Our travels and vision seeking through the first two weeks of March this year have been on the eastern side of Big Bend National Park. Truly, you could spend months there and never see everything there is to see, or experience enough spectacular sunsets to be satisfied. But, we decided to move on over to the western side of the park, specifically, Lajitas and Terlingua, TX.
Terlingua is the ghost town that was a serious mining town from the turn of the 19 th century until the end of WWII. Primarily, quicksilver and mercury were the game. Jerry Jeff Walker and some other Texas “outlaw” musicians and singer-songwriters made the place somewhat famous in the 1970’s by hanging out there and creating a music scene that still lingers even today in 2018. Terlingua today is a community of artists and outcasts and other types who simply can’t abide by 21st century strictures...or any century’s for that matter. That being said, there is a lot of c creativity in that ghost town that you can tap into if you are lucky, open, and real. What I mean by that is this: The artists and musicians in that area are very adept at shutting out would be hangers on and tourists interested in cheap entertainment at their expense. I found them pretty accepting of me and my music one Sunday afternoon at the Starlight Theater where a Sunday jam session usually occurs. I had a tremendously good time sitting on the porch with these folks pickin’ and singin’ for several hours.
The talent on that porch ran the gamut from really, really good players to guitar beaters. However, the one thing they all had in spades was honesty...honesty in their singing, their playing, their songs, and their friendship. A few of the folks have been there since the 70’s and are the bedrock, so to speak, of the community. There are really two scenes going on at Terlingua. One is a caricature of Terlingua, perpetuated by pretend bikers and tourist who try to be cool by showing up and acting as if they have been there for ten years. The other scene is the real Terlingua...the real people who live there and keep the ghost town tradition alive...by not trying. Some of those from the latter scene are waitresses, some are artists, some are like Archie, the car repair place owner who told mer one of the most outlandish, but probably true stories I have ever heard in my life. I can’t repeat it here as it would endanger his life, and I’m not exaggerating!
Lajitas is smack dab on the Rio Grande at one end of what has to be a Top Three road adventure in the US. For 50 miles the two lane road winds up and down and around canyons, vistas, and the Rio Grande itself until it ends in Presidio, TX. Presidio, by the way, is where Pancho Villa battled Mexican government forces and defeated them in a full pitched battle that was actually filmed by a movie company.
Lajitas is home, also, to one of the great golf courses in the US, “Black Jack’s Crossing” ( Black Jack referring to General Black Jack Pershing who crossed the Rio here with an expeditionary force chasing Pancho Villa. As a side note, my Uncle Carl Daegle was on that expeditionary force hanging telegraph lines along the way for communication.)
Diane and I often remind each other that what we probably enjoy the most about traveling is meeting characters and making new friends along the way. Characters are in no short
Our travels and vision seeking through the first two weeks of March this year have been on the eastern side of Big Bend National Park. Truly, you could spend months there and never see everything there is to see, or experience enough spectacular sunsets to be satisfied. But, we decided to move on over to the western side of the park, specifically, Lajitas and Terlingua, TX.
Terlingua is the ghost town that was a serious mining town from the turn of the 19 th century until the end of WWII. Primarily, quicksilver and mercury were the game. Jerry Jeff Walker and some other Texas “outlaw” musicians and singer-songwriters made the place somewhat famous in the 1970’s by hanging out there and creating a music scene that still lingers even today in 2018. Terlingua today is a community of artists and outcasts and other types who simply can’t abide by 21st century strictures...or any century’s for that matter. That being said, there is a lot of c creativity in that ghost town that you can tap into if you are lucky, open, and real. What I mean by that is this: The artists and musicians in that area are very adept at shutting out would be hangers on and tourists interested in cheap entertainment at their expense. I found them pretty accepting of me and my music one Sunday afternoon at the Starlight Theater where a Sunday jam session usually occurs. I had a tremendously good time sitting on the porch with these folks pickin’ and singin’ for several hours.
The talent on that porch ran the gamut from really, really good players to guitar beaters. However, the one thing they all had in spades was honesty...honesty in their singing, their playing, their songs, and their friendship. A few of the folks have been there since the 70’s and are the bedrock, so to speak, of the community. There are really two scenes going on at Terlingua. One is a caricature of Terlingua, perpetuated by pretend bikers and tourist who try to be cool by showing up and acting as if they have been there for ten years. The other scene is the real Terlingua...the real people who live there and keep the ghost town tradition alive...by not trying. Some of those from the latter scene are waitresses, some are artists, some are like Archie, the car repair place owner who told mer one of the most outlandish, but probably true stories I have ever heard in my life. I can’t repeat it here as it would endanger his life, and I’m not exaggerating!
Lajitas is smack dab on the Rio Grande at one end of what has to be a Top Three road adventure in the US. For 50 miles the two lane road winds up and down and around canyons, vistas, and the Rio Grande itself until it ends in Presidio, TX. Presidio, by the way, is where Pancho Villa battled Mexican government forces and defeated them in a full pitched battle that was actually filmed by a movie company.
Lajitas is home, also, to one of the great golf courses in the US, “Black Jack’s Crossing” ( Black Jack referring to General Black Jack Pershing who crossed the Rio here with an expeditionary force chasing Pancho Villa. As a side note, my Uncle Carl Daegle was on that expeditionary force hanging telegraph lines along the way for communication.)
Diane and I often remind each other that what we probably enjoy the most about traveling is meeting characters and making new friends along the way. Characters are in no short supply in this part of Texas and while hanging out in this area we had the great fortune to meet some wonderful fellow travelers who enriched our lives multitudes. When you travel as we are and “getting back to work” is not a priority, you tend to slow down and take the time to get to know folks. You begin to wonder why you never took the time before. We used to cram our agenda into our weekends and holidays and hurry back to work at the end of that weekend or holiday...so that we could work feverishly some more, so we could rush off to vacation and for a few days or a week, but we never really got to know anyone. We were just too busy. Not a problem now...
supply in this part of Texas and while hanging out in this area we had the great fortune to meet some wonderful fellow travelers who enriched our lives multitudes. When you travel as we are and “getting back to work” is not a priority, you tend to slow down and take the time to get to know folks. You begin to wonder why you never took the time before. We used to cram our agenda into our weekends and holidays and hurry back to work at the end of that weekend or holiday...so that we could work feverishly some more, so we could rush off to vacation and for a few days or a week, but we never really got to know anyone. We were just too busy. Not a problem now...