Mark Foster and Deborah Tout have gardened year-round since they moved to Alpine in the summer of 2003. Foster, 55, who has gardened “on both coasts and a lot of places in between,” since he was ten years old, thinks this area is “absolutely the easiest climate I’ve grown in.” by Marlys Hersey    more »

We opt for Puerto Vallarta: any warm salt water sounds good to me, and as a surfer now living in the desert, Waters opts for waves. A few years ago, we had a great trip in Mexico, training and bussing it all the way to San Blas, in the state of Nayarit — a small town on the coast, just a few hours north of Vallarta. To return to that region in just a few hours is a lovely prospect. by Marlys Hersey    more »

Frieda was a cat who found, two blocks away from our house in Boise, Idaho, someone else’s sunny deck and made it her deck – because she loved to be in the sun, we didn’t have a deck, and why would anyone object to her crawling through the fence and making herself at home on their deck? And no one did. by Marlys Hersey    more »

Now I am a journalist in search of the truth. To be more accurate, I am a reporter covering the issues and people of the Big Bend. Over the past several years we have strived to provide a quixotic lens on a unique region by way of thorough research, investigation and analysis. We have had our ups and downs.   more »

D.B. Smith was funny, salty, and very warm behind the gruff exterior. He was such a fiercely independent, can-do kind of West Texan, emblematic of a passing era of “folks” (as he would say) who first re-settled Terlingua in the ‘60’s & 70’s. Plus he was full of great anecdotes and great lines. by Marlys Hersey    more »

To be around Border Patrol agents is to hear the phrase “bad guys” fairly often. Until last week, I don’t think I have heard that more than a handful of times since I was a kid playing cops and robbers, which perhaps reveals more about me and my possible naïveté than is germane to this story. It definitely reveals a lot about the core work of the Border Patrol... by Marlys Hersey    more »

While Child Protective Services repeatedly insisted (and the media largely regurgitated this insistence) that the agency had no choice but to pull children from the Yearning For Zion ranch, that it was acting out of extreme concern for the safety and well-being of those individuals, two Alpine legal aid attorneys representing some FLDS mothers found the actions of the state in the ensuing weeks “unbelievably horrible.” by Marlys Hersey    more »

With the new council seated (and former Mayor Clouse in attendance as citizen), the May 20 meeting was dominated by an update on the “Solid Waste Project” by Grant Jackson of Naismith Engineering, Inc., who shared the latest findings from a study, to be completed this August, to help “recommend to you a menu of options available” for when Alpine’s landfill reaches its maximum holding capacity. by Marlys Hersey    more »

A large portion of Wellman’s talk ended up being about, well, preventing Big Bend NP from becoming another Organ Pipe NM in Arizona, where Wellman was Superintendent when the tides turned, so to speak, and within just a few years, the park was ravaged by illegal immigration. Organ Pipe became, Wellman told the group, “a war zone between two drug lord factions.” The “hundreds of miles of illegal roads in the park” and some 200,000 migrants coming though a park half the size of Big Bend took a huge toll on the park’s natural and human resources and forced the closure of 90% of the park to public access. by Marlys Hersey    more »

Who knew? It turns out that the big ol’ yucca (left) at the southeast corner of the Alpine Civic Center on W. Holland Avenue is the “Largest of its species growing in the United States.” The National Register of Big Trees informed the city of this distinction on May 5.   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 »

On Friday, Nov. 16, at Alpine’s Gallery Night Artwalk, featured artist James Evans showed a collection of his photos, “Of Missing Persons,” residents of the Big Bend... by Marlys Hersey    more »

• Big Macs and The Bible: Americans are more familiar with Big Macs than the Bible, a recent poll has found. Less than half of respondents – 45 percent – could recall the commandment “honor thy father and mother” but...   more »

A few months ago, I hit that point where I just couldn’t do it anymore: I just can’t answer every dumb or out-of-line question posed to me at the Border Patrol checkpoint, just to get through in as little time as possible. I can’t smile and pretend that I don’t know they’re violating my civil rights. Not every week. Not even occasionally. by Marlys Hersey    more »

We expect intense thunder and lightning and monsoon rains in July, August, and September. But May? by Marlys Hersey    more »

A public service announcement...   more »

Ceil Drucker (at right, with Jeff Renfrow) celebrated the opening of her new business in Terlingua, Desert Lotus Healing Arts, with a grand opening “pie & chai” reception on January 29.   more »

It's been an unusually cold & wet & SNOWY winter in the Big Bend. Here are some glimpses from the beginning of the season....   more »

The Ghost Town Offspring made their public debut on Saturday, Dec. 2 at the High Sierra Bar in Terlingua.   more »