Deserted towns, abandoned cemeteries and buildings left with nothing but ghosts lie dormant all across Texas. Authors and photographers Dustin Rice and Morgan Page spent years exploring these places, documenting them as photos accompanied with short stories. On Sunday night, they hosted a book talk at First Light Books for their collection of findings, “Bones of Texas: Photos and Stories from Bygone Places.”
The two authors were joined by Lance Tahmahkera, the great-great grandson of Comanche Chief Quanah Parker, who helped chronicle the events of Texas history that Rice and Page found remnants of.
During the talk, the three contextualized the first chapter of the book, which focused on the Medicine Mounds, sacred to the Comanche people, located near Quanah. Tahmahkera recounted stories that involved his family, including the raid at Fort Parker in 1836, which resulted in the capturing of his great-great-great grandmother Cynthia Ann Parker. Tahmahkera spoke about the importance of opening Rice and Page’s book with the Medicine Mounds.
“Y’all put it in your first chapter, that’s special to me.” Tahmahkera said. “But your book as a whole, you are bringing back to life places that have been forgotten, and I appreciate you doing that.”
Many of the events discovered by Rice and Page when creating the book were a part of Texas’ turbulent history, which Rice said needed to be preserved.
“We should bring light to the somber events as well,” Rice said. “Lance is an encyclopedia of things that need to be written down, that need to be remembered and that need to be taught to kids. History is history, what we’ve chosen to tell is different than what should be told.”
Rice and Page began photographing together when dating, and their collaboration grew into a published book and marriage. The couple’s backgrounds in photography vary, with Page influenced by documentary and Rice influenced by mass media and journalism.
“I’m always looking for evidence of people, any trace of humans,” Page said. “Those kinds of things really excite me… But I’m also really interested in color and texture and thinking about how I can frame a story with human remnants. (Rice) is ready to run and hike and go to places with snakes and things I won’t.”
Page and Rice hope that after reading the book, people will be encouraged to go find the places that they captured.
“Balmorhea is a town in West Texas where we found this sea of unmarked graves,” Page said. “There was literally at the entrance, a sign that says, ‘Here are the instructions for burying your loved ones’… There’s so many fascinating places throughout Texas that we hope people go search out.”
As the big cities of Texas expand, small towns and their beauty are lost in the past, decaying to become the “Bones of Texas.” Page and Rice said capturing these remains were important, especially because the opportunity is fleeting.
“The clock’s ticking on these things,” Rice said. “The place you photographed today is gone, and the place you missed yesterday, tomorrow will be what we’re looking for. It’s always evolving, there’s always decay and replacement with more decay. We could do this again and get a completely different project.”
