The history of Big Bend National Park began in 1933 with the creation of Big Bend State Park on 15 sections of land in the vicinity of Santa Elena, Mariscal, and Boquillas canyons on the Rio Grande in southern Brewster County. Later that year the Chisos Mountains were added to the park acreage. In January 1934 the National Park Service recommended the site become a national park and called for the establishment of a Civilian Conservation Corps camp. The United States Congress passed the enabling legislation on June 20, 1935, stipulating that acquisition of the park acreage "shall be secured.only by public and private donations." The Texas State Parks Board was authorized by the 46th Legislature in 1939 to purchase land for Big Bend National Park in Brewster County, Texas (Senate Bill 123, Regular Session) The Board was authorized to pay no more than $2.00 an acre, exclusive of improvements made to the land. The State Parks Board, through appropriations of $1.5 million by the 47th Texas Legislature, had purchased most of the land by 1942. During much of the 1941-1942 period while the Board was actively pursing land for the park, it maintained an office in Alpine, Texas to handle most of the land acquisition duties. The land purchase program activities were carried out by the Big Bend Land Department, a division of the Texas State Parks Board. Although several thousand acres remained in private hands, the park opened to the public in 1944. The last of the park's original acreage was purchased through Congressional appropriations in 1972. Additional purchases have added to the park's size in recent years through more Congressional appropriations. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, BIG BEND. BIBLOGRAPHY
Welsh, Michael E. Landscape of Ghosts, River of Dreams: A History of Big Bend National Park. Washington, D.C.?: National Park Service, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 2002. Print and Internet source
Known as a place of stark beauty, dramatic geographic dimension, and challenging desert terrain, Big Bend National Park is located in West Texas on the north bank of the Rio Grande, adjacent to the Mexican states of Coahuila and Chihuahua. Although a place of natural grandeur, the unique location of this 118-mile long, 1.5 million-acre corridor has led to many challenges between the United States and Mexico, two nations who share one ecosystem but inhabit different political worlds. Big Bend National Park explores the cultural and diplomatic history of this transborder region that was designated a national park on the US side and the site of a long-hoped-for “international peace park” on the other. Michael Welsh demonstrates the challenges faced and lessons learned by both the US and Mexico.
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Wauer, Roland H. Naturalist's Big Bend. College Station, TX: Texas A & M Press, 1996. Print. ROLAND H. WAUER, formerly chief park naturalist for Big Bend National Park and chief of the Division of Natural Resources, National Park Service, is the author of numerous publications of the Big Bend region and of Naturalist’s Mexico, also published by Texas A&M University Press. |
Wauer, Roland H., and Carl M. Fleming. Naturalist's Big Bend: An Introduction to the Trees and Shrubs, Wildflowers, Cacti, Mammals, Birds, Reptiles and Amphibians, Fish, and Insects. College Station, TX: Texas A & M University Press, 2000. In southwest Texas where the Rio Grande arcs southward into Mexico lies Big Bend National Park, 708,221 acres of river floodplain, desert, grasslands, and majestic mountains, a richly varied enviroment that exist more or less as it did before man’s arival. The wealth of the Big Bend is in its dramatic landscape, which provides natural habitiats ranging form desert to alpine, and its consequently impressive variety of flora and fauna.
Intended as a biological introduction to one of the nation’s ourstanding natural systems, Naturalist’s Big Bend highlights the distinctive plants and animal of the region, such as the century plant, which grows twenty-five to fifty-five years, blooms magnificently, and dies; candelilla, fomr which wax is made; prickly pear cactus; the javelina, North America’s only native pig; the colima warbler; the rare Texas lyre snake; the Big Bend gambusia fish; the tarantula; and the Big Bend quonker katydid.
This comprehensive field guide, revised and enlarged in a new edition, describes the area’s archaeology and history, and details the characteristics and habitats of Big Bend’s trees and shrubs, wildflowers, cacti, mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, fish, and invertebrates. It also outlines walking and driving tours of the most likely spots for sighting these plants and animals. An extensive bibliography is included.
Morey, Roy. Little Big Bend: Common, Uncommon, and Rare Plants of Big Bend National Park. Lubbock, Tex: Texas Tech Univ. Press, 2008. Print. Designed for people who want to know what they are looking at in the park, this book is superbly done in text and photographs and is easy to understand. Not only does it depict many of the plants
Evans, Douglas B. Cactuses of Big Bend National Park. 2021. Douglas B. Evans was Chief Park Naturalist at Big Bend National Park from 1961 to 1966. When the cactuses bloom in Big Bend National Park, their vivid pinks and purples, reds and yellows bring an unforgettable beauty to the rugged Chihuahuan Desert landscape. In fact, many people visit the park just see the cactus blossoms and the wildflowers. If you're one of them, this book will increase your enjoyment by helping you identify the wonders at your feet. And if you've never been to Big Bend when the cactuses are blooming, you'll discover here what you've been missing. Douglas B. Evans describes twelve kinds of cactus—living rock, topflower, stout-spined, hedgehog, pineapple, button, barrel, fishhook, nipple, chollas and pricklypears, and Texas nipple—and their individual species known to occur in the park. Color photographs taken by Doris Evans and Ro Wauer accompany the species descriptions. As you hike or drive through the park, you can identify most of the cactuses you see simply by leafing through these splendid pictures and then checking the descriptions, which indicate the cactuses' characteristic features and habitat. To make the book even more useful, Evans also briefly defines the parts of a cactus, explains how scientific names work, and offers a quick introduction to the geography and ecology of Big Bend National Park and the Chihuahuan Desert. With this information, you'll enjoy not only seeing the cactuses of the Big Bend but also being able to tell one from another and knowing just what makes each one special.
Langford, J.O., and Fred Gipson. Big Bend: A Homesteader's Story. 2021.
To the wild and fabulous country where the Rio Grande makes its big bend, J. O. Langford came in 1909 with his wife and daughter in search of health and a home. High on a bluff overlooking the spot where Tornillo Creek pours its waters into the turbulent Rio Grande, the Langfords built their home, a rude structure of adobe blocks in a land reputed to be inhabited only by bandits and rattlesnakes. Big Bend is the story of the Langfords' life in the rugged and spectacularly beautiful country which they came to call their own. Langford's account is told with the help of Fred Gipson, author of Old Yeller and Hound Dog Man.
Koch, Peter, and June Cooper Price. Exploring the Big Bend Country. 2021.
Photographer-naturalist Peter Koch first visited the new Big Bend National Park in February, 1945, on assignment to take promotional pictures for the National Park Service. He planned to spend a couple of weeks--and ended up staying for the rest of his life. Koch's magnificent photographs and documentary film-lectures Big Bend, Life in a Desert Wilderness and Desert Gold introduced the park to people across the United States, drawing thousands of visitors to the Big Bend. His photographs and films of the region remain among the best ever produced, and are an invaluable visual record of the first four decades of Big Bend National Park. In this highly readable book, Koch's daughter June Cooper Price draws on the newspaper columns her father wrote for the Alpine Avalanche, supplemented by his photographs, journal entries, and short pieces by other family members, to present Peter Koch's vision of the Big Bend. The book opens with his first "big adventure," a six-day photographic trip through Santa Elena Canyon on a raft made from agave flower stalks. From there, Koch takes readers hiking on mountain trails and driving the scenic loop around Fort Davis. He also describes "wax smuggling" and other ways of making a living on the Mexican border; ranching in the Big Bend; the prehistory and Native Americans of the region; collaborating with botanist Barton Warnock on books of Trans-Pecos wildflowers; and the history and beauty of Presidio County, the Rio Grande, and the Chihuahuan Desert. This fascinating blend of firsthand adventures, natural history, and personal musings on anthropology and history creates an unforgettable portrait of both Peter Koch and the Big Bend region he so loved.
McDougall, W B, and Omer E. Sperry. Plants of Big Bend National Park: With Illustrations and Keys for Identification. Washington: National Park Service, 1957. Internet source.
Jameson, John. The Story of Big Bend National Park. 2021. A breathtaking country of rugged mountain peaks, uninhabited desert, and spectacular river canyons, Big Bend is one of the United States' most remote national parks and among Texas' most popular tourist attractions. Located in the great bend of the Rio Grande that separates Texas and Mexico, the park comprises some 800,000 acres, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island, and draws over 300,000 visitors each year. The Story of Big Bend National Park offers a comprehensive, highly readable history of the park from before its founding in 1944 up to the present. John Jameson opens with a fascinating look at the mighty efforts involved in persuading Washington officials and local landowners that such a park was needed. He details how money was raised and land acquired, as well as how the park was publicized and developed for visitors. Moving into the present, he discusses such issues as natural resource management, predator protection in the park, and challenges to land, water, and air. Along the way, he paints colorful portraits of many individuals, from area residents to park rangers to Lady Bird Johnson, whose 1966 float trip down the Rio Grande brought the park to national attention. This history will be required reading for all visitors and prospective visitors to Big Bend National Park. For everyone concerned about our national parks, it makes a persuasive case for continued funding and wise stewardship of the parks as they face the twin pressures of skyrocketing attendance and declining budgets.
MacLeod, William. Big Bend Vistas: Journeys Through Big Bend National Park. , 2017. Print.
A superb souvenir of this exotic terrain, Big Bend Vistas takes you on five journeys that begin at Panther Junction and travel to Study Butte; then on to the Chisos Basin, Santa Elena Canyon, Boquillas Canyon, and finally to Persimmon Gap.
Easy to read and understand, Big Bend Vistas describes how volcanoes millions of years ago created some of the most striking scenery in Texas. The author includes vivid photographs, maps, and diagrams that explain the landscape and geology of Big Bend National Park in layman's terms.
Parent, Laurence. Hiking Big Bend National Park: A Guide to the Big Bend Areas Greatest Hiking Adventures,... Including Big Bend Ranch State Park. S.l.: FALCON PR PUB CO, 2022. Print
Masters, Ben. The River and the Wall. , 2019. Print.
When a team of five explorers embarked on a 1,200-mile journey down the Rio Grande, the river that marks the southern boundary of Texas and the US-Mexico border, their goal was to experience and capture on film the rugged landscapes of this vast frontier before the controversial construction of a border wall changed this part of the river forever.
The crew—Texas filmmaker Ben Masters, Brazilian immigrant Filipe DeAndrade, Texas conservationist Jay Kleberg, wildlife biologist Heather Mackey, and Guatemalan-American river guide Austin Alvarado—began the trip in El Paso, pedaling mountain bikes through the city’s dry river bed. Their path took them on horseback through the Big Bend, down the Wild and Scenic stretch of the river in canoes, and back to bikes from Laredo to Brownsville. They paddled the last ten miles through a forest of river cane to the Gulf of Mexico.
As they made their way to the Gulf, they met and talked with the people who know and live on the river—border patrol, wildlife biologists, ranchers, politicians, farmers, social workers, locals, and travelers. They climbed the wall (in twenty seconds). They encountered rare black bears, bighorn sheep, and birds of all kinds. And they sought to understand the complexities of immigration, the efficacy of a wall, and the impact of its construction on water access, wildlife, and the culture of the borderlands.
The River and the Wall is both a wild adventure on a spectacular river and a sobering commentary on the realities of walling it off.
Finley-Holiday Film Corporation. Big Bend National Park. Whittier, CA: Finley-Holiday Films, 2005.
Geological Survey (U.S.). Big Bend National Park, Texas. Reston, Va: Geological Survey, 1980.
Hall, Margaret. Big Bend National Park. Chicago: Heinemann Library, 2006. https://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/3142/
Glendinning, Jim. Legendary Locals of the Big Bend and Davis Mountains, Texas. 2013.
CHILDREN
Wuerthner, George. Texas' Big Bend Country. Helena, MT: American Geographic Pub, 1989.
This work portrays the architectural, economic, geological, biological, and cultural forces that have shaped the area and its peoples. Texas's Big Bend Country , by describing a sparsely settled area, naturally has a different emphasis. Here the focus is on the geology and natural history of this isolated bit of frontier. This is the story of abandoned mines and ghost towns, of the land and its few human but many animal and vegetable inhabitants.
NATIONAL PARK WEEK, APRIL 16, 2022 - April 24, 2022
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