We left Kerrville around 9:30 and arrived in Fort Stockton
at 2:30. Weather there was just a bit different: 98 degrees, but sunny and
breezy. This park was definitely no great shakes; the name Parkview RV Park was
misnamed: no park and no view. It did have full hook-up, but no trees—just a
bit of grass and a whole lot of dirt. This was just a 2-day stopover, so we
figured we could deal with it.
Fort Stockton
Tuesday was another hot day, with temps reaching almost 100
degrees by late afternoon. We washed and fueled the truck, visited the Fort
Stockton Visitor Center, and headed out to do the touristy stuff.
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| Fort Stockton's town mascot, Paisano Pete--a roadrunner, no less! |
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| Fort Stockton Visitor Center |
The next few images were taken at the visitor center; they represent early settlers, the Comanche Indians, and Comanche Springs.
Fort Stockton was established in 1858 as Camp Stockton as a
result of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed in 1848, to obligate the U.S.
to stop the plundering excursions of American Indians into the Mexican states
and put an end to the great Comanche War Trail. Every year since the late 18th
century, around the full moon or “Comanche Moon,” the Great Comanche War Trail
brought thousands of the Comanche on a north-south path, up to a mile wide,
through the Fort Stockton area into Mexico. In some areas, the wide and deeply
rutted trail is visible today. The Comanche displaced tribes of Apache, Kiowa
and Kickapoo Indians as they moved into the area.
We decided on a driving tour of the historic district, due
mainly to the extreme temperatures and distance between sites. We stopped at
only a few.
Our first stop was to the Annie Riggs Museum.
Annie Stella Frazer, born in November 1858, had never heard
of Women’s Liberation in Fort Stockton, yet she was a pioneer of that movement.
Her stand for rights and personal dignity was shown at home where she displayed
a strong will and a righteous irreverence for convention in a time when most
women were overly concerned with appearances. She married James Johnson in
1877, in the local Catholic Church, and ran the local Johnson Hotel, a popular
boarding house featuring good food and abundant hospitality, all the while
raising her six children. There was trouble in her marriage, a marriage that
she was hoping would last her lifetime, and filed for divorce—an almost unheard
of occurrence in the 1800s, especially among Catholic women. Making another
poor choice in husbands, Annie later married Barney Riggs in 1891. Riggs, a
convicted murderer, who after dramatically rescuing the prison superintendent
at the prison where he was serving a life sentence, was pardoned as his reward
for preventing a prison break by four inmates. Within seven months of her second
marriage, she said she knew the honeymoon was over but she stayed with Barney
for another 10 years, bearing him several children. Finally, in 1900 she had
had enough and filed for divorce, due to “a series of excesses, cruel treatment
and outrages toward (her) of such nature as to render their living together
longer insupportable.” The divorce was granted in 1901, and in accordance with
the laws of that time, Barney was awarded most of the community property. Annie
got her piano and $2,000 in child support to be paid periodically. He never
made a payment. Barney was later shot and killed as he was leaving a saloon for
an encounter with Annie and her son-in-law Buck.
Annie prevailed through tragedy after tragedy in her life,
as brothers James Lee and Bud were both killed in separate incidents in 1885
and 1886. (Gun fights, stabbings and killings were commonplace in that day.)
In 1904 Annie Riggs bought the Koehler Hotel in Fort
Stockton, which she had been managing for a couple of years. Renaming it the
Riggs Hotel, she operated it successfully for many years. Cowboys, ranchers,
and travelers took advantage of Annie’s hospitality, only occasionally having
to remind some traveler of his manners by showing him the pistol she kept in
her apron pocket. The cost of staying in the old hotel in 1902 was 50¢ for a half-bed per night, forcing
strangers to often share their rooms and beds with strangers. Meals were 35¢ each. Through hard work and
frugality, Annie was able to save money and invest in land as a legacy for her
children. She died in 1931. The heirs of Annie Riggs donated the hotel to the
Fort Stockton Historical Society in 1955, and today the adobe brick hotel looks
just as it did in 1899, with gingerbread trim and surrounded by a veranda.
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| Annie Riggs' parlor |
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| Annie Riggs' piano, that she was awarded during her 1st divorce settlement |
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| Annie Riggs' dining room |
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| Annie Riggs' kitchen |
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| It's not what you might think...it's a pressure cooker! |
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| Me sitting at the desk where Sheriff A.J. Royal was assassinated; his blood can still be seen in the top right hand drawer. Gunfights and killings were commonplace during these times. |
There are 17 historic stops on this tour, but we made only
two more. One was to take photos of the oldest house in Fort Stockton. This
house is believed to have been built between 1855 and 1860, to house Camp
Stockton’s civilian merchant. It also served as a shelter for travelers and
stagecoach passengers during the Civil War. Now owned by the historical
society, they are taking steps to preserve the remaining ruins.
Our last stop was the Historic Fort Stockton.
Troops from the 1st and 8th infantry,
U.S Army were the first to inhabit Fort Stockton. This post protected travelers
and settlers from raiding Indians on the numerous roads and trails (including
the stage lines) heading west to Mexico and California from San Antonio. Fort
Stockton was a regular stop on these frontier crossroads because of Comanche
Springs, once one of the largest artesian spring systems in Texas. It provided
about 65 million gallons of water per day, that everyone relied on as they
traveled through this area. (One account measured the 1899 flow of water at
some 500 gallons per second!) The multiple highways and railways that came
together in Fort Stockton is due to the historic usage of the springs as a
watering stop by generations of travelers over hundreds of years. By 1938 the
large number of irrigation water wells drilled into the aquifer lowered the
water level to the extent that Comanche Springs began to go dry, so the Texas
groundwater law was established to stop the well owners from interfering with
the normal flow of water from Comanche Springs. Today the springs flow only in
the winter when irrigation pumps are not being used. All water wells are now
monitored to ensure no further harm is done due to over pumping.
In 1960 Secretary of War Jefferson Davis established a camel
corps in Fort Stockton. Although a practical success, it was a political
failure because Jefferson Davis resigned as Secretary of War, becoming
President of the Confederacy.
Fort Stockton was abandoned in 1861 when the army withdrew
from Texas during the Civil War. The Fort was briefly occupied in 1862 by
Confederate troops, destroying the fort as they left. This gave the Comanche
Indians a chance to renew their raids, giving credence to an Act passed in 1866
to increase the size of the army. Thus, the Fort was re-established in 1867 by
four Companies of the 9th U.S. Cavalry Regiment. This was one of the
new regiments organized after the Civil War staffed with “Buffalo Soldiers,” the
African-American enlisted men who were seeking stability after the war. (The
Indians named them “buffalo soldiers” because of their black curly hair which
resembled that of the head and shoulders of the buffalo. The men accepted the
name because the Indians considered the buffalo a sacred animal.) The Buffalo
Soldiers gained a reputation of dedication and bravery, overcoming obstacles of
harsh living conditions, difficult duty, low pay and racial prejudice, playing
a major role in the settlement and development of the Western Frontier.
Today at Fort Stockton, only four of the original buildings
are still standing. The barracks housing the museum and period displays are
reconstructed.
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| Above and below: artifacts found at Fort Stockton |
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| These 3 photos show the barracks of the Buffalo Soldiers |
And then the winds came Tuesday night. Wow! We rocked and
rolled all through the night. I don’t recall what the wind gusts were, but
believe me, it was quite unbelievable. Reminded me of being in a boat on Lake
Superior or Lake Coeur d’Alene in a storm.
Wednesday morning we packed up and headed to Carlsbad, New
Mexico, to Brantley Lake State Park. This 177 mile drive north out of Texas was
uneventful through often strong headwinds; we arrived at our site about 1 p.m.
The day was sunny; the temps were in the upper 80s. Lovely. The campground is
well laid out with lots of space between level sites accessible from hard
roads. Each site has a covered picnic
table area with water and 30A electric hookups (no sewer hookup but a dump
station is available). The area around the campground is open, desert-like
terrain with Brantley Lake a short walk away. Clean restrooms and showers are
nearby adjacent to a large, covered, play area for kids.
Friends Ron and Kathryn were also in the area, staying at a
KOA Campground about 10 miles from us. We met up with them for dinner at their
place, and played the card game “Golf” before heading for home. We made plans
with them to see Carlsbad Caverns on Thursday.
Thursday dawned calm, sunny, and no wind, with temps in the
high 50s. Ron and Kathryn picked us up about 10 a.m. for our drive to the
caverns. If you’ve not visited them, they’re quite spectacular!
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| Dick and me |
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| Ron and Kathryn |
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| Carlsbad Caverns Visitor Center |
Carlsbad Caverns
Located in the Chihuahuan Desert of the Guadalupe Mountains,
Carlsbad Caverns takes you away from sunlight, away from all living things on
the outside, to an underground world of gigantic subterranean chambers,
fantastic cave formations, and extraordinary features. The cave temperatures
remain pretty static at 56 degrees, so we were glad we planned for it by taking
along fleece jackets to ward off the chill.
“The story of Carlsbad Cavern began 250 million years ago
with the creation of a 400-mile long reef in an inland sea that covered this
region. Eventually the sea evaporated, and the reef was buried under deposits
of salts and gypsum. Then, a few million years ago, uplift and erosion of the
area began to uncover the buried rock reef, creating the Guadalupe Mountains.
Rainwater seeped downward through cracks and faults in the limestone, and at
the same time hydrogen sulfide-rich water migrated upward from vast oil and gas
fields. These two waters mixed, forming sulfuric acid, which dissolved the
limestone and opened up the fractures and faults into the large chambers we see
today. As the mountains were pushed up, the level where the rooms and passages
in the cave were being formed moved lower into the ancient reef rock. This
process created nearly horizontal levels connected by steep passages...The
decoration of Carlsbad Cavern with stalactites, stalagmites, and an incredible
variety of other formations began over 500,000 years ago after much of the
cavern had been carved out. It happened slowly—drop by drop—at a time when a
cooler and wetter climate prevailed. Creation of each formation depended on
water that dripped or seeped down into the limestone bedrock and into the cave,
absorbing carbon dioxide gas from the air and soil, forming a weak acid. As it
continued moving down, the drop dissolved little limestone, absorbing some of
the basic ingredient needed to build most cave formations—the mineral calcite.
Once the drop finally emerged in the cave, the carbon dioxide escaped into the
cave air, depositing its tiny mineral load as a crystal of calcite. Billions
and billions of drops later, thousands of cave formations had taken shape.
Water dripping slowly from the ceiling created stalactites. Water falling onto
the floor created stalagmites. Sometimes a stalactite and stalagmite would
meet, merging into a column. Draperies were hung where water ran down a slanted
ceiling. Flowstone was created by water flowing over the surface of a wall or
floor while depositing layers of calcite. Cave pearls, lily pads, and rimstone
dams appeared where pools of water occurred in the cave. Another cave formation that decorated cave
walls and even other formations was popcorn, which formed when water evaporated
and left behind a mineral similar to calcite but with a different crystal
structure, called aragonite. These crystals tend to be small, delicate, and
shaped like needles…” The National Park Service, Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico
In 1898 a young 16-year old cowboy by the name Jim White was the first, of almost a dozen others who found the cave entrance, to venture beyond the entrance to discover what we know today as Carlsbad Caverns. He followed his curiosity into the cave setting him on a discovery course that would last the rest of his life. It was a column of bats—millions of bats—emerging from the mouth of a cave that caught young Jim White’s attention, and he began investigating. He worked his way through rocks and brush until he found himself gazing into the biggest and blackest hole he had ever seen, one from which the bats seemed literally to boil. He watched the bats emerge for about an hour, realizing that any hole in the ground which could house such a gigantic army of bats “must be a whale of a big cave.” (Excerpted from an interview with Jim White)
In 1923, the General Land Office in Washington, DC sent Mr. Robert Holley to survey the cave. He arrived with much skepticism, but after 9 days of measuring and surveying, he set about to return to Washington with his report, which Jim White hoped would garner interest and funds for further development and preservation. This is the first paragraph of Holley’s report: “I enter upon the task of compiling this report with a feeling of temerity as I am wholly conscious of the feebleness of my efforts to convey in words the deep conflicting emotions, the feeling of fear and awe, and a desire for an inspired understanding of the Divine Creator’s work which presents to the human eye such a complex aggregate of natural wonders in such a space.”
We decided to do the basic unguided tour through what is called the “Big Room”, followed by a guided tour through the “Kings Palace.” The Big Room tour, located just 750 feet below the surface, was a 1-mile stroll around the perimeter of the largest room in the cave, covering 8.2 acres. It contains many large and famous features, and was a breathtaking experience. (We have many, many more photos taken in the cavern; we just couldn't post them all!)
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| To give you an idea of how long it takes for the dripping water and calcite to become formations, these 1/2 inch to 1 inch stalactites are 82 years old. |
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| Gathering center, 750 feet beneath the desert surface. There are restrooms, and small gift shop, and a snack area, |
Later, we took the 1½ hour Ranger guided tour through the
“Kings Palace,” which features four highly decorated and scenic chambers (the
Kings Palace, Papoose Room, Queens Chamber, and the Green Lake Room), and
descends to 830 feet beneath the desert surface. During this tour we
experienced an intentional, total blackout, where all lights were turned off
revealing the total blackness of the cave’s environment. (When we thought about
Jim White exploring the cave with only a lantern…and we depend on hundreds of electric
lights to guide our paths…)
Afterwards, after a quick bite at Wendy’s, we said goodbye
to Ron and Kathryn, who were leaving Friday morning for Santa Fe. We look
forward to seeing them again down the road.
Friday was due to be another hot day, with temps to be in
the upper 90s, so we took an early morning walk to Lake Brantley. The path was
well marked, but rugged. Along the way we saw desert flowers, geckos, grouse,
and mourning doves.
Later that day we went to a local attraction, the Living
Desert and Zoo and Gardens, located in Carlsbad. It is not to be missed! A state operated zoo and botanical garden; it
specializes in species of the Chihuahuan Desert. The 1.3-mile self-guided tour
introduced us to a variety of habitats, vegetation and animals that we wouldn’t
necessarily see or recognize as being native to this area. The visitor center
has quite a few exhibits explaining the area, its inhabitants, its history, and
other facts and figures that we found quite interesting. Ellen in the visitor
center said the tour would take about an hour and a half—we took 2½! (Notice the links for the black bear and prairie dogs!)
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| Bald Eagle |
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| Bison |
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| Black Bear |
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| Bobcat |
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| Boison Turtle hatchling |
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| Boison Turtle |
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| Elk |
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| Bull Elk: notice the lovely velvet on his rack |
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| Gila Monster |
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| Golden Eagle |
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| Gray Fox asleep in tree |
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| Harris Hawk |
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| Great Horned Owl |
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| Javelina |
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| Lizard |
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| Mexican Wolf |
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| Mountain Lion |
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| Porcupine |
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| Above and below: Prairie Dogs |
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| Prong-horned deer |
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| Raven |
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| Swainson's and Redtailed Hawks |
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| Turkey Vulture |
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| Above and below: Roadrunner |
The following collages are photos of the blooming cacti we saw at the Living Desert. Beautiful!
After a quick trip to the local grocery, we returned home to
rest our weary bones…um, feet. We did a lot of walking in hot, hot, hot
weather.
The weather cooled down that night, to the mid-50s, which
was welcome! However, it didn’t last long. By mid-afternoon the temps had
soared to the upper 90s again, and the wind started blowing. Dick took a short
50-mile motorcycle ride around the area, to the foothills of the Guadalupe
Mountains, and back roads. He encountered a herd of heifers in the middle of
County Road 34, and two elderly black men collecting mesquite for their
barbeque business. While he did that, I stayed home and went through the
hundreds of photos we’ve taken, making selections for the blog. Whew! (At this
point, I have to give Dick credit for being the photographer for most of the
photos you see. Thanks, Honey!) We spent the remainder of the afternoon
relaxing, reading, and watching a movie.
Happy Mother’s Day Sunday! Again the day was hot, with
temperatures reaching the mid-90s. The wind is sustained at about 30 mph, with
gusts up to 50 mph. We did venture out
to walk through the RV park, but were unable to stay out too long due to the
heat and wind. As you can see from the photos of our site, there’s not much to
block the wind—and it’s awfully dry.
Hope this finds you well. And, we hope to see you down the road!
Hugs,
RJ and Gail
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