Education for local children of Mexican descent dates from 1889, when the former Methodist church became a schoolhouse. The school, named for longtime principal Jesse Blackwell, served hundreds of Hispanic children up to ninth grade. Students were . . . — — Map (db m60796) HM
Constructed in 1920, Building 98 housed the officers club and bachelor officers quarters for Fort D. A. Russell. During the latter years of World War II, from 1943 to 1945, German prisoners of war from Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s Afrika . . . — — Map (db m26356) HM
Named for the nearby Paisano Mountain pass, this structure was completed in 1930. Gateway Hotel Company, owners of several area hotels, built it in anticipation of a local oil boom that never materialized. The architectural firm Trost and Trost of . . . — — Map (db m53926) HM
Originally named Camp Marfa, this installation began as a supply post for U.S. Army border patrol stations in 1911. It was a cavalry camp during the years of the Mexican Revolution. Renamed for Civil War general David Allen Russell, it became a . . . — — Map (db m56185) HM
This was the home of rancher, merchant and community leader John Humphris and his wife Mary. Built in 1883 by local builder Saturnino Naborette, the house represents traditional building methods of early pioneer days in west Texas, with a central . . . — — Map (db m60797) HM
In 1940, Marfa received a Works Progress Administration (WPA) grant of more than $15,000 to help build a new gymnasium named to honor athletic director Boren Hunter. The modified rectangular plan building features plastered adobe infill walls, a . . . — — Map (db m60810) HM
A very famous Texas Ranger. Born in Austin, son of Adjutant General of Texas. At 16 became cowboy on western frontier. At 19 joined Rangers; hunted down raiding Indians, rustlers, feuding settlers. After serving 1875-1881, became El Paso city . . . — — Map (db m215123) HM
The Marfa Lights, mysterious and unexplained lights that have been reported in the area for over one hundred years, have been the subject of many theories. The first recorded sighting of the lights was by rancher Robert Ellison in 1883. Variously . . . — — Map (db m26358) HM
Built in 1920 by the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio Railway Company, the Marfa stockyards provided a central shipping point for livestock raised in Presidio, Jeff Davis, and Brewster counties. As many as 70,000 head of cattle were shipped . . . — — Map (db m60811) HM
The earliest large-scale cattleman to settle in the Big Bend, Milton (Don Meliton) Faver prospered against seemingly impossible odds to become the first cattle baron west of the Pecos. While operating a freighting business on the Chihuahua Trail, he . . . — — Map (db m60847) HM
Milton Faver (ca.1822-1889), a native of the Midwest United States, moved to this area in the 1850s from Presidio del Norte, where he owned a general store and operated a freighting business on the Chihuahua Trail. By the 1880s, Faver controlled . . . — — Map (db m60848) HM
Legend recounts that two Spaniards meeting here greeted each other "Mi Paisano" (My Countryman). First known to history when Juan Dominguez de Mendoza camped here on January 3, 1684. Well known after 1850 as a point on the Chihuahua Trail, an . . . — — Map (db m26360) HM
Porvenir was a community in remote northwest Presidio County on the Rio Grande. In the midst of military conflicts and raids across and along the international border and in the immediate area during the Mexican Revolution, the small farming and . . . — — Map (db m141382) HM
At confluence of Concho and
Rio Grande Rivers.
A settlement for over 10,000 years
Site of
first recorded wagon train
crossing into Texas
December 10, 1582
Headed by Antonio de Espejo — — Map (db m215858) HM
Formed from Bexar County
Created January 3, 1850
Organized March 13, 1875
So named for the early "Fortress
garrisoned by soldiers."
Erected for the protection of the
Big Bend missions.
County seat
Fort Davis, 1875
Marfa, . . . — — Map (db m60843) HM
A landmark of the Big Bend. Large dome is visible for miles. Constructed of native stone and brick made at Marfa. Stucco added later.
Built 1886 in this county's third seat of justice. First county seat was Fort Leaton, on the Rio Grande; . . . — — Map (db m60809) HM
During World War II, the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) established a significant number of training airfields across the state of Texas. The USAAF Western Flying Training Command selected Marfa as the site for an advanced multi-engine flying school . . . — — Map (db m26477) HM
English natives John and Mary (Walker) Humphris came to Texas in the early 1870s and arrived in Marfa in 1883. John, his brother-in-law, James Walker, and partner Charles Murphy founded Humphris and Co., which became the largest mercantile between . . . — — Map (db m139129) HM
Kentucky native William Edward Russell (1839-1890) came to Texas in the 1850s and worked his way to the Big Bend region, where he traded along the Chihuahua Trail and had a store at the Horsehead Crossing of the Pecos River. Russell became a . . . — — Map (db m60794) HM
