Texas Rune Forge

07/18/2026

Daniel R. Edwards of Mooreville, Texas, performed the actions near Soissons, France that earned him the Medal of Honor.

Already wounded and suffering from a shattered arm, Edwards crawled alone into an enemy trench, killed four enemy soldiers, captured four more, and was badly wounded again while bringing them back.

A Texan crawled into hell and came back with prisoners.

07/18/2026

After nearly eight years of captivity, hunger, healing, and wandering, Cabeza de Vaca and the other survivors finally found signs of Spaniards.

But the Christians waiting ahead had not come as rescuers.

They had come with horses, lances, and chains.

Episode 8: Horses and Chains is available now.

07/17/2026

https://thehistoryoftexas.substack.com/p/episode-8-of-the-history-of-texas

After years of starvation, captivity, healing, and walking across the continent, Cabeza de Vaca and the other survivors finally saw something familiar on the horizon:

07/15/2026

On this day in Texas history, July 15, 1839, the principal battle of the Cherokee War began near the Neches River west of Tyler.

Texas troops under T. J. Rusk, Edward Burleson, and Kelsey Douglass fought Cherokee warriors led by Chief Bowl.

The battle lasted two days. By the end, Chief Bowl was dead and most of the surviving Cherokee and their allies fled toward Indian Territory.

This was one of the darkest turning points of the Republic of Texas era.

07/14/2026

07/14/2026

Flying a specially equipped Lockheed 14 with a four-man crew, Hughes circled the globe in just 3 days, 19 hours, and 17 minutes.

Before he became known as a recluse, he was one of the most famous aviators and record-breakers in the world.

A Texan helped prove the future of long-distance air travel.

07/13/2026

Cabeza de Vaca didn’t just survive. In one of the wildest moments from Episode 7, he reportedly cut an arrowhead from a man’s chest and stitched the wound with a deer bone.

Episode 7: Children of the Sun is out now on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all major platforms!

07/13/2026

Episode 7 of The History of Texas dropped this weekend.

Children of the Sun follows Cabeza de Vaca, Andrés Dorantes, Alonso del Castillo, and Estebanico as their journey west turns into something stranger and more dangerous, and the castaways go from myth to living legend as healers and holy men.

They are no longer just starving castaways trying to survive.

Native communities begin receiving them as healers.

Crowds gather.

The sick are brought forward.

Food is blessed.

Stories spread ahead of them faster than they can walk.

And soon, some begin saying the four survivors are children of the sun.

But that legend comes with a cost.

Honor, fear, healing, hunger, violence, and belief all begin moving together across the land.

Listen to Episode 7 now wherever you get your podcasts.

https://linktr.ee/TheHistoryofTexas

View TheHistoryofTexas’s Linktree to discover and stream music from top platforms like YouTube, Spotify here. Your next favorite track is just a click away!

07/07/2026

Stopped inside the Stonewall Saloon Museum in Saint Jo, Texas, and this place is packed with local history.

The sign says 1873, and inside you can find everything from old frontier tools and coffee grinders to cotton farming displays, medical instruments, railroad history, and photographs from the families who helped build the town.

This is the kind of Texas history I love most. Not just the big battles and famous names, but the everyday objects, local stories, and small-town memories that show how people actually lived.

Small towns hold big stories.

07/04/2026

The Avavares told Cabeza de Vaca and the other survivors about something they called La Mala Cosa.

The Bad Thing.

Small.
Bearded.
Hard to see clearly.

They said it came at night, entered homes, cut people open with flint, and somehow closed the wounds again.

And when asked where it came from, it pointed below the earth.

Episode 6 of The History of Texas: What the Smoke Revealed is out now.