Terlingua started as a mining town in the 1880's. The mineral that was mined was quicksilver, or mercury. In the early 1900's the demand for quicksilver waned and the town fell upon hard times. This was reversed in 1917 when demand suddenly returned, due to the influenza epidemic (thermometers use quicksilver), the same epidemic that ended World War 1.
What does Terlingua have today that makes it so special?
Exotic cars.
Old timers outside the General Store (notice the bottled refreshments, 11:00 AM)
Fine dining at the Starlight Theatre.
This used to be a theatre until a storm took the roof off about 25 years ago, hence the name. It was later converted to a restaurant and holds a Certificate of Excellence from Trip Advisor. The #1 spot in town.
Some funky bar stools....HOT chick!
And the horses a$$
And last but not least, wild west hotel accommodations, cheap!
It seems the deeper I dig into this town the stranger it gets.
Have a look at Wikipedia's page on Terlingua.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terlingua,_Texas
Or if you have a lot of time to kill, this one is a must read...
http://www.outsideonline.com/1922521/murder-terlingua-texas
A couple of excerpts from the above, if I may;
"Half the town is drunker than snot 24 hours a day"
"Census takers, like all government workers, have a tricky time in Terlingua; in 2000, a woman collecting census data was bitten by a resident’s pet javelina and reportedly quit on the spot"
Speaking of Javelinas, I had hoped to get a picture of this abundant resident of the area. As it turns out we didn't see a single one until we were driving out of the park. Once again I was too slow on the draw with my camera, so I ripped this picture off the internet.
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Although they resemble a pig, they are actually more closely related to the hippopotamus. And they do bite!
OK, that about does it for Terlingua. We won't forget this place any time soon.
A couple of shots from the drive today, heading north out of Big Bend.
Tonight we are staying at Monahans Sandhills State Park.
I know what you're thinking, they're at the beach again. Well, sorry to disappoint but the nearest large body of water is 500 miles away and there certainly is no water here. Just sand. Lots of it in huge dunes.
They rent saucers so you can do this......
Big push tomorrow to get some miles behind us, we will probably stay at a Walmart.
Looks like a nice retirement community; just what we've been looking for!
ReplyDeleteYou would fit right in......was it the exotic cars or the hotel?
ReplyDelete