The County Seat Tour of West Texas

About 10 years ago, John made me go to Big Bend. Surprisingly, I liked it.  So we thought we'd do it again. We were driving to Phoenix to see my sister so we decided to do a little road trip through West Texas on the way.

The plan was to hit a few of the county seats out in the Big Bend area and that's what we did. We started with Monahans in Ward County. Did you know that Monahans has the largest beach without an ocean? 

John calls that the desert but Monahans calls it "Monahans Sandhills State Park". When we got there, the visitor center was closed but we saw people hiking around out there. It looked very desolate so we left.

In the late 1880s, the Texas & Pacific railroad was being built through here and Thomas Monahan knew they needed water to keep construction going so he dug a well. According to the historical marker, the well was right around this spot by the mural. The town was originally called Monahan's Well but it eventually got shortened to just Monahans. There's not much in this town. A gas station and a couple of hotels.

The county seat of Ward County used to be a teeny tiny town called Barstow. In 1939, the county seat was moved to Monahans. I couldn't believe Monahans could steal the county seat honors from another town until we drove through Barstow and just about missed it. The cool courthouse that was built in Barstow in the 1800s was demolished when the seat was moved. This one was built in 1940 in Monahans. 

As we were leaving town, we saw a very rare sighting of what we believe to the be last known Bennigan's in the world! Remember them?  Bennigan's for food and fun! They were everywhere in the '80s. Now they are just here in Monahans, Tx, population 7,800.

The next town on our list was Pecos Texas. It's the county seat of Reeves County. I liked this little town. Again, not much to it but that main street had some serious traffic! This is the West of the Pecos museum. Unfortunately we were there on a Monday (and as everyone knows, nothing is open on Monday). But it looked like it would be interesting.

Greetings from Pecos! The town started out as a camp for those on the cattle drives along the river. In 1881, the Texas & Pacific Railway came through and a town was born.

The station is still there but now its the Rodeo Hall of Fame. Also, the part that you can't see is in rubble because there was an accident in December 2024 where a train collided with a vehicle crossing the tracks. The accident also took out the little statue of Pecos Bill.

The Reeves County Courthouse. The original courthouse was built in 1886 but it was demolished and this one was built in 1937. Pecos is known as the Cantaloupe Capital of Texas. It started back in the 1880s. The cantaloupes were grown and then sold to diners that catered to the Texas & Pacific Railway. They became famous and were consumed by people like Helen Keller, and Presidents Eisenhower and Johnson, who specially ordered them! 

Our next stop was Fort Stockton, which really was a fort! It's also the county seat of...wait for it...Pecos county! What? I know! Logically, you would think Pecos would be the county seat of Pecos county but no. It's Fort Stockton. This is the Pecos county courthouse. It was built in 1883 and then altered in 1912.

John with Paisano Pete, the mascot of Fort Stockton. Fort Stockton was a stop on the San Antonio/El Paso road back in the 1800s. That road was used as a mail route and for pioneers moving west. The fort was abandoned during the civil war but then reinstated afterwards and occupied by soldiers of color. The American Indians called them "Buffalo Soldiers" because the men's hair looked like the fur on a buffalo. Basically the soldiers helped keep the route safe from attacks by the Native Americans.

This is the Annie Riggs Hotel in Fort Stockton. It's a museum but was a hotel in the late 1800s. It's cool because all the rooms are different exhibits. Annie was married to Barney Riggs who was in a penitentiary in Arizona for killing a man. During a riot, Barney saved the warden's life and was given a pardon. At one point, Annie divorced Barney. Barney was eventually killed during an argument with his son-in-law. Barney, oddly enough, was the deputy sheriff for A.J. Royal.

A.J. Royal was a Sheriff of Pecos County in 1892. He was not well liked and in 1894, he was shot and killed while sitting in his office. It is still an unsolved mystery as to who killed him. In this museum is the desk he was sitting at with the bloodstains still in the drawer that he was looking in. A little morbid but historic.

The hotel was originally called the Koehler Hotel. It had 13 rooms and a hidden courtyard.  Annie bought the Koehler Hotel for $5,000 and ran it until she died in 1931. To stay at the hotel for one night, it was $0.50 for 1/2 of a bed, which I assume meant that you could end up having a stranger next to you in the same bed. Dinner at the hotel was $0.35. Oh and there were rules.  Check them out! I liked Fort Stockton. I thought it had lots of interesting things to see.

Our next stop was Marathon, Texas. It's not a county seat but we wanted to stay at the Historic Gage Hotel. Marathon was established by Albion Shepard. In 1882, the railroad came through and Marathon became a stop. It eventually became a shipping and supply point for the ranchers in the area. But, there were no hotels. So Alfred Gage engaged Henry Trost of El Paso to design and built the hotel. It opened in 1928. Now this is where the well-heeled visitors to Big Bend stay.

There is not much to see in Marathon but they do have pretty amazing sunsets. We stayed here about 10 years ago and we really liked the ambiance. It's still the same. It's expensive but the rooms are nice. Personally, I think the Gage Hotel owns Marathon. They have extended their presence there and own all the restaurants. They have added rooms in separate buildings, a spa and fitness center (not included in your room price), a barbeque restaurant and a coffee shop in addition to the restaurant they had ten years ago. There was a little grocery store there but who knows? Maybe the Gage owns that too.

The next day we had planned on going to Big Bend for the day but with all the government layoffs from the park services plus the fact it was Spring Break, we didn't want to deal with it so instead we went to Balmorhea (Bal-Mor-Ray) State Park. It has a pool that is spring fed and one side of it is 25 feet deep! Here you literally swim with the fishes. That's right, you and the wildlife (fish and ducks, etc) swim together in the pool.

They also had a wetlands observation deck. It looks a lot like the pool but only wildlife are allowed to swim here. It was so windy we kept getting dust storm warnings on our phone! We asked the park ranger if this was abnormal and she said, "No. Just your regular West Texas wind." Yikes!

Driving back to Fort Davis, this was the view. The photo doesn't do it justice. We came around a curve and it was like, Wow! These are the Davis Mountains.

We stopped at Fort Davis National Historic Site. Fort Davis is an actual fort as well as a city. This fort was setup in 1854 to help the travelers along the El Paso/San Antonio road. It was abandoned during the Civil War. Similar to Fort Stockton, after the Civil War, it was staffed with "Buffalo Soldiers" who kept the way safe once again. The fort was abandoned in 1891.

It's a cool park. A lot of the buildings are in ruins but some have been restored and still others are in the process of being restored. This was an officer's quarters. Fort Davis was named for Jefferson Davis who was, then, Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce.

This was the post Chapel.  It was used for a schoolroom during the week and a dancehall on Friday nights. More importantly, it was the the scene of a controversial court-martial. Henry O. Flipper became the first black graduate of West Point in June of 1877. After a stellar career thus far, Henry was assigned to Fort Davis and was the Post Quartermaster. He was accused of embezzling funds and conduct unbecoming to an officer. Flipper was found innocent of embezzlement, but under prejudicial overtones, was found guilty of improper conduct and dishonorably discharged from service in 1882. He and his descendants fought to have the charges against him cleared. Finally, in 1976, almost 100 years later, the Army Review Board changed his record to reflect an Honorable Discharge as of 1882.

The fort is at the base of the Davis Mountains so it's definitely worth a visit if you're in the area.

Fort Davis, the city, is also a county seat! This is the Jeff Davis county Courthouse. It was originally the county seat of Presidio county. In the early 1880s, the Texas & Pacific railroad ended up going through Marfa so the county seat was moved. The citizens of Fort Davis were not happy and immediately petitioned to get their own county and, in 1887, Jeff Davis County was established. 

One of the things about this trip I was looking forward to was staying in some historic hotels. The Gage was the first and the second was the Holland Hotel in Alpine.  The hotel was built in 1912 by cattleman J.R. Holland. In 1928, his son, Clay, commissioned Henry Trost (of Gage Hotel fame) to build a new building. It was very successful and popular. But then from 1969 to 1972 it sat vacant. It was changed into an Office building for a while. In 1985, it was turned back into a hotel and was supposedly renovated in 2024. I had high hopes.

While not as expensive as the Gage, it was way more expensive than the Holiday Inn Express! What a disappointment! Our room was so cramped that it was like playing tetris trying to move around in there. That closet to the left is the bathroom. No room for the sink in there, that's over to the right. 

To continue on our theme for this trip, Alpine is the county seat of Brewster County. It's also the home to Sul Ross State University, which is part of the Texas State University system. They have about 2000 students which surprises me because there is not much going on in Alpine. There's a McDonald's, a Subway and a Sonic. There are no chain restaurants or grocery stores.

Alpine started out in 1878 as a campsite for cattlemen tending their herds. Then, in 1882, a town of tents sprang up housing the employees that were building the railroad. The town was initially called Osborne. When the railroad needed a spring as a source of water, the town was renamed Murphyville after the family that owned the spring. In 1888, it was renamed once again to Alpine. The courthouse was built around that time. While it remained a ranching town, in 1912, there was a brief mercury mining boom. The town is still serviced by the Amtrak train (which we heard...in the middle of the night.)

This is Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church. The original church (now used as the parish hall) was built in 1902 as Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe. This building was erected in 1942. As I was walking around, a lady directed to me to the gift shop that apparently used to be a convent. I love these old churches. I wish I could have gone inside but the door was locked.

One of the big surprises here in Alpine was the Museum of Big Bend. It's on the campus of Sul Ross State University and is definitely worth a visit. This little gem has been here almost 100 years and gives the history of the area.

Next stop was Marfa and our third historic hotel also designed by Henry Trost. Built in 1930, this was the hotel that the cast of Giant (Rock Hudson, James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor) stayed at in 1956 while they were filming the movie. After the fiasco that was the Holland Hotel, I was nervous. But, this place was everything we hoped it would be. It had charm and was very comfortable. 

Our room even had it's own private patio with a fireplace!

Following our theme of county seats, Marfa is the county seat of Presidio county. This is the courthouse which was built in 1885. Marfa itself was established in 1883 as a railroad stop for the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway. If you remember, the original county seat for Presidio was Fort Davis but when the railroad came through, it moved to Marfa.  The name Marfa is Russian for Martha and was suggested by the wife of one of the railroad's executives.

This is the Old Presidio County Jail also built in 1885. Now it stores the archives for the county. I would love to have taken a look in there but the sheriff's office was right next door. Marfa was primarily a ranching town but in 1924, a patrol of "border watchmen" was created to deter aliens from crossing the Rio Grande and smuggling liquor. That group later became the U.S. Border Patrol.

In 1973, artist Donald Judd moved here buying several buildings and using them as galleries and studios. Now the town is kind of a artist colony. It certainly had a lot more activity than Alpine did. It's also a great jumping off spot for other small towns around the area as well as Big Bend National Park. I'd definitely stay here again.

While we were out here we went to a party...a Star Party! It was at the McDonald Observatory up in the Davis mountains. This was our sunset as we drove up into the mountains.

This is where we were headed. On top of this mountain is the McDonald Observatory, which is actually part of the University of Texas. We'd been here before on a tour but never at night. They have these huge telescopes which are super cool. I bet on most nights, they can see all kinds of stars, which is probably the point of having the observatory out here. It gets seriously dark.

This was definitely one of the cooler things we've done. They had 10 telescopes set up pointing at different things in the sky. It was a little cloudy but we could still see stuff. We got to see the moon (up close and personal, not just by looking at the sky), Jupiter, Mars (which did not look red), the Orion nebula and Pleiades, aka the seven sisters (and the symbol that is on a Subaru car). Then, the host spent some time pointing out various constellations. That was so fun!

On our way out of Marfa we passed this. It's the old sign for the Stardust Motel. Back in the 1950s there was a motor court here called the San Jacinto Courts. This sign was modeled after the San Jacinto monument outside of Houston. When the motel changed hands, the name changed as well and it became the Stardust Motel. I'm not sure what happened to the hotel but there's no trace of it now.

Remember when I mentioned that the movie was Giant was filmed around Marfa? A few miles outside of town are these mementos of that. This was the exterior of the house. It's just a cutout now.

Rock Hudson as Bick Benedict in the car. Check out the plates. Marfa 1956.

And finally the sign for the Reata Ranch. I never saw the movie but I did read the book. You'd think the town of Marfa would really play this up but aside from a store in the Hotel Paisano, it's all kind of low key. There was no advertising for this spot.

This is the Prada Marfa. It's a permanent art sculpture by artists Elmgreen & Dragset. There was a line of people waiting to pose in front of it and take their photo. Inside the windows are shoes. I wasn't able to get close enough to see if they are real shoes or I'd have photobombed everyone's pics. But there's a rumor that even Beyonce has had her picture here.

Well that's it for the tour of west Texas. From here we stopped in El Paso and then on to Phoenix but that's a whole different story.

Driving around west Texas was...windy like "hold on to your hat" gusts of wind. And the dust! Holy moly! Every time I went inside I felt like I was just covered in dust. But it was fun.