals 239,142 - 3.3% 633,858 - 5.6%Capitol 44,109 + 6.0% 93,468 - 1.6% Astipn 0fklins) 13,717 +23.7% 29,324 + 6.0%*Compared to last yearBULK RATEU. S. POSTAGE PAIDAUSTIN, TEXASPERMIT NO. 2209STATE DEPARTMENT OF HIGHWAYSAND PUBLIC TRANSPORTATIONTRAVEL AND INFORMATION DIVISIONAUSTIN, TEXAS 78701ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTEDRETURN POSTAGE GUARANTEED'V a

Texas Travel Log

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