Chisos Mountains From the Glenn Springs Road
Before the establishment of Big Bend National Park, Glenn Springs, located just to the left of this image, was a small town of a few dozen people situated among a few cattle ranches, which were the primary economy of the area along with the mercury mines in the southern part of what is now the national park.
Followers of Pancho Villa raided Glenn Springs in 1916, killing four people, one of them a four-year-old boy. The three others were U.S. soldiers living in the area in hopes of protecting the local citizens from the Mexican revolutionaries. Tensions between the U.S. and Mexico were very high at the time, as General Pershing's expedition was in Mexico trying to apprehend Villa. A second expedition went into northern Mexico as a result of the Glenn Springs raid to recover two citizens kidnapped by the Villistas during the raid. The expedition achieved its objective.
Because of the raid and the earlier raid on Columbus, NM, President Woodrow Wilson mobilized the National Guard to protect the border from further incursions by Villa's men, and at one point nearly 117,000 soldiers were spread out from Texas to California.
In less than a year, the U.S. would be involved in World War I in France, so the 1916 mobilizations basically served as a dress rehearsal for what would come later.
Chisos Mountains From the Glenn Springs Road
Before the establishment of Big Bend National Park, Glenn Springs, located just to the left of this image, was a small town of a few dozen people situated among a few cattle ranches, which were the primary economy of the area along with the mercury mines in the southern part of what is now the national park.
Followers of Pancho Villa raided Glenn Springs in 1916, killing four people, one of them a four-year-old boy. The three others were U.S. soldiers living in the area in hopes of protecting the local citizens from the Mexican revolutionaries. Tensions between the U.S. and Mexico were very high at the time, as General Pershing's expedition was in Mexico trying to apprehend Villa. A second expedition went into northern Mexico as a result of the Glenn Springs raid to recover two citizens kidnapped by the Villistas during the raid. The expedition achieved its objective.
Because of the raid and the earlier raid on Columbus, NM, President Woodrow Wilson mobilized the National Guard to protect the border from further incursions by Villa's men, and at one point nearly 117,000 soldiers were spread out from Texas to California.
In less than a year, the U.S. would be involved in World War I in France, so the 1916 mobilizations basically served as a dress rehearsal for what would come later.