Editor:
We are no longer handing out the BRAVO Fact Sheet at the [Big Bend National Park] entrance stations. We did that for only a short time immediately following the release of the BRAVO study. The Fact Sheet has been placed on the park’s website and can be accessed by interested parties in that fashion [www.nps.gov/bibe].
We have developed an interpretive program entitled “Troubles in Paradise” that deals with the multitude of resource issues/threats facing the park (i.e. air quality degradation, water quantity/quality, invasion of exotic species, etc.). This program is presented fairly regularly to visitors.
I have also developed a program, “Coffee with the Superintendent,” that I have given several times. This program deals in part with resource-related challenges and how we’re dealing with them.
We continue to work with the Houston Advanced Research Council on air quality related issues. We have jointly developed a pre-proposal that has been submitted to the EPA seeking funding that will be used to advance air quality education/mitigation strategies.
John H. King
Superintendent Big Bend National Park/Rio Grande Wild &
Scenic River
Editor:
The Marathon Public Library recently concluded a very successful summer reading and crafts program. Conducted each Thursday afternoon in June and July, the program experienced 41 registered children who read a total of 478 books. Those attending participated in various projects during the sessions held at the Marathon Community Center.
We would like to express our appreciation to the volunteers and sponsors who made this program possible. To end the program, a special party was conducted with entertainment provided by magician Harlin Rhoades of Midland. Everyone who attended had a great time.
Carol Townsend & Eula Mae Colmenero, Marathon Public Library Staff
Editor:
I see from the letter about the local mystery lights from Aikens and Aikens [Letters to the Editor, August 2005] that casual observers are still “discovering” car headlights on Highway 67 where it runs between Presidio and Marfa, and assuming that these lights constitute a disproof of the existence of those other lights, the Marfa Mystery Lights of West Texas fame.
That car headlights are visible from the Viewing Site is no mystery to us local folks; the viewing site is visible from high points on that highway.
It’s those other lights that intrigue us long-time viewers.
It’s not always easy to distinguish one light from another, and there is a good deal of “light pollution” out there south of Highway that runs east and west between Marfa and Alpine, such as ranch lights, pickups on ranch roads, and at least once, even a small plane landing and taking off (the official viewing area is near the old military airport runway). Occasional mirages are also seen in the area and, rarely, ball lightning.
Lights in the darkness that are less easily explained, and so described as “mystery” lights, have been around for a long time, reported from the late 19th Century onward. Reports have come from many places in the greater Big Bend: from along the Alamito Creek that runs between Marfa and the Rio Grande, from both the Texas and Mexican sides of the Rio Grande itself (from Lajitas and downstream at least as far as Redford), from in the Chinati Mountains and the foothills east of them, from Shafter and from the flat between Shafter and Presidio, from the flat on Highway 118 south of Fort Davis, from between Fort DBMS and Marfa, from up around Saragosa and Grandfalls, and, of course, from the official Viewing Site on Highway 90 between Marfa and Alpine that overlooks Mitchell Flat and the various mountains beyond.
At least, those are the reports I know about.
In the early days, Indian campfires were suspected. The lights were also sometimes attributed to the ghostly spirit of deceased Apache leader Alsate, and also (perhaps still) to witches. Since the mid-20th Century, spurred on by aviators’ reports, investigations have centered on naturalistic causes. These inquiries, not being very sophisticated, arrived at no particular conclusions, although a plethora of possible explanations were put forward. (The public library in Marfa keeps a file of newspaper and magazine articles about the lights.)
My own interest was piqued in 1988 and, at the urging of my husband, Phil Plimmer, I collected a number of firsthand accounts of mystery lights sightings which I published
the following year: The Marfa Lights.
About that time Edson Hendricks, accompanied sometimes by his late associate Bob Creasy,both with backgrounds in physics, began visiting West Texas yearly. Hendricks began proposing and testing some new ideas about the lights and collecting photographic and other data in a systematic way. (See “Mystery Light Research Continues” in the July-August-Sept. 1997 issue of the Desert Candle newspaper.) Residing in California, his visits are limited in time, although his research continues.
Paul Devereux, author of Earthlights, also visited the Big Bend in the 1990s and included a chapter on the “Marfa Lights” in his book, where they could be compared with similar mysterious lights in other parts of the world, of which there are a surprisingly large number. Another book came out with information on the “Min Min” lights of Australia, descriptions of which seemed quite similar to those of the West Texas mystery lights.
A few years ago James Bunnell turned his attention to the lights, which he dubbed “Night Orbs,” the title of a book documenting his research. Although Bunnell spent his early years in Marfa, it was only after his retirement from a career in the aerospace industry that he developed an interest in the lights. In addition to spending hundreds of nightime hours on Mitchell Flat taking time-lapse photographs, he also installed video surveillance cameras to catch mystery-light action in real time. The fascinating results of his investigation are presented in the book Night Orbs, and in the new DVD (Marfa Lights Video) available for purchase in September 2005.
The cause or origin of the mystery of the lights is still unanswered, but we are somewhat closer to an explanation than before, thanks to the work of all the inquisitive minds mentioned above, and others not mentioned. I realize that some people have expressed a view that mystery is essential to the enjoyment of the lights. I proffer two answers to this objection:
First, scientific explanations are never complete, but even after having had natural phenomena explained to us, there is still plenty of room to enjoy a sunset, a rainbow, the flash and crash of lightning, the peculiarities of mirages, and so on. Some people even go on tours halfway around the globe just to view an eclipse, even though they know what causes it. Most people with a basic education probably feel that understanding enhances experience, which also can explain why people flock to science and history museums.
Second, those who are just not interested in the science part, and who may not care about the explanation (should one be discovered) will still be free to find it an incomprehensible, an enchanting mystery, a “curio” of nature. Some may not even care whether they see car lights on a distant highway or something else, and that is their privilege.
Another objection sometimes made is that taking the mystery out of viewing the lights would be detrimental to the local tourist industry. Well, maybe – if the lights really are nothing but car lights on Highway 67. I don’t think they are. Having an interesting phenomenon in our backyard, especially one that may turn out to teach us something new about our natural world, seems to me to be especially wonderful, and might well attract a new category of nature tourist viewers.
In fact, both camps described above should continue to enjoy their visit to witness the mystery lights as a souvenir of their trip to the Texas Big Bend.
Anyhow, as any reader of mystery novels knows, most the pleasure in a mystery lies in discovering a solution. Anyone reading this who would like to join the adventure is welcome!
Judith Brueske-Plimmer
Alpine
The following letter was sent via email on August 24, 2005 and is directed to Mr. Walt Dabney, Division Director of Texas State Parks
Editor:
Yes, I too am writing about the pending sale of 45,000 acres from the Texas Big Bend Ranch State Park. You probably wish this issue would just go away. Maybe you can hit delete and get rid of all your emails at once. There are so many folks in {TX] Parks and Wildlife [Dept.] that have done so much good for so many Texans it just pains me to witness this kind of management blunder.
I was unable to locate Executive Director, Robert Cook’s email address. Please feel free to pass this email on to him, if you so dare. I have reviewed the Associated Press [AP] article on Mr. Cook’s statements regarding this pending land sale [See “Texas parks & Wildlife Commission rejects offer to buy Big Bend Ranch Land” in this issue]. As a citizen, as a Texan, and as a public official, I am horrified by his justification for selling this precious Texas resource to a private businessman! (See interview at: www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3321867) Mr. Cook stated that selling this land would help “square up the park boundaries.” Of course there is nothing worse than park boundaries that are not square!
Maybe we should consider squaring up the Big Bend National Park boundaries by selling off a few hundred thousand acres. The AP stated that Mr. Cook declined comment on the sales price. The negotiations were apparently done in secret. “The Parks department wasn’t trying to hide the sale only to protect the negotiations,” according to Director Cook. So were these closed meetings under 551 or were the meetings never open?
The sale price is reported to be about $45 per acre. Isn’t this less than what we Texans paid for the land?? I AM EMBARRASSED for Director Cook.
All of our park land must be preserved for future generations, not just the square portions. Mr. Gallego’s office has informed me, by phone, that Pete Gallego is pressing for open public hearings on the matter. When those hearings are complete, it is my opinion that hearings should be convened to investigate whether Section 551 was compromised by those persons at appropriate state agencies who were either part of or who instigated this “non publicized land sales scheme.
Dave Fricker
Terlingua
Editor:
I’ve long been aware of “Hubbert’s Pimple" since a co-worker, a geologist, told me of Hubbert back in 1965 ” [“Hubbert’s Peak” was mentioned in Larry Francell’s column “The Road Does Not Go On Forever,” August 2005].
The Pimple is merely the graph of the use of fossil fuel over time, beginning back in the era of peat, before the use of coal, and continuing to modern times. The peak [of fossil fuel use] is approximately 2010, albeit a somewhat rounded top of the curve. Current belief is that the rate of use, worldwide, is greater than the discovery of new reserves. A further problem is that many of the new reserves are subject to political instability, which is part of the cause of US actions in the Mideast. Add to this the instability of such source areas as Colombia, Venezuela and Indonesia.
When you factor in the ever-increasing demands of China and India, I’d have to say that there are some hard times coming.
The US focus is on transportation fuel and justifiably so; our incomes and lifestyles depend on low-cost mobility. Something to which few people give heed is what is done with that half the barrel of crude [oil] that isn’t refined into transportation fuel. Few seem to realize the source of so many consumer goods which depend on the world of petrochemicals. I’ve been too lazy to really dig out the major groups of consumer items and other derivatives. (Natural gas is the sole raw material for ethylene, from which some 300 consumer products are made. Whether from crude or natural gas, you can think of such things as computers, as well as anti-freeze and clothing….)
At one time the US was independent [in] refining products from crude oil. We’re now importing a significant amount of our refined products, including transportation fuels. [Yet] we haven’t built a new refinery in the US in over 20 years. Worldwide, I read that refineries are operating at some 98% of capacity… putting pressure on maintenance requirements.
I worked on the Texas Coastal Zone Management Program back in 1975-1977. I met quite a few Oil Bidness folks. I still remember an Exxon exec’s “There’s all the oil you want, at $100 a barrel.”
Gasoline is already being converted directly from natural gas, in Indonesia. I’ve read that there is ample natural gas available in the US for decades of use, but most of it cannot be taken because of environmental restrictions. For now, we’re getting even more into the process of importing Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) by ship, which is a wonderful multi-kiloton bomb for terrorists.
It’s chemically possible to make gasoline from coal as well as from oil shale. I look at how we function as a society, and wonder how it would be impacted in the economic sense by the Kyoto Accords. Seems to me that trying to control the emissions of CO2 to 10% under the 1990 level would lead to a very high rate of unemployment. Since we’re no longer a nation of savers but a nation of debtors, and given such things as the artificial housing bubble that’s due to bust, my views are not sanguine.
We don’t have as much of our electricity generation from nuclear power as do the developed nations supporting Kyoto. France, for example, gets some 76% or more of its electricity from nukes. I often feel that people take a snapshot of an instant in time, and fail to consider any history of how situations come about due to events of decades past. Further, there is little thought given to the interrelationships between the environment and the economy.
Art Eatman
Terlingua
Editor:
A couple of weeks ago, when I was in Austin, I heard about Cindy Sheehan on NPR – and almost drove north 100 miles and 2 hours for the first real weekend of her “Get out of Iraq” [protest] at Camp Casey, close to the vacation spot for George & Laura [Bush]. However, as I wasn’t thinking any too reasonably, I came on home to Terlingua.
Everytime I would get something on email or see a news report or hear about Cindy and the movement that was growing and growing, tears just welled up. Couldn’t explain why exactly…except that it was such a strong feeling of wanting to be there and experience and share and join in with support for all the people who were helping move one mom’s statement into a really important statement: protest if you will!
Thursday night, my neighbor Elizabeth and I were sitting on my porch and watching the sun go down and the moon come up and all that cool stuff and we started talking about Crawford. “Hey, let’s just go,” we decided. We decided this at 6pm on Friday and were out of here by 6:30, with two changes of clothes, some apples, and the dog.
We drove to Iraan (an interesting little west Texas town), spent the night, left pre-daylight and drove to Crawford. Somewhere about half way between, Elizabeth realized that Crawford wasn’t near Midland, but right at Waco. She said it was probably a good thing that she didn’t know how far it away it was.
We drove into Crawford, in a huge line of cars…. On the main street of this town: about 500 were red, white and blue banners: “We Support our President,” and speeches about how wrong the peace movement was. A sign read: “Why do the liberals always support the enemy?” And overwhelmingly, an angry, belligerent attitude that was almost tangible.
This was about 11:30 in the morning. We got out for a few minutes to see what the “Pro-War Counter Protest” was about: the speeches were about the terrorist attack of 9/11/01, about saving the country from terrorists. Later, we found that one public comment had been “Who would Jesus bomb? Well, Iraq, of course.”
One mother at the microphone said, “My 17-year-old son joined up to save freedom and he said ‘Mom, I know I can die but it’s OK.’” (Our thought was How sad, because a 17 year old doesn’t really even understand death yet.)
We drove a few blocks to “The Peace House,” which has been around a couple of years. A shuttle bus was to run from there out to Camp Casey 1 (the first one where Cindy sat on about 20’ of highway right-of-way) and Camp Casey 2, which now is a huge tent that will hold 3,000 people, with and a kitchen that will feed that many. No place to park, so Elizabeth volunteered to drive around and around while I got out and looked at a little of what was going on. There’s a peace labyrinth (took a picture for our friend Mindy), there were tables of bumper stickers and buttons and a lot of smiling people who were waving at all of the “Bush group” that were driving by and yelling “Go home! Go home! Get out of here! We love our country!”
There were so many peace demonstrators that there was no more parking in Crawford and the shuttles had to change locations. People from all around Texas had come and had volunteered their vehicles of all sizes to run shuttles; some were just cars and pickups. A couple of big buses had come from San Antonio and Dallas with groups of people joining the demonstration and they also ran shuttles.
About 1:30-ish when we got there, Cindy was speaking; our timing was perfect. Her comments were very moving – and very appreciative of the support. She said the demonstrations and peace movements WILL be going to [Washington] D.C. at the end of September* and that a spot has already been reserved for Camp Casey.
There were at least 2,000 people there, maybe more. There were booths from Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace, Goldstar Mothers, Socialists, a map on which to write your home town, thousands and thousands of bottles of free water, laughter and smiles and tears, more waving at [people from] the “Pro War group” who would drive by with obvious glares.
There was an overall feeling of being in on the front line of a movement that lost impetus after the disastrous [Presidential] election. Cindy Sheehan is the spark for tens of thousands who are now, once again, as with Viet Nam, uniting to say “Enough is enough: stop the lies, support an alternative solution.”
We were standing toward the back of the tent and the singer just took us back to the songs of the 60’s and 70’s and we watched people swaying to this great folk singer. When she began singing “The Night they Drove Old Dixie Down,” we realized that for sure it wasn’t a Joan Baez memory: it was Joan Baez. That brought more tears, as did listening to Russell Means of AIM.
Watching the blind Jewish man, the Native American veteran with his gray braids over his shoulders, the Muslim couple arrive and join with the two ladies from California in their 70’s (who told us they’ve never done anything like this in their lives but that it was time), with the accountants from Houston, and with the school teachers from Santa Fe, and on and on.
It was a wonderful wonderful few hours. Listening and talking….
Although it was Texas hot and Texas humid, everyone was joyful and hopeful and not angry and not belligerent.
We carried the energies of Terlingua, and we carried the energies of our world-wide friends, to this place that we feel is a great beginning. And it was worth the 1200 mile, 16-hour road trip.
All these energies are now needed to keep it going.
Janet Sullivan (& Elizabeth Thompson)
Terlingua
*For more information on the gathering in Washington, DC later this month, visit: www.unitedforpeace.org.
