Hey
Thanks for visiting my website. I'm a freelance writer. Feel free to give me some work.
The main photo at the top of the page is from the Sabine River, which is the subject of my first book. I'm the writer, and Jacob Croft Botter is the photographer.
Unless we do something to really screw things up, the book might be coming out as early as next year. Yes, we have a contract, and yes, we are full of ourselves.
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Recent-ish Headlines
- “They were fighting in the brush, and I broke it up”
- Ghosts in the trailer park
- Life on the Sabine
- Desperate options
- Baby mama
- The Bigfoot hunter
- Bad air. Blame the trees?
- Old rides, new life
- Longview Transit riders as varied as the routes
- Area mystery mounds delight archaeologists
- A return to 'The Front'
- Virginity rules the sex ed of East Texas
- East Texans recall the Great Depression
- Go north, young town
- The Neches River gets all the love
Author Archives: wes
“They were fighting in the brush, and I broke it up”
A night in one of Longview’s homeless camps. Continue reading
Posted in Poverty, Showcase
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Ghosts in the trailer park
On a cool, damp night in Longview, paranormal investigator Misty Richardson says she will not fear the spirits she expects to encounter during research of a local burial ground. Continue reading
Posted in Features
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Life on the Sabine
Its reputation is foul and dirty, but some people who know it well believe the river that snakes through East Texas is a natural treasure and vital to life. Continue reading
Posted in News, Showcase
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Desperate options
No air conditioning, rotting floors, sagging ceilings: This is how some Longview renters live. Continue reading
Posted in News, Poverty
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Baby mama
A teenager falls in love, becomes pregnant and must learn to raise her baby on her own when her boyfriend is swept up in a federal crack cocaine sting. Continue reading
Posted in Poverty, Showcase
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The Bigfoot hunter
There wasn’t time to fix the propeller, and there wasn’t time for precaution. The party pressed farther into the swamp, because that’s where Bigfoot was. Continue reading
Bad air. Blame the trees?
Curse those pesky pines for ozone woes in Longview, where air quality is once again under state and federal scrutiny. To understand why trees must shoulder their share of blame, walk into the woods and pluck a handful of long, … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Science
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Old rides, new life
BETTIE — Edsel Green parked his tractor beside the only traffic light in town the other morning and polished his beauty for the ride to come. Rebuilt from hood to hitch, every bearing and seal, the red International was not … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Features
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Longview Transit riders as varied as the routes
We spent a recent weekday getting to know a few of the passengers who use Longview Transit every day. They are elderly people, working poor people, homeless folks and others who occupy a range of life situations. Continue reading
Area mystery mounds delight archaeologists
Locked away and hidden from the nearby town of Longview, largely undisturbed for a thousand years, is an ancient and mysterious place that guards the secrets of a vanished people. It is a sacred place. It is a wide, grassy … Continue reading
Posted in Outdoors, Science
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A return to 'The Front'
Twenty years ago, reports of a dangerous slum in Longview spurred the community to organize, leading to massive cleanup efforts in poor areas around town. Some believe a similar movement is needed today. Continue reading
Posted in Poverty
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Virginity rules the sex ed of East Texas
For the past seven years, virginity has ruled the sex education of area teenagers. In that time, abstinence-only programs have come under fire nationwide, and after a cut in federal funding, the future is uncertain for the East Texas Abstinence … Continue reading
Posted in Education
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East Texans recall the Great Depression
Whether they plowed behind mules, fried up bacon for hungry drifters or rode the oil boom out of poverty, five East Texans recall their experiences during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Continue reading
Posted in Poverty
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Go north, young town
Drive north toward Diana, along the fastest-growing stretch of commerce in Gregg County. Dotting the roadway, “For Sale” signs announce acres of skinny pine trees and fields that have been cleared in anticipation of new building. Strings of retailers, car … Continue reading
Posted in Business
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The Neches River gets all the love
From the July edition of County Line Magazine Everybody’s always gushing about the Neches. The river flows through the heart of East Texas, rising in Van Zandt County. The Texas Observer calls it a “superior ecological panorama.” Texas Monthly reports … Continue reading
Posted in Outdoors
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Despite 30 years of losses, Sabine stays optimistic
For every team with a storied tradition of district titles and deep playoff runs, there is a high school with a less heralded history and a reputation for losing. Continue reading
Posted in Sports
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Area schools' wealth gap widening
An era of constant construction and renovation is under way at the wealthiest schools around the state, including Tatum and Carthage. Continue reading
Posted in Education
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Death Row: 'I was a bad guy. I thought I was a gangster'
Alvin Kelly still maintains his innocence, saying he didn’t know the Spring Hill family found dead in their home. But he talks openly about a series of crimes in the 1980s. Continue reading
Posted in News
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Cattle ranchers dwindling in East Texas
Around Longview, cows and calves are dotting fewer landscapes. Local ranchers blame rising costs, fluctuating markets and changing lifestyles. Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture, Business
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Small town, big night
Football is at the heart of the community in Gilmer and other East Texas towns. Continue reading
Posted in Sports
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New gas gold rush grips the area
But will East Texans strike it as rich as our neighbors to the east? Not as likely, say people who have studied the Haynesville Shale. Continue reading
Posted in Business
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Gilmer man can't slither out of this ticket
The only good snake is a dead snake, as Ricky Huey sees it. So when he spied a water moccasin crossing a highway bridge near Gilmer, he pulled over and got out his pellet gun. Continue reading
Posted in Outdoors
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Forest giants weather age, development
Many of the biggest trees recorded in the state of Texas are found in the Longview area. Continue reading
Posted in Outdoors
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What goes up … must come down the mountain
That’s no problem when you’re like the fun-seekers who brave the trails at Barnwell Mountain. Continue reading
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Otters among us
The playful river critters are gaining numbers in East Texas, and state biologists hope to learn more about their ways. Continue reading
Posted in Outdoors, Science
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Fast times with the repo man
Never bring a knife to a gunfight. It’s a rule to live by, but not one that applies to Longview’s top repo man. Wesley Pierce has been cursed, chased and shot at in the 18 years since he began combing … Continue reading
Posted in Business
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A dying man's 'holy calling'
Dencil Marsh’s wife calls him a billy goat the way he scrambles over leaf-strewn ledges and through deep, dry washes. Somehow, he said, he never loses his footing. He wanders foot trails through scrubby forest and brush, exploring a patch … Continue reading
Posted in Outdoors
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Anything goes in backyard wrestling
Heavy metal is pounding, and the people are ready for wrasslin’ when a man in a black lucha libre mask cuts the music and grabs the microphone. An afternoon of hardcore, backyard wrestling is about to begin. Continue reading
Posted in Sports
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A home-grown Thanksgiving turkey
The domesticated turkey has only one obligation in this life, but it’s a big one, and there’s no getting around it. The bird in my backyard had to die, and it was my job to off her.
Posted in Agriculture
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'He's given hero a different meaning'
LAKEPORT — Hundreds of East Texans stood in silent tribute Saturday as a Tatum family grieved over the flag-draped casket of a fallen loved one. Relatives and supporters gathered at the East Texas Regional Airport to meet the body of … Continue reading
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Let’s commercialize high school sports
Pat Collins is a salty old coach, a booster backslapper, a guy whose powers of persuasion can open wallets around town. He wants the best for his kids, and he knows how to get it. For proof, just look at … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Education
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Cicada song
Tiny nymphs hide among the trees of East Texas. But as they grow older, the midsummer night beckons. Continue reading
Posted in Outdoors, Science
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On the road with Wes and Scott
Vicious alligators! Death-defying ziplines! Salty buildings! Check out our six-part series of day trips around East Texas — no luggage required. Continue reading
Posted in Outdoors
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Emu on the run
A wayward emu is on the loose in northwestern Harrison County after spooking a rancher’s livestock for the past couple of weeks. Continue reading
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Can Longview’s race “monster” be solved?
In midst of LISD attendance zone debate, race relations still riddle Continue reading
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Unleashed dogs not bicyclist’s best friend
My latest scheme to not get any fatter is to ride a bike. Dogs think this is a terrible idea. Normally I wouldn’t give two rips about the opinion of some mangy cur, but I live out in the country … Continue reading
Posted in Features
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The ballad of Billy Ray
LINDEN — Whatever happened to Billy Ray Johnson? For years, the middle-aged, mentally challenged black man had been a familiar face around town. But on a September night in 2003, four young white men gave Johnson beer at a pasture … Continue reading
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Some area towns put lots of cash in, get little out
In 1989, the state Legislature authorized a new half-cent sales tax to fund economic growth in small- to medium-size towns. The measure has been lauded as a game-changing force for new jobs and financial prosperity across the state. “I think … Continue reading
Posted in Business, News
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Death by Dr Pepper
Larry Nelson spilled his Dr Pepper on the way home from work one hot summer afternoon. He pulled into a parking lot in Gladewater to clean up the mess, but the bottle cap had fallen to the floorboard, rolling just … Continue reading
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Small-town newspaper ruffles feathers
The monthly newspaper in Mount Enterprise doesn’t report the news. It shouts it. “CRACK METH & CRIME” cries the November front page of The Texan. “What are WE doing about it?” Inside is a story bemoaning drug problems in the … Continue reading
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Comfort food and mounted critters
From the June edition of County Line Magazine Some things just go together: Burgers and fries, bacon and eggs, comfort food and mounted critters. A Gladewater greasy spoon has discovered the winning combination. The Silver Spur Cafe on U.S. 80 … Continue reading
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Selling roses to Longview’s drunks
If a man and woman are out on the town — they’re two-stepping, they’re having fun — one thing is all but certain: before night’s end, the rose lady will find them. And when she does, the man better have … Continue reading
Local school board honors third-graders
On the day he became a legend, on the morning he should have died, the outlaw Danny Tidwell awoke at dawn. It was fall, the last day of September in 1982. He wandered down to the Sabine River’s edge, from his camp on the bank, and he drew a pot of river water to brew his morning coffee. Continue reading
Posted in Education
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