Suggested Sites Near Big Bend
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This document provides suggestions for sights near Big Bend National Park, including: 1. Historic towns like Castroville and Brackettville known for preserved structures from the 1800s and Old West. 2. State parks featuring ancient pictographs at Seminole Canyon and the restored Gage Hotel in Marathon. 3. Additional points of interest on the way out of Big Bend like the former mining town of Terlingua, now a tourist destination, and the mysterious Marfa lights. 4. Attractions in the Davis Mountains area such as Fort Davis historic site, Indian Lodge inn, and McDonald Observatory.
Suggested Sites Near Big Bend
- 1. Suggested sights to/from Big Bend National Park Castroville A historic district founded in 1844 by Henri Castro, who brought Alsatian settlers from the Rhineland. The Landmark Inn (an 1840’s inn on the Old San Antonio Road) has been restored as a state historic site. A walking tour of over 50 historic sites can be downloaded from the internet. Alamo Village at Brackettville The centerpiece of this Old West entertainment complex is a replica of the Alamo, built in 1959 for the John Wayne movie The Alamo. The original Spanish plans for the mission & adobe artisans from Mexico were used in its construction. The set, said to be the largest ever built outside Hollywood, has been since used in countless feature films and hundreds of television shows and commercials. Seminole Canyon State Historic Site (pictures) 2, 173 acre park known for Fate Bell Shelter and its 4000 year old pictographs, considered by many to be some of the oldest and most important examples of rock art in the New World. Judge Roy Bean, Law West of the Pecos- Langtry (pictures) Judge Roy Bean Visitor Center has exhibit depicting facts and legends surrounding the life of Judge Roy Bean, controversial justice of the peace. Adjacent to the visitor center is the Jersey Lily, the famous saloon and billiards hall where the judge held court. Marathon- Gateway to Big Bend National Park Gage Hotel – (pictures) Built in 1927 Cattleman Alfred Gage, the historic hotel has been restored and furnished with ranching artifacts Places of Interest after leaving Big Bend Terlinqua Ghost Town With the discovery of cinnabar ore in the area in the mid-1880s, the Marfa and Mariposa mining camp became known as Terlingua. Terlingua was a segregated village. Mexican families lived east of the company store while Anglos lived on the village's west side, a section dominated by mine owner Howard E. Perry's mansion, erected sometime prior to 1910. Liquid mercury ( or quicksilver) is obtained by heating crushed cinnabar and production peaked during World War I. By 1922 40 percent of the quicksilver mined in the United States came from Terlingua, but production began to decline steadily during the 1930s. On October 1, 1942, the Chisos Mining Company filed for bankruptcy. A successor firm ceased operations at the end of World War II when most of the population dispersed. Terlingua became a ghost town. During the late 1960s and early 1970s tourism brought new life to the village. Terlingua became famous for its annual chili cook-off and in 1967 was deemed the "Chili Capitol of the World" by the Chili Appreciation Society. The former company store reopened as a gift and art shop, river float trips are scheduled in the former cantina, and a dinner theater occupies the former motion picture theater. In 1994 Terlingua had thirteen businesses and a population of twenty- five. The population was 267 in 2000 with forty-four businesses.
- 2. Marfa The Marfa lights are lights which are visible from a viewing area about 10 miles east of the town of Marfa, Texas. They are the main tourist attraction in the area. The lights are said to appear to bounce around in the sky, vanish and re- appear, and thus are considered a mystery by some. To others, the lights are not a mystery. They are ghosts or swamp gas or radioactive bursts or ball lightning or navigational lights for space aliens. The lights were the subject of a segment on the TV series Unsolved Mysteries. In May 2004, a group from The Society of Physics Students at the University of Texas at Dallas spent four days investigating and recording lights observed southwest of the view park using traffic volume monitoring equipment, video cameras, binoculars, and chase cars. They came to the conclusion that all of the lights observed over a four night period southwest of the view park could be reliably attributed to automobile headlights traveling along U.S. 67 between Marfa and Presidio, TX. Davis Mountains – Points of Interest (with some pix) Fort Davis National Historic Site Located within the Davis Mountains of West Texas, the historic site was established in 1961 in order to protect one of the best remaining examples of a United States Army fort in the southwestern United States. From 1854 to 1891, Fort Davis was strategically located to protect emigrants, mail coaches, and freight wagons on the Trans-Pecos portion of the San Antonio-El Paso Road and the Chihuahua Trail, and to control activities on the southern stem of the Great Comanche War Trail and Mescalero Apache war trails Fort Davis is important in understanding the presence of African Americans in the West and in the frontier military because the 24th and 25th U.S. Infantry and the 9th and 10th U.S. Cavalry, all-black regiments (known as the Buffalo Soldiers), which were established after the American Civil War, were stationed at the post. Today, twenty-four restored historic buildings and over 100 ruins and foundations are part of Fort Davis National Historic Site. Five of the historic buildings have been refurnished to the 1880s, making it easy for visitors to envision themselves being at the fort at the height of its development. A self-guided tour of the fort begins at the site's visitor center. Living history demonstrations are common during the summer months. Davis Mts State Park and Indian Lodge Davis Mountains State Park, 2708.9 acres in size, is located in Jeff Davis County, four miles northwest of Fort Davis, approximately halfway between Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Carlsbad Caverns, and Big Bend National Park. The Davis Mountains, the most extensive mountain range in Texas, were formed by volcanic activity during the Tertiary geologic period, which began around 65 million years ago. These mountains were named after Jefferson Davis, U.S. Secretary of War and later President of the Confederacy, who ordered the construction of the Fort Davis army post. Indian Lodge is a unique inn located in Jeff Davis County northwest of Fort Davis within the bounds of Davis Mountains State Park. The historic section of the lodge was constructed in the 1930s by the Civilian
- 3. Conservation Corps (CCC) and features the original interiors and furnishings. It resembles a Southwestern Native-American-style, multilevel pueblo village. Indian Lodge was voted the #1 accommodation in Texas by readers of Texas Highways magazine in 1992. McDonald Observatory Operated by the University of Texas at Austin, the McDonald Observatory is an astronomical observatory located on Mount Fowlkes and Mount Locke in the Davis Mountains of West Texas (19 miles northwest of Fort Davis). The high and dry peaks of the Davis Mountains make for some of the darkest and clearest night skies in the region and provide excellent conditions for astronomical research. The observatory has a 107-inch telescope, the world’s largest telescope available for public viewing. Overland Trail Museum in Fort Davis Local history exhibits are housed in 1883 home of a Texas Ranger. Neill Museum in Fort Davis Museum, located in the historic 1898 Trueheart House, has five rooms of antique toys, dolls and collectibles. Balmorhea State Park features 3.5 million gallon San Solomon Springs-fed pool. Great for scuba diving. Chihuahuan Desert Visitor Center Located 4 miles south of Ft. Davis, this 500 acre research facility includes a greenhouse, arboretum, and botanical garden featuring Chihuahuan Desert species.