Partners & Presenters

Amy Kohout is an Associate Professor of History at Colorado College and a cultural and environmental historian specializing in the U.S. West, American empire, natural history, and museums. She earned her B.A. from Yale University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University. Her book, Taking the Field: Soldiers, Nature, and Empire on American Frontiers, explores the surprising connections between U.S. soldiers, the natural world, scientific collecting, and the growth of American empire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her Connection to Legends at Las Moras Kohout's work has a particularly meaningful connection to Fort Clark. She has previously worked with the Smithsonian's bird division in connection with its research here, and Taking the Field examines military naturalists including Edgar Alexander Mearns, the Army surgeon, ornithologist, and naturalist who was stationed at Fort Clark. While at Fort Clark, Mearns studied and documented the natural world around him, including bird species and other wildlife from what is now Kinney County. Specimens collected through the work of military naturalists like Mearns became part of the Smithsonian's scientific collections. Kohout's research brings these worlds together—Fort Clark's military history, the natural history of Southwest Texas, and the Smithsonian's role in documenting and preserving scientific knowledge. Her presentation offers a fascinating opportunity to see Fort Clark not only as a military post, but as a place where soldiers, scientists, wildlife, collecting, and the expanding American understanding of the natural world intersected.

Allen Mack is a living historian, storyteller, and education specialist dedicated to bringing overlooked stories of American history to life. He is the founder of the Living History Foundation, a Texas-based organization that uses historically accurate clothing, artifacts, interactive activities, and storytelling to interpret the experiences of people of color, women, people with disabilities, and others whose stories have often been underrepresented. Mack also serves as an interpretive and education specialist with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department’s Buffalo Soldiers Heritage and Outreach Program, helping audiences discover the history and legacy of the African American soldiers who served on the Texas frontier. His Connection to Legends at Las Moras Allen Mack’s work connects directly to one of Fort Clark’s most important stories: the Buffalo Soldiers who served at the post and throughout the Texas frontier. Through living history, Mack goes beyond names and dates to help audiences understand the experiences of the soldiers themselves—their service, challenges, accomplishments, and lasting impact on Texas and the American West. His engaging, hands-on approach is designed especially to make history meaningful for new generations. Mack is also connected to the Texas Buffalo Soldiers Heritage Trail, a statewide initiative highlighting the places and stories associated with Buffalo Soldiers across Texas, including their history in Southwest Texas. At Legends at Las Moras, Mack will help bring this history to life where part of it actually happened, connecting Fort Clark, the Buffalo Soldiers, and the larger story of the Texas frontier while demonstrating the power of living history to preserve these stories for generations to come.

John Lomax III is an author, music historian, photographer, artist manager, and third-generation member of one of America’s most influential music-folklore families. For 150 years, members of the Lomax family have collected, recorded, preserved, performed, and written about American folk music and the people who created it. Raised in Houston, Lomax built his own career in music as a journalist, author, record-industry professional, and manager of artists including Townes Van Zandt and Steve Earle. His work has spanned nearly five decades and taken him throughout the United States and around the world. In 2010, he received the Country Music Association’s Jo Walker-Meador International Achievement Award. His Connection to Legends at Las Moras John Lomax III brings to Legends at Las Moras a remarkable family story intertwined with the music and folklore of Texas and the American West. His grandfather, pioneering folklorist John A. Lomax, began writing down cowboy songs in the 1870s and went on to preserve songs such as “Home on the Range,” “The Streets of Laredo,” and “Git Along Little Dogies.” Generations of the Lomax family continued that work, documenting and championing artists and traditions ranging from cowboy songs and folk ballads to the music of Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Muddy Waters, and many others. In his Lomax on Lomax program, John tells that 150-year story through family history, photographs, personal stories, and the songs themselves. Moving from the earliest cowboy ballads through generations of American folk music—and eventually to his own compositions—he demonstrates how songs can carry history from one generation to the next. For Legends at Las Moras, his program connects Texas history, cowboy culture, music, folklore, storytelling, and preservation—a living example of how the stories of a place can become part of the cultural memory of a nation.