Deep In The Heart Of Texas...In The 1970s (Photo Essay)

Lone Star: A young girl in bunches and a cowboy hat looks pensive in a series which captures the Seventies in Texas

By Daily Mail Reporter 

It's said that everything's bigger in Texas and it appears from these photographs that the state took to the Seventies love of living larger than life better than anyone else.

The soft-focus color shots show the decade in the Lone Star State with a sense of sepia-tinged nostalgia. 

The images capture the weather-beaten faces of ranch hands, trappers with their pelts of raccoon and bobcat, and young hippies frolicking in the sunshine smoking pot.

Tradition: A young boy joins two sheep shearers as they round-up the animals headed for the slaughterhouse near San Antonio

Puffing away: Two young women share a joint during a day out at a lake in Leakey, Texas

Not for the squeamish: Pelts of raccoons, fox and bobcat are prepared for market

Trappings of Texas: One of the oldest trappers in the town of Leakey shows off a skinned possum to a young boy

Big game: The first deer of the hunting season is tied to the top of the couple's station wagon

Getting into the Seventies spirit: Girls enjoy a smoke near the lake

The images come from the National Archives and are part of an exhibition entitled 'Searching for the Seventies: The DOCUMERICA Photography Project'.

The exhibition is on at the Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery of the National Archives Building in Washington DC until September 8. 

The photography project DOCUMERICA was established by the Environmental Protection Agency and captured American life from 1971-1977. 

The series which documents throughout the Seventies, covers worrying environmental issues, questionable fashion sense and cultural mores.

On the road: A local character named Woodrow Wilson hangs out in his truck by the local river

Polluted: Smoke from the burning of old auto batteries in April 1972

Fun and games: Youngsters playing tether ball at a school near San Antonio

Grabbing a slice: The pizza place in the town of Leakey, pictured in 1973

Lone Ranger: A ranch hand poses for the camera in 1973 near San Antonio

Groovy lifestyle: A woman hangs out in her camper van at the Garner State Park in 1972

Time for tea: Hunters playing poker while waiting for wild deer in 1972

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