Mike Cox’s Texas Magazine

“Texas, by God!”

That’s what John Wesley Hardin—Texas’ most prolific Old West killer—said in 1877 when he first spotted the Texas Rangers who’d traveled all the way to Florida to bring him back to the Lone Star State to face a murder charge. The outlaw’s succinct reaction when he realized the Rangers had found him is a good way to describe what Mike Cox’s Texas Magazine is all about: “Texas, by God!”

Texas Magazine first appeared in Austin in 1896, but it lasted only a year. In 1910, a Houston-based incarnation of Texas Magazine hit the newsstands and survived until 1913. One hundred and twenty years later, in the fall of 2023, award-winning Wimberley, Texas writer Mike Cox revived the early-day magazine as an online newsletter for anyone interested in the Lone Star State—past or present. Like its predecessors, Mike Cox’s Texas Magazine will feature tales dealing with Texas’ history, culture, people, places, and things. In other words, just about anything else interesting about Texas, from the real history of chicken fried steak to humor to fishing and hunting adventures.

Here’s an easy way to describe Mike Cox’s Texas Magazine: It’s scope is Bigger Than Texas.

Special sections include:

Texian Scrapbook, an assortment of vintage newspaper clips discovered over the years by Cox while doing research for his numerous books and articles.

Mission to Outer Texas features the occasional story from that part of the nation that the late Dallas Morning News columnist Frank X. Tolbert referred to as “Outer Texas,” as in outer space. An example is “Caroline Lockhart’s Ashes: A Western Love Story.”

Postcards from Texas features a weekly early to mid-20th century postcard depicting something related to the Lone Star State, with commentary from the author.