Legendary Locals of the Big Bend and Davis Mountains, Texas

Legendary Locals of the Big Bend and Davis Mountains, Texas PDF

Author: Jim Glendinning

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 1467100544

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"Home of the Last Frontier" is how the local radio station aptly describes the Big Bend and Davis Mountains region of West Texas, the sparsely populated area of desert and mountain close to the Mexican border. After 1848, the first settlers started to move in. They came to make a living, and a few made a fortune. Mysterious cattle baron Milton Faver ran 10,000 cattle in the 1870s. Others came for their health, like J.O. Langford, his wife, and young daughters who, seeking a dry climate, came to homestead on the Rio Grande. Today's newcomers are equally pioneering in their own way. Donald Judd was the catalyst that changed Marfa from a moribund cow town to an internationally recognized art center. Edie Elfring, an immigrant from a small island in the Baltic Sea, has picked up trash and tended Alpine's public gardens--unasked and unpaid--for years. They were drawn to what their predecessors found: a boundless landscape peopled by a few hardy, independent souls.

Authentic Texas

Authentic Texas PDF

Author: Marcia Hatfield Daudistel

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2013-10-20

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0292753047

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The Texas of vast open spaces inhabited by independent, self-reliant men and women may be more of a dream than a reality for the state’s largely urban population, but it still exists in the Big Bend. One of the most sparsely settled areas of the United States, the Big Bend attracts people who are willing to forego many modern conveniences for a lifestyle that proclaims “don’t fence me in.” Marcia Hatfield Daudistel and Bill Wright believe that the character traits exemplified by folks in the Big Bend—including self-sufficiency, friendliness, and neighborliness—go back to the founding of the state. In this book, they introduce us to several dozen Big Bend residents—old and young, long-settled and recently arrived, racially diverse—who show us what it means to be an authentic Texan. Interviewing people in Marathon, Big Bend National Park, Terlingua, Redford, Presidio, Alpine, Marfa, Valentine, Balmorhea, Limpia Crossing, and Fort Davis, Daudistel and Wright discover the reasons why residents of the Big Bend make this remote area of Texas their permanent home. In talking to ranchers and writers, entrepreneurs and artists, people living off the grid and urban refugees, they find a common willingness to overcome difficulties through individual skill and initiative. As one interviewee remarks, you have to have a lot of “try” in you to make a life in the Big Bend. Bill Wright’s photographs of the people and landscapes are a perfect complement to the stories of these authentic Texans. Together, these voices and images offer the most complete, contemporary portrait of the Texas Big Bend.

ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS & B

ROMANCE OF DAVIS MOUNTAINS & B PDF

Author: Carlysle Graham Raht

Publisher: Wentworth Press

Published: 2016-08-27

Total Pages: 430

ISBN-13: 9781371102562

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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The Big Bend

The Big Bend PDF

Author: Tyler

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9780890967065

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A long needed account of the human invasion of this rugged Texas desert land.

How Come It's Called That?

How Come It's Called That? PDF

Author: Virginia Madison

Publisher:

Published: 1958

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13:

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Tall tales and speculation have long surrounded the origins of place names in the Big Bend Country--that "wild, thorn-incubating frontier" known earlier as the Bad Lands of Texas. The "Big Bend" refers to the crooked elbow of the Rio Grande, which curves around almost seven million acres of canyon, mountain and desert. It encompasses towns, canyons, creeks and draws bearing such curious and intriguing names as Vinegarron, Cow Heaven, Shot Tower, Pummel Peak, and Robber's Roost. Invariably these names cause the visitor to point and ask "How come it's called that?" This history of Big Bend name-christenings is designed to answer that question. Authors Virginia Madison and Hallie Stillwell obtained interviews, pored over old maps and newspapers, tracked down documents, forded streams, and junketed vertically up the mountains of the Big Bend to find the folktales, and the authentic stories too, behind the names. Travelers along highways 118 and 67 will thumb through this book to find out about Marathon, Alpine, and Maverick Mountain. Langtry visitors (Was it or wasn't it named for Lily Langtry?) will enjoy tales of irascible Judge Roy Bean. Tourists to the Big Bend National Park will marvel at the three-quarters of a million acres of mountainous magnificence. How Come It's Called That? will add greatly to their enjoyment of the area by relating the lore behind the landmarks. This little treasury of stories, preserving the richness of folk history and thought, will please tourists, residents, and armchair adventurers. Written informally, with fascinating sidelights and a charming conversational style, here is a chronicle of topographic name-calling by Texans -- Book jacket.