"Centennial series of the Association of Former Students, Texas A & M University ; no. 46." A collection of tall tales and legends of the Big Bend Region of Texas.
Given in honor of District Governor Hugh Summers and Mrs. Ahnise Summers by the Rotary Club of Aggieland with matching support from the Sara and John H. Lindsey '44 Fund, Texas A & M University Press, 2004.
Winner, William P. Clements Prize, Best Non-Fiction Book on Southwestern America, 2004 Not quite the United States and not quite Mexico, La Junta de los Rios straddles the border between Texas and Chihuahua, occupying the basin formed by the conjunction of the Rio Grande and the Rio Conchos. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the Chihuahuan Desert, ranking in age and dignity with the Anasazi pueblos of New Mexico. In the first comprehensive history of the region, Jefferson Morgenthaler traces the history of La Junta de los Rios from the formation of the Mexico-Texas border in the mid-19th century to the 1997 ambush shooting of teenage goatherd Esquiel Hernandez by U.S. Marines performing drug interdiction in El Polvo, Texas. "Though it is scores of miles from a major highway, I found natives, soldiers, rebels, bandidos, heroes, scoundrels, drug lords, scalp hunters, medal winners, and mystics," writes Morgenthaler. "I found love, tragedy, struggle, and stories that have never been told." In telling the turbulent history of this remote valley oasis, he examines the consequences of a national border running through a community older than the invisible line that divides it.
Offers twenty-four essays about African American men and women who worked in the Texas cattle industry from the slave days of the mid-19th century through the early 20th century.
This collection of writings and images by the legendary Big Bend photographer offers adventure, history, personal musings, and natural beauty. Photographer-naturalist Peter Koch first visited Big Bend National Park in February, 1945, on assignment to take promotional pictures for the National Park Service. He planned to spend a couple of weeks, and ended up staying for the rest of his life. Koch’s magnificent photographs and documentary films introduced the park to people across the United States and remain an invaluable visual record of the first four decades of Big Bend National Park. In this book, Koch’s daughter June Cooper Price draws on her father’s photographs, newspaper columns, and journal entries, as well as short pieces by other family members, to present his vision and many experiences of the Big Bend. The adventure begins with a six-day photographic trip through Santa Elena Canyon on a raft made from agave flower stalks. Koch also describes hiking on mountain trails and driving the scenic loop around Fort Davis; “wax smuggling” and other ways of making a living on the Mexican border; ranching in the Big Bend; collaborating with botanist Barton Warnock; and the history and beauty of Presidio County, the Rio Grande, and the Chihuahuan Desert.
The Texas-Mexico border is trouble. Haphazardly splashing across the meandering Rio Grande into Mexico is--or at least can be--risky business, hazardous to one's health and well-being. Kirby W. Dendy, the Chief of Texas Rangers, corroborates the sobering reality: "As their predecessors for over one hundred forty years before them did, today's Texas Rangers continue to battle violence and transnational criminals along the Texas-Mexico border." In Riding Lucifer's Line, Bob Alexander, in his characteristic storytelling style, surveys the personal tragedies of twenty-five Texas Rangers who made the ultimate sacrifice as they scouted and enforced laws throughout borderland counties adjacent to the Rio Grande. The timeframe commences in 1874 with formation of the Frontier Battalion, which is when the Texas Rangers were actually institutionalized as a law enforcing entity, and concludes with the last known Texas Ranger death along the border in 1921. Alexander also discusses the transition of the Rangers in two introductory sections: "The Frontier Battalion Era, 1874-1901" and "The Ranger Force Era, 1901-1935," wherein he follows Texas Rangers moving from an epochal narrative of the Old West to more modern, technological times. Written absent a preprogrammed agenda, Riding Lucifer's Line is legitimate history. Adhering to facts, the author is not hesitant to challenge and shatter stale Texas Ranger mythology. Likewise, Alexander confronts head-on many of those critical Texas Ranger histories relying on innuendo and gossip and anecdotal accounts, at the expense of sustainable evidence--writings often plagued with a deficiency of rational thinking and common sense. Riding Lucifer's Line is illustrated with sixty remarkable old-time photographs. Relying heavily on archived Texas Ranger documents, the lively text is authenticated with more than one thousand comprehensive endnotes.
In January 1952, Aileen Kilgore was teaching forty-three fourth graders at a public school in Northport, Alabama. Her life, filled with lesson preparations, in-service meetings, countywide meetings, and special projects, seemed grim, and she resolved to change it. Remembering tales she'd heard of the Big Bend region in Texas, she wrote to the school board at Alpine, applying for a position. To her surprise an offer came back to teach at a new school within the Big Bend National Park. She accepted. The young schoolteacher was at first overwhelmed by Big Bend--the wildness, the limitless space, the isolation, and the exuberant Texas children. But she soon came to love the area and the people. During her first year at Panther Junction, she met one special ranger named Art Henderson. When he was transferred to the Blue Ridge Parkway that summer, there was a hole in her life. During her two years at Panther Junction, Aileen wrote long and frequent letters--to her father working for the railroad at Boligee, Alabama, to her mother and sister living in Brookwood, Alabama, to her sisters in Tuscaloosa and San Diego, and finally, the second year, to Art Henderson. Those edited letters make up this book.
"Centennial series of the Association of Former Students, Texas A & M University ; no. 46." A collection of tall tales and legends of the Big Bend Region of Texas.
An eclectic collection of 11 global walks and hikes, the book includes destinations on every continent but Antarctica. From one-day saunters to two-week odysseys, readers will find the in-depth story behind each trail, combined with detailed maps and a visual feast of archival and contemporary images from contributors located around the world. Climb the Stairs of Repentance to the top of Mount Sinai, the Holy Peak of Moses, or retrace the journey of the stampeders of the Klondike Gold Rush as you scale the Golden Stairs of the Chilkoot Trail. Catch the “Long Look” across El Despoblado as you stand at the South Rim of the Chisos Mountains in Texas. Walk in the Dreaming tracks of the local Arrente as you trek the Larapinta Trail along the spine of Central Australia’s ancient MacDonnell Ranges. Or follow delightful paths through sheep paddocks and woodlands filled with bluebells and birdsong along Great Britain’s Cotswold Way. But it isn’t all about the hikes and the history. There is plenty of practical information on Internet resources and recommended reading along with suggestions on what to do before or after the hike. Learn about local fauna, regional food specialties and unique customs – like the sensuous rituals linked with maté tea in Patagonia or the grizzly tradition of the SourToe Cocktail in Dawson City, Yukon. So lace up those boots and get moving. Or put your feet up and read all about it from the cozy comfort of your living room. The choice is entirely yours.