Big Bend National
Park
Big Bend National Park, TX
July 4, 2004
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Pinnacle
The Window
Sam Nail Ranch
Homer Wilson Ranch The buildings below look like an active ranch, though this line camp was abandoned in 1945. The foreman's house makes eloquent use of native materials: reed ceiling from the river, timbers from the mountains, and large stones from Blue Creek Canyon. Nearby are the ruins of a bunkhouse, a circular corral, and a dipping vat for sheep and goats - just enough remains to evoke the era of frontier ranching. |
Burro Mesa Pouroff Trail Flash flood waters from the Javelina Wash drainage come funneling down the pouroff, a dry fall hidden from view in a narrow box canyon. The gully's steep banks and the sand and cobbles are evidence of the torrents that carve the high pouroff. |
The Lajitas Trading
Post The Lajitas trading post was established in 1899 by H.W. McGuirk. He also established a church and school here and became known as "Father Confessor" to the community along the Rio Grande. In 1904, when McGuirk obtained postal status for Laijtas, and his wife, Josefa, became the first postmaster. In 1915, Thomas V. Skaggs, an itinerant bible salesman, became partners with McGuirk and in 1916 bought him out. Skaggs operated the trading post until his death in 1945. He willed the property to E.E. Townsend, the man known as the father of Big Bend National Park. In 1949 the trading post was purchased by rancher and trader Rex Ivey. He operated the business for 27 years, selling it to Houston businessman Walter Mischer who founded Lajitas resort in 1976. In 2001, Lajitas and the trading post were purchased by Austin entrepreneur Steve Smith, developer of Lajitas The Ultimate Hideout. |
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