South Brewster County residents awoke to no electricity on the morning of Wednesday, July 30 in what was to be the start of almost 2 days without power. Power was lost on Wednesday morning at about 2:30am and restored at 11:20 am. Power was again lost at about 4:30 in the afternoon and restored on Thursday at about 1 pm. A third interruption of power occurred Saturday, Aug. 2. by John Waters    more »

exas General Land Office Commissioner Jerry Patterson has responded to the National Park Service’s proposal to acquire the Christmas Mountains in Brewster County. His answer: No guns, no deal: create a National Preserve and we can talk. by John Waters    more »

On a stunningly clear mid-January afternoon Texas General Land Office Commissioner Jerry Patterson pilots his 90-horsepower Citabria aircraft from San Marcos to land at Terlingua Ranch’s 4,000-foot dirt runway, at 1:30 pm. On board with Patterson is a chilled Sam Gwynne, writer from Texas Monthly, who has endured the three-hour flight in the back of the small aircraft, sitting behind Patterson where the aircraft’s heat does not reach. Patterson is in Brewster County to explore the Christmas Mountains and Big Bend National Park by air, foot, truck and all-terrain vehicle. by John Waters    more »

The Texas General Land Office has made public the National Park Service’s proposed management plan for the Christmas Mountains. Under the proposal, the Christmas Mountains would be added to Big Bend National Park and managed as a backcountry area of the park. The Park Service proposal cites several advantages of NPS management including permanent protection and preservation, public access and participation in the planning process, NPS expertise in management of backcountry environments.   more »

The National Park Service has submitted a management plan to the Texas General Land Office for the Christmas Mountains. The Park Service is proposing it acquire the Christmas Mountains and incorporate it into the park. It is an excellent plan.   more »

Attendance was notably lower than at some other annual meetings, and the number of ballots cast for new directors decreased from last year’s elections, perhaps more fallout from a lawsuit that has hobbled the association for a year and half. The lawsuit, instigiated by a collection of property owners against others on the board at the time the legal petition was filed, stems from the core allegation that... by Marlys Hersey    more »

In the coming months you will see many changes at Lajitas, the first of which will be making the resort a public resort not only for the benefit of everyone in Texas, but also everyone in the community.   more »

I thought about your request for improvements to the Gazette [“On celebrating 4 years of publication,” October 2007] and could think of nothing. It seemed as if nothing should be changed…and then suddenly   more »

Lawyers for the bankrupt Lajitas Resort have postponed a bankruptcy court hearing until November 16. by John Waters    more »

WHERE: South steps of Texas Capitol, Austin, Texas WHEN: Monday, November 5, Noon VISUALS: Large color photos of the Christmas Mountains. Also, the delivery of thousands of petition signatures to Gov. Perry's office.   more »

The land sale had proceeded with scant notice outside the Big Bend until mid-September when the Austin American-Statesman and the Houston Chronicle reported that the original donors on the land, the Mellon Foundation and the Conservation Fund, had communicated to the GLO their opposition of the sale. by John Waters    more »

Selling our Christmas Mountains (and reneging on Texas’ promise to the Mellon Foundation) is scandalous, something akin to chiseling the Alamo or the San Jacinto Monument for profit. Essentially, Patterson has told Texas hunters and bird-watchers and heritage lovers to buzz off. If he goes through with the brazen act, using legal loopholes as his fig leaf, he will forever be remembered in the annals of land management as an untrustworthy double dealer. by Douglas Brinkley    more »

Brinkley should re-read his Reagan Diaries. More than any other American, Reagan understood that government is not the solution to the problem – in many cases, it is the problem. The Christmas Mountains are no exception. The Land Office has neither the authority nor the funding to restore the land to its natural state. by Jerry Patterson    more »

During a regularly scheduled meeting of the Big Bend Ranch Advisory Committee in Lajitas on August 7, Poindexter outlined his proposal whereby he would buy land from Lajitas Resort in Brewster County that may be of interest to Texas Parks and Wildlife. That land would be appraised, then offered as a swap to TPWD in exchange for land of equal value for part of BBRSP land near Cienega Creek that adjoins Poindexter’s Cibolo Creek Ranch in Presidio County. by John Waters    more »

When most people think of yoga, they think of people twisting their bodies like pretzels, and the way yoga has been adopted in the West definitely focuses on the physical postures, or asanas, that make up much of the practice. Actually, these asanas, or exercises, are only one of the eight limbs of yoga as set down by the Indian sage Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras, over 2,000 years ago. by Ceil Drucker    more »

Confrontation is not our style, nor is it the right thing to do, but neither is poaching cactus from the desert. I’d been ovulating for 2 days and I would like to believe natural instincts were kicking in. Just like a mama bear protecting her young, I had a maternal feeling to protect what I love – in this case, the desert. Off we went chasing the poachers down the road. by Kym Flippo    more »

On the evening of April 6, Terlingua resident Jim Carrico returned home around 10:30 pm, and had just barely opened his front door a few inches when their family cat, Spoke, bolted out into the desert. “He was wound up tighter than a tick, and out he went,” said Jim. Out he went indeed.... by John Waters    more »

“It’s the true believers who want to do this,” says Mindy Hamlett, one of the handful of volunteers who make recycling work for the Big Bend’s residents and visitors. “We want to see recycling work in this area, but sometimes when you show up on a Saturday to make sure everything is sorted properly for delivery to the recycling center in the National Park and you discover that people have just left all their garbage in bags by our trailer, well, you’d like to strangle somebody.” by Andy Byrnes    more »

When I moved to South County to make my fortune with the Roadhouse, one of the major plans was to provide local music on as regular of basis as I could. From previous visits I knew this resource was available. What I didn’t realize and was thrilled to discover was that the music scene “back then” was as much a part of our community as the tortured landscape and muddy brown river. Music was everywhere, running the scale from the phenomenal, to the awful, to the bizarre. It was in the bars, on the porches, around campfires and liable to strike up anywhere. by Don McDowell    more »