El Paso's Union Station

El Paso is still served by Amtrak, on the Texas Eagle and  Sunset Limited line and passengers heading our way can stop there, or in Alpine.  El Paso's Union Station, located just west of downtown is convenient for all travelers.

The Wikipedia article for the station says this:  "The El Paso Union Depot, also known as El Paso Union Passenger Depot, was designed by architect Daniel Burnham, who also designed Washington D.C. Union Station. It was built between 1905 and 1906 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971."

It is still a lovely place to catch a train! 

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

Step Back in Time, Be a Traveler at the Clark Hotel Museum

Van Horn's Clark Hotel Museum

Van Horn has always been a place for travelers, folks heading across the nation.  Before I-10, it was the Bankhead Highway and the Old Spanish Trail or the train, and before that stagecoach lines.  The Clark Hotel was one of several hotels in Van Horn for visitors to spend the night.  Read more about it here.

Located on Broadway, Van Horn's main street, just west of the intersection of Hwy 90 and Hwy 54, the Hotel building is now a historic museum telling the story of early Culberson County.  Visit it, and see how travelers lodged for an evening on their trips across the country.

The Museum's website is here.  The site and the last three photos in this post are the work of Dan Baeza, Van Horn native and our Texas Mountain Trail photography intern last summer.  Thanks, Dan!

Chinese Cemetery in El Paso

El Paso’s Concordia Cemetery is chock full of history—there’s a section for Buffalo Soldiers, a “Boot Hill” for gunfighters and a unique Chinese Cemetery.

Concordia’s website says this:

“Chinese Immigrants first arrived in El Paso shortly before the Southern Union Pacific Railroad completed its line here in 1881.  The earliest immigrants opened a rooming house and a grocery store.  Soon afterwards, the U.S. Government passed the “Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), which restricted Chinese immigration.  However, enough Chinese immigrants remained to create a vibrant community throughout El Paso into the early 1920s. 

At one time downtown El Paso’s Chinese community was the largest in the state of Texas.  Chinese contributed to the area’s economy largely by growning and selling fruits and vegetables for the local market and by opening businesses, including laundries and restaurants frequented by male sojourners.  Expatriates send earnings to familes in China, wit the intention of returning to China someday.  Others stayed and married and raised families both in El Paso and Juarez.  The El Paso Chinese community retained their native culture through language (most spoke in Taishanese dialect) food, community associations, and tradition.

During the 20^th century, Chinese continued to migrate to El Paso.  During the Mexican Revolution, General John “Black Jack” Pershing brought hundreds of Chinese into the United States from Mexico for their protection from racial violence.  They were allowed to immigrate following General Pershings’ petitioning of Congress.  The Chinese continued to migrate to El Paso during the Great Depression of the 1930s, prompted by the Communist takeover of China.  Today, the Chinese El Pasoan’s continue to maintain a sense of community in the city they helped build."

A truly wonderful place to step back into history, Concordia Cemetery has earned recognition including True West magazine's "Best Preserved Gravesite in the West," and from the Texas Historical Commission a RIP Guardian designation.  The Concordia Heritage Association also won the Clara Driscoll Award for Preservation.

If you would like to help the Concordia Heritage Association, you can donate here.

A gracious way to travel...step off the train...and the best of the city is steps away

One of the loveliest and gracious ways to travel to the region is by train, through El Paso's Union Station.  Built in 1905 and renovated in 1982 (and on the National Register of Historic Places), the station was the first passenger station built in the United States specifically for international travel.  The county's website outlines the renovation work that was done to bring the station back to its original glory:

"The original tile floor was installed, the white paint on the outside bricks was removed, most of the original woodwork was preserved as much as possible, marble was imported from Italy to replace the damaged marble on the inside columns, and the tower and steeple were restored to their former place on top of the Depot."  To read more, click here.

Today, Amtrak's Sunset Limited runs through our region on its route from New Orleans to Los Angeles.  El Paso is a fully supported stop (meaning you can check luggage and bicycles!) on the route, and one of two stops in our region.  (Alpine is the second.)  Within walking distance is one of the hotels participating in our Texas Mountain Trail cycle-friendly program is the Holiday Inn Central El Paso.

The station is centered in the historic downtown, near the city's museum campus.  Consider visiting the city's Museum of History and Museum of Art.  Or the Insights Science Museum, or the Lynx Exhibits.  Since you've arrived by train, there's a place of special interest, El Paso's Railroad and Transportation Museum!

The Golden Light of Winter's Dusk

Taken between Marfa and Alpine, along the railroad tracks!

One of our favorite wintertime landscapes, on a road mostly locals know

There's a road heading south from Marathon you really need to take...either by bicycle, motorcycle or car.  A 10 mile round trip offers a great adventure--history, geology, wildlife and nature--all packed into a short trip.  On a brisk winter day, we took this photo, looking north on our way back to town.  Lovely, right?

The road is known as the "Ride to the Post Heritage Bike Ride," on our website, but is ready for anyone (even non-cyclists!) to enjoy.  Consider all it offers:
The Road to the Post extends south on Avenue D in Marathon from US Highway 90 and the Union Pacific Railroad, and has an amazing history!

• Your route follows one fork of the Comanche War or Indian Trails into Mexico—there was a skirmish on the ridge above Post Park in 1855 between Buffalo Soldiers, Texas Rangers and Indians in 1855!
• It also generally follows the original Ore Roads to haul the ores (lead, zinc and silver) from the smelter at Boquillas in Mexico in 1895-1906, as well as quicksilver from the Terlingua, Study Butte and the Mariscal mines in south Brewster County to the railroad in Marathon as late as 1937!
• The route takes you near the historic cemetery and the site of an influenza tent hospital from the 1918 epidemic!
• The area known as Post Park was the site of a military encampment, farms, and ranches. Today it is the place for county-wide dance parties, fishing and birdwatching!
• The Gage Gardens and Post Park are both sites on the new Far West Texas Wildlife Trail.

Want to learn more?  Visit our "Ride to the Post" webpage for a link to a complete history, by Marathon resident Travis Roberts, PLUS a slideshow of the route!

Kitchen and Bar of the Clark Hotel, now Van Horn's museum

 

Van Horn's history is about people stopping overnight for water, and then passing through.  Native peoples stopped south of town at a place now called Van Horn Wells, the Butterfield Overland Mail stage stopped there, and there was a railroad stop in town too.  Today, it is I-10 that takes travelers through Van Horn, as they cross the southern tier of the United States.
What better place to tell the history of the area, then a former hotel?  The Clark Hotel building was an overnight stay for travelers from around 1919 when travelers came by train, until the mid-century.  In 1979, it was purchased by the Museum Association.  Now it displays artifacts telling the history of the area.

Read more about it here!

The Lost Finlay, Texas

"Post office, Finlay, Texas" 1937, Dorothea Lange

"The postmaster's seat, Finlay, Texas" Dorothea Lange

A railroad stop west of Sierra Blanca in Hudspeth County, Finlay was photographed in 1937 by Dorothea Lange for the U.S. Farm Security Administration. 

No longer a stop, Finlay may be considered one of those "lost" places in the region.  On the Southern Pacific line, Finlay's reason for existing is explained by Larry Francell, of Fort Davis, retired Director of the Museum of the Big Bend,  "Steam locomotives consumed vast amounts of fuel (coal primarily) and water.  Regular water stops were required, with the distances determined by natural sources or locations where wells could established." 

Thanks to Larry Francell and to Texas Mountain Trail board member, Travis Roberts for their help with this entry!Photo Credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, [ LC-USF34-016741-E ] and Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Collection, [LC-USF34-016740-E]

Chinese Graves in El Paso's Concordia Cemetery

One of the fascinating places to visit in El Paso is Concordia Cemetery, named by True West Magazine as this year's "Best of the West!"  There you can experience the complexity of the history of this part of the west, as you see graves of Buffalo Soldiers, gunfighters, Texas Rangers, Civil War veterans, early settlers, and Chinese railroad workers. 

The Concordia Heritage Association's excellent website has a full page devoted to the history of the Chinese in El Paso, as well as more photos of this part of the cemetery.  Be advised this website plays music...be prepared for some audio!

Train Spotting

Do you like to watch for trains?  The Texas Mountain Trail website has a new page for Train Spotting!  And if you have suggestions for other locations for train spotting in Far West Texas, let us know. 

Our Train Spotting page is here.

We also have a page on railroad-related attractions in the region, click here!

Amtrak's Sunset Limited route, the route from New Orleans to Los Angeles, makes two stops in the Texas Mountain Trail Region, Alpine and El Paso. This is the charming interior of Alpine's small station.

El Paso's railroad history is told at their Railroad and Transportation Museum.

Also check out the railroad exhibit at Alpine's Museum of the Big Bend!

Train station

Amtrak's Sunset Limited route, the route from New Orleans to Los Angeles, makes two stops in the Texas Mountain Trail Region, Alpine and El Paso.

This is the charming interior of Alpine's small station. El Paso's railroad history is told at their Railroad and Transportation Museum.

Railroad

Seen between Alpine and Marfa!,

To visit transportation-related museums and exhibits, click here.