Mark P Betts
A Room With a View
“The Signora had no business to do it,” said Miss Bartlett, “no business at all. She promised us south rooms with a view close together, instead of which here are north rooms, looking into a courtyard, and a long way apart."
This is the start of E. M. Forster's delightful novel: A Room With a View
Here is a view to the North(west) that I'm sure would please Miss Bartlet and Miss Honeychurch. The view is of a high terrace of the Rio Grande river leading to one of the icons of Big Bend National Park: Santa Elena Canyon. They are not the Arno and the beautiful dome of Santa Maria del Fiore but they are perhaps even more impressive in my eyes.
This is also the slowly dissolving adobe house of one of the European-American pioneers of this area.
The following is a good history of the area from this site:
www.treksw.com/dorgan-sublett-trail-big-bend-national-park/
"A Brief History of the Dorgan-Sublett Area
Albert W. Dorgan
Mr. Dorgan fought as an aviator in the military in World War I, eventually leaving service 1914. He was a jack of many trades, spending time as a supervisor for building operations, working as a real estate agent, and as a landscape architect.
He and his wife, Avis Ann Dorgan, lived in Big Bend until 1938. After moving away they kept their property, leasing it out to tenant farmers until they sold it to the park in the 1950s.
Mr. Dorgan was an outspoken advocate of the idea of creating an international park in partnership with Mexico for many years, but unfortunately it never came to pass. At least not yet…
James L. Sublett
Before his partnership with Albert Dorgan, James Sublett was already a successful farmer in the area. He introduced mechanized farming to the Big Bend region, greatly increasing the productivity of his operations.
The National Register of Historic Places paperwork states that Albert Dorgan was James Sublett’s son in law. It is believed that Sublett’s previous success led to Dorgan moving to the area prior to them forming their partnership.
The Grand Canyon Company
Dorgan and Sublett formed a partnership called the Grand Canyon Company in 1918 to farm the Rio Grande area, where they extensively irrigated, planted cotton, sorghum, wheat, corn, alfalfa and melons. They named the farm itself Grand Canyon Farms.
They bought the acreage for Grand Canyon Farms from brothers Tom and Charlie Metcalf, who already had a ranch and homestead at this location.
The stone and adobe building you see as you first begin the trail has conflicting history is said to have been the Metcalf’s homestead, which the Dorgan’s lived in until they built their home at the end of the trail. Conversely, it is also said to have been built after the Sublett’s and Dorgan’s bought the land. With the clouded history, it’s hard to be certain. In any event, after Dorgan built his larger house, this building was turned into a store.
Further up the trail from the first structure, you will see a well preserved adobe house with stone on top known as La Casita. This was built to house the farm hands who worked Grand Canyon Farms. There used to be a small adobe shed next to this building but no features are left of this structure.
On top of the hill to the right, you will see where Sublett built his house, though all that remains today is the foundation. It was once a two room adobe house separated by a central hall.
After living in the stone farmhouse for about ten years, Dorgan built his house less than a mile northeast of Sublett’s house overlooking the Rio Grande valley. Dorgan’s house was the more elaborate of the two and had large cottonwood beams across the tops of the window frames and a native stone two sided fireplace. It was quite large for the time at approximately 1200 square feet.
The area, consisting of the remains of the five historic structures, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Unfortunately, not much was done to preserve the area until recently and only traces are left of a once thriving and massive farming operation."
As usual, the history is a mixed bag. The lentils and frames that you see in the photograph are cottonwoods. The Rio Grande was lined with a cottonwood riparian habitat prior to the recent colonization.
They were cut down to provide building material, farming acreage, and fuel to run the irrigation pumps. In addition, they were used to fuel the mercury smelters in Terlingua and Mariscal Mountain. The groves at Rio Grande Village and Cottonwoods Campground are all that are left of this forest. After the farms were abandoned, the vast area that was occupied by the cottonwoods was rapidly taken over by the tamarisk (salt cedar). In a tragic irony (see the comment below), efforts to burn out the tamarisk went awry and the fire jumped to the United States side of the river and burned down the historic Castolon Barracks which were converted into a store and Visitor Center
D0A0863
A Room With a View
“The Signora had no business to do it,” said Miss Bartlett, “no business at all. She promised us south rooms with a view close together, instead of which here are north rooms, looking into a courtyard, and a long way apart."
This is the start of E. M. Forster's delightful novel: A Room With a View
Here is a view to the North(west) that I'm sure would please Miss Bartlet and Miss Honeychurch. The view is of a high terrace of the Rio Grande river leading to one of the icons of Big Bend National Park: Santa Elena Canyon. They are not the Arno and the beautiful dome of Santa Maria del Fiore but they are perhaps even more impressive in my eyes.
This is also the slowly dissolving adobe house of one of the European-American pioneers of this area.
The following is a good history of the area from this site:
www.treksw.com/dorgan-sublett-trail-big-bend-national-park/
"A Brief History of the Dorgan-Sublett Area
Albert W. Dorgan
Mr. Dorgan fought as an aviator in the military in World War I, eventually leaving service 1914. He was a jack of many trades, spending time as a supervisor for building operations, working as a real estate agent, and as a landscape architect.
He and his wife, Avis Ann Dorgan, lived in Big Bend until 1938. After moving away they kept their property, leasing it out to tenant farmers until they sold it to the park in the 1950s.
Mr. Dorgan was an outspoken advocate of the idea of creating an international park in partnership with Mexico for many years, but unfortunately it never came to pass. At least not yet…
James L. Sublett
Before his partnership with Albert Dorgan, James Sublett was already a successful farmer in the area. He introduced mechanized farming to the Big Bend region, greatly increasing the productivity of his operations.
The National Register of Historic Places paperwork states that Albert Dorgan was James Sublett’s son in law. It is believed that Sublett’s previous success led to Dorgan moving to the area prior to them forming their partnership.
The Grand Canyon Company
Dorgan and Sublett formed a partnership called the Grand Canyon Company in 1918 to farm the Rio Grande area, where they extensively irrigated, planted cotton, sorghum, wheat, corn, alfalfa and melons. They named the farm itself Grand Canyon Farms.
They bought the acreage for Grand Canyon Farms from brothers Tom and Charlie Metcalf, who already had a ranch and homestead at this location.
The stone and adobe building you see as you first begin the trail has conflicting history is said to have been the Metcalf’s homestead, which the Dorgan’s lived in until they built their home at the end of the trail. Conversely, it is also said to have been built after the Sublett’s and Dorgan’s bought the land. With the clouded history, it’s hard to be certain. In any event, after Dorgan built his larger house, this building was turned into a store.
Further up the trail from the first structure, you will see a well preserved adobe house with stone on top known as La Casita. This was built to house the farm hands who worked Grand Canyon Farms. There used to be a small adobe shed next to this building but no features are left of this structure.
On top of the hill to the right, you will see where Sublett built his house, though all that remains today is the foundation. It was once a two room adobe house separated by a central hall.
After living in the stone farmhouse for about ten years, Dorgan built his house less than a mile northeast of Sublett’s house overlooking the Rio Grande valley. Dorgan’s house was the more elaborate of the two and had large cottonwood beams across the tops of the window frames and a native stone two sided fireplace. It was quite large for the time at approximately 1200 square feet.
The area, consisting of the remains of the five historic structures, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Unfortunately, not much was done to preserve the area until recently and only traces are left of a once thriving and massive farming operation."
As usual, the history is a mixed bag. The lentils and frames that you see in the photograph are cottonwoods. The Rio Grande was lined with a cottonwood riparian habitat prior to the recent colonization.
They were cut down to provide building material, farming acreage, and fuel to run the irrigation pumps. In addition, they were used to fuel the mercury smelters in Terlingua and Mariscal Mountain. The groves at Rio Grande Village and Cottonwoods Campground are all that are left of this forest. After the farms were abandoned, the vast area that was occupied by the cottonwoods was rapidly taken over by the tamarisk (salt cedar). In a tragic irony (see the comment below), efforts to burn out the tamarisk went awry and the fire jumped to the United States side of the river and burned down the historic Castolon Barracks which were converted into a store and Visitor Center
D0A0863