A CannonRide Around the Bend (Big Bend Region)

Thanks for joining in!

Thanks! I'm glad you are enjoying the history.

The thing about historical markers is that they often only cover the upbeat or politically correct version of events. Sometimes there is more to the story that is relevant and interesting. I agree with you folks that it is a good program though.

Thanks, hope you can share some of these stories next time you head down there.

Kind of a tough deal to make it all that way and then have a mishap at the end of the road. The gravel can be slippery sometimes.

That is pretty much how I read it as well. Someone invested a lot of money to try to make it an upscale destination. I read he lost a lot trying to do so. Not sure what the most recent turns have been.

Took a ride down Glenn Spring Road toward Black Gap Road.


First segment to Glenn Spring.


Took a spur to Dugout Wells.


A little water produces big cottonwoods I guess.


An oasis of sorts.


The place had a school at one time so locals designated the place as "the cultural center of the Big Bend".


This windmill is still pumping water.


This water seeps from a bed of gravel in the Chisos Mountains.


On to Glenn Spring Road.




Took an uphill spur into Pine Canyon. Nice ride, even though it is an up and back with the end point about 4.4 miles up.


This was initially called Wade Canyon named after the guy that introduced the first bath tub to the Chisos. How he got that tub up there I don't know.


Dead end for bikes, foot trail for hikers.


Heading back down.


Back onto Glenn Spring.






Campsite.


They are restoring the old tank and corral at the site.




There is another spur off of Glenn Spring that I did not take.






Juniper Canyon is another spur that heads toward the mountains. Probably as good a ride as Pine Canyon was. One waypoint there is Robber's Roost. Years ago two boys came from out east with a gun. They jacked some guy over by Alpine and took his car and his wallet. The Rangers caught them and curiously asked why they came out to this area. The boys responded that they had a map of the Big Bend area and they saw a location named "Robber's Roost" so they decided to come out and join the gang.








The road forks with Glenn Spring continuing to the left and Black Gap (rugged) to the right. We'll take Black Gap in the bit, but first we need to check out Glenn Spring.


There used to be a huge candilla wax processing facility here. Back in 1916 about 80 bandits rode from San Vicente and hit this factory and Boquillas.

I should mention that Glenn Spring is named for a guy that grazed horses here who dug out the spring for water access. He was murdered by indians or bandits long before the wax factory.

Candeilla wax comes from the candilla plant. I'll show you a picture of one later on. To get the wax you boil the plant in a mixture of water and sulfuric acid and the wax separates and floats to the surface. The wax was used for things that ranged from chewing gum to lip balm and records.


About 50 Mexican laborers lived here and there was a small detachment of soldiers as well.


The bandits snuck up on the place and overwhelmed the soldiers. The soldiers fought from their building but the bandits soaked balls of twine and flannel with kerosene and threw them onto the candelilla thatch roof of the soldier's building. Several soldiers were killed when they came out and some were burned. The outlaws raided the store, took the soldiers' horses, and split with their loot.


Not much to look at here now.


I'll cover more about the bandits when I get over around Boquillas later in the report.




Looking down Glenn Spring Road as it continues south.

I should add that after some of these raids, particularly the Glenn Spring and Boquillas raids, there was a lot of ill-will towatd the local Mexican population. Some people wanted to disarm them all and many were rounded up for questioning.

Apart from the bandits that were raiding, there were many fine local Mexicans that were working for local ranchers (illegally for the most part). Things got so tense that Mexicans had to carry a letter from a rancher if they wanted to stay on this side of the river.

One rancher with a twisted sense of humor wrote out a letter for his employee to carry with him. The Mexican worker could not read what was written, but when he was stopped and questioned he proudly displayed his employer's letter and was grateful when whoever was checking him laughed and sent him on his way.

The letter read:

"To whom it may concern. Juan is cutting sotol for me. When I'm through with him, I'll shoot the son-of-a-bitch myself! Yours truly, Horace Benson."

Twisted sense of humor or not, it worked pretty well for his employee.

Ouch, I guess so!

Thanks!

Thanks Jim! Don't mean to slow down production at work though!.

Black Gap Road. On March 12, rangers investigated a report of a truck broken down on Black Gap Road. When they investigated, they found a truck laden with 2,179 pounds of marihuana. The smugglers abandoned the truck and hoofed it back to Mexico.








Spring area.








The road is pretty good. It only has a few rough spots. Most people would have no problem with it if they took their time.






Not a lot of traffic though.






This used to be something like a two foot step. It has been rocked and enhanced a bit so it isn't too bad. Just hit it with a little momentum.




Looking back at it.


Nice angle on the two track.








When you get to the end of the unmaintained portion, there is another marker.


Beyond the marker is a good road heading south.


Eventually you get to River Road.

Sorry for the delay in continuing the ride report. Had to take a few days off to do some dirt riding.

Heading north toward Persimmon Gap.




A nice cool morning in Chisos Basin.








There are some exhibits inside the Panther Junction visitor center. One of which is this terrain map of the park.




While heading toward Persimmon Gap, there is an interesting old grave.


Mrs. Hannold asked to be buried here. She died in 1911.


While she tended the ranch and children, her husband supplemented his income by teaching school over at Dugout Wells (a place we visited earlier).


The original headstone is still in place.






There is a fossil dig in the park.




About 50 million years ago this area was tropical. Animals like this inhabited the place.


Not so many years ago there was some lush grass on these flats. When the ranch land was going to be converted to a National Park, ranchers were given a couple of years or so to complete their ranching operations. Since the ranchers were never going to use the land again, they overgrazed it destroying the grass. The few inches of topsoil washed away and the grass is hopelessly lost.




You'll see some brush piled near this road. This is an effort to restore some grass. The piled brush provides shade, protection, and soil stability.




This bridge washed out before. The new one seems solid.


These creeks can go from zero to flood in no time at all - then return to a dry wash within a day or so.






A road to the west. I'm only taking it for a short run to look at something.


This road will have some challenges when wet.


Bone Spring is down there. For a while freighters paid a nickel a head to water their mules back in the 1890s. In 1936, a guy showed up here with a treasure map. He was 88 years old and had a map that led from Boquillas to Bone Spring. For days he dug around the site looking for silver bullion that was buried there. The story came out that this guy was a very young member of Quantrill's Raiders and that Quantrill drew the map for him. Quantrill and the boys had picked off a mine south of Boquillas and managed to make it to Bone Spring in tough shape. Barely able to continue, they buried their loot there planning to go back for it later.


Devil's Den is nearby. It is said that because it is deep and dark only devils would live there.

I can't imagine taking that road in a car. Must hve been fun!

No I didn't see it.

That is pretty neat Bob. Thanks for sharing his insight and comments!

Thanks! The weather was fantastic that day. Glad you are enjoying the history. Next time some of those stops will be a little more interesting . . . I hope anyway.

Thanks! For me the research can sometimes be as entertaining as the ride itself. I think we agree that it makes for a richer experience overall.

Continuing through the Persimmon Gap to the Stillwell Store.


Dog Canyon is in the background. It was named such after some people found an abandoned wagon there that had a dog guarding it. No one associated with the wagon was ever found.


In more recent times, a drug dealer (Acosta's younger brother) was being chased in the park when he wrecked his vehicle. The border patrol lit him up just north of Panther Junction and the dealer and his girlfriend led them on a high speed chase. Once he wrecked his car, the dealer and his girlfriend took off into the desert. The cops found 50 pounds of marihuana in the vehicle. Since they knew Acosta was armed and it was getting dark, the manhunt was put off until morning. The next morning an aircraft spotted young Acosta in Dog Canyon. The cops sealed it off and moved in to arrest him. Young Acosta was a heroin addict. As the cops moved in young Acosta stuck himself with a syringe. He knew he was going down so he opted to go for one last fix.


Just prior to the Civil War, the Army experimented with using camels for transport in the desert. One lieutenant ran this expedition.


The camels went through Dog Canyon on their trek. Camel transport made the trip in 60% of the time it would have taken men and horses. Camels appeared to be a good mobility vehicle for desert warfare. Camels covered between 20 and 34 miles per day. They went 72 hours without water, carried 400 lbs of cargo, and ate creosote bushes that other stock would not eat.


The Civil War ended the experiment and the railroad ended much of the need for camels. Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee of the US Army (before he changed jobs) said that "But for the camels' endurance, docility, and sagacity . . . the reconnaissance would have failed".






Persimmon Gap visitor center.


The building used to be Cooper's Store. Coop's was the center of information between the railroad and the river since people passed by here coming and going.






I think Coop moved in and set up here around 1929. He did a little wax making as well. Note dog canyon in the background of this picture of candelilla harvesters.


Persimmon Gap is also a choke point on the commanche war trail.


Every year,starting back in the 1700s, the commanches used to come through this gap as part of their annual raiding tour. They would leave their home range in September and come down through this gap to raid ranches and towns in the Big Bend and Mexico. They were stealing loot, horses, and weapons to improve their posture back home.


This is the gap. It is also a park entrance point.


This is how it looks from a distance. It is a pass through the mountains. By the way, the commanche trail left a mile wide imprint on the desert that could be seen in some places for years.


There is a smaller gap nearby that is called either Muskhog or Javelina Gap. A young fellow was riding through the gap when he rode into a herd of javelinas. A young javelina laid down to play dead and the kid scooped it up. When it squealed and carried on the rest of the herd attacked the boy so he took off with the animal. Hence the name of the gap.


Hallie Stillwell wrote a couple of books about her life in the Big Bend. Interesting reads. The Stillwell Ranch headquarters is near this store.


There is a museum at the store that covers much of her life on the ranch. Just ask at the store and they'll toss you the key.


They have gas there as well.






Museum


I think this is the pistol she carried when she taught school in Presidio around the time Pancho Villa's boys were making trouble in Ojinaga just across the river.




Interesting to see how primitive ranch life was.


Always interesting to look at how things once were.