West Texas

Despite the vastness of the landscape, the Rio Grande River is very much a dominating feature. Bridges to small towns on the Mexican side were eliminated in 2003 putting economic stress on the already stressed Mexican population. Despite vigilant camera technology, villagers cross the river to put out craft items for sale on rocks in the National Park. Employing the honor system a jar is available for purchases on the illegal action. Most of the people we talked with thought destroying the bridges served no purpose but too increase economic stress, the drug trade and illegal entry. In the past bridges were manned and not routes for illegals. Presidio, a spectacular 50 mile drive from Tajitas, is now the only legal border crossing between Del Rio and El Paso. It has a population of 4167. Most cars had Mexican License plates and none of the clerks in a large retail store spoke English.


We stayed at the Historic Gage Hotel in Marathon, a recovering ghost town (which it was when I was last here in 1986), at the Historic Paisano Hotel in Marfa where the classic movie Giant was filmed, and had lunch at Chuys Restaurant in Van Horn made famous by football player and news commentator John Madden as his “Hall of Fame” before heading north to New Mexico.

No doubt about it, Texas is a giant of a State. West Texas cannot sustain a large population. Many of the small towns are shrinking with abandoned houses and buildings and in another decade may be ghost towns. Ranch’s are vast and need to be to sustain cattle. Javelinas are suppose to be plentiful but kept in check by mountain lions. We saw neither. We saw a few roadrunners, wild goats, deer, horses and cows but despite signs “watch for wildlife” we are still watching.