In June, I got a tip from a listener that something strange was happening at a body of water in east Texas. It’s called the Cutoff, and it’s a long, skinny lake about four miles south of the town of Trinidad in Henderson County.

The Cutoff used to be part of the Trinity River. It was separated from the Trinity’s main body by levees built in the 1920s to mitigate flooding. Since then, it’s been a preferred outdoor recreation spot for locals. It’s a unique place – there’s calm water, good fishing, and an abundance of wildlife.

But in December 2021, a local businessman bought a ranch which included much of the property around the Cutoff. The tipster told me that in February, the landowner had a fence put up to block access to the water itself – depriving folks of what’s been a public asset for years.

That turned out to be true. Over the next couple months I spent time digging into documents, talking to locals, lawyers and state agencies, and generally trying to make sense of how a public asset could be taken away so easily from the people who use it.

The result is the story that’s on our show today – a story about how people respond when something of theirs gets taken away, and about who the state’s bureaucracy is set up to serve.

You can listen to it here.

The Texas Standard team – including Raul Alonzo, Shelly Brisbin, Wells Dunbar, Michael Minasi, Gabby Muñoz, and Laura Rice – has worked hard to bring it to you.

Thanks for listening. And if there’s something happening in your part of Texas that we should know about, let us know!

Reach out through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, or send an email here.

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