May 10, 2016: Big Bend: Boquillas Canyon
	Return to the Big Bend Trip Index

Our trip to Big Bend began with our drive from Dallas to Marathon, Texas, which began just after 9AM on Monday morning.

The Trip to Marathon

We wanted to be in Marathon about four in the afternoon, so we left about nine for the seven-hour trip. We have made a similar drive before, so we knew the route.

From the house, we headed south on Inwood all the way down Hampton to I-30 west. We drove to the other side of Fort Worth were I-30 ends in a merge with I-20 west.

Then, the really boring 350-odd mile drive from west of Fort Worth all the way to Monahans, Texas. We have made this particular drive perhaps ten times in the last twenty-five years, usually on our way to Pecos, Texas, where we turn for Carlsbad, or El Paso, on our way to Arizona, or even to Big Bend itself. So we were familiar with the drive and got off the Interstate on schedule in Monahans.

We turned south on Texas Highway 18 to Fort Stockton, a one-hour, 50-mile trip. At Fort Stockton, we continued south on US Highway 385 which took us the final 50 miles all the way into Marathon. That highway crossed US Highway 90, so we angled off into downtown Marathon and our arrival at the Gage Hotel.

Although it isn't directly related to our actual trip to the Marathon, I should probably introduce you to the town itself, since we did a fair amount of walking around it.

We will take a closer look at the hotel itself and its nearby gardens shortly, but on the aerial view of Marathon at right you can see the relationship of the various places we visited while we were in town.

The Gage Hotel is on US Highway 90, and almost all of Marathon is on the north side of that road. One of the main east-west railway routes of the Southern Pacific Railroad is just south of the street, about two hundred feet from the hotel itself. On the other side of the tracks to the south were a couple of commercial buildings and a few private homes, as well as the Gage Gardens- a small arboretum-like garden tied in to the hotel itself.

North of the hotel are such private homes as there are in Marathon, which is not all that big. We did take a walk one morning with Jax up to Eve's Garden B&B, where I think Nancy said she'd stayed with Karl on one of their trips out west.

Marathon is the second-largest town in Brewster County, located twenty-six miles southeast of Alpine in the northern part of the county. The town was founded in 1882 when the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway built across what was then part of Presidio County- although there were already settlers in the area. Two brothers from San Antonio, Solomon and Mayer Halff, established their Circle Dot Ranch nearby, and in 1879 the federal government established Camp Peña Colorado there. Capt. Albion E. Shepard established established the Iron Mountain Ranch in 1882. In his application for a post office, which was opened in 1883, Shepard named the site Marathon because its terrain reminded him of the plains of Marathon, Greece. At the time, there were about 125 residents in the area.

The railroad turned Marathon into a shipping and supply point for area ranchers and slowly more residents and businesses (and cattle and sheep) moved in. In 1897, Brewster county, Texas' largest, was established. In 1888 a one-room building was constructed to serve as a school, church, and community meeting hall. The population was 110 in 1896, and by 1909 Baptist, Catholic and Methodist churches had been established and a new three-room school built. There was a jail for a time, until it was moved to Alpine, and also a newspaper (which ended publication in 1919).

Marathon was the principal shipping point for most Brewster County ranchers because its location in the relatively flat Marathon basin was more accessible to cattle than Alpine. Other businesses included a rubber company (using guayule rubber plants, it closed when the supply proved insufficient), and an oil company (it failed when little oil was found). During the Mexican Revolution, Marathon became the local center of military operations; a young Captain Douglas MacArthur and an even younger Lieutenant George S. Patton served there.

In 1914 the estimated population of Marathon had grown to 600. Among the businesses operating in the town were the Border Rubber Company, the Chambers Hotel, the Hustler newspaper, four cattle breeders, three general stores, a bank, a telephone company, and a pool hall.

During the 1920s Marathon was plagued by a series of fires of mysterious origin; arson was suspected, but no suspects were ever apprehended. In 1925 the estimated population had fallen to 218, but two years later had climbed to 1,000. In 1928 oil was again discovered; several test wells were drilled near Marathon, but the results were disappointing. Marathon was not destined to become an oil boomtown, and the estimated population varied from 750 to 1,000 for the next two decades.

The Gage Hotel

It wasn't too long after Marathon was established that the history of the hotel where we were to stay for two nights began with the arrival in 1878 of 18-year-old Alfred Gage from Vermont, a young man with little more than a twenty-dollar gold piece in his pocket who came to seek his fortune in the vast ranching opportunity that was emerging in Texas.

As noted above, Marathon was founded four years later when the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad was built. Early settler Captain Albion E. Shepard, who had worked as a surveyor for the railroad, bought land in the area and applied for the post office 1882. Shepard named the site Marathon because its terrain reminded him of the plains of Marathon, Greece where he previously traveled as a ship captain. The rugged mountainous terrain was open ranch county, accessible only by horseback and wagon via dirt roads or rail, but Gage saw opportunity and had a big vision, which led him over the next few decades to amass a ranching empire of over 500,000 acres.

In those days, Marathon did not offer much in terms of lodging, so eventually Gage decided to build a hotel to use as a base to oversee his ranching operation. In 1926 he commissioned famed El Paso architect, Henry Trost, to design and build the property. An excellent example of Mission and Spanish-style design, the hotel officially opened for business in April of 1927. During that time period, Trost designed a number of other noteworthy hotels in the region, including the Paisano Hotel in Marfa, the Holland Hotel in Alpine and the El Capitan in Van Horn. Sadly, before being able to fully enjoy the newly completed hotel, Alfred Gage died just one year after it opened.

For several decades the hotel continued to serve those who ventured into the region, housing high-profile guests including Mount Rushmore sculptor, Gutzon Borglum and writer Zane Gray, who as legend has it, penned his most famous Wild West novel at the Gage. Marathon did not fare well, though. At one time in the late 1940s three wax factories were operating in Marathon, but all three were gone by 1954. Commercial beekeeping rose, peaked in the 1940s and then declined. A fertilizer company operated for fifteen years until it moved to Alpine. By the early 1970s, the population had fallen below 800. Because of the lack of commerce, the number of guests at The Gage dwindled. For many years, the hotel offered little more than haunted hallways until a fortuitous turn of events occurred when JP Bryan purchased the hotel in 1978.

A descendant of Stephen F. Austin, the founding “Father of Texas”, Bryan understood and appreciated the historic value of the hotel property, and, like Alfred Gage, had a vision for its future. JP’s passion for the Big Bend region, which in his words offers some of the most intriguing landscape in the entire West, and his love of the history of Texas, has led him through a 30-year restoration of the of the property and the town. The result of his work, which in ongoing, offers those who visit the region a truly authentic and unique place to enjoy the region and hopefully, share the vision and dreams of both Alfred Gage and JP Bryan.

We arrived in Marathon and pulled up to the Gage Hotel a little after 4 in the afternoon, and it didn't take us long to run across Prudence, who was out walking. They had arrived only 30 minutes or so ahead of us, so we stashed our stuff in our room and went out to walk around with Prudence and Vickie. One of the first pictures I took was of Fred, Vickie and Prudence on the front steps of the Gage.

As you read above, the Gage is an historic hotel, dating from the 1920s. It is a Texas Historic Landmark and is on the United States Register of Historic Places. As befitting its designations, there was a plaque on the front of the building, and you can read that plaque here.

The Gage has been restored a number of times since it was built, and the latest renovation has brought it well into the 21st century. One of the most interesting rooms is the main lobby. It wasn't very large, but it was very nicely appointed, with a definite "frontier" feel. Fred also took a couple of pictures here in the lobby:

In that second picture, you have Vickie, Nancy, myself and Prudence, of course. (As I introduce everyone in the pictures from this afternoon and around the Gage Hotel, you'll meet everyone on the trip, and beginning tomorrow I won't bother to necessarily name everyone.)

Both Fred and I took a number of pictures around The Gage- today, tomorrow and before we left on Wednesday. Rather that sprinkle them through three days' worth of album pages, I think it better to group them all here. For example, let's leave the lobby through the doors that you can see behind me in the rightmost picture above. When you come out that door to the back of the small hotel, there is ramp down to a large patio. I walked down that ramp and then turned to the north to have a look at the patio set with tables and chairs where guests can eat breakfast or their afternoon snacks. From down on the patio, here is that back door of the hotel.

Down at the end of the ramp, in line with the west wall of the main hotel building, there is an arched gate, and when you walk through that, you are in a larger part-lawn, part-flagstone area where there is again more seating for guests and a really neat pergola. This area is separated from the patio by a long wall. Immediately to your left is a walkway out to the street, as well as a large gate through which vehicles or carriages can enter this area. Ahead of you along the walk is another gate through another wall, and there are two exits to the street behind the hotel. You can see all of these features in the 180° picture I put together. It is in the scrollable window below:

If you continue strolling along the walkway in front of you, you will pass through another archway into an area that is where the hotel's pool is located. Coming through that archway, you can see the view ahead of you here.

As you enter through that archway, the pool is on your left, entered via two gates that open onto the lawn which is on your right. The pool is really nice, although we didn't have an opportunity to get in it during our short stay here at the Gage Hotel.

Continuing along this walkway, just outside the pool area, you can see ahead of you the gate to the new addition. This addition consists of three one-story buildings arranged in a U-shape that contain about four or five rooms or suites each. This part of the hotel was added, I believe, in the 1990s, and this is where Ron and Prudence as well as Nancy and Karl had their rooms. (Dogs weren't allowed in the main building, but they were in these rooms, which is why Prudence and Ron were staying in this part of the hotel.)

I thought that these casitas were very nicely done. In the picture at right Ron and Prudence's room was the first one in the right-hand building; Karl and Nancy were in the building in the background. Just inside the gate was an interesting monolith with a bell.

We took a couple of other pictures out here by the casitas:

(Click Thumbnails to View)

As I said, Prudence, Ron, Nancy and Karl were out here in these separate buildings, while Mike and Vickie and Fred and I were in the main hotel building. Fred and I were just down the hall from Room 10, which is, legend has it, the room here at the Gage that is haunted. A number of guests in that room have reported otherworldly goings-on, although I, being the skeptic, would want to see some proof.

Prudence arranged for a really nice room for Fred and I (and we must thank Prudence and Ron for getting the room for us); it was on the front left corner of the second floor of the hotel, so we had views out to the south and to the west along US 90. There was a queen-size bed and a beautiful antigue armoire, along with a very nice bath. Fred took a couple of pictures of the bath that I want to include here:

(Click Thumbnails to View)

In the three days that we spent here, Fred and I took a few other pictures in and around the Gage Hotel- most from the street in front of the hotel. Here are some of them:

(Click Thumbnails to View)

The Gage Gardens

On the afternoon of the day we arrived in Marathon, all eight of us walked from the Gage Hotel, across the railroad tracks and about a block beyond to the Gage Gardens. If you refer back to the aerial view of Marathon above, you can see the route we took from the hotel to its gardens. The walk to the gardens was, itself, interesting, although it was only a couple of blocks. What made it interesting for me was crossing the railroad tracks- and realizing just how isolated Marathon is. No matter whether you stopped on the tracks and looked west towards Alpine or looked east way back towards San Antonio, you saw nothing but straight track leading off into the distance. I don't get this far away from big cities very often, and so it is always unusual when I do. It is different from being in a National Park, for some reason, perhaps because there is a town right there- even though when we looked north straight through town, there still wasn't anything to see. These views were so interesting that I tried to capture the whole scene in a 180° panorama; and I think it came out well:

Once across the railway tracks, we turned east on SE 1st Avenue to walk the block to the gardens. Everyone else walked along the street, past the historic Chambers Hotel, now a private residence. I took the marked path through an open area just south of the tracks, a path which took me by agarita trees and quite a few different varieties of cactus. No matter the path, we all arrived about the same moment at the entrance to the Gage Gardens.

Before we start on our tour of the Gage Gardens, you might like to see how it is laid out, and an aerial view is probably the best way to do that.

At right, I've captured an aerial view of the gardens and marked on it some of the major features that we encountered in our walk through the gardens this afternoon. I have also indicated the approximate route that we took through the gardens.

Sprawling across 27-acres of lush greens, the Gage Gardens encompasses a native landscaped garden park with lovely ponds, beautiful fountains,
nine-hole putting green, rose garden, vineyard, fruit orchard and a large fire pit with banquette seating.

Blooming with colorful indigenous plants that flourish year round, the garden is a welcome home for migrating birds and butterflies, and provides the ideal spot for a relaxing walk a partner or pet, an afternoon picnic, a wedding or a private party. Conceived by the hotel's owners in the early 1980s, by 1990 the gardens were pretty much in their current form, although occasional improvements or additions have been made by the owners, who consider the gardens to be their main hobby.

It was an interesting place and a great spot to relax, as some of these pictures show:

(Click Thumbnails to View)

When we entered the garden, we saw signs to a one-mile jogging loop (with exercise stations) that went around the entire grounds (much of which was just open land with a small pond), but we, of course, were just about following the walkways through the beautifully landscaped garden.

Just as you entered the gardens, there was a very, very pretty fountain and pool, which seemed incongrous out here in the middle of the high desert. That's Fred, of course, standing behind the fountain in the picture at right. I thought that this would be a good place to make an introductory movie of the Gage Gardens as well:

(Mouseover Image Above for Player Controls)

I thought that the fountain right at the entrance was really pleasant and I would have been happy to just sit and listen to it, but we'd come to see the gardens and that was what we were going to do.

Before we started out, I had Ron take a group picture, so you can see Karl, Mike and Vickie, Nancy and Prudence and Fred and myself in the picture at left. Then we started out just wandering through the three-acre area that the walkways covered, looking at the plants and flowers, trees and landscaping, and structures. Here are some of the pictures we took:

(Click Thumbnails to View)

One of the primary parts of the Gage Gardens were the rose gardens. They were laid out in a formal style, with a couple of fountains. I think it may have been relatively new, because the roses weren't very large:

The area near the entrance was very relaxing, what with the lush green grass at all, but as I found out you have to be a bit careful where you sit; I found myself up close and personal with some local wildlife.

(Mouseover Image Above for Player Controls)

The snake was pretty exciting; it was certainly a different color than I've seen before. Here are more of the pictures we took, relaxing here in the gardens:

(Click Thumbnails to View)

On the way back to the hotel, all of us took the walk through the area where there was a path and a number of different kinds of cactus. Fred took some pictures along the way.

We got back to the railroad tracks, and crossed them again to the north and the town itself. I stopped in the middle of the road to take a picture looking south towards Big Bend, and you can see that picture here. I also took a couple of candid shots that I thought were interesting as we walked along the sidewalk by the now closed-for-the-day businesses, and you can see those two pictures here and here.

Dinner at the Gage Hotel

When we returned from the gardens, we did a bit of walking around and then all of us met on the patio of the 12-Gage Restaurant and White Buffalo Bar right next door (and part of) the hotel.

Prudence had made reservations for us for dinner at 7:30, but it was only 5PM now, so the group of us thought that before we went back to our rooms to freshen up for dinner, we'd have a drink in the patio area of the White Buffalo Bar, and as we were heading into the bar, I had Fred stop at the entrance for a picture of him with yet another representation of his spirit animal- the buffalo. You can see that picture here.

The patio area of the bar is through those doors behind me and off to the left. The outside dining area of the restaurant is to the right, and we could see that our table was already set up and waiting for us.

The patio area was pretty neat. It extended from the doorway into the restaurant and bar all the way to the side of the hotel building adjacent. There were some planters and a fountain which made the patio a pleasant place to gather and have something to drink.

While everyone was getting seated, Fred and I wandered around the patio taking some pictures. The most interesting aspect was the display of cow skulls that adorned the furthest back wall of the patio.

I have no idea why the skulls were on the wall, but you have to admit that they are a striking accent hanging there on the wall. Fred took a second picture of me with the skulls and I also took a few pictures of the skulls and of Fred:

(Click Thumbnails to View)

We put some tables together and sat down to order some drinks. The sun had gone way down, and so almost all the patio area was in shade, and it was real comfortable sitting outside.

During our time on the patio, Fred and I got better acquainted with Mike and Vickie, and we learned that they planned to do as much walking and hiking in Big Bend as they could. I think both of them had experience on vacations where they spent a lot of time outdoors. Everyone else was also looking forward to seeing and doing a lot down in Big Bend- more than just driving around looking at the sights. We did some planning for the next day, putting Boquillas Canyon at the top of our list.

Before we adjourned to the hotel to get ready for dinner, Fred took a few more interesting pictures around the patio of the White Buffalo Bar:

(Click Thumbnails to View)

After drinks, we all went back to our rooms for a while, to rejoin over on the restaurant side just a few minutes before 7:30. As I was walking over to the restaurant, a train came by heading west. As the track was less than a hundred feet away, I walked over to watch it pass, and then took this picture of the train heading into the sunset.

When everyone had assembled at our table for dinner, I thought I would take a picture of all of us, although I should have prevailed on one of our servers to do it so I could get in it too. We had a pleasant dinner to end the day, and right afterwards Fred and I walked around the bar to photograph some of the buffalo-themed decorations. One wall in the bar sported a handsome buffalo mural reminiscent of a Remington as you might see in the Amon Carter museum. There were also two buffalo heads on the walls:

(Click Thumbnails to View)

We'd done a lot this afternoon, on top of the long drive out here, so we were all ready to retire pretty soon after we'd finished dinner. Fred and I walked around outside for just a while before turning in. Everyone was looking forward to Big Bend tomorrow.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	May 10, 2016: Big Bend: Boquillas Canyon
	Return to the Big Bend Trip Index