Henry Chappell

You’ll find more fine shotguns and rifles at Gordy & Sons in Houston than at Purdey, Rigby, and Boss in London. Russell Gordy invited me into his vault. I’ve got your story.

Urban business interests and water developers want to condemn and drown some 16,000 acres of hardwood bottomland and farmland in northern Fannin County, Texas with a reservoir that will supply water to the thirsty and ever-growing Dallas-Fort Worth area. Here’s my take on the controversy in the latest issue of The Land Report. My thanks to editor Eric O’Keefe and his staff, and to Russell Graves for his fabulous photos. Much like the Marvin Nichols Reservoir controversy on the Sulphur River, the Bois d’Arc Creek fight pits rural Texans against urban interests. Given that Texas’s population is projected to double over the next forty years, the fighting will surely become more desperate.

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The latest issue of The Land Report features a long excerpt from Horses to Ride, Cattle to Cut: The San Antonio Viejo Ranch of Texas. Of course Wyman Meinzer's photos make the thing read a hell of a lot better. My thanks and compliments to editor Eric O'Keefe and his staff at TLR.  Read More 

Here's a little piece about a trip I made to Boone Pickens's Mesa Vista Ranch back in January. Great people, great hunt, and great photos by Wyman Meinzer and Russell Graves.

Had a fine time working on this one - with great friends Wyman and Sylinda Meinzer, Eric O'Keefe, and our host and friend James Clement, down at Santa Gertrudis. We worked hard during the day and drank a lot of wine at night, sitting by the pool house, the Big House looming in the darkness. Now I can't think of King Ranch without remembering peacocks plucking peanuts from Wyman's hand.

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