Undiscovered Texas

See lesser-known, less crowded spots worth a visit.

- BY JOHNNY D. BOGGS

On the main drag of Warrenton, an unincorporated community in Fayette County

Most tourists and history buffs come to Texas to see those bucket-list sites: the Alamo in San Antonio... Fort Worth's Stockyards... the remote but mesmerizing Big Bend... Austin's music scene... the Hill Country's charm... the Panhandle's Palo Duro Canyon. But I'm hitting lesser-known but oughta-see spots, most of them found in or near major metropolitan cities but don't get enough recognition.

Take San Antonio's Witte Museum, which certainly made an impression with Black Cowboys: An American Story. The exhibit closed in April and has moved to the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles through January 4.

There's still a lot of great things to catch here, at the permanent Naylor Family Dinosaur Gallery, Kittie West Nelson Ferguson People of the Pecos Gallery and—especially for Texas and history buffs—the Robert J. & Helen C. Kleberg South Texas Heritage Center.

While Waco draws most Texas Ranger aficionados to its Texas Ranger Hall of Fame & Museum, San Antonio has a pretty good museum, too. The Texas Ranger Museum, which opened in 2006 in partnership with the funky Buckhorn Saloon and Museum, remembers Rangers legends from John B. Armstrong to Frank Hamer to Joaquin Jackson.

Another great art museum can be found about an hour northwest of San Antonio in Texas's fabled Hill Country.

Kerrville's Museum of Western Art started more than 40 years ago as the Cowboy Artists of America Museum, which was formed to house artwork from the members-only Cowboy Artists of America. CAA had been founded in 1965 by cowboy artists who were “committed” to making quality and authentic art portraying the cowboy West."