Showing posts with label Big Bend National Park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Big Bend National Park. Show all posts

Monday, September 11, 2017

Cartridges and Postcards from the US-Mexico Border of Yore


Postcards from the US-Mexico border, 1916.


>>CONTINUE READING THIS POST AT WWW.MADAM-MAYO.COM

About a century ago, after the fall of Francisco I. Madero's government in 1913, with the ensuing struggle between the Huertistas and Carrancistas, and the chaos along the US-Mexico border (in part fomented by German agents, hoping to keep the U.S. Army otherwise occupied during WWI), the U.S. Army set up a number of camps there. On ebay, my sister found these postcards, probably sent by a soldier stationed near El Paso, dated October 26, 1916.

One of the postcards shows an address in Alliance, Ohio, a town noted for its Feline Historical Museum. Thank you, Google.

Here is another GIF, this one of some cartridges I picked up-- by invitation, I hasten to emphasize-- on private property right by the Rio Grande about 20 minutes' drive down a dirt road from Presidio, Texas. Seriously, these are cartridges from the time of the Mexican Revolution (probably from target practice); they were just lying on the ground. That is how isolated a place it still is.

Cartridge circa 1916, from near Presidio, TX

One last GIF: An overcast day on the otherwise spectacular Hot Springs Historic Trail in the Big Bend National Park. The river is the Rio Grande, the border with Mexico. At sunset the mountains turn the most otherwordly sherbet-pink. Imagine this scene with a wall through it-- your tax dollars down the hole for a perfectly pointless aesthetic and ecological atrocity. (I shall now take a deep breath.)


Hot Springs Historic Trail, Big Bend National Park
Far West Texas
(Don't watch this GIF unless you are part Viking,
it will make you seasick)

Not shown in my video: the guy hiking a few minutes ahead of me on this trail wore a T-shirt that said TEXAS GUN SAFETY TIP #1: GET ONE. Well, it ain't California. Excuse me, I need to go crunch my granola.

Much more anon.

> Your comments are always welcome. Write to me here.






Thursday, April 21, 2016

GIFs of Far West Texas: Santa Elena Canyon, Pecos High Bridge, Big Bend Ranch State Park, Guadalupe Mountains

More fun with GIFs... This one is made from my video taken just inside Santa Elena Canyon in the Big Bend National Park (with a glimpse of Charles Angell, owner of Angell Expeditions-- highly recommended). 





This GIF (below) is of the Pecos River high bridge just past Comstock at the US-Mexico border. When you're driving on highway 90 you don't see the gorge until you're just about about over it-- one of the wiggier driving experiences to be had in all of Texas.




A GIF of the Big Bend Ranch State Park entrance:






Finally, a simple GIF, two shots of the Texas' other national park, Guadalupe Mountains, from who knows how many thousands of feet:

Hmm for some reason this GIF isn't working. Here's a good jpeg:






I'm working on my book about Far West Texas, and apropos of that, the Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project with 20 of a projected 24 podcasts posted to date. Listen in anytime here.








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The next one should have news of podcasts.

Monday, November 03, 2014

Marfa Mondays #14: Over Burro Mesa / The Kickapoo Ambassadors

Just posted #14 of a projected 24 podcasts for the Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project, Exploring Marfa, TX & the Big Bend: "Over Burro Mesa / The Kickapoo Ambassadors." 

Listen in any time.




This podcast mentions Wilhelm Knechtel's book, Memorias del Jardinero de Maximiliano, translated by Susanne Igler. There's more about that on my other blog, the research blog on Mexico's French Intervention / Second Empire, "Maximilian-Carlota."

The next podcasts will be:
#15 an interview with rock art expert Greg Williams; and 
#16 an interview with photographer Paul Chaplo about his new book, Marfa Flights: Aerial Views of Big Bend Country. 

For updates, I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter.

P. S. Check out Chaplo's show at the Museum of the Big Bend until January 18, 2015.

COMMENTS always welcome.

















(review)

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Boquillas is Big News for the Big Bend


After much rumor and anticipation, the Boquillas border crossing into Mexico from far West Texas's Rio Grande Village in the Big Bend National Park has just-- today-- thanks for the tip, Charlie Angell-- reopened for the first time since 9-11. This is one of the most remote places in the Lower 48, and in northern Mexico's state of Coahuila, and though the number of people crossing was always a mere trickle, the border's closing after 9-11 had devastated the Mexican town of Boquillas (which means "little mouths").

>Read more in the San Antonio Express-News

I'll have a lot to say about these remote areas of the US-Mexico border in my "Marfa Mondays" podcasts and in my work-in-progress about far West Texas. Recently I visited the remains of the  long demolished informal bridge over the Rio Grande at Candelaria. There was maybe 15 -20 feet across as I recollect, and I saw paw prints in the mud on both sides, going down from Mexico and coming up into Texas: a coyote, I mean canine, had crossed.

I'm also working on a podcast and an essay about the Big Bend National Park-- one of the most geologically varied and starkly beautiful places I have ever seen. Stay tuned.



Friday, March 01, 2013

Marfa, Marfa & More Marfa

Oh, this country has such beyond splendid skies! Apropos of my book-in-progress, World Waiting for a Dream: A Turn in Far West Texas, I recently returned from my latest journey through Marfa, Van Horn, Presidio, Terlingua, and the Big Bend National Park, and will be posting scads more "Marfa Mondays" podcasts...

Pending: an interview with Enrique Madrid of Redford; interview with Dallas Baxter, ex-editor of Cenizo Journal; a journey up Pinto Canyon Rd and another up Casa Piedra Rd (a branch of the old Comanche war path); a visit to Cíbolo Creek Ranch, a trek (ayyy 3 hours each way, no shade) to the Apache Canyon and arrowhead quarry; and a bit about strange battle of Zapato Tuerto (Spanish vs Apaches); and yep, "Cowboy Is a Verb."

Oh, and more about the glorious Chisos and Spanish painter Xavier González.

>Listen in to the latest podcast, A Visit to Swan House
>The archive of all the "Marfa Mondays" podcasts  is here. Listen in anytime.

From Pinto Canyon Rd
www.cmmayo.com

Lone Cloud, Hotel Paisano, Marfa
www.cmmayo.com

Pinto Canyon Rd
www.cmmayo.com

Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center, Fort Davis
www.cmmayo.com

>Listen to the podcast with Chihuahuan Desert pollinator expert, Cynthia McAlister


Waiting at the Marfa Lights Viewing Station
www.cmmayo.com
>Listen to the podcast "We Have Seen the Lights" about the Marfa Lights


Near the Cubes, Marfa
www.cmmayo.com