Day Trips
By Gerald E. McLeod, Fri., Nov. 7, 2003
Lajitas seems to reinvent itself every 30 years or so. Of course, the village on the western tip of Big Bend National Park is pretty much an invention anyway.
The official population figure remains at 48 even though construction projects have built secluded haciendas, additional hotel rooms, improved dining, a new landing strip for airplanes, and a championship 18-hole golf course. The privately owned town also boasts a beer-swilling goat as its mayor. Even with the upgrades, the town hasn't lost its sense of humor.
A woman working at the horse stables told me a year ago that Lajitas has been changing since the white man arrived and probably since the first man used this low-water crossing of the Rio Grande. Sure, the new owner had big plans and might be using more than his share of the scarce resources, but he was bringing jobs to the area, another scarce resource in the region. "Things in the desert have a way of working themselves out," she said.
In 2000, Stephen R. Smith, an Austin developer, rancher, and a founder of Excel Communications Inc., bought the 21,000-acre property from Walter Mischer for a reported $4.5 million. In the last three years, Smith has turned the rustic Western town into a swanky resort called the Ultimate Hideout. While some lament the change, it has been good for the economic stability of the region. Some folks thought Mischer was ruining the ghost town too, when, in 1977, he bought the land at the crossing of the Comanche Trail and installed a hotel, RV park, nine-hole golf course, and restaurant.
Tourism has been the main industry in Big Bend since the national park became a reality in 1944 and the last of the quicksilver mines closed in the 1950s. Between Labor Day and Easter, thousands of visitors stream to the wide-open spaces of Big Bend to enjoy the scenery and weather.
The summer of 2003 was very good to the area with record rainfall and cooler-than-usual temperatures. Outfitters along the river are saying that conditions are the best they have been since a 12-year drought gripped the western part of the state. Winter daytime temperatures average in the 70s and 80s with it dropping to near freezing at night.
When Gen. John J. Pershing led the American Army against Pancho Villa in 1916, he built a major cavalry post in Lajitas. The resort buildings now resemble the military post and a Western town. Accommodations range from a complete spa treatment to the Officers' Quarters overlooking the Ambush Golf Course. Room rates begin at $175 a night for recently remodeled room in the Badlands hotel with a view overlooking the town and go to $300 for a room with a golf course view.
Camping out in Big Bend doesn't have to be rustic anymore. The rooms are well appointed with king- and queen-sized beds, and some even have fireplaces. Each room is distinctive with ranch or cavalry decorations. The local restaurant serves a great plate of Mexican food, and the Red Rock Outfitters are on site and ready to take you rafting, on Jeep tours, or horseback riding.
When national security closed the border crossing at Lajitas in 2001, much of the local color of the town was locked on the south side of the river. Locals still stop at the Trading Post for a cold beer and conversation at the picnic tables under the cottonwood trees, even though the store that traces its roots back to the early 1900s now sells gourmet coffee and imported wines as well as beans and rice.
Out back of the store, Clay Henry, the mayor who is a goat, still guzzles beer for onlookers, but now he has his own private-label beer as well as Lone Star to choose from. Despite a practical joke a couple of years ago that turned Clay Henry from a stud into a soprano, he doesn't seem any worse for the wear. The more things change in Lajitas, the more they seem to stay the same.
For more information on the Big Bend region, call 915/371-2238 or go to www.visitbigbend.com. For information on Lajitas and the Ultimate Hideout resort, call 877/525-4827 or visit www.lajitas.com.
648th in a series. Day Trips, Vol. 2, a book of Day Trips 101-200, is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling, and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, PO Box 33284, South Austin, TX 78704.
