Camping Near a Ghost Town

April 26, 2013

It was a quiet morning at Chisos Campground when we awoke—not much birdsong, unfortunately. We took a hike down toward the Window before breakfast, while it was still relatively cool, and saw just a few birds, but no new ones to add to our list. So no painted bunting yet…  We did see a jackrabbit and a group of five Carmen Mountains whitetail deer running and playing with each other in a flat area below us, and we watched them a while through our binoculars. This is a subspecies of whitetail deer that is found just in this mountainous area of West Texas and Mexico. These deer are much smaller than our Virginia whitetails—a mature buck measures just 33 inches at the shoulder. Cute little things.

After breakfast, we packed up and headed back to the Chisos Lodge area to get our email and look around some more. We took more photos and ordered some hummus wraps for lunch from the restaurant. 

Last view of the Window where we have lunch

Enough for supper too. The British publisher I work for, Elsevier, just sent me a new book to edit, this one called The Role of Animals in Emerging Viral Diseases, so I’ll have some work to do over the next couple of weeks. I downloaded all the files from their website while at the restaurant. I love it that I can do my work on the road!

We’re now heading just outside of the National Park to an RV park near a ghost town called Terlingua. This was a quicksilver (mercury) mining town around the late 1800s/early 1900s but the mining operations pulled out in the 1940s. Sounds like an interesting place to explore. Its claim to fame now is that the “ghost town” is the site of the national chili cook-off championship in November! We’re actually coming here to book a jeep tour of the national park, so we can see some of the rougher areas where we can’t take our RoadTrek, and learn a little more about the area’s history and geology—but we also wanted to check out the ghost town. (Several outfitters of tours and river rafting trips are located near the ghost town.) We first check into BJ’s RV Park, a dusty camp of motley trailers and a few large RVs, some looking like permanent living places with yards and fences and garden ornaments. Milton, the caretaker, checks us in. When I ask if he’ll take a check (no credit cards here), he tells me “Yeah, sure. In my 17 years of being in the RV camping business, I’ve never gotten a bad check.” Pretty remarkable, I think. 

After claiming our site, #2, we head back down the road to one of the outfitters that we passed on the road. They have an opening for the jeep tour we want on Sunday so we book it, after a pleasant chat with the lady who owns and manages the business, along with her husband

We decide to cruise the area and see the sights, while waiting for it to cool down a little. Along the roads are numerous groups of trailers and shacks that pass as “malls.” 

We stop at one that advertises a quilting shop and I go in to check it out while Jack takes pictures.

Marguerite, the older lady who owns the shop, is extremely friendly and talkative and has some great stories to share. She tells me a story from her third-grade years: the state of Texas wanted to purchase the land for Big Bend Park to preserve it, but it was depression times (this was in the mid 1930s) and they didn’t have the money. Someone had the smart idea that if every Texas school child donated just one dime, that would be enough money. So the state asked all the children to donate. Marguerite asked her father for a dime “to buy Big Bend” but he pooh-poohed the idea and wouldn’t give it to her, no matter how many times she asked. (A dime was a fair amount of money in those days—paid for a movie ticket.) Finally, she was the only one in her class who hadn’t donated. She thinks someone must have spoken to her father about it, because one day he handed her two buffalo nickels, and she turned them in to her teacher that morning, a big relief to her. The state was able to purchase most of the land that is now Big Bend National Park, but at first the US government wasn’t interested, so Texas declared it a state park. Later the state of Texas donated the whole thing to the U.S. government and it finally became a national park in 1944.

Marguerite also gave us some great travel tips for routes to travel and sights to see on our way out of here. She consigns “made in Texas” quilting and craft items from 12 or 13 vendors, in addition to her own quilting. She had some lovely quilts for sale, as well as jewelry, purses, placemats, wall hangings and other items. I bought a few things (more rooster placemats, Jeanie!) as a thank-you for the stories and info, and finally went back out to the van, where Jack was about ready to send out a search party for me. He did get some great photos of this mall while waiting.

Next we cruise through the ghost town of Terlingua, a couple of miles from our campground, and decide to come back tomorrow for a more detailed look. It’s a strange place of ruined jacals (pronounced “hah-calls”), which are basically little shacks made of rock or adobe mud bricks, mixed with various houses, shacks and trailers where people are now living or squatting. The actual mine ruins are nearby. The ruins of the ghost town cover a large area—we’ll get photos and more info for tomorrow’s blog. There are a few shops and restaurants, and we stop at one for some refreshment before heading back to camp, where we take awhile to get organized. We put out our awning, rug and chairs and eat a late, light supper outside. It’s still pretty warm, as the sun hasn’t gone down yet, and Jack puts a wet washcloth on his head as a cooling method—works well!

 

Jack with his "cool" hat eating chips and guacamole.

A beautiful southwest sunset.

The van cools down nicely as it gets dark and the breeze picks up. We watch a movie on our iPad streamed from amazon.com (good wifi here), before nodding off. Fun day.

State count: 8 [Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas]

Odometer count:

Surber, VA: 107,435

Terlingua Ghost Town, TX: 110,753

Accommodations avg cost: 22 nights @ $15.23/night

Where we are: