• Sierra del Carmen

    Big Bend

    National Park Texas

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  • PANTHER JUNCTION VISITOR CENTER TEMPORARY CLOSURE

    The Panther Junction Visitor Center will be closed Tuesday May 28 and Wednesday May 29 for needed maintenance. Information, backcountry permits, and entrance fee payments can be taken care of at the Chisos Basin Visitor Center.

Places

Cotton fields below Castolon, 1933
Cotton fields below Castolon, 1933.
NPS/Big Bend National Park
 
Ranches, villages, trading posts and cavalry camps all existed in the Big Bend in the century prior to the park's establishment. A number of historic districts within the park protect the tangible evidence of human history in this region; elsewhere solitary ruins, graves or camps mark the spots where history was made.

The following pages provide a brief exploration of some of the historic places within Big Bend National Park.

Did You Know?

Johnson's Ranch and airfield

The Johnson store and home at Johnson's Ranch was the largest adobe structure in the Big Bend in the late 1930's. It was from this building that Elmo Johnson ran his sucessful trading company and managed the Army Air Corps landing field on his property. More...