Ive been a couple times, always had a good time….. killer drive from DFW. Holland Hotel is old school vibe, Circle something hotel was a decent sleep… They have a Reata there….. very old baseball field, not sure if they have a semi pro team using it now or just the college team….. Its remote!!! lol

Great place to grow up. If I had a way to make a living there I'd move back. What are you wanting to know?

alvtimes said:

---

Ive been a couple times, always had a good time….. killer drive from DFW. Holland Hotel is old school vibe, Circle something hotel was a decent sleep… They have a Reata there….. very old baseball field, not sure if they have a semi pro team using it now or just the college team….. Its remote!!! lol

---

My wife was born there and still has a lot of cousins that that live around Alpine. Her cousin owns the minor league team that plays at the baseball field. Her Grandpa was the sheriff of Brewster County for a very long time, but he lived in Marathon until he died.

I prefer Marathon. Dances and family get together's at the post were always cool. Nice mule deer in those parts.

The original Reata...

I used to go with my dad to Alpine while in high school and after getting out of TAM to meet up with a Texas Ranger who lived and worked there. They would be working cases together and from time to time my dad would drive out there.
I really liked it as the folks were really friendly and hospitable. Lots of Texas western lore and tales in those parts.

Went to the Cowboy Poetry Gathering there & visited Joaquin Jackson several times when he was still alive. Bought his book from him and went to the gun range with him once.

Good times.

He was a great guy!

He was the ranger I spoke of above. My wifes uncle is in his first book -One Ranger. He and his son Lance came to our Junction ranch a couple of times. Funny thing about Ranger Jackson with law enforcement guys...they either liked him or not. He and my dad got along good though and I have some items that he gave me that I am honored to have. He really disliked Ann Richards and the changes she did to the rangers.....that is when he said he had had enough and quit.
He went out of favor with a lot of gun owners when he said that civilians had no business having AR-15's.
Did you ever see his collection of 1894 Winchesters? He had one example from every year of production. Really cool.
The estate were supposed to to have auctioned his collection of 1894's off a couple of years back...couple of days before the auction it weirdly got cancelled.

We spent day a few days after Christmas there a few years ago. We stayed in a biker hotel (not bikers). The differences between it and Marfa are stark. It was during Covid and the loons in Marfa were masked up and the people in Alpine were carrying on like normal. It snowed and it was awesome.

Before I went to and graduated from Aggieland I went to Sul Ross in Alpine for two years. Too many stories to list but here are some. We used to go trapping and varmint calling (with permission) on Clayton Williams ranch. Some very wild times there. Helped fight range fires ( allowed to skip class to dd it). Fishing in some local creeks. Rappelling and climbing Many times. Then there were the many trips to Big Bend. Back in those days you could drive out into the pasture to see the Marta lights. Can't do that anymore.
Good times out there. Hated to leave.

Spouse has two degrees from there in the 70's. I taught there for a year. We planned to go back there to retire, but as we age, we feel the need to be closer to medical centers.


Spent a wonderful Christmas at the Gage. Does anyone know if the drugstore in Ft Davis has ever reopened?

S.A. Aggie said:

---

Before I went to and graduated from Aggieland I went to Sul Ross in Alpine for two years. Too many stories to list but here are some. We used to go trapping and varmint calling (with permission) on Clayton Williams ranch. Some very wild times there. Helped fight range fires ( allowed to skip class to dd it). Fishing in some local creeks. Rappelling and climbing Many times. Then there were the many trips to Big Bend.
Good times!

---

Funny story. My wife and I walked into Chicken Oil on night before a Aggie FB game and I hear my wife's name being called out. Then I hear her say. "Claydee", needless to say we ate burgers with Clayton and his group that night and heard stories about Alpine/Marathon and her cousins in Midland.

He was something.

LETTUCE PRAY said:

---

Hewey Calloway said:

---

What are you wanting to know?

---

Anything really.

The climate is something that I'm curious about.

---

It's better than much of Texas in the summer. Especially once the sun sets.

Dry cold and dry heat. Dries out your skin like any desert. Cold fronts move in quickly out there. Dropped 50 degrees in just over an hour one day. We were doing range assessments in shorts and tank tops in the morning and snow was on the ground in the afternoon.

It's surprisingly high in elevation. Close to Denver if I recall.

MouthBQ98 said:

---

It's surprisingly high in elevation. Close to Denver if I recall.

---

4,462'. Fort Davis a little closer to Denver elevation: 4,961.

Gunny456 said:

---

He was the ranger I spoke of above. My wifes uncle is in his first book -One Ranger. He and his son Lance came to our Junction ranch a couple of times. Funny thing about Ranger Jackson with law enforcement guys...they either liked him or not. He and my dad got along good though and I have some items that he gave me that I am honored to have. He really disliked Ann Richards and the changes she did to the rangers.....that is when he said he had had enough and quit.
He went out of favor with a lot of gun owners when he said that civilians had no business having AR-15's.
Did you ever see his collection of 1894 Winchesters? He had one example from every year of production. Really cool.
The estate were supposed to to have auctioned his collection of 1894's off a couple of years back...couple of days before the auction it weirdly got cancelled.

---

This has been my experience as well in the DPS guys that I talked to out in that region.

I did not see his 1894s but I took a picture with his 1911 & custom grips.

Doesn't overly surprise me about the AR-15 statements. He was on the national board of the NRA at one time and a lot of that generation held that view. It has taken a long time to get the old boomers, that were primarily duck hunter types, off of the board & quite fankly there is still a lot of work to do.

Well heck. I'm a boomer and don't feel like anybody has the right to limit any firearms from us.
I don't think he would have taken that stand in his younger years. My dad knew him pretty well but on a professional level. However my wife's uncle was very close to him. He really had a very hard time with his son Don who was convicted of murder. It's like he carried that burden pretty heavily.
He was always a good friend to my dad, me and my wife. Glad he wrote his books. I liked One Ranger much more than the 2nd one imho.
Good bull discussing him with you my friend.

InfantryAg said:

---

O.G. said:

---

Went to the Cowboy Poetry Gathering there & visited Joaquin Jackson several times when he was still alive. Bought his book from him and went to the gun range with him once.

Good times.

---

He would show up at LE training they would have at the USBP station in town. Unfortunately, I missed meeting him by a year.

That's cool you got to spend some time with him, one of the last of the OG Rangers.

---

I didn't go to that station with him, but he and I did go to the gun range that they use.

We pulled up and he had a .22 version of the S&W Model 29. (I don't remember what that model is called)
Anyway, there was a Jackrabbit sitting between us and the backstop & he told me to take that .22 and shoot him,

The jack rabbit was sitting dead still and 5 shots in, I still hadn't touched a hair on him, I was looking like a really bad shot infront of this famous Texas Ranger & feeling a litlte sheepish. Then the rabbit took off running, i lead him and hit him on the 6th shot. I told Joaquin that I couldn't hit a target that was sitting still. He laughed.

We shot rifles after that.