Hey friends, welcome back to Grand Adventure! I'm your host Marc Guido, and when you think of Texas,
mountains may not be the first thing that comes to mind. However, we are in the Davis Mountains
of West Texas. It's a beautiful area that we're going to share with you this week, so stay tuned.
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Originally named the Limpia Mountains, the Davis Mountains are now named for a frontier-era fort
situated at their feet that itself was named for confederate president Jefferson Davis, who at
the time was the Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce. The nearby town of Fort Davis and
surrounding Jeff Davis County also bear his name. The highest peak in this sky island surrounded
by a flat Texas desert is Mount Livermore at 8,383 feet, the fifth highest point in Texas.
Most of the land here is privately owned; however, the Nature Conservancy owns a large
33,000-acre tract that's open for recreation,
as is the popular Davis Mountains State Park that we're exploring today.
The Civilian Conservation Corps began development of the park in 1933 at elevations that range
between 5,000 and 6,000 feet above sea level. It is adjacent to Fort Davis National Historic Site,
and the two facilites are connected by four miles of hiking trails. There's camping available here,
but know that the deep valley that houses the campground is a dead zone for cell service.
Within the park is the "Indian Lodge", an adobe motel with thirty-nine rooms. Sixteen were
completed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1939, and 24 more were added in a 1967 expansion.
The McDonald Observatory here on Mount Locke is part of the University of
Texas at Austin. It was originally endowed by the Texas banker William Johnson McDonald, who when he
died in 1926 left the bulk of his fortune to the University to endow an astronomical observatory.
When first dedicated in 1939 the Otto Struve Telescope was the second largest in the world.
The isolated town of Fort Davis contains barely 1,200 residents,
surrounded by a whole lot of open West Texas desert.
At 4,900 feet Fort Davis has the highest elevation above sea level of any county
seat in Texas. The town is host to a small variety of eateries, gift shops and very basic services.
With cell service that we need for work lacking in the state park,
we've settled into Davis Mountain RV Park for our visit to the area. The park has 24 full-hookup
sites with both 30A and 50A service available, all of them pull-through. We're paying $30 per night,
as are our Salt Lake City friends Dale and Pat who have once again caught up with us here. Spacing
between sites feels generous as the campground has been barely occupied throughout our stay.
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Fort Davis National Historic Site, operated by the National Park Service, was established in 1961 to
protect one of the best remaining examples of an Indian Wars-era United States Army
fort in the southwestern United States. It was established in October 1854 to protect emigrants,
mail coaches, and freight wagons on the San Antonio-El Paso Road and the Chihuahua Trail.
Today, the site includes 24 restored historic buildings and over 100 ruins and foundations.
Five of the historic buildings have been refurbished to their state in the 1880s, making
it easy for visitors to envision themselves being at the fort at the height of its development.
We're making our way 21 miles south of Fort Davis to visit Marfa. This collared peccary,
better known locally by its Spanish name javelina, seems to have the same idea.
We first passed through Marfa en route to Big Bend at this same time of year in 2019,
and to be forthright our experience in Marfa in 2021 doesn't match our memory of the town from
2019 as a vibrant and festive arts community. We're not really sure what happened. Perhaps
it's our memory, maybe it's the impact of COVID, or it could be some other reason altogether,
but on this visit we're finding Marfa to feel somewhat empty and in a general state of decay.
There are of course exceptions, including the beautiful and historic Hotel Paisano
that hosted Hollywood when the classic 1956 western movie Giant starring James Dean,
Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson was filmed in Marfa by Director George Stevens.
Another business well worth visiting in Marfa is the Al Campo Wine Bar & Rustic Bistro.
Patricia ordered the smoked chicken, which the proprietor slow cooks for seven hours each day.
It was to die for.
So we truly hope that you've enjoyed visiting this beautiful area of West Texas with us! If
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until next week please remember, life is nothing but a Grand Adventure! We'll see you then.