Texas is a big state, so it should come as no surprise that Big Bend National Park has some pretty large history associated with it. Named after the big bend where the Rio Grande River change flow direction from southeast to northeast, what is now park landscape has been explored and lived upon by people for thousands of years.
Lady Bird Johnson, Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, NPS Director George Hartzog, and party hiking the Lost Mine Trail in 1966, Big Bend National Park / NPS file
Archaeologists have discovered evidence of human presence at Big Bend from 628 recorded archaeological sites. In 2002, the National Park Service made a quantitative estimate based upon more recent data suggesting there are nearly 26,000 sites in the park! You can read about Big Bend’s archaeology in their 2023 Archaeological Survey Report PDF.
Spanish explorers looking for gold, silver, and arable land crossed the Rio Grande into the Big Bend area during the 16th and 17th centuries. Comanche raiding parties rode through the Big Bend landscape in the 19th century, crossing to and from Mexico. Mexican settlers began farming along the banks and floodplain of the Rio Grande in the early 20th century, joined a couple of decades later by Anglo-Americans. Ranches, villages, trading posts, and even cavalry camps have staked claims of some sort at Big Bend.
During the late 1800s, cavalries protected settlers from attacks by Native Americans. Between 1913 and 1935, the military roamed throughout the Big Bend landscape to quell the banditry and instability spreading through the area due to the Mexican Revolution. After the 1916 raid of Glenn Springs Village by Mexican bandits, the military presence at Big Bend swelled and a period of peace followed until the advent of World War I, when soldiers were sent to Europe. It wasn’t until the initiation of post-war air patrols, along with the ending of the Mexican Revolution, that peace returned to Big Bend in 1920.
First exploration of the Big Bend canyons where the Rio Grande flows by the Robert T. Hill party in 1899, Big Bend National Park / NPS file
Despite settlers dotting the Big Bend topography, the general public knew very little about this area. When the Mexican War ended, survey parties set out to define the boundary between the United States and Mexico, although they tended to eschew the canyons along the Rio Grande. In 1899, U.S. Geological Survey geologist Robert T. Hill led a six-man survey party to explore those previously-avoided canyons. Packing photographic gear into the boats, the Hill Party took a month to float the river from Presidio to Langtry, Texas. Using those photos, Hill later published an article about this expedition, introducing the public to Big Bend’s terrain and geology.
The establishment of Big Bend National Park is considered “Texas’ Gift to the Nation.” Most of the public liked the concept of establishing this landscape as a national park, especially after seeing photos and reading newspaper articles about the wonders of the landscape. The ranchers living on that same terrain were not quite as enamored with the idea, since they’d been using that land to graze their livestock. Before the public could even visit this area located out in the middle of nowhere, roads and infrastructure were necessary for access.
Enter the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). According to park staff:
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), an agency born out of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, provided an ideal work force. The CCC was a program designed to alleviate unemployment for thousands of young men while at the same time conserving natural resources. Several hundred young men, most of whom were Hispanic, worked in the Chisos Mountains between 1934 and 1942. Using only picks, shovels, rakes, and a dump truck, the CCC workers surveyed and built the seven-mile access road into the Chisos Mountains Basin. The course of the road and stone culverts have remained basically unchanged over the past seventy years. Later, CCC work crews built the Lost Mine Trail and several stone and adobe cottages in the Basin. It is a lasting tribute to the "CCC boys" that their hard work and skilled labor are still being enjoyed by park visitors today.
The State of Texas delivered the deed to the Federal Government in September, 1943 and Big Bend National Park was officially established on June 12, 1944. Within a few weeks, the park located its headquarters in the CCC barracks in the Basin. In its first year, Big Bend recorded 1,409 visitors. In 2019, park recreation visits totaled 463,832, and the numbers keep going up. Park visitation in 2023 totaled 509,129.
A CCC work crew constructing the Basin Road, Big Bend National Park / NPS file
If you want to see and experience a little bit of Big Bend’s history, you can drive along portions of the Comanche Trail, the same route Comanche warriors once traveled on raids into Mexico. You can also visit Castolon, Hot Springs Historic District, Mariscal Mine. You might even come across artifacts, ruins, or even a grave site or two during your park explorations. If you do, please report your find to a ranger. Big Bend history is everybody’s history.
