On Monday, April 8, residents of the Bluebonnet service area will be treated to a rare celestial event: an eclipse that will darken the midday sun across the region.
By Sharon Jayson
Students across the Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative area are readying special telescopes and protective eyewear. Astronomy experts and photographers are brimming with excitement. Public safety departments are preparing for the likelihood that drivers will abruptly stop to stare into the sky.
Two graduates began their co-op careers as interns; four additional staff members receive advanced technical training certifications
By Sidni Carruthers
Fifteen
History is alive and essential to Bluebonnet-area towns. That’s why examples still stand, from busy Main Streets to quiet back roads.
Stories by Addie Broyles,
Sarah Beckham and Sara Abrego
Long before cars or electricity, resilient men and women built lives in Central Texas.
Immigrants and settlers were determined to make this rugged land their home. Many towns were settled more than 200 years ago — some through forceful means — in the vast 3,800-square-mile area currently powered by Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative.
Soak up the town’s history, shopping and dining
By Camille Wheeler
From its lone stoplight where U.S. 290 meets FM 1155, Chappell Hill opens like a history book. The two-lane road serves as both Main Street and a stretch of the Texas Independence Trail reaching into the Washington County countryside. On this general path, Stephen F. Austin established his first colony in 1821. A small community with an estimated population of 1,000, Chappell Hill has numerous homes and businesses with national and state historic designations.
Today’s bullfighters skip the face paint and silly clothes for the serious business of protecting riders in the rodeo ring
Story by Pam LeBlanc -- Photos by Laura Skelding
If a snot-slinging, 1,500-pound hunk of muscle and rage hurtled across an arena in your direction, would you run toward it or beat a hasty escape?
Your answer could determine whether you’d make a good bullfighter, the term now used in the U.S. and Canada to describe the rodeo athletes who distract bulls and protect riders during bull-riding competitions.
Visiting 14 historic homes across the Bluebonnet region
Stories by Clayton Stromberger and Addie Broyles; photos by Sarah Beal
Sprinkled around the Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative service area are hardy survivors of bygone eras — historic houses that have somehow dodged the vagaries of decay, fire, lightning strikes, changing tastes in home design and the human impulse to scrape away the past to make room for something new and novel.
Call it hip camping or just a new way to enjoy nature on someone else’s beautiful land.
Stories by Addie Broyles Photos by Laura Skelding
Nature lovers have found a new way to sleep under the big, bright stars of Central Texas by camping on privately owned land discovered through the use of websites such as Hipcamp, The Dyrt, Tentrr and even Airbnb.
Test your knowledge of friends and foes in Central Texas landscapes
By Addie Broyles
They seemed like good ideas at the time.
Remember the Chinaberry tree in your parents’ backyard? Who didn’t have a thick privet hedge for privacy? And what’s so bad about a backyard full of Bermuda grass?
The bark scale and lone star tick are high on the bad-bug list in Central Texas. Do you know what they look like?
Enjoy the artwork, hometown feel and shopping in Bastrop County
By Laura Castro
Residents here have a standard warning for visitors: You’re going to fall in love with Smithville. The picturesque community of more than 4,000 along the Colorado River in Bastrop County, off State Highway 71 about 40 miles southeast of Austin, abounds with smalltown charm, historic buildings, museums, antique railcars, and oak tree-lined streets and parks. There are popular restaurants, eclectic shops and stylish art galleries scattered along or near historic downtown Main Street.
