Friday, February 16 – We spent our last day here in Terlingua, Texas, just relaxing around the RV, doing some cleaning in an attempt to fight the ever-present dust in this desert environment, and visiting the Ghost Town in Terlingua.
Once home to 2,000 people, Terlingua was a thriving mercury mining town. Abandoned in the 1940's and then repopulated in the 1970's, it is now an active community of artists, musicians and free thinking individuals. This was once a thriving town with a butcher shop, ice cream parlor. Today it appears to be a community family or “hippie style” community from the past. The folks are living for today and enjoying life one day at a time.
The Terlingua Trading Company is a touristy/variety type store and also seems to surviving economically. Marsha even helped their bottom line by purchasing some agate stones for her pine needle basket hobby.
All the structures are historic and very fragile. Many built of adobe and slowly wearing away as a result of the environment. Many of the building are privately owned and used as bars, restaurants, or artsy shops.
The Starlight Theatre is a restaurant/bar that is probably the most profitable business in the small ghost town. We enjoyed several drinks there the other night and understand the food is pretty good but maybe a little expensive. They also have local entertainment nightly which we enjoyed.
Most of the remaining buildings are in a state of severe deterioration. Someone seems to be trying to save the church by replacing adobe and stucco. Hopefully the funding will hold out, and the church will be saved.
Saint Agnus Church was serviced by a priest that came once a month.
Perry Mansion, named after the mine owner.
The Perry School started as a “tent house” with one teacher. It became a
five-room building with four teachers, a principal, and 80 children.
This shaft is one of hundreds that were hand dug.
He acts so dumb sometimes….lol
The Terlingua Cemetery is another interesting area. Over 400 graves inhabit the cemetery, the oldest from 1903. Many of the inhabitants died in 1918 from influenza. Not a single person died from mercury poisoning as a result of working in the mine. This cemetery is still in use today. We enjoyed strolling among the tombstones and reading about some of these pioneers and quietly paying our respect.
US Marine Corp, Korea, Purple Heart.
Died in 2014.
1886-1945.
A big thank you to Erin/Mui, Two To Travel Phaeton, and Laurel/Eric, Raven and Chickadee, for all their wonderful suggestions for hikes in Big Bend, super blog posts and lots and lots of emails. Y’all made our visit fantastic! Tomorrow we head back East stopping in Del Rio, TX. Come along for the ride!
The photo below was taken through our screen door. We both heard someone talking. When Marsha looked out the door, there was some man sitting at our picnic table having a conference call. Not only that, but his dog was laying at the bottom of our steps. What is wrong with people?
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!
