Terlingua Texas Trip ( #AtoZChallenge )

 

      Too many years ago now it seems, a friend and I took a trip to Texas during which we took a side trip to the ghost town of Terlingua.  So much has changed since that visit, but still it lingers in my memory...

      Texas held a lure for me back in the seventies after I had graduated from high school and started college.  My friend Vernon and I often took day drives around our home stomping grounds in Tennessee, but the call of the roads in distance places were calling out to us.  After seeing a family friend's home movies about his travels in West Texas and reading a story in the paper about the national park of Big Bend in Texas, I convinced Vernon that on his July vacation we should take a trip down there.  He was keen on the idea and we made that trip in 1974.

 

     This was one of my first major trips away from home without parents and family and it was a fine one. Big Bend certainly exceeded every expectation I had formed from what I had heard about it.  Such a spectacular park that was such a contrast from the Great Smokies that we were so used to. This was Vernon's first experience with desert terrain and my first in this portion of Texas.  We camped at three different locations in the park and hiked as much as we could in the desert heat.

      One day we decided to drive about a hundred miles west along the Rio Grande River to visit the border town of Ojinaga Mexico.  Once again, this was Vernon's first experience with going to Mexico and my first outside of Tijuana and its environs. 

     On the way to Ojinaga we made a stop near the national park western entrance to the "ghost town" of Terlingua.  Before making our trip, I had read about Terlingua during my research and decided that this should be a must see.  The concept of a ghost town intrigued me as well as it did Vernon, who was always interested in historical sites.  

      At that time, Terlingua was nowhere as near developed as it is now.  These days it is a tourist stop and a resort area.  Back then it was mostly abandoned.  We spent some time looking through crumbling ruins of buildings and taking a lot of photos.  A highlight was an old movie theater that no longer had a roof.  On the adobe walls someone had painted a vast mural of different people--movie goers perhaps--in comical poses and dressed in whimsical garb. 

      I suppose Vernon still has the photos he took. I don't recall if I have any in any of my old photo albums.  I stopped in Terlingua with my wife a few years back.  Things had changed a great deal.  We stopped at a store for snacks and drinks before moving on. I don't know if any of the old buildings still remain.  Maybe I'll go back one day, but probably not.  It's a pretty remote place.  You never know though.  Maybe someday in my future there could be another Terlingua Texas Trip.

     Have you been to Big Bend National Park?   Are you familiar with Terlingua Texas?   What are your favorite ingredients for chili?