Tag Archives: Fort Davis

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More Fort Davis

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Posted on May 12, 2010 in Scribbles, Texana

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Ranch wagon

Posted on May 10, 2010 | Comments Off on Ranch wagon

FortDavisWagonSomebody’s ranch wagon from the iron-tire olden days, near Fort Davis, in West Texas.

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Posted in Texana

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Tracking Victorio

Posted on March 26, 2009 | Comments Off on Tracking Victorio

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 You’ve heard of Geronimo, no doubt. How about Victorio? The black troops of the 9th and 10th U.S. Cavalry and the 24th and 25th U.S. Infantry regiments, tracked the Apache chieftain and his band of maurauders across West Texas in 1880. They even followed them across the border into Mexico where he was finally cornered with the help of the Mexican Army who slew him and his band. You probably seldom hear about it because it is not the PC version of the oppressive white man and the peace-loving, in-harmony-with-nature American Indian and his black and brown fellow sufferers. History is more complicated than that.

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Posted in Texana

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Buffalo soldiers

Posted on March 17, 2007 | Comments Off on Buffalo soldiers

My favorite stop on the trip was Fort Davis, the old cavalry-infantry base on the western edge of the unincorporated town of the same name that grew up beside it. The old fort, parts of which are being slowly rebuilt by the National Park Service, was staffed by a few uniformed re-enactors when we visited on Wednesday. It was the post-Civil War base of operations, from about 1867 to 1891, of the former slaves and Union veterans of the black 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry regiments. In 1992 they won a statue by Eddie Dixon of Lubbock at Fort Leavenworth, KS, where the 10th was organized in 1866. During their stay at Fort Davis, their separate companies were scattered all over West Texas, north and south and all along the border. There’s hardly a spot out there where the Buffalo Soldiers didn’t scout or fight or build at one time or another. So far, despite its unfortunate reliance on cliches, this seems to be the best non-fiction book about their work, including their littleknown participation at San Juan Hill in Cuba with Teddy Roosevelt. This is the site of a Houston museum dedicated to them.

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Posted in Texana

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Very Long Base Array

Posted on March 17, 2007 | Comments Off on Very Long Base Array

We were delighted to find that our quarters near Fort Davis were a hundred yards or so from this huge radio telescope. So close that we could hear what we dubbed the mechanical moo sound when the telescope made directional adjustments. Judy Myers, one of the tour guides at McDonald Observatory, said it was part of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Long Base Array, a collection of ten radio telescopes from St. Croix, Virgin Islands to Mauna Kea, Hawaii. They are linked electronically to operate as one. Ours, available at the link in a real-time shot, was said by the locals to have been installed by Harvard University. Hence the name of the nearby collection of motel-like rooms at the Sproul Ranch where we stayed was the Harvard Lodge.

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Posted in Science/Engineering

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Home from the trail

Posted on March 15, 2007 | Comments Off on Home from the trail

Still a little dizzy from 6.5 hours on the road to get home from Fort Davis, but it was worth it. Time flies at 90 mph, which you can do on I-10 from about 20 miles east of Junction all the way to Balmorhea. The speed limit is 80 mph but, of course, no one drives the speed limit in Texas or anywhere else. Burns a lot of gas, though. It’s mostly flat land so not many curves to force you to slow down. We were surprised at the big windmills lining the ridges on the north side of the highway from about Ozona to Fort Stockton. Big three-bladed electricity generators, turning briskly last Monday in a stiff breeze, which continued, Lubbock-like, most of the time we were in the Davis Mountains, but finally settled down Wednesday night. So coming back the big windmills were turning more leisurely. More on the trip later.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Texana

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Happy trails to you

Posted on March 11, 2007 | Comments Off on Happy trails to you

We are off in the morning to Fort Davis, about a 6-hour drive, via the scenic, Hill Country route and on to Interstate 10 and farther west into the desert. Will visit the old home of the 9th and 10th Cavalry–including the famous black Buffalo Soldiers–when they were hunting Apaches and Commanches, with side trips to Alpine and Marfa. Two of our after dark side trips will be to McDonald Observatory and their visitor center with its nightly telescope tours of the solar system and beyond. Forecast so far is for two clear nights to see the panoply of stars overhead even without a telescope. Hope you have a pleasant week and stay tuned for an update long about Thursday night.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles, Texana

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