Marfa Texas

We headed to Marfa because for years I had heard of the strange, unexplained lights that appear each night. In 1883, resting on a bluff 8 miles East of town and looking toward the Chinati Mountains, a cowboy reported seeing visible lights in the valley that came and went, and danced up and down, left and right. Over the decades such reports continued, and apparently nobody has been able to explain their cause. Watching after the sky went dark we saw lights, sometimes only a couple, and other times 6 to 12. The lights would appear for a while, then disappear, reappear, and then jump around. We could tell that they weren’t car headlights, and their movement meant they weren’t lit structures.

The town of just under 2,000 people is very quirky. The lights attract some tourism, but also its remoteness is an attraction as well. It is the Presidio County Seat, and its courthouse which was built in 1886 is the tallest building in town by a long shot. There is a total of 183 hotel rooms in town, not counting Air BnB accommodations, and enough small independently owned restaurants to feed about that many people.

Marfa is just North of the Big Bend, that section of the Southeast meandering Rio Grande that suddenly jogs back Northeast and makes a big bend to head back Southeast. This creates the thumb in Western Texas that seems to jab down into Mexico carving out just a bit more land for the US. We drove all around the Big Bend area taking in the expansive views.

We looked for wildlife in the Big Bend. I had caught a glimpse of the end of a tail of some mammal that was ringed. While I can’t be certain, I believe it was a Ring-Tailed Cat that resides in Northern Mexico and Southern Texas. We saw not just one, but an entire herd of Javelina eating the succulent shrubs along the side of the road. We also got a good look at 8-10 Big Horn Sheep also grazing on the rich prairie grasses of the area. We hadn’t seen this much wildlife in one outing in quite a while.

As we are inclined to do, we hit some of the more historically significant cemeteries in the area. When we saw the Disney film Coco, it reinforced to us how the Mexican folk revere those that came before them, and believe the dead even can visit the living, especially on the Day of the Dead. For that reason, any cemetery that has Mexican residents are always ornately and colorfully decorated, a sign of respect for one’s elders.

Even though she lived in the late 1800’s, I know that the term was in use back then just as it is now. So, for the life of me, I just can’t imagine why the young Minnie Brown would willingly step into this last name by marrying this guy. I understand she would have been beyond the schoolroom taunts she would have been subject to had she earned this illustrious name at birth. But imagine introducing yourself as Minnie Outhouse, or worse yet, Minnie Brown Outhouse – go figure!

Talk to you soon!