The Rio Grande makes a large bend into Mexico and forms the boot heel of Texas that is the Big Bend. Big Bend National Park nestles inside this meander, and its history is as much a part of Mexico as it is of Texas. The remote border location is historically replete with rich cultural diversity, including nomadic bands of Native Americans, Spanish explorers, Mexican and Anglo farmers, ranchers, miners, military men, and entrepreneurs. In the 1930s, a handful of people saw the Big Bend s majestic ruggedness as a place where all Americans could touch the Creator in nature and appreciate the...

The origin of the name Terlingua is obscure and lost in time. For the past century and a half, the area covered by the name has expanded to include numerous concentrations of people engaged to varying degrees in ranching, farming, and mining, or the support thereof. Farmers and ranchers produced agricultural products, woodcutters supplied timbers for the mines or fuel for the furnaces, and storekeepers supplied the goods needed for sustenance of this diverse community that was spread over much of south Brewster County in West Texas. Hispanic people who began settling the region in the 18th...