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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings
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BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK
Texas
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Location: Brewster County; park headquarters
located at the southern terminus of U.S. 385; address: Big Bend National
Park, Tex. 79834.
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Stretching along the United States-Mexico border in
the cradle of the Big Bend of the Rio Grande, this giant park presents a
panorama of rugged and spectacular river, mountain, canyon, and desert
scenery; unusual geological features; and unique plant and wildlife. The
magnificent Chisos Mountains soar 4,000 feet above the desert floor in
the center of the park. Although primarily significant for its natural
and scenic qualities, the park has associations with the phases of
history treated in this volume.
The majority of early Spanish soldiers, explorers,
and missionaries who passed through the region skirted the park area,
whose brooding canyons were hospitable only to scattered Indian bands. A
particular scourge to the Spanish and Mexican (after 1821) frontiers
were the nomadic Comanches, some of whom frequented the Big Bend region,
especially the Chisos Mountains. Early adopting the Spanish-introduced
horse, they swept down from their home in the Oklahoma-Texas Panhandles
over the Great Comanche War Trail, which passed through the park, and
spread devastation as far south as Durango, Mexico. To counter these
raids, the Spaniards founded a series of presidios. One of these,
maintained in the 1780's and 1790's, was the Presidio of San Vicente,
established across the Rio Grande from today's park in Mexico to guard a
key ford.
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The Chisos Mountains of Big Bend
National Park. (photo George Grant, National Park
Service) |
In 1845 the United States annexed Texas, which 9
years earlier had won its freedom from Mexico. By the outbreak of the
Civil War, Texas Rangers and U.S. troops had begun the difficult task of
pacifying the Indians of western Texas. During the period of Confederate
occupation of Fort Davis, Chief Nicolas' band of Southern Mescaleros,
who had been raiding the San Antonio-El Paso Road, killed two herders
while rustling cattle at the fort. In the Big Bend country, within the
present park, the Indians annihilated Lt. Reuben E. Mays' pursuing
detachment of 14 men. Only one Mexican scout survived. After the war, in
1871, Lt. Col. William R. Shafter, Fort Davis commander, led a small
expedition into the Big Bend region to intimidate the Apaches lurking
there. Meeting none but finding abundant evidence of their presence, he
demonstrated to the Indians that the mountains of the Big Bend were no
longer a haven.
Many of the Indians, feeling the pressure of white
settlements and often being divided by factional quarrels, resisted Army
attempts to force them onto reservations. Seeking refuge in the Big Bend
area or pausing there on raids, they readily slipped into Mexico when
the intensity of the pursuit mounted. The Army's post-Civil War drive
against them culminated in the 1880's. The death of the Apache Chief
Alsate in his Chisos stronghold in 1882 marked the end of Indian
troubles in the Big Bend region. During the decade, railroads and large
numbers of cattlemen penetrated the trans-Pecos region and inaugurated
the modern era.
The array of park interpretive servicessuch as
self-guiding trails, marked drives, roadside exhibits, evening campfire
talks, and guided hikesemphasize the park's geology, prehistory,
and plant and wildlife but include a coverage of the history. All extant
historical structures in the park pertain to themes outside the scope of
this volume: the growth of ranching, farming, and mining in the area;
and diplomatic, economic, and military relations with Mexico in the 20th
century.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/soldier-brave/sitea22.htm
Last Updated: 19-Aug-2005
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