Big Bend country: lush it's not, but this rugged West Texas frontier offers dramatic vistas and room to roam - Tour Of The Month

Travel America, Jan-Feb, 2003 by Ellen Clark

In 1955 Hollywood invaded Marfa to film Giant, starting Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, and Dennis Hopper. The 1927 El Paisano Hotel housed part of the cast and has glass cases filled with Giant memorabilia.

The Chinati Foundation gets my vote as one of the strangest things to find in a dry little Texas town miles from anywhere. Spread over numerous buildings on a former army post is a museum dedicated to displaying large works of ultra-modern contemporary art, including 100 aluminum boxes by Donald Judd and 23 crushed automobile sculptures by John Chamberlain.

Situated at 5,050 feet, Fort Davis, our last stop in the Big Bend area, is the highest town in Texas. Begun as a fort in 1854, it became a center for ranching. Fort Davis National Historic Site is regarded as one of the most outstanding surviving examples of a Southwestern frontier military post.

Also in and around Fort Davis are the McDonald Observatory, an astronomical research facility that welcomes visitors; Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute. with an arboretum featuring plants and cactuses of the region; and Neill Doll Museum, an 1898 home filled with antique dolls, furniture, and buggies.

As we cruised down the straight, uncrowded roads bound for the Midland/ Odessa airport, I tried to sum up my impressions of the Big Bend area. For sure it's the wide-open spaces--and lush it isn't--but there's something about the harsh, dramatic landscape that sticks with you. And how can you not like an area that has such diverse attractions as the world's largest roadrunner, one of the least visited national parks, and mysterious lights that no one can explain?

For information, contact Big Bend National Park, (915) 477-2251, www.big. bend.national-park.com; and the Texas Tourism Division, (800) 88-88-TEX, www.traveltex.com.