The people, places and events of the Lower Big Bend area of Brewster County, Texas, 1880-1950
When I first came to Big Bend National Park as a volunteer in September 2000, I became interested in the many ruins of homes, villages and other structures around the park. As time passed, this interest grew to the point where I took on the task of documenting some of these sites and searching for other undiscovered sites. These searches led to the discovery of about 20 previously-unknown structures, including houses, corrals, threshing circles, and lime kilns. At the same time, my interest in the people who lived in and used these structures began to grow. Finding no adequate documentation, I began my own research. Initially, this research was confined to a day or two a month at the Archives of the Big Bend or the courthouse in Alpine. But over the past few years it has intensified to nearly a full-time, year-around job.
At this time, I still do not have a clear picture of the end result of this work. Perhaps some short histories of individuals for the park’s web site (such as the Roman De La O story, already posted), or histories of villages such as Castolon, La Coyota and San Vicente. Or perhaps a “Who’s Who” of people who lived in the lower Big Bend area. But some results already have been realized. The interpretive program that I do on Terlingua Abajo, “Life Before the Ruins” is based largely on my own research. But by far the most gratifying result has been the opportunity to help people connect with their roots, such as helping them locate the home sites of their grandparents or great-grandparents, or providing information on family members they didn’t know about. “You can’t believe how happy you’ve made me” was the response from a lady in Florida after she had read the Roman De La O article on the web site and I confirmed she was indeed his great-granddaughter. Or the tears in the eyes of a gentleman when I showed him his great-grandfather’s home site and grave. Or when a 90+ year old lady in Fort Stockton declared that she had adopted me as her nephew because of all of the information I had dug up on her family. Little things like this make the thousands of hours of research worthwhile.
Recently I have had the opportunity to contribute to the web site Familias de Terlingua, and this experience, plus the encouragement of the web master and others, led me to the conclusion that the best way for me to document my findings, at least in the short term, is with my own web site. So please bear with me through the growing pains. My name is Bob Wirt. If you have comments, corrections, additional information or questions please feel free to contact me at [email protected]
My initial concentration will be on the "People" pages of the web site. This will include any information I have been able to find about where the people came from, what they did when they lived in the area, where they and other family members went when they left the area, and genealogical information on the families. In some cases I have found very little, and in other cases I found quite a lot of information on what they did, and even how they fared economically. Each family listed on the people page will eventually have a sub page for a verbal family tree to help readers scan for people they may be interested in, and also a documents sub page for things like obituaries, death records, marriage records, etc. Also, I've added a "What's New" page to alert readers to new additions and changes.
Please use the form below to send your comments to Life Before the Ruins
At this time, I still do not have a clear picture of the end result of this work. Perhaps some short histories of individuals for the park’s web site (such as the Roman De La O story, already posted), or histories of villages such as Castolon, La Coyota and San Vicente. Or perhaps a “Who’s Who” of people who lived in the lower Big Bend area. But some results already have been realized. The interpretive program that I do on Terlingua Abajo, “Life Before the Ruins” is based largely on my own research. But by far the most gratifying result has been the opportunity to help people connect with their roots, such as helping them locate the home sites of their grandparents or great-grandparents, or providing information on family members they didn’t know about. “You can’t believe how happy you’ve made me” was the response from a lady in Florida after she had read the Roman De La O article on the web site and I confirmed she was indeed his great-granddaughter. Or the tears in the eyes of a gentleman when I showed him his great-grandfather’s home site and grave. Or when a 90+ year old lady in Fort Stockton declared that she had adopted me as her nephew because of all of the information I had dug up on her family. Little things like this make the thousands of hours of research worthwhile.
Recently I have had the opportunity to contribute to the web site Familias de Terlingua, and this experience, plus the encouragement of the web master and others, led me to the conclusion that the best way for me to document my findings, at least in the short term, is with my own web site. So please bear with me through the growing pains. My name is Bob Wirt. If you have comments, corrections, additional information or questions please feel free to contact me at [email protected]
My initial concentration will be on the "People" pages of the web site. This will include any information I have been able to find about where the people came from, what they did when they lived in the area, where they and other family members went when they left the area, and genealogical information on the families. In some cases I have found very little, and in other cases I found quite a lot of information on what they did, and even how they fared economically. Each family listed on the people page will eventually have a sub page for a verbal family tree to help readers scan for people they may be interested in, and also a documents sub page for things like obituaries, death records, marriage records, etc. Also, I've added a "What's New" page to alert readers to new additions and changes.
Please use the form below to send your comments to Life Before the Ruins