When I left off, we were in the town of Alpine. We had just finished making our purchases at Front Street Books (you can never have too many books), and realized we were hungry. David and Emily tried to get us into a couple of restaurants they knew, but for some reason, those were closed.
After some perturbations, and going hither and thither (“now hither, now thither”), we settled on Line Thai, a cute, small, and good Thai restaurant. I’ve learned, recently, that the Line Thai has closed down. That’s very, very sad, because it was a nice little cafe with excellent food. We enjoyed it. And, more importantly, the g’kids loved it.(1)
About the photos: First, not my snap this time, but here’s a shot of that terrific bookstore in Alpine I mentioned, Front Street Books (http://www.frontstreetbooks.com/). I never got a photo of it, but fortunately Martha did, and she’s a better photographer than I am. Anyway, do visit the place if you’re ever in Alpine.
Second, here’s Line Thai, the restaurant at which we had lunch. Alas, I’m led to believe that it is out of business.
Third, and finally, (and, as usual, nothing to do with the story), here’s a selfie. This dates back to the 2020 when we visited Port Aransas, Texas, with the kids. Cold that day. It was wonderful.
Anyway, we finished up, and then it was off to the Museum of the Big Bend at Sul Ross State University.(2) It proved to be a small, but informative museum about human life in the area since the first Native Americans (“Paleo-Indians”) put in an appearance here somewhere between 8000 and 6500 BC.(3) Much, much, much later, (say, around 1500 AD) Spanish speaking peoples appeared as part of the Spanish conquest of the area. (4)
Honestly, I’m not sure how much of a “conquest” it was. This was wild country, with a thin population, even then, and it doesn’t seem like there was much to keep the Spanish here. There were no communities of hard working agriculturalists to be exploited, as there were in Mexico, New Mexico, California, and so on. There were, however, hostile nomadic people, eager to raid in Northern Mexico. The Spanish government established a line of forts, “Presidios,” along the Rio Grande, to stop them. Apparently, that didn’t work. And, eventually, the Presidios were abandoned.
Things changed after Mexico became its own nation. Mexican settlers came north to establish cattle and sheep ranches along the Rio Grande. (Whether they came as far as Alpine is probably another story.) But, in any case, they established an agricultural economy based on animal husbandry, and that would be the situation for long years to come.(5) When Anglos came after the Texan War of Independence, and the Mexican-American War, they either already practiced or soon adopted the same life-style, and vaqueros became cowboys and vice versa.(6)
Oh, I ought to mention, there has been some mining in this area, particularly south of Alpine, in the mountains of Big Bend. One of the reasons the Spanish came was to search for silver and other precious metals. And they, or later prospectors, did find some. There is a town just south of Marfa called Shafter, Texas, which was once a booming mining community, producing silver. But then silver prices went down, and now Shafter is yet another Texas ghost town. Though, who knows? If silver comes back, maybe Shafter will, too.(7)
But the most recent mining boom here wasn’t silver but Quicksilver, i.e., mercury. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a local rancher found cinnabar (an ore from which you can get mercury) in an area very far to the south, in what is now the Big Bend National Park, and that led to a mercury rush.(8) The mine in question was called the Mariscal Mine, and it produced some instant fortunes. That was one of the reasons the Holland Hotel (remember that one) was built...to house the wealthy folk who made money in mercury.
At one time, the Mariscal Mine was a very serious affair, producing “almost a quarter of the mercury production in the United States between 1900 and 1943.”(9). But, once again, things changed. The price of mercury dropped. By 1943, the mine was closed, and, not long after, the area was absorbed into the Big Bend park.
Actually, truth to be told, it was probably a good thing for the area. Mercury is a useful metal. It is also sort of vicious. It is very, very poisonous--a potent neurotoxin--particularly if you breathe it. And, in the days before modern safety precautions, people who worked with mercury tended to have short, nasty lives. Maybe the Big Bend area was well rid of the mine, even if it meant a few less millionaires in the neighborhood.(10)
Anyway...what proved, however, much longer lasting than the area’s mining was cattle ranching and other forms of agriculture. It turned out that the vaqueros and cowboys and ranchers were economically more viable than mercury. And, Alpine, even with its University and hospital, still serves that world of cattle and sheep and all the rest.
And, in fact, that was where we were headed next. We were about to enter the economy of the modern ranch...with all its ancient tradition, and modern high technology.
Or, to put it another way...
We were off to the Big Bend Saddlery.
Stay tuned. More to come.
Footnotes:
1. Line Thai had a Facebook page, here: https://www.facebook.com/linethaifoodtruck/. One of its last postings, dated Oct 12, 2023, indicated that the restaurant was moving to new ownership. However, I have been able to find no references to any Thai restaurants now operating in Alpine.
2. The museum has its webpage here: https://www.museumofthebigbend.com/
3. See, for example, the National Park Services’ Big Bend National Park webpage here: https://www.nps.gov/bibe/learn/historyculture/archeology.htm.
4. “Presidios of the Spanish Frontier,” National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-presidios-of-the-spanish-frontier.htm
5. “The Original Settlers Of Big Bend,” National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/bibe/learn/historyculture/original_settlers.htm
6. “Human History of Big Bend,” National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/bibe/learn/historyculture/human-history-of-big-bend.htm
7. “Shafter, Texas,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shafter,_Texas
8. “Mariscal Mine,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariscal_Mine
9. Again, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariscal_Mine. See also “The Story of Mariscal Mine,” https://www.nps.gov/bibe/learn/historyculture/mariscalmine.htm
10. Mercury was why the Mad Hatter was, well, mad. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries people who made felt hats worked with various mercury-based compounds to stabilize the felt. The result was “mad hatter disease,” a.k.a., Erethism. See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erethism
Copyright©2024 Michael Jay Tucker
*
Care to help out?
I provide these blog postings for free. That’s fine and I’m happy to do so. But, long ago and far away, I was told that if you give away your material, that means you don’t really think it has any value.
So, to get beyond that, I’ve decided to make it possible for you to leave me a “tip” for my posts.
If you like what I write or the videos I produce, and feel you could make a small contribution to support my efforts, please go here:
That will take you to a Gumroad page where you’ll have the option of leaving me a few pence by way of encouragement.
Again, I don’t mind if you don’t. I just want to provide you with the option so that I won’t feel quite so much like I’m just tossing my works into the wind.
Either way, thanks hugely for dropping by the blog :-)
~mjt
#StampOutEnnui #MichaelJayTucker #MarthaTucker #MarthaAndMichaelChronicles #StompEnnuiLikeItWasABug #explosive_cargo #Xcargo #Marfa #Marfa_Texas #DonaldJudd #Donald_Judd #minimalism #Sonora_Texas #Ozona #WestTexas #Judge_Roy_Bean #Law_West_Of_The_Pecos #Alpine #Alpine_Texas #Front_Line_Books
Comments