Glenn Springs, Texas
Glenn Springs was a village in the southern part of Brewster County , the place is now part of Big Bend National Park .
geography
Glenn Springs is 746 meters above sea level and has a semi-arid climate . It is located 16 kilometers southeast of the "Basin Ranger Station" of the national park and is not connected to the road network.
history
The spring, which rises in Glenn Springs, was a popular destination for the Apaches and Kiowas who lived in the area . The Comanches used the spring as a stopover on their raids into northern Mexico . The spring, which is initially referred to as Jordan Spring on old maps, was named after HE Glenn, who explored the area in 1881 and settled here as a horse breeder. In order to use the spring exclusively as a trough for his horses, he surrounded the spring with a wall. He was killed by Indians not far from the source. From the end of the 19th century, the area around the source was the object of numerous land speculators, so the ownership rights changed several times until 1914, the area was sold to WK Ellis, the operator of a candelilla wax factory in McKinney Spring. Ellis and his partner CD Wood built a wax factory at the source and built a small town of adobe houses near the factory for the Mexican workers.
In the course of the Mexican Revolution there were repeated attacks by supporters of the Revolutionary General Francisco Pancho Villa on locations within the USA, for example on March 19, 1916 on Columbus (New Mexico) . Late in the evening of May 5, 1916, Pancho Villa's troops attacked Boquillas (Texas) and Glenn Springs at the same time and went down in Texan history under the name "Glenn Springs Raid". The number of attackers is unclear, estimates vary between sixty and several hundred, to which the nine cavalry soldiers who were stationed to protect the place in Glenn Springs were militarily completely inferior. This attack, which cost the lives of several soldiers and one civilian, led, in addition to the simultaneous attack on Boquillas, to a drastic increase in the military presence on the Mexican border, which in July 1916 comprised 116,957 men. A permanent cavalry camp began to be set up in Glenn Springs. Before the camp was finally completed, the situation on the Mexican border had eased - and the camp was abandoned in 1920.
By 1916 the population of Glenn Springs included nine US citizens and between forty to sixty Mexican workers and their families. As the price of candelilla wax fell after World War I, running the wax factory became unprofitable, and Ellis and Wood sold the factory, its stake in the neighboring Mariscal Mine, and its Glenn Springs property in May 1919. After Ellis and Wood sold their estates, most of the Mexican workers left the place. After several changes of ownership, JJ Willis acquired the property in 1930 and tried to attract tourists to the area by founding the “Chisos Mountains Club”. Willis leased the land to a rancher until Willis sold the area to the Texas state in 1942, making it part of Big Bend National Park.
Today the national park administration in Glenn Springs maintains a small parking lot for tourists, whereby the place can only be reached with all-terrain vehicles. In addition to some ruins, there are also the remains of a cemetery.
Individual evidence
- ↑ The article "Glenn Springs" on the website of the national park administration, there also a photo of the wax factory and the cavalry camp
- ^ History of wax production in Trans Pecos and photo of the wax factory from 1917
- ↑ Coppedge, Clay, "Glenn Springs Raid" on Texas Escapes
- ^ Kohout, Martin Donnell: GLENN SPRINGS RAID . In: Handbook of Texas Online, published by the Texas State Historical Association
- ^ Kohout, Martin Donnell: "GLENN SPRINGS, TX" . In: Handbook of Texas Online, published by the Texas State Historical Association
- ↑ Photos of the parking lot
- ↑ Information from the National Park Administration on visiting Glenn Springs
Web links
Maps to Glenn Springs at the "Portal to Texas History"
Coordinates: 29 ° 5 ′ 24 " N , 103 ° 4 ′ 48" W.