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Texas: East, North Central, Panhandle and South Plains and West » West Texas » Fort Stockton to Valentine » Marathon and Vicinity (Brewster County) » Big Bend National Park

Big Bend National Park

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1944 established. U.S. 385 (Park Rd. 11 upon entry), 40 miles south of Marathon

The 1,252-square-mile park offers a varied landscape of desert, mountain ranges, and deep canyons, including Santa Elena Canyon, which was cut over millennia by the Rio Grande. With dispersed visitors’ centers throughout the park, the facility also includes historic properties in what was, at the turn of the twentieth century, a virtually inaccessible part of the state. Luna’s Jacal (c. 1890; Old Maverick Road, 6 miles south of Study Butte park entrance) is a large dwelling of jacal construction atop low stone walls partially embedded in the earth at the base of Peña Mountain. Farmer Gilberto Luna built the dwelling.

The Hot Springs Historic District (Hot Springs Road) displays Native American rock art on limestone cliffs and stone buildings from the early 1900s. The buildings were constructed as a tourist site for visitors to partake of the medicinal waters of the 105-degree Fahrenheit hot springs, which still flow within the foundations of the no-longer-extant bathhouse.

The 640-acre Mariscal Mine Historic District (remotely located off Talley Road in the south central section of the park) centers on a mercury mine discovered in 1900. With halting production until its 1923 closure, it briefly functioned during World War II. The mineshafts with their tall ruined exhaust stacks, chimneys, and condensing chambers sit fortress-l ike beside Mariscal Mountain. At the base, the remains of stone and brush dwellings crafted by mine workers are scattered over a wide area.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Data

Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "Big Bend National Park", [Big Bend National Park, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-02-FV15.

Print Source

Buildings of Texas

Buildings of Texas: East, North Central, Panhandle and South Plains, and West, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2019, 440-441.

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