Old-Timey Van Horn

Nice photo of Van Horn and the Hotel El Capitan from the 1930s. Credit: West Texas Historical Association.

1934 Icebox Cookies from Van Horn

Click on the images for a closer view!

Van Horn, the Crossroads community for our own Texas Mountain Trail, has its history determined by its location.  Through time, it has always been a place travelers passed through...whether by foot, horseback, wagon, train, bicycle or automobile.  It was also an important stop on the historic highways--the Bankhead Highway and the Old Spanish Trail! 

We found this recipe from 1934 in a Van Horn Hospital Auxiliary cookbook, and wanted to share it with you! 

Click here to view a lovely three page .pdf about Van Horn's legacy in welcoming travelers, plus, the entire recipe! 

Eggs, butter, brown sugar!

Mixing in dry ingredients!

Add pecans, form into loaf and rest in the icebox!

Slice, then bake!

 

Hot and ready to eat!

Van Horn's Clark Hotel Museum

Today, we're sharing photos from Dan Baeza of the Clark Hotel Museum in Van Horn.  The museum chronicles the history of Culberson County and of Van Horn, with a special eye towards the traveler.  The building has been home to a hotel since the early days of that community.  Upstairs there are even exhibits of travelers' rooms.

 Originally, the "front door" of the hotel was on the north side of the building, as the train station was just steps away.  When the highway came to town, the "front door" of the Clark Hotel was moved to the south side of the building, where it is today, at Broadway Street (the main street in town).  Read more about it here.

Van Horn Twirlers!

Tommie Foster and Barbara (Pudgy) Munn Vick as Twirlers, Photograph, n.d.; digital image, (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth13971/ : accessed July 21, 2014), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Clark Hotel Museum, Van Horn, Texas.

Early Photo of Jackson Hotel, Van Horn

D.B. Jackson at the Hotel Center (Jackson Hotel), Photograph, n.d.; digital image, (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth14142/ : accessed July 14, 2014), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Clark Hotel Museum, Van Horn, Texas.

Another interesting photograph of early Culberson County history in the collection of the Clark Hotel Museum in Van Horn.  Our Texas Mountain Trail worked with the Portal to Texas History on the digitization of the museum's photography collection in 2006, so the collection is online! 

Van Horn: 1912

Mr. and Mrs. Ponciano Villalobos, Photograph, April 8, 1912; digital image, (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth14276/ ), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Clark Hotel Museum, Van Horn, Texas  Dedication at the back of photo reads," Dedico Este Retrato a, Mi Querida Mama, Pas Chacon En, Pruevas de amory y, Respecto. que le Tengo. Ponciano Villalovoz, Van Horn, Texas, April 8, de 1912" 

Back to Front: Clark Hotel Museum in Van Horn

Van Horn's history is held for residents and visitors in the old Clark Hotel, now the Clark Hotel Museum.  A story about the Clark Hotel from our Texas Mountain Trail website:

"How would you go about turning a building around so its storefront faces a different street? Just change the street name? How about simply building a new façade, complete with a new front door. The Clark Hotel in Van Horn did just that. During a major thoroughfare construction through Van Horn in 1925 automobile routes known as the Bankhead Highway which ran from Washington D.C. to California and the Old Spanish Trail running from Florida to California, became the new U.S. Highway 80. This road paralleled the community’s Front Street which runs along the railroad tracks, becoming the primary commercial avenue. The Clark, as well as many of the other structures along the south side of Front Street, reversed their facades so that they would face the new highway. The transformation symbolized the passing of a horse-drawn era where most travelers arrived by passenger train to one of automobiles and highways, a paradigm shift that would permanently change much of rural Texas.

For the Clark, however, it was merely another alteration in a long history of changes, beginning with the structure’s initial construction in 1901. It was, in fact, built upon the razed remains of an earlier 1889 commercial building. The new construction served as commercial center for a variety of unrelated businesses until 1918 when a new owner converted the building into a hotel. The design typifies the two-story hotel of the era, with a lobby and public spaces on the first floor and rooms, some with private baths, on the second. Although simple and relatively unadorned, a detail standout is the mahogany bar in the former saloon, an 1876 import from France. The Clark stands as the oldest building in Van Horn and its “about-face” occurred a year before its final expansion phase in 1929. The building’s history includes service as retail space, commercial offices, opera house, community center, pool hall, saloon, drug store, newspaper printing office, dance hall, and court house throughout the 20th century. In an amusing combination of functions, the rowdy saloon activity on the first floor would often disrupt the sober court sessions in progress on the second. The hotel continued to provide respite to travelers until 1968. Today, the Clark Hotel serves as a regional historical museum for the Van Horn Historical Society and its own storied history."

Photo by Dan Baeza

1912, Van Horn

Mr. and Mrs. Ponciano Villalobos, Photograph, April 8, 1912; digital image, (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth14276/ : accessed June 07, 2014), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Clark Hotel Museum, Van Horn, Texas

Another photograph from the collection of the Clark Hotel Museum in Van Horn.

Photograph of Mr. and Mrs. Ponciano Villalovoz (Villalobos), April 8, 1912, in Van Horn, TX. Dedication at the back of photo reads," Dedico Este Retrato a, Mi Querida Mama, Pas Chacon En, Pruevas de amory y, Respecto. que le Tengo. Ponciano Villalovoz, Van Horn, Texas, April 8, de 1912" 

1940: Love the hat!

From Van Horn's Clark Hotel Museum collection of early images of Culberson County, in the Portal to Texas History.  "Rosa Lee Wylie and Wanda Lenell Baylus, Photograph, ca. 1940; digital image, (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth13917/ : accessed May 30, 2014), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Clark Hotel Museum, Van Horn, Texas."

Celebrate National Trails Day with us!

If you post photos and stories on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Flickr with the two hashtags, #txmountaintrail and #nationaltrailsday, we'll be able to find them online...and we'll select our favorites to include on stories and features about the Texas Mountains all summer long!  Join in the fun and hashtag to your heart's content!

Train Wreck, 1960

From the collection of the Clark Hotel Museum, via the Portal to Texas History.  "Train Wreck, Photograph, 1960; digital image, (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth14265/ : accessed May 20, 2014), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Clark Hotel Museum, Van Horn, Texas."

From the collection of Van Horn's Clark Hotel Museum

Click on the photo for a closer view!
Vida McAdoo and Alma Gibson, Photograph, 1913; digital image, (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth14171/ : accessed May 12, 2014), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Clark Hotel Museum, Van Horn, Texas

From the collection of Van Horn's Clark Hotel Museum, an image from 1913!

Van Horn's Frontier Days Okey Dokey Fun Run-5K and 10K!

The 5K race course will highlight the new sidewalks that the Texas Department of Transportation installed along Highway 54 at the request of Mayor Lucas and the Town of Van Horn; part of a campaign to make our streets cleaner, prettier, and safer for community members, tourists, and travelers.

The 10K race will also give you a taste of off-road running in the Chihuahuan desert with breathtaking views of our local red rocks (pre-cambrian sandstone) and the Beach Mountains.

Proceeds from the event will fund local scholarships given to graduating seniors who are continuing their education at a College, University, or trade school.

Longtime Van Horn Mayor, Okey Lucas.  The races are run in his memory.

 More information about the 5K and 10K are on our Texas Mountain Trail regional calendar, here.

Race Check-in, packet pick-up, and race day registration opens at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 28, 2014 at the El Capitan Hotel.

Hotel El Capitan, the starting point for the race