Big Bend RanchBrochure |
Brochure of Big Bend Ranch State Park (SP) in Texas. Published by Texas Parks & Wildlife.
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PHOTO: E. DAN KLEPPER
texas parks and wildlife
Interpretive Guide to:
WATER: THE DESERT’S WEALTH
Water, the desert’s life-giving wealth, softens and tames
el despoblado to make it habitable, even welcoming. An
important water source, the Rio Grande carves a verdant
ribbon through the harsh grandeur of the Chihuahuan
Desert along the park’s southern boundary. Other perennial
watercourses and abundant springs provide unexpected
oases in an otherwise dry environment.
BIG BEND
RANCH
STATE PARK
Barton Warnock Visitor Center
MORE INFORMATION
Barton Warnock Visitor Center, named for a prominent area
botanist and educator, serves as the eastern entrance for Big
Bend Ranch State Park. The center interprets 570 million years
of geological history and the five biological landscapes of the
Chihuahuan Desert and includes the exhibit, “Una Tierra – One
Land.” A self-guided two-acre botanical garden allows visitors
to walk among the characteristic plants of the Big Bend region.
Big Bend Ranch State Park
Presidio, TX
(432) 358-4444
www.tpwd.texas.gov/bigbendranch
Barton Warnock Visitor Center
Lajitas, TX
(432) 424-3327
www.tpwd.texas.gov/bartonwarnock
EL DESPOBLADO MEANS “THE UNPOPULATED PLACE.” IT’S A NAME LONG
USED TO DESCRIBE THE NORTHERN
CHIHUAHUAN DESERT, INCLUDING
THE BIG BEND REGION, WHICH MAY
IMPLY A SENSE OF EMPTINESS. YET
BIG BEND RANCH STATE PARK IS FAR
FROM EMPTY. THE PARK OFFERS
500 SQUARE MILES OF UNRIVALED
GEOLOGY, SPECTACULAR VISTAS AND
NIGHT SKIES, DIVERSE PLANT AND
ANIMAL LIFE, AND EVIDENCE OF OVER
Proud Sponsor of Texas Parks
and Wildlife Programs
© 2016 TPWD. PWD BR P4501-152H (7/16)
In accordance with Texas State Depository Law, this publication is available at
the Texas State Publications Clearinghouse and/or Texas Depository Libraries.
TPWD receives funds from the USFWS. TPWD prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, disability, age, and gender,
pursuant to state and federal law. To request an accommodation or obtain information in an alternative format, please contact TPWD on a Text Telephone
(TDD) at (512) 389-8915 or by Relay Texas at 7-1-1 or (800) 735-2989. If you believe you have been discriminated against by TPWD, please contact
TPWD or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office for Diversity and Workforce Management, 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041.
10,000 YEARS OF HUMAN OCCUPATION.
OO
OO
O
Vegetation throughout the park exists in a moisturedependent mosaic – sometimes lush, more often sparse.
Native plants range from arid-adapted cacti to waterloving cottonwoods. Animals exhibit
similar variety, from water-dependent
beavers along the river to desert
specialists like the blackthroated sparrow.
R A N C H
S T A T E
P A R K
GEOLOGY: WINDOW INTO THE PAST
T
he geology of Big Bend Ranch State Park reminds us
of profound changes over the past 600 million years of
Earth’s history – changes born of water and fire.
A deep ocean, the Ouachita Basin, covered the Big Bend and
much of the southeastern United States some 570 million years
ago, long before the age of dinosaurs. One may see remnants of
the Ouachita Mountains in parts of Arkansas, Oklahoma and
West Texas, including The Solitario at Big Bend Ranch State
Park. The ancient Ouachitas formed through the tremendous
forces of plate tectonics, which folded-up layered sedimentary
rock from the ocean floor like a rug being pushed against a wall.
Water continued to shape the region as a shallow inland sea
spread from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaska. Erosion and uplift
worked together to expose the limestone rock of this ancient sea
floor in the Contrabando lowlands and the upended “flatirons”
that form the rim of The Solitario.
The Solitario is a feature born of fire. Between 36 and 35
million years ago, magma from deep within the Earth pushed
upward in three pulses to create a blister-like bulge nearly 10
miles across near the park’s eastern boundary. Following erosion and a complex series of eruptions, the uplifted sedimentary
rock and the underlying lava chamber collapsed to form the
almost circular basin-like feature known today as the Solitario.
Volcanism remained at work in the region. As you pass the
dark peaks and mesas between Redford and Lajitas or along
the Sauceda road, imagine glowing cone-like vents and gaping
fissures that once spewed red-hot ash and molten rock. Lava
from these eruptions eventually hardened into the rhyolite
and basalt rock that form the Bofecillos Mountains, whose
many cracks and fissures trap groundwater and account for the
region’s numerous springs – life-giving oases in the desert.
H U M A N
H I S T O R Y
Diverse people have
lived among the
canyons, mountains
and valleys of Big Bend
Ranch State Park for
centuries, typically near
water sources. The
materials and structures they left behind tell
stories of triumph and hardship in this
sometimes hospitable but often relentless land.
Hundreds of prehistoric camps, cooking areas and rock art sites
dot Big Bend Ranch. Grinding stones, bedrock mortars, flint
tools and burned rock middens indicate that the hunter-gatherers
living here used every natural resource available to survive in
the demanding
environment.
The wide variety
of prehistoric
pictographs
(rock paintings)
and a few petroglyphs (rock etchings or carvings)
document the
amazing diversity A variety of rock art styles
of these peoples. are represented at the park.
The Bogel brothers – Gus, Gallie, Graves and Edward – began
consolidating small ranches in the 1910s until they amassed over
38,000 acres. The buildings and corrals
of their headquarters, Saucita, endure
today at the heart of Big Bend Ranch
State Park where the area is now known
as Sauceda. But subsistence was one
thing, and profit another. The ranching
boom ended when only two inches of
rain fell in 1933. Precious water
sources evaporated and desert
grasslands withered. Hit hard by
drought, the Bogels sold the ranch in
1934. Mannie and Edwin Fowlkes
risked limited funds to purchase the
Bogel property and additional land.
Conditions were so dry once again
during the 1950s that the Fowlkes fed
their cattle ground sotol, an abundant
desert succulent, to keep them alive.
Gus Bogel
A handful of traders and freighters such as Ben Leaton and Milton
Faver were the first Anglo-Americans to settle the area in the
mid-1800s. By the 1870s, small family ranches began to spring up,
raising much of their own food and herding sheep and goats.
Those who survived the drought of 1892 were soon thriving.
Park visitors today can see remains of the Crawford-Smith,
McGuirk, Reza and Madrid houses among others. Early ranchers
supplemented their incomes in innovative ways. A wax factory and
The “flatirons” form the Solitario rim.
When Len G. “Tuffy” McCormick purchased the ranch
in 1958, it was described as half the size of Rhode Island,
and listed as one of the 15 largest in the United States.
Subsequent owner Robert O. Anderson and his Diamond A
Cattle Company partnered with Walter Mischer to increase
the size of the ranch before selling the property to Texas
Parks and Wildlife Department in 1988.
several camps remain in Fresno and Contrabando Canyons, where
thousands of pounds of wax were extracted from candelilla plants
and sold as waterproofing for World War I army tents. Nearby, the
Whit-Roy Mine produced flasks of mercury from cinnabar ore into
the 1960s.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MARFA PUBLIC LIBRARY
B E N D
Mountain bikers explore Fresno Canyon.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM OF THE BIG BEND
B I G
A load of native chino grass is delivered
to Crawford Ranch in 1920 for livestock feed.
ENJOY YOUR VISIT
Today, people visit Big Bend Ranch State Park for many
reasons. Some come to glimpse the region’s vibrant past.
Others come to commune with nature. Over 300 species of
birds alone have been recorded here, and other forms of wildlife abound – from lizards to javelina to mule deer. Many
more come to test themselves. Camping, hiking, mountain
biking, horseback riding, river rafting and backcountry driving
in this wild and remote land can push the limits of human
endurance and fortitude. Still others come for the peace, quiet
and solitude that Big Bend Ranch State Park can offer like no
other place. Whatever your motivation, the park awaits you.