Native Americans Paleo-Indian hunter-gatherers existed in the region at least 9000 years ago.
Mescalaro Apaches emerged later and conducted raids that discouraged settlers. Between 1779 and 1787,
Col. Juan de Ugalde drove the Mescalaros back north across the Rio Grande and into the
Chisos Mountains. The three leading Mescalero chiefs, Patula Grande, Quemado, and Zapato Tuerto, agreed in March 1789 to submit to Spanish rule.
Comanche raiding parties continued through much of the 19th century.
Early explorations Spanish explorers
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1535 and
Antonio de Espejo in 1583 crossed Brewster County on their way to La Junta de los Ríos, the junction of the
Rio Grande and the
Rio Conchos. In 1684,
Juan Domínguez de Mendoza camped at Kokernot Spring and wrote the earliest recorded description of it.
Pedro de Rábago y Terán,
Governor of Coahuila in the 1740s, led an expedition to La Junta de los Ríos. Northern Mexican military governor Lt. Col. Hugo Oconór led a 1772 expedition to locate sites for forts on the
Comanche Trail along the Rio Grande. In October 1851,
Danish-born Col. Edvard Emil Langberg, Mexican commandant of
Chihuahua, visited southern Brewster County. Surveyor
William H. Emory in 1852 sent M. T. W. Chandler to survey what is now the heart of Big Bend National Park. Chandler explored Santa Elena Canyon, the Chisos Mountains Mariscal Canyon, and Boquillas Canyon. An 1859 expedition of the
U.S. Camel Corps under 2d Lt. Edward L. Hartz explored the Comanche Trail through Persimmon Gap and down Tornillo Creek to the Rio Grande. A year later, a second camel expedition under 2d Lt.
William Echols also explored along the Rio Grande. In response to threats of ongoing Indian attacks,
Camp Peña Colorado was established in 1879 a few miles south of the future site of Marathon. Word of mouth about the open rangeland in the area was spread by freighters John W Burgess and August Santleben, leading the way for settlers. The
Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway built through the area in 1882, opening up opportunity for entrepreneurs who came on railroad-related business and stayed.
Alfred S. Gage moved to the area in 1882 to help his brother's ranching operation, founding the
A. S. Gage Ranch, one of the largest ranching operations in Texas, in 1883. In 1927, he built the Gage Hotel in
Marathon. Legendary lawman and later
Texas Rangers Hall of Fame member
James B. Gillett served as sheriff of Brewster County, and operated a ranch in Alpine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He later retired to his Barrel Spring Ranch in
Jeff Davis County. Joseph Daniel Jackson came to the area in 1882 as part of Company B of the
Texas Rangers assigned to protect the railroad. By 1882, he had settled near Alpine and taken up ranching, branching out later to become a merchant and civic leader. Jackson is known locally as the father of
Sul Ross University due to his efforts that helped lead to the establishment of the school. Sul Ross University, named for
Texas Governor Lawrence Sullivan Ross, was created by an act of the 35th Legislature in 1917 as a state normal college to train teachers.
Population boom The population grew from 710 in 1890 to 5,220 in 1910 due for the most part to industries that relied on natural resources.
Pancho Villa and banditos Brewster County became targeted by incursions of bandits from Mexico, inspired at least in part by
Pancho Villa. In June 1915,
Governor James E. Ferguson asked
President Woodrow Wilson to station troops in the Big Bend. The request was denied by
Maj. Gen. Frederick Funston, who believed such security was a state issue. Although a number of events took place to effect policy change, the tipping point was the May 5, 1916, raid at Glenn Spring. Only nine soldiers had been stationed in the area for protection against the bandits. Estimates vary as to the number of Mexican raiders who attacked the soldiers, from 60 to several hundred. The raid caused a larger military presence in the area. President Wilson mobilized the
National Guard to reinforce the Army, and by the end of 1916, an estimated 116,957 guardsmen were stationed along the border from
California to Texas. As the mines and wax factories played out after
World War I, raids from across the border abated.
Big Bend The geographic region known as the
Big Bend is a loosely defined section of the Trans-Pecos, although generally agreed to comprise its more southern portions. Characterized by an extremely rugged, arid
Chihuahuan Desert landscape, the region takes its name from the sharp northeastward turn made by the Rio Grande nearby. Often noted for its stark beauty, the Big Bend was described by the historian
Walter Prescott Webb as "the finest example of earth-wreckage in Texas". It was for this reason that a national park was to be established in the region.
Big Bend National Park was established as a state park in 1933 by the state legislature, and expanded the same year by
Governor Miriam A. Ferguson. In 1935, the
United States Congress passed legislation founding it as a national park. Big Bend opened to the public in 1944. At just over 800,000 acres, it is the fourteenth largest national park in the United States and is larger than the state of
Rhode Island.
Big Bend Ranch State Park (located partially in
Presidio County) opened to the public in 1991; at , it is the largest state park in Texas.
Terlingua Chili Cookoffs Terlingua produced 40% of the nation's
quicksilver in 1920, but declining population has since qualified it as a
ghost town. In 1962,
The Dallas Morning News columnist
Francis X. Tolbert published his ode to chili
Bowl of Red and founded the Chili Appreciation Society. Fellow columnist Wick Fowler joined in the fun and became a charter member. The World Championship Chili Cookoff at Terlingua began as a tongue-in-cheek challenge between Fowler and humorist
H. Allen Smith in 1967 and has become a November tradition, celebrated across the state and nation. On the first Saturday in November Terlingua now hosts two competing international chili championships: the
Terlingua International Chili Championship, and the
Original Terlingua International Chili Cookoff. ==Geography==