Tails on the Terlingua Porch

Our neighbors at the Big Bend Resort RV campground, Wayne and Pat, are wonderful people who have many stories to tell of the Big Bend area.  They have been coming here for years and love this sparsely populated, hot, dusty community.

One of their favorite places to hang out is the Terlingua General Store, in Terlingua Ghostown.  Terlingua is a mining district located west of Big Bend National Park.  It sprang up originally with the discovery of cinnabar in the 1880's.  Due to mining, it grew to a metropolis of about 2,000 people until, after World War II, the decline in mercury production caused the town to shrink to almost nothing.

The area had a renaissance of sorts in the 1960's when a variety of hippies, environmental types and others gravitated to it because of the low cost of living.  Many houses in the area had been abandoned when mining disappeared, and people just squatted in whatever vacant houses were handy.  In many cases, the true owners of properties were not known.

Over the years, the Terlingua General Store has become the social center of this quirky universe.  Come 4:30 pm or so every day, the locals drift onto the front porch of the store, buy a six-pack of beer from the establishment (being careful to keep their beers refrigerated and take care to leave the store manager note of how many of their refrigerated purchases they have drunk), and sit on the porch to swap stories, play or listen to music, play with the resident dogs, or just hang out.  This front porch is known as the "Terlingua Porch."  We joined the crowd with Wayne and Pat and chatted for a stretch.

The porch is never complete without its honorary dog hosts.  Buddy, a cinnamon brown labrador-chow mix, was by far the most social, and he and David became fast friends.  

Here's a photo of the Terlingua Porch today, complete with dog:

Here's a photo of Wayne (and part of Pat on the right) making friends with Gonzo, one of the canine habitues:

Kathy and Gonzo played a mean series of games of tug-o-war, and the score was about even.  If you consider dog slobber all over your hands a prize, Kathy won first.

A well-known figure on the Terlingua Porch is Doctor Doug, who maintains his own web log, which in itself is an entertaining introduction to all things Terlingua.  Doctor Doug has been around these parts for some time and has such notoriety that the general store even sells a postcard with a photo of the young Doctor Doug (known in that capacity as Doctor Black) astride a local automobile:

But there is much more to Terlingua (and the Terlingua Porch) than just Doctor Doug.  One writer and photographer, Blair Pittman, has written two books, "Tales from the Terlingua Porch," and "More Tales from the Terlingua Porch" and also maintains a web log.  Read these books and the web logs of the Good Doctor and Mr. Pittman to get the real flavor of Terlingua and this idiosyncratic community around Big Bend National Park!

After happy hour and a short rest, we dropped over to the Chili Pepper Cafe again with Wayne and Pat for a delicious home-cooked Mexican style dinner.  Kathy highly recommends their guacamole, which really is mainly avocado.